Abstract: This paper describes a sanshin musical performance assistive device for people with physical disabilities of the extremities. Sanshin is an Okinawan three-stringed musical instrument. We had developed portable assistive devices to press strings against board of sanshin and its controllers. In the experiments, some participants played the sanshin using the assistive devices. It was found from the experimental results that two persons with muscular dystrophies could appropriately performed music using the sanshins with the previous assistive devices, and that two able-bodied persons could smoothly and steadily play the sanshins using the improved assistive device with the photoelectric sensor-based controller