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GLOSSARY
Japanese music for traditional instruments
The traditional music of Japan is played on instruments which, in many cases, are almost indentical to those used on the Asian mainland over 1,000 years ago. Many examples of the earliest forms of these instruments are still preserved in the Shosoin Imperial Repository in Nara. Their use has continued through the perpetuation of ancient music called gagaku, a refined entertainment originally introduced from China and Korea in the 7th century and preserved ever since under the patronage of the Imperial Court.
The instruments used in gagaku are as follows: shoko (gong), taiko (suspended drum), kakko (double-ended drum), tsuzumi (a drum played on the shoulder), shiragi koto (13-stringed zither), gaku biwa (4-stringed lute),wagon (6-stringed zither), hichiriki,oteki and fue (flutes and flageolets) and the sho a free-reed mouth organ. Some or all of these instruments are used in gagaku pieces, also as musical accompaniment to dances of similar antiquity called bugaku.
Through the centuries, gagaku and bugaku instruments have been adapted for use in religious and secular music; the Heike biwa Chikuzen biwa and Satsuma biwa of Buddhist monks, for example, and the koto (or so no koto)a popular instrument since ancient times, particularly among Japanese women.The koto has been successfully blended with Western instruments in modern compositions.
Another string instrument, the samisen, was introduced to Japan in the mid-16th century from the Ryukyu Islands. It is played as a solo instrument and in accompaniments to nagauta and joruri, kouta (short, poetic songs),minyo (folk music) and the songs and dances of geisha. The samisen, which has a long neck, square body and three strings, has three basic tunings:Hon-choshi ni-agari, san-sagari. It is plucked either by the fingers or a plectrum and the neck is without frets. Shinnai nagashi is a refined development of samisen music played by geisha originating with Tsuruga Shinnai (1714-1774).