Traditional Japanese musical instruments

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Kitagawa Utamaro, "Flowers of Edo: Young Woman's Narrative Chanting to the Samisen", ca. 1880

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

String

Plucked

• Biwa (琵琶) - pear-shaped lute
• Ichigenkin (kanji: 一絃琴) - one-string zither
• Koto (琴, 箏) - long zither
• Junanagen (十七絃) - 17-stringed zither
• Taishogoto (大正琴) - zither with metal strings and keys
• Kugo (箜篌) - an angled harp used in ancient times and recently revived
• 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)
• Tonkori (トンコリ) - plucked instrument used by the Ainu of Hokkaidō

Bowed

• Kokyū (胡弓) - bowed lute with three (or, more rarely, four) strings and a skin-covered body

Wind

Flutes

Japanese flutes are called Fue.

• Hocchiku (法竹) - vertical bamboo flute
• Nohkan (能管) - transverse bamboo flute used for noh theater
• Ryūteki (龍笛) - transverse bamboo flute used for gagaku
• Kagurabue (神楽笛) - transverse bamboo flute used for mi-kagura (御神楽, Shinto ritual music)
• Komabue (高麗笛) - transverse bamboo flute kused for komagaku; similar to the ryūteki
• Shakuhachi (尺八) - vertical bamboo flute used for Zen meditation
• Shinobue (篠笛) - transverse folk bamboo flute
• Yokobue (横笛) - generic term for transverse bamboo flutes
• Tsuchibue (hiragana: つちぶえ; kanji: 土笛; literally "earthen flute") - globular flute made from clay

Reeded Instruments

• Hichiriki (篳篥) - double-reeded instrument used in gagaku

Free reed mouth organs

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

Horns

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

Percussion

An ornately painted tsuri-daiko, used in gagaku music

Drums

• Kakko (羯鼓) - small drum used in gagaku
• Taiko (太鼓), literally "great drum"
  • Ōtsuzumi (大鼓) - hand drum
  • Shime-daiko (締太鼓) - small drum played with sticks
  • Tsuzumi (鼓) - small hand drum
• Tsuri-daiko (釣太鼓) - drum on a stand with ornately painted head, played with a padded stick
• Ikko - small, ornately decorated hourglass-shaped drum
• San-no-tsuzumi (三の鼓), hourglass-shaped double-headed drum; struck only on one side
• Den-den daiko (でんでん太鼓) - pellet drum, used as a children's toy

Other

• Hyōshigi (拍子木) - wooden or bamboo clappers
• Mokugyo (木魚) - woodblock carved in the shape of a fish, struck with a wooden stick; often used in Buddhist chanting
• Shōko (鉦鼓) - small gong used in gagaku; struck with two horn beaters
• Sasara (ささら) - clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
  • Ita-sasara (板ささら) - clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
  • Bin-sasara (編木, 板ささら; also spelled bin-zasara) - clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
• Kokiriko (筑子, こきりこ) - many people confuse the kokiriko with the sasara and sasara are often sold in the West under the name kokiriko. In fact, the kokiriko is a pair of sticks which are beaten together slowly and rhythmically.
• Kagura suzu - hand-held bell tree with three tiers of pellet bells
• Kane (鉦) - small flat gong
• Shakubyoshi (also called shaku) - clapper made from a pair of flat wooden sticks

Other

• Mukkuri (ムックリ) - Jew's harp used by the Ainu people
• Koukin (口琴) - general name for the Jew's harp, in Edo period also called Biyabon (びやぼん)

See also

• Music of Japan
• Gagaku