Word: samisens
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...Geisha houses, brightly kimonoed girls plucked their banjo-like samisen and trilled sentimental Japanese favorites like the Rain Blues, the Song of Beauty, the Innocence Duet. When a boisterous American asked for the Japanese national anthem, the girls refused but obliged with You Are My Sunshine. Toshiko Yamaguchi, once one of Japan's most popular singers, came home from a Shanghai internment camp with a new repertoire that included Star Dust...
...third and largest network, for general listening, was overhauled from ground to aerial. This included station JOAK (Radio Tokyo), whose 150,000-watt transmitter is one of the world's strongest. Out went the untimed, slipshod samisen strumming; the tedious Kodan-storytelling; the poetry on the co-prosperity sphere. In came popular music (current hit: a romantic tune, Song of the Apple), comedy shows and precisely timed modern, democratic plays (John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln). The most popular storyteller, sad-faced, bowlegged Musei, dropped the tale of Sugato Sanshiro, the legendary judo champ, and picked up the Arabian...
...Some of the samisen dealers and manufacturers have always said individual prayers for the spirits of the dead cats and dogs. But there are some," he added severely, "who do not observe this elementary courtesy...
...This neglect has affected our families and business in the past, as it is a well-known fact that no family of samisen manufacturers lasts more than three generations. At present the largest dealer in Tokyo has been in existence for more than three generations but the head of the family has always been an adopted child...
...think we are accursed by the spirits of the animals which have been killed for samisen materials, but in the endowment of our new statue, everything will be done to comfort their spirits in the way of prayers and incense...