Few outside Japan know the musical genre Tsugaru shamisen, yet it has experienced periods of widespread popularity (booms) in Japan during the twentieth century. Tsugaru shamisen is dynamic, individualistic, and improvisatory music for solo shamisen. Its distinctive triple meter and virtuoso playing style belie humble origins among blind beggars in Japan's northern Tsugaru region. Tsugaru shamisen history has been closely studied, but I cover a subject yet to be examined in any detail by scholars. I attempt to understand why Tsugaru shamisen became popular recently and how this connects with past periods of success.

This paper examines the latest Tsugaru shamisen boom, which began around 1999 through the young duo the Yoshida Kyodai, whose albums quickly became bestsellers and who packed concert halls with young fans. The Yoshida Kyodai and others experiment through composition and addition of non-Japanese instruments. In the twenty-first century, has Tsugaru shamisen, with strong roots in the world of Tsugaru folk songs, crossed over into pop? Complicating the issue, new artists still rely heavily on traditional repertoire and remain concerned about authenticity. I discuss this in terms of the dichotomy between folk and pop, preservation vs. innovation, and revivalism. Interviews with musicians, concerts, and time in Japan, along with research in the popular media, provided valuable data on which my conclusions are based. I argue that the music cannot be strictly labeled folk or pop, and that its ambiguity lies in its fluidity as it moves effortlessly between genre categories.

Michael Peluse received a B.A. in music from Tufts University in 1997 and an M.A. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 2002. His master's thesis is entitled Folk Revival or Pop Sensation: the Latest Tsugaru Shamisen Boom. His interest in Japanese music began in 1994 when he began learning Japanese language, history and religion. During his time at Wesleyan, he learned shakuhachi from Rees Archibald, a student of Riley Lee and Furuya Tetsuo, and traveled to Japan where he discovered Tsugaru shamisen through the Yoshida Kyodai. He also found a love for Javanese gamelan and South Indian rhythm. His research focuses on the blurring of musical genre distinctions and the ways image and experimentation play a role in popular music. Michael is currently Grants Coordinator for the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, New York.