Minstrel Banjo

For enthusiasts of early banjo

Here's an early print from a Western source (unknown) showing a Japanese shamisen player. However, the Western artist (perhaps never having seen a shamisen) has drawn it with banjo-like features. More images to come.

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Comment by Samurai banjo on April 16, 2010 at 4:57am
This is a funny picture?
This instrument is a shamisen and the feeling like the "CHONMAGE" does a hairstyle.
However, I thinks for the place not to be Japan.
Comment by Bob Sayers on April 17, 2010 at 9:20pm
Yes, this is a strange picture. I don't yet know the source (the engraving seems to have been removed from a book). My guess is that the image is from the 1840s or 1850s and that the artist just imagined what Japanese people looked like, never having actually seen any.

Bob

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