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Shamisen – a banjo-like lute with three strings; brought to Japan from China in the 16th century. Popular in Edo's pleasure districts, the shamisen is often used in kabuki theater. Made from red sandalwood and ranging from 1.1 to 1.4 metres (3 ft 7 in to 4 ft 7 in) long, the shamisen has ivory pegs, strings made from twisted silk, and a belly ...
The strings are stretched across the body, raised from it by means of a bridge, or koma (駒), which rests directly on the taut skin. The lowest string is purposefully laid lower at the nut of the instrument in order to create a buzz, a characteristic timbre known as sawari (somewhat reminiscent of the "buzzing" of a sitar, which is called Jivari).
This variety of instrument came in two basic forms, a zither that had bridges and a zither without bridges. An 1878 depiction by Settei Hasegawa of a woman playing the koto. When the koto was first imported to Japan, the native word koto was a generic term for any and all Japanese stringed instruments.
The sanshin (三線, lit., "three strings") is an Okinawan and Amami Islands musical instrument and precursor of the mainland Japanese shamisen . Often likened to a banjo , it consists of a snakeskin -covered body, neck and three strings.
The biwa (Japanese: 琵琶) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710–794).
In Japanese, the term kokyū may refer broadly to any bowed string instrument of Asian origin, as does the Chinese term huqin. Thus, the Chinese erhu, which is also used by some performers in Japan, is sometimes described as a kokyū, along with the kūchō, leiqin, and zhuihu. The specific Japanese name for erhu is niko.
Both names translate literally to "Japanese stringed instrument." According to Shintō myth as written in the Kojiki, the yamatogoto played an important role in the origins of Japan itself. In the myth, Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, is insulted by her brother Susano-o no Mikoto and hides in a cave, refusing to emerge. The world is therefore ...
The taishōgoto (大正琴), or Nagoya harp, is a Japanese stringed musical instrument. The name derives from the Taishō period (1912–1926) when the instrument first appeared. It has also become naturalized in East Africa, often under the name Taishokoto. [1] It is essentially a Keyboard Psalmodikon with multiple strings. There are 4 types ...