The Kotsuzumi (shoulder hand drum)

The kotsuzumi is used in Noh, the flute and percussion ensemble of Nagauta, the background music of Kabuki and a variety of folk entertainments.

The Okawa (side hand drum)

This musical instrument is used in Noh and the hayashi flute and percussion ensemble of Nagauta.

The Shimedaiko (stick drum)

The real name of this musical instrument is Sarugaku taiko.

It is used in Noh, Nagauta and kagura.

This instrument came from the Korean kingdom of Kudara long ago in the Asuka period.

It is only used in some Noh plays, but when it is used, it is only at the last final half of the play in order to create an exciting effect.

The Sho 笙

At the 8th century this musical instrument is imported from China where it is called "sheng" and adapted in Japan to get a smaller instrument.


His beauty is supposed to suggest the mythical bird, the phoenix.

When The sho camr to Japan he took part of Gagaku where his role was to carry on the melody

The Hichiriki

The hichiriki is the most used instrument in the gagaku (imperial court music). And it is used in all form of music associated with poetry recitation.

Often the main melody of a Gagaku piece is carried by the hichiriki, but his sound is very high-pitched, powerfull and heart-rending, so it is an unpleasant sound for European poeple and also criticized by some Japanese poeple.

The shakuhachi

In the mid-Kamakura period, the first man who played shakuhachi was a Zen priest named Kakushin. He learned it in China and return to Japan in 1254.

He taught shakuhachi to his disciples who established different temples throughout Japan.

During the Muromachi period students of Fuke shakuhachi grew very numerous and the music spread throughout Japan.

The sakuachi became a religious instrument and was forbid to play in popular music.

In the mid-18th century, a former retainer of the Fukuoka clan named Kurosawa Kohachi was a famous player of the shakuhachi and composed many pieces.

With the new Meiji governement the shakuachi was no longer a religious instrument with legal restrictions. From this time, the shakuhachi became a pure musical instrument.

The Shinobue (Bamboo flute)

It is used in the hayashi ensemble for Nagauta, background music for kabuki, Sato Kagura and festival flute and percussion ensembles.

The shinobue is made with a stemb of bamboo

The Fue (flute)

There're two kind of flute : the transverse flute which the player blows at the side of the flute and the over kind is held vertically and the players blows at the end of the flute.



Example of transverse flute :

gakubue : used in Mikagura.

• komabue : used in Komagaku, one type of music used for dances of the right in Gagaku imperial court music.


• Ryuteki : used in Gakaku dance, many of them are famous and have names.


• Noh kan : used in the Noh ensemble and in the hayashi ensemble for Nagauta and other forms of kabuki dance music.
  

Exanple of vertical flute :

• shakuhachi


• hichiriki

The shamisen

The shamisen is a kind of lute whith a sound box which come from China where it was made with snake's skin. It arrived in Japan in the island of Ryûkû where he's transformed in 1560 and made with cat skin or dog skin for the less expensive model. Around 1562, the instrument was introduced into Japan by trade ships. At that time, the instrument entered into two geographical areas, in Kansai, in the cities of Sakai and Osaka and in the port of Hakata in Kyushu. In Kyushu, the instrument was played by blind priests.

The Shamisen is an instrument for accompagny the song, whith a narrative or a melodic use. The shamisen became an indispensable part of kabuki (kind of japanese music) and of almost all music in the Edo period.

It exists different kind of shamisen which the three most famous are:

• Niagari


• Honchôshi


• Sansagari

The Biwa

It is also used in Gakaku in the imperial court. This is for the simple biwa. In fact this instrument was used by blind priest telling stories from the Tales of the Heike about the battles between the Genji and Heike clans.

Now there’re no performers left of this kind of narratives.
Modern biwa come from the island of Kyushu and Satsuma biwa has been developed to encourage the martial spirit with texts taken from the Tales of the Heike.

The Koto

It is probably the most familiar Japanese instrument in the world.

It is used in Gakaku, and created in the Edo period and there’s also a broad of range of modern music for the koto.

The japanese instrument : after this short resume of the Japanese music's hystory I'm going to show you instruments of this beautifull music!!

The following post will show you the different instrument :

• Koto
• Biwa
• Shamisen
• Fue (flute)
• Shinobue (bamboo flute)
• Shakuhachi
• Hichikiri
• Sho
• Shimedaiko (stick drim)
• Okawa (side hand drum)
• Kotsuzumi (shoulder hand drum)

The Japanese Music

The japanese music follow the japan's hystory. 演歌

At the beginnig the traditional japanese music (hôgaku) was an art for some accompagny some religious dances (kagura). At this time the instruments were primitives.

In the 5th century Japan begin to be oppened to the asiatic continent, some chinese and corean musicien came and show some different kind of music to the imperial court. And some times later was born the original court music (gagaku) and popular music (sarugaku).

During the medieval periode (12th to 16th cnetury) the Samouraï leave the original court music to be interested in the popular music. Then during the Edo area (1603-1868) this kind of music has been developed and took a national impact thanks to new instruments coming from China : the shamisen (a kind of luth) and the shakuhachi (a kind of flute), and the theatral music (nôgaku).

With the Meïji (1868) area Japan opened his door the the occidental world and his musical influence. But it is only in 1920 that the jpanese musiciens begin to play occidental instrument like piano or violin.

Today Japan show again an important interest in the traditional music because of a problem of there own identity. So now there're some study class of traditional japanese music in japanese university.