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The biwa (Japanese: 琵琶) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710–794).
Traditional Japanese musical instruments, known as wagakki (和楽器) in Japanese, are musical instruments used in the traditional folk music of Japan. They comprise a range of string , wind , and percussion instruments.
English: Types of Biwa, Japanese short-necked fretted lute, often used in narrative storytelling. Left to right: Gagaku-biwa, Chikuzen-biwa, Heike-biwa, Mōsō-biwa ...
Biwa hōshi were mostly blind, and adopted the shaved heads and robes common to Buddhist monks. The occupation likely had its origin in China and India, where blind Buddhist lay-priest performers were once common. The musical style of the biwa hōshi is referred to as heikyoku (平曲), which literally means "heike music".
Biwa hōshi organized into a guild-like association. The biwa is Japan's traditional instrument. [citation needed] Lafcadio Hearn related in his book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1903) "Mimi-nashi Hoichi" (Hoichi the Earless), a Japanese ghost story about a blind biwa hōshi who performs "The Tale of the Heike". [7]
In conservatoria across the country, even students of traditional instruments were always required to learn the piano. [20] Takemitsu, 1961. From the early 1960s, Takemitsu began to make use of traditional Japanese instruments in his music, and even took up playing the biwa—an instrument he used in his score for the film Seppuku (1962). [2]
Professional players can produce virtually any pitch they wish from the instrument, and play a wide repertoire of original Zen music, ensemble music with koto, biwa, and shamisen, folk music, jazz, and other modern pieces. Much of the shakuhachi 's subtlety (and player's skill) lies in its rich tone colouring, and the ability for its variation.
This style – now known as tsugaru-jamisen, after the home region of this style in the north of Honshū – continues to be relatively popular in Japan. The virtuosic tsugaru-jamisen style is sometimes compared to bluegrass banjo. kouta (小唄) is a style of shamisen historically developed by and mostly performed by geisha and maiko.
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