The Yanagawa style is the oldest school of Jiuta shamisen and is currently only handed down in Kyoto. The founder was Yanagikawa Kengyo (? ~ 1680), and Ishimura Kengyo (? ~ 1624), who is said to have developed the shamisen itself and composed seven songs of Shamisen Kumiuta (honte). In the first place, the school of Jiuta is based on the traditional lineage of Shamisen Kumiuta, which was a compulsory song for acquiring a professional status.

The shamisen was also improved little by little, but the one from the Yanagawa School was the mainstream. However, in Osaka, after the first Tsuyama Kengyō (? ~ 1836) developed the Tsuyama version that was thin and widespread at the tip, the versions that followed it rapidly spread, and in the Meiji era, the instrument itself was improved. The current Jiuta shamisen was completed in Tokyo by the disciple Riko Kawase (1873-1957), who received the trace of Kyushu's Kouki Hase (1842-1925), and is commonly called the Kyushu shamisen.

Nowadays, Kyushu shamisen and Tsuyama plectrum have become the mainstream of Jiuta, and even in Kyoto, which has inherited the Yanagawa style, Kyushu shamisen with a wide range of expressiveness has come to be used.

However, it must have been this Yanagikawa shamisen used when the most frequently played Kyofu Tejimono were created as Jiuta. Kyoto plays a central role in handing down the Yanagikawa Shamisen so that it will live on.