Keyword Shamisen

A 1977 Japanese biographical film directed by Kaneto Shindo based on the life of shamisen player Takahashi Chikuzan.

At a young age, Nitaroh is stricken with an illness that leaves him blind. He inherits the shamisen guitar once used by his mother and is taught its basics by a blind travelling shamisen player. In time with the help of friends old and new, he walks the paths that leads to his ultimate fate - that of founder of the Tsugaru style of shamisen play.

Based on a true story, a Japanese homeless man who used to be a shamisen master in the past tries to get back on his feet in Los Angeles. His traumatic past, however, haunts him again and things go out of his hands.

A quintessential example of the period "ghost cat" (bakeneko or kaibyo) movie, this was one of at least six such titles released by the studio Shinko Kinema between 1937-40 featuring Japan's first scream queen, Sumiko Suzuki. Here she plays Mitsue, the possessive onna-kabuki actress betrothed to apprentice shamisen player Seijiro. When one day Okiyo, a beautiful young girl of samurai class, is led to Seijiro's house by his lost cat Kuro, she becomes besotted with him. Dark jealous passions are invoked in Mitsue, which are intensified when Seijiro gifts Okiyo his precious shamisen. The cat is the first to suffer at the end of Mitsue's hairpin, but returns from the grave to assist Okiyo's younger sister Onui avenge her sister's murder.

Sawamura Matsugorou is a shamisen player of legendary talent. Upon his death, his grandson, Sawamura Yuki, lost his ability to play. Having lost his beloved sound, Yuki finds himself in Tokyo in search of a new sound to love. Tachimura Yuna, who works at a club, hooks him up with a gig to play there as a warm up act. Yuki imbues the sound of his shamisen with his many thoughts and feelings he has of others, still searching for his own sound and his own feelings.