Traditional Japanese Music - Koto - Virtual Culture The history of traditional music in Japan is rich and varied. Many musical forms were imported from China more than a thousand years ago, but over the years, they were reshaped into distinctively Japanese styles of expression. Instruments were adapted and newly created to meet local needs, and the most important of these were the shamisen, shakuhachi, and koto. The shamisen resembles a guitar; it has a long, thin neck and a small, rectangular body covered with skin. It's got three strings, and the pitch is adjusted using the tuning pegs on the head, just like a guitar or violin. The shakuhachi is a flute made of bamboo that's played by blowing on one end. The koto, meanwhile, is a large, wooden instrument with 13 strings. Historians think the koto was born around the fifth to third century B.C. in China. Initially, it was performed in ensembles with other stringed and wind instruments, but eventually it came to be performed by itself.
About Japanese Music The earliest forms of music were drums and flute music accompanying the kagura shrine dances. From the 6th century on, music came from Korean and Chinese courts and monasteries and was performed at the Japanese court under the generic name gagaku (court music). The 8th-century court established a music bureau (gagakuryo) to be in charge of musical duties, both ritual and entertainment. The standard full-range gagaku ensemble has about 16 musicians on percussion, string, and reed instruments, the most distinctive being the free-reed mouth organ (sho), cyndrical oboe (hichiriki), the biwa lute, and the koto zither. Meanwhile with the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the 6th century, Buddhist rites and liturgical chants gave rise to the development of a great variety of bells, gongs, wooden clappers, plaques, percussion tubes, and rattles, many of which found their way also into kabuki music of the Edo period (1600-1868).
Japanese Culture - Entertainment - Musical Instruments In traditional Japanese music, there are three general types of instruments - percussion instruments, stringed instruments and wind instruments, mostly flutes. There is a huge range of instruments beyond the scope of this page, ranging from bells used in Buddhist ceremonies to various kinds of drums used in gagaku (Imperial court music). In the last few years, there have been a growing number of artists who have been bringing these instruments to younger audiences. Below we look at the more commonly heard instruments. Drums The always amazing Kodo drummers There are many large Japanese drums, or taiko. The hourglass-shaped tsuzumi was introduced from the Asian continent around the 7th century and the name is derived from Sanskrit. Stringed Instruments The koto is a 13-string zither, about 2 meters long and made of Paulownia wood. A closeup of a koto player The Yoshida Brothers have brought a rock sensibility to the shamisen The shamisen is a 3-string lute. Flutes Related content:
Music of Japan The music of Japan includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles, both traditional and modern. The word for "music" in Japanese is 音楽 (ongaku), combining the kanji 音 on (sound) with the kanji 楽 gaku (enjoy).[1] Japan is the largest physical music market in the world, worth US$2 billion in sales in physical formats in 2014, and the second-largest overall music market, worth a total retail value of 2.6 billion dollars in 2014[2] – dominated by Japanese artists, with 37 of the top 50 best-selling albums[3] and 49 of the top 50 best-selling singles in 2014.[4] Traditional and folk music[edit] There are two forms of music recognized to be the oldest forms of traditional Japanese music. They are shōmyō (声明 or 聲明), or Buddhist chanting, and gagaku (雅楽), or orchestral court music, both of which date to the Nara and Heian periods.[6] Gagaku is a type of classical music that has been performed at the Imperial court since the Heian period. Biwa hōshi, Heike biwa, mōsō and goze[edit] [edit]
The traditional instruments of Japanese music The shakuhachi is Japan's vertical bamboo flute with five finger holes, four in front and one at the back. It is an ancient instrument and yet, due to its versatility, it has a uniquely contemporary appeal. Related to similar flutes found in China, India and the Middle East, The shakuhachi was first introduced into Japan around the end of the 7th century AD and evolved through a series of modifiations until it reached its present form during the 17th. century. During the 17-19th centuries, the shakuhachi was played by Zen monks as a form of 'musical Zen meditation'. Called Komusõ (literally, 'Priests of Nothingness'), these men, often ex-samurai warriors, traveled throughout Japan, collecting alms and playing the shakuhachi, their identity hidden behind deep straw hats called tengai. During this period the shakuhachi was almost uniquely a Zen instrument, and in temples all over Japan, haunting solo meditative compositions emerged as a result of the monks' 'blowing meditations'.