Traditional Japanese musical instruments

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Kitagawa Utamaro, "Flowers of Edo: Young Woman's Narrative Chanting to the Samisen", ca.
1880

Traditional Japanese musical instruments comprise a wide range of string, wind, and
percussion instruments.

Contents
[hide]
1 String
o 1.1 Plucked

o 1.2 Bowed

2 Wind

o 2.1 Flutes

o 2.2 Reeded Instruments

o 2.3 Free reed mouth organs

o 2.4 Horns
 3 Percussion

o 3.1 Drums

o 3.2 Other

4 Other

5 See also

[edit] String
[edit] Plucked

Biwa () - pear-shaped lute

Ichigenkin (kanji: ) - one-string zither

Koto (, ) - long zither

Junanagen () - 17-stringed zither

Taishogoto () - zither with metal strings and keys

Kugo () - an angled harp used in ancient times and recently revived

Sanshin () - three-string banjo from Okinawa

Shamisen () - three-string banjo

Yamatogoto () - ancient long zither; also called wagon ()

Tonkori () - plucked instrument used by the Ainu of Hokkaid

[edit] Bowed

Koky () - bowed lute with three (or, more rarely, four) strings and a skin-
covered body

[edit] Wind
[edit] Flutes

Japanese flutes are called Fue.

Hocchiku () - vertical bamboo flute

Nohkan () - transverse bamboo flute used for noh theater

Ryteki () - transverse bamboo flute used for gagaku

Kagurabue (
) - transverse bamboo flute used for mi-kagura (,Shinto ritual
music)
 Komabue () - transverse bamboo flute used for komagaku; similar to the
ryteki
Shakuhachi () - vertical bamboo flute used for Zen meditation

Shinobue () - transverse folk bamboo flute

Yokobue () - generic term for transverse bamboo flutes

Tsuchibue (hiragana: ; kanji: ; literally "earthen flute") - globular flute

made from clay

[edit] Reeded Instruments

Hichiriki () - double-reeded instrument used in gagaku

[edit] Free reed mouth organs

Sh () - 17-pipe mouth organ used for gagaku

U () - large mouth organ

[edit] Horns

Horagai () - seashell horn; also called jinkai ()

[edit] Percussion

An ornately painted tsuri-daiko, used in gagaku music

[edit] Drums

Kakko () - small drum used in gagaku

Taiko (), literally "great drum"

o tsuzumi () - hand drum

o Shime-daiko () - small drum played with sticks

 o Tsuzumi () - small hand drum

Tsuri-daiko () - drum on a stand with ornately painted head, played with a

padded stick
Ikko - small, ornately decorated hourglass-shaped drum

San-no-tsuzumi (), hourglass-shaped double-headed drum; struck only on one

side
Den-den daiko () - pellet drum, used as a children's toy

[edit] Other

Hyshigi () - wooden or bamboo clappers

Mokugyo () - woodblock carved in the shape of a fish, struck with a wooden
stick; often used in Buddhist chanting
Shko () - small gong used in gagaku; struck with two horn beaters

Sasara () - clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord

o Ita-sasara () - clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope

or cord
o Bin-sasara (, ; also spelled bin-zasara) - clapper made from
wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
Kokiriko (, ) - many people confuse the kokiriko with the sasara and
sasara are often sold in the West under the name kokiriko. In fact, the kokiriko is a pair
of sticks which are beaten together slowly and rhythmically.
Kagura suzu - hand-held bell tree with three tiers of pellet bells

Kane () - small flat gong

Shakubyoshi (also called shaku) - clapper made from a pair of flat wooden sticks

[edit] Other