Music from the land of the rising shamisen

How's this for Japanese fusion? The ancient shamisen instrument, in the hands of Masahiro Nitta, duelling with its Irish counterparts, writes Arminta Wallace

Think of Japanese culture, and you think of highly distinctive, immediately recognisable art forms. Calligraphy, silk painting, the tea ceremony. But according to a fascinating little book published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo, Japanese culture is - and always has been - about the art of fusion.

"The distinctive Japanese culture we have today," it begins, "is the result of a series of encounters between traditional Japanese culture and foreign cultures through which the latter were imported, absorbed and harmoniously blended . . . Some of the noteworthy characteristics of this process might be said to include a flexibility and openness toward alien cultures. Rather than rejecting the latter, the Japanese have chosen to fit them into their own aesthetic framework, often quite creatively adapting them to Japanese needs." The notion of a process of cultural synthesis hasn't pleased everyone. There have, notes Japan's Cultural History: A Perspective, been complaints in certain quarters that "the Japanese people are perhaps excessive in their anxious efforts to adopt and assimilate the materialistic and mechanic civilisation of the West, at the price of losing much of their traditional aesthetic sensitivity". These folks, the book adds with a touch of asperity, would do well to look again at the way in which their culture has welcomed and adapted outside influences since the year dot - or the year 7,000 BC, which is where the book begins.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Clearly, heated debates about the "purity" of traditional culture, and how best to nurture said culture in a multicultural age, aren't a purely Irish phenomenon. But why are we reading a book about Japanese culture anyhow? Well, 2007 is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Japan, and the Japanese embassy in Dublin has arranged a series of celebratory exhibitions and concerts. Thus, along with the book came a CD entitled Shamisen Meets Ireland and a programme for a three-concert tour which places Irish musicians alongside a Japanese shamisen player.

The Tsugaru shamisen - in case you didn't know - is a traditional three-stringed, banjo-like instrument which originated in the Aomori prefecture of northern Japan. It is, however, a long, long way from Tsugaru to this CD. That's because it doesn't feature just any old shamisen player, but the shamisen superstar Masahiro Nitta. A letter which accompanies the CD points out in an impeccably polite Japanese way that "Mr Nitta is a two-time champion of the national Tsugaru shamisen contest held annually in Japan, and is one of a growing number of young musicians . . . dedicated to reviving interest in traditional Japanese music and instruments".

The CD, meanwhile, is as energetic a piece of musical fusion as you could wish for. In the hands of Masahiro Nitta, the shamisen demonstrates a chameleon-like ability to move between different soundscapes; one minute it's to be found happily providing a rhythmic accompaniment to an Irish melody, the next it goes all delicate and Japanese. Next thing you know, it's belting out an Appalachian-style riff or coming up with a snatch of jazzy, bluesy improvisation.

It is, in short, good music and great fun. And when you consider that the instrument is being played with a large plectrum, you begin to realise that Nitta's virtuosity is truly mindboggling. So, apparently, is his single-handed revival of the fortunes of the shamisen, which had been neglected - even, as were certain traditional instruments in Ireland, despised - for many years. He now spends much of his time touring Japan with a fusion group by the name of Esoragoto, which also features his dad. He has also recorded and toured with the guitarist Dean Magraw, who will join him on his Irish tour, along with the button accordionist and concertina player John Williams, and, for the Donegal concert, the one-time member of Altan, percussionist Jimmy Higgins.

There'll always be people who frown on this kind of multicultural musical endeavour, whether here or in Japan. Listening to the reaction of the Japanese audience on Shamisen Meets Ireland, however, it sounds more like a night, in the approving words of Japan's Cultural History: A Perspective,of "aesthetic and emotional harmony". Not to mention that well-known Japanese cultural phenomenon, a mighty bit of craic altogether.

Masahiro Nitta will play the National Concert Hall, Dublin on Thurs, City Hall, Cork on Sat, and Tullyarvan Mill, Buncrana, Co Donegal on Mon June 18