Last Thursday my fourteen year old student brought in her shamisen. I had asked to hear it but stopped asking when I learned the instrument had cost her parents $10,000. Yes, my friends, there is no mistake in the number of zeros. Most of us wouldn't consider paying a quarter of that much for a guitar but there shelled out ten grand for a banjo-like instrument with three strings and oversized tuning pegs.

Here is a picture of a shamisen. And here is a video of a man playing a shamisen.

Hers is a Tsugaru shamisen, a little larger than the southern instruments. For those of you who are animal lovers I probably should warn you not to read this next sentence. The skin covering on the traditional instruments are leathers made from dog and cat skins; dog for the larger instruments and cat for the smaller ones.

My student is very, very good. Apparently she placed first in her age group in a competition in Japan. I was impressed and pleased. It was great fun.