Traditional Japanese musical instruments

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

Contents 1 String 1.1 Plucked 1.2 Bowed 2 Wind 2.1 Flutes 2.2 Oboes 2.3 Free reed mouth organs 2.4 Horns 3 Percussion 3.1 Drums 3.2 Other 4 See also

[edit] String

[edit] Plucked

• Biwa (琵琶) - Pear-shaped lute
• Ichigenkin (kanji: 一絃琴; hiragana: いちげんきん) - One-string zither
• Koto (箏) - Long zither
• Sanshin (三線) - Three-string banjo from Okinawa
• Shamisen (三味線) - Three-string banjo
• Yamatogoto (大和琴) - Ancient long zither; also called wagon (和琴)

[edit] Bowed

• Kokyu (胡弓)

[edit] Wind

[edit] Flutes

• Hocchiku (法竹) - Vertical bamboo flute
• Nohkan - Transverse bamboo flute used for noh theater
• Ryūteki (龍笛) - Transverse bamboo flute used for gagaku
• Shakuhachi (尺八) - Vertical bamboo flute used for Zen meditation
• Shinobue (篠笛) - Transerse folk bamboo flute

[edit] Oboes

• Hichiriki (篳篥) - Cylindrical oboe used for gagaku

[edit] Free reed mouth organs

• Shō (笙) - 17-pipe mouth organ used for gagaku

[edit] Horns

• Horagai (法螺貝) - Seashell; also called jinkai (陣貝)

[edit] Percussion

[edit] Drums

• Taiko (太鼓), literally "great drum"
  • Ōtsuzumi (大鼓) - Hand drum
  • Shime-daiko - Small drum played with sticks
  • Tsuzumi (鼓) - Small hand drum

[edit] Other

• Hyoshigi (拍子木)
• Mokugyo (木魚) - Woodblock carved in the shape of a fish, struck with a wooden stick. Often used in Buddhist chanting

[edit] See also

• Music of Japan
• Gagaku