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The gottan (ごったん), also known as the hako shamisen ("box shamisen") or ita shamisen ("board shamisen"), is a traditional Japanese three-stringed plucked instrument, often considered either a relative or derivative of the sanshin, itself a relative of the shamisen.

Differences

The major difference between a sanshin and a gottan is that the body of a sanshin tends to be made of a hollowed wooden cavity covered with a type of membrane, whereas the whole of a gottan – body, neck, and all – is made up of solid wood, usually of a single type, often Japanese cedar.

The gottan's musical repertoire is often light and cheerful, including many folk songs. Like the shamisen, it was used for door-to-door musical busking, known as kadozuke.

Often the gottan is compared to the kankara sanshin, an Okinawan instrument related to the sanshin, due to its relative inexpensiveness (made from a used metal can) and ease of construction. The equivalent all-wood Okinawan instrument is the ita sanshin.

References

1. ^ Henry Mabley Johnson (2010). The Shamisen: Tradition and Diversity. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-18137-3. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
2. Experimental Musical Instruments. Experimental Musical Instruments. 1993. p. 35. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
3. Hugh De Ferranti (30 May 2009). The last biwa singer: a blind musician in history, imagination and performance. East Asia Program, Cornell University. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-933947-13-6. Retrieved 6 January 2013.

• Japanese musical instruments