Crossword-Solution: SAMISENS 8 letters, 10 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 10

Finally, just as we had engaged a Japanese orchestra, and as the first strains of the samisens and taikos were rising, through the paper-walls came a wild howl from the street.

Drums, tom-toms, and cymbals were beaten; _kotos_ and _samisens_ screeched and twanged; _geishas_ (professional women with the accomplishments of dancing, singing, and playing) danced,—accompanied by songs whose jerking discords were most laughable; story-tellers recited tales in a high key, and the running about and splashing close to my room never ceased.

From the city there floated up to us the tinkling of the samisens in the tea-houses; the high, sweet voice of a dancing girl as she sang the story of an old, old love; the sad notes of the blind masseur as he sought for trade by the pathos of his bamboo flute; the night-taps from the far-away barracks.

The other evening we went out after dinner and took a walk to a lively street not far off--booksellers with their things spread out on the sidewalk or rather road, little lunch wagons, crowded streets and shops--they have electricity everywhere, and some geisha girls trotting along with maids to carry their samisens.

Seki San secured a tiny table for them and they sat on their heels and ate rice out of a great white wooden bucket, and fluffy yellow omelet out of a round bowl, and the sunshine came dancing down through the dainty, waving bamboo leaves, and everybody was laughing and chattering and from every side came the click-clack of the wooden shoes, and the tinkle of samisens and the music of falling water.