Sound mechanism of Sanshin ~ Influence of Sao ~ by Dr. Kojiro Nishimiya

Sanshin is an OKINAWA’s traditional musical string instrument. Generally, it is said that the sound board is a main factor on the string instrument’s tone from the acoustical points of view. Nevertheless, about Sanshin, it’s said that Sao (Neck) is the most important on the tone by the Sanshin player and artisan from long time ago. And they have many types of Sao and there have many arguments of the relationship between “Sao” and “Tone”. However, the sound mechanism of Sanshin is still not clarified. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to elucidate the sound mechanism of Sanshin which include the influence of Sao.

Today I will introduce the general topic of Sanshin and also some results of the research. Especially the relationship between “the resonance of Sao” and the “Sanshin tone” will be introduced. We measured the sounds of Sanshin with the different types of Sao with the same body, and found some differences in the tone. The results of this measurement will be talked.