T he shamisen has three strings and is played with a plectrum. The body of the instrument is a box, made of four pieces of wood and then covered with cat skin or dog skin. Cat skin and dog skin transmit the vibrations of the instrument very sensitively, but are very fragile and split easily. In recent years, combination plastic-cloth skins, which are much easier to care for, have been developed. In some styles, like Nagauta, the instrument is played so that the plectrum strikes the skin over the hollow portion of the instrument, making it as much a percussion instrument as a string instrument. The strings are made of silk and are numbered from the thickest string, so the thickest string, on the top of the instrument is "ichi no ito (first string)", the middle string is "ni no ito (second string)" and the thinnest string, which is used the most, is "san no ito (third string)".