Skin stretching / stringing, shamisen

The skin is first dampened, and then the areas that will be adhered to the body frame are scraped down using a pumice stone or sandpaper. Next, special pegs are clipped along the four sides of the skin. Glue is then applied to the body frame and the skin still with all the pegs attached are placed over the body frame. The body is placed on the stretching platform and the skin is gradually tightened using cords wound to each peg whilst checking the sound by tapping on the skin using a mojiribō stick. Once the skin is stretched and dried, excess skin is then trimmed off. After that comes the stringing.