Edo-period comic writer Ejima Kiseki 江島其磧, quoted by Tanaka Yuko 田中優子 in Edo no oto 江戸の音 ("The Sounds of Edo"):

Verily do the shamisen and the octopus madden the blood! (まことに三味線と蛸は血を狂わすものぞかし)

"I still have no idea what it would mean for the octopus to madden the blood," admits Tanaka, but she nevertheless cites this as an example of Edo-period attitudes to the still newly introduced shamisen: sexy and dangerous, and not so much a musical instrument as a tool of debauchery. Just like the ocarina today.