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The three-stringed guitar-like shamisen is one of the most common traditional Japanese instruments. Aomori-born Katsuaki Sawada has been playing it since he was eight, and is now recognised as one of the foremost shamisen players. Through his own shamisen association ‘Sawada-kai’, Sawada is continuing to bring the instrument closer to the Japanese public and train the next generation of players to pass on the veritable heritage.