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The character for koto is 箏, although 琴 is often used. However, 琴 (koto) is the general term for all string instruments in the Japanese language, [2] [3] including instruments such as the kin no koto, sō no koto, yamato-goto, wagon, nanagen-kin, and so on. [3] When read as kin, it indicates the Chinese instrument guqin. [4]
Shamisen are classified according to size and genre. There are three basic sizes: hosozao, chuzao and futozao. Examples of shamisen genres include nagauta, jiuta, min'yo, kouta, hauta, shinnai, tokiwazu, kiyomoto, gidayu and tsugaru. Shamisen used for traditional genres of Japanese music, such as jiuta, kouta, and nagauta, adhere to very strict ...
More recent theory [2] emphasizes that it is more useful in interpreting Japanese melody to view scales on the basis of "nuclear tones" located a fourth apart and containing notes between them, as in the miyako-bushi scale used in koto and shamisen music and whose pitches are equivalent to the in scale: [3]
The first reference to nagauta as shamisen music appears in the second volume of Matsu no ha (1703). [1] By the 18th century, the shamisen had become an established instrument in kabuki, when the basic forms and classifications of nagauta crystallized [1] as a combination of different styles stemming from the music popular during the Edo period.
It is often tuned the same as a shamisen but an octave higher. In central Japan, the kokyū was formerly used as an integral part of the sankyoku ensemble, along with the koto and shamisen , but beginning in the 20th century the shakuhachi began to play the role previously filled by the kokyū .
The heike shamisen is usually tuned in ni agari," which means "raised two" or "raised second," which is a reference to the fact that the pitch of the second string is raised from a base tuning called honchoshi." Normally, the shamisen is tuned so that the first and third strings are tuned to an octave, and the second string is tuned to a fourth ...
Hirajōshi scale, or hira-choshi (Japanese: 平調子, Hepburn: hirachōshi, chōshi = tuning and hira = even, level, tranquil, standard or regular) is a tuning scale adapted from shamisen music by Yatsuhashi Kengyō for tuning of the koto. [1] "The hirajoshi, kumoijoshi, and kokinjoshi 'scales' are Western derivations of the koto tunings of ...
In min'yō, three-stringed lute known as the shamisen, taiko drums, and a bamboo flute called shakuhachi typically accompany the singers. [10] Other instruments that could accompany include a transverse flute known as the shinobue, a bell known as kane, a hand drum called the tsuzumi, and/or a 13-stringed zither known as the koto.