Traditional Japanese musical instruments


Traditional Japanese musical instruments, known as in Japanese, are musical instruments used in the traditional folk music of Japan. They comprise a range of string, wind, and percussion instruments.

Percussion instruments

  • ; also spelled – clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
  • – Hand cymbals
  • – wooden or bamboo clappers
  • – a children's toy
  • – small, ornately decorated hourglass-shaped drum
  • – hand-held bell tree with three tiers of pellet bells
  • – small drum used in
  • – small flat gong
  • – a pair of sticks which are beaten together slowly and rhythmically
  • – clapper made from a pair of flat wooden sticks
  • – woodblock carved in the shape of a fish, struck with a wooden stick; often used in Buddhist chanting
  • – hand drum
  • or – singing bowls used by Buddhist monks in religious practice or rituals
  • – hourglass-shaped double-headed drum; struck only on one side
  • – clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
  • – a lithophone either bowed or struck
  • – small drum played with sticks
  • – small bronze gong used in ; struck with two horn beaters
  • – drum on a stand with ornately painted head, played with a padded stick
  • – small hand drum

    String instruments

Plucked

Zithers

  • – monochord
  • – the 17-string koto
  • – a long zither
  • – ancient long zither; also called

    Harps

  • – an angled harp used in ancient times and recently revived
  • – a zither with metal strings and keys

    Lutes

  • – a pear-shaped lute

    Other

  • or
  • – an Okinawan precursor of the mainland Japanese
  • – a banjo-like lute with three strings; brought to Japan from China in the 16th century. Popular in Edo's pleasure districts, the is often used in kabuki theater. Made from red sandalwood and ranging from long, the has ivory pegs, strings made from twisted silk, and a belly covered in cat or dog skin or a synthetic skin. The strings, which are of different thickness, are plucked or struck with a tortoise shell, ivory or synthetic ivory pick.
  • – a plucked instrument used by the Ainu people of Hokkaidō

    Bowed

  • – a bowed lute with three strings and a skin-covered body

    Wind instruments

Flutes

Japanese flutes are called. There are eight traditional flutes, as well as more modern creations.
  • – vertical bamboo flute
  • – transverse bamboo flute used for Noh theater
  • – transverse bamboo flute used for
  • – transverse bamboo flute used for, Shinto ritual music)
  • – transverse bamboo flute used for ; similar to the
  • – vertical bamboo flute used for Zen meditation
  • – transverse folk bamboo flute
  • – globular flute made from clay
  • Bow flute – a flute developed by Ishida Nehito with bow hair on it to accompany the

    Reed instruments

  • – double-reeded flute used in different kinds of music

    Free reed mouth organs

  • – 17-pipe mouth organ used for gagaku
  • – large mouth organ

    Horns

  • – seashell horn; also called

    Other instruments

  • – jaw harp used by the Ainu people
  • – general name for the jaw harp, also known as the in the Edo period