I had to think for a while on this one. I recall first hearing koto and shamisen sometime in childhood and thinking it was pretty and calming, but I rarely was interested in either quality at the time.
But I just remembered the song I sang all through the summer of 1963 .....
Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto! Unfortunately it was a one-hit-wonder and the English version was awful. But the Japanese version hit the top 10 of Billboard that June and I knew the lyrics long before that.
Then there was this slight gap of about 40 years before I discovered Keisho Ohno and a livelier shamisen. After that, volunteering as a sound tech/DJ introduced me to the soundtracks for anime - some I like, and a lot I don't care for..... same as in any other genre.