The Life of Chikuzan
After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s, the rough-hewn blind shamisen player and folk-song collector named Takahashi Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with a particular focus on his humble beginnings as a peasant on a remote and arid island.
The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen
Mitsue is a popular stage actress and the lover of a shamisen player named Seijuro. She jealously murders two other objects of his affection: Okiyo, a young woman from a samurai family, and Kuro, a cat. The spirits of Okiyo and Kuro then merge into a vengeful ghost.
Nitaboh
At a young age, Nitaroh is stricken with an illness that leaves him blind. He inherits the shamisen guitar once used by his mother and is taught its basics by a blind travelling shamisen player. In time with the help of friends old and new, he walks the paths that leads to his ultimate fate - that of founder of the Tsugaru style of shamisen play.
String
Based on a true story, a Japanese homeless man who used to be a shamisen master in the past tries to get back on his feet in Los Angeles. His traumatic past, however, haunts him again and things go out of his hands.