Although typically it is used to play short standardized phrases between lines of vocal text, it may be used for longer programmatic pieces depicting battles, storms, or other dramatic events. Plucking in the opposite direction to tan and tiao are called mo () and gou () respectively. The biwa is related to the Chinese pipa, an instrument that was introduced to Japan in the late 7th century. Shakuhachi One of the most popular traditional Japanese wind instruments is the shakuhachi. The fingers normally strike the strings of pipa in the opposite direction to the way a guitar is usually played, i.e. The earliest-known piece in the collection may be "Eagle Seizing a Crane" () which was mentioned in a Yuan dynasty text. The musical narrative of The Tale of Heike, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes. Therefore the sound of the biwa is very strong at the attack but it has almost no resonance, and in that sense, its contribution to the overall sound of the orchestra is more rhythmic than harmonic. the fingers and thumb flick outward, unlike the guitar where the fingers and thumb normally pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. The 14- or 16-fret pipa had frets arranged in approximately equivalent to the western tone and semitone, starting at the nut, the intervals were T-S-S-S-T-S-S-S-T-T-3/4-3/4-T-T-3/4-3/4, (some frets produced a 3/4 tone or "neutral tone"). Though formerly popular, little was written about the performance and practice of the biwa from roughly the 16th century to the mid-19th century. Waribachi: This is a downward sweeping of the four strings, dividing the motion into two groups of two notes. Another. This minute design detail gives rise to sawari, the distinctive raspy tone of a vibrating string. There are more than seven types of biwa, characterised by number of strings, sounds it could produce, the type of plectrum, and their use. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term pipa was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument. Mural from Kizil, estimated Five Dynasties to Yuan dynasty, 10th to 13th century. Another often-used technique is rubbing the long side of the bachi on the strings to get wind-like sounds. The four-string specimen is tuned to a shamisen tuning called honchshi (interval structure, from the lowest string upwards, of P4 - P5, with the top two strings tuned in unison): approximately B2 E3 B3 B3; a typical tuning for the 5-string instrument has the intervallic sequence of P4 (down) P4 (up) M2 (up) P4 (up), approximately E3 B2 E3 F-sharp3 B3. The artist Yang Jing plays pipa with a variety of groups. CLASSIFICATION DIAGRAM OF WOOD A fundamental structure of string instruments in the Asia and Western is a box-sound hole structure [4,5] as seen in the harpsichord, guitar, violin, and biwa . [11] The style of singing accompanying biwa tends to be nasal, particularly when singing vowels, the consonant , and syllables beginning with "g", such as ga () and gi (). This is a type of biwa that wandering blind monks played for religious practice as well as in narrative musical performances during the medieval era, widely seen in the Kyushu area. Several related instruments are derived from the pipa, including the Japanese biwa and Korean bipa in East Asia, and the Vietnamese n t b in Southeast Asia. There are a number of different traditions with different styles of playing pipa in various regions of China, some of which then developed into schools. The instrument has seen a great decline . This music called heikyoku () was cherished and protected by the authorities and particularly flourished in the 14-15th centuries. The fish is an auspicious symbol of Buddhism signifying wakeful attention since most fish lack eyelids and remain alert. Guilds supporting biwa players, particularly the biwa hshi, helped proliferate biwa musical development for hundreds of years. 1984. Its plectrum is much smaller than that of the satsuma-biwa, usually about 13cm (5.1in) in width, although its size, shape, and weight depends on the sex of the player. 5, period of the Northern Wei (384-441 A.D.), A Song dynasty fresco depicts a female pipa player among a group of musicians, Group of female musician from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960 AD), A mural from a Yuan dynasty tomb found in Hengshan County, Shaanxi, showing a man playing the pipa, A group of Qing dynasty musicians from Fuzhou. It was those blind monks who fell outside of governmental protection who, during the 17. century, creatively modified the biwa to introduce a shamisen flavor, such as making frets higher to play in-between notes. HornbostelSachs 1 Hornbostel - Sachs Hornbostel - Sachs (or Sachs - Hornbostel) is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie in 1914. Its boxwood plectrum is much wider than others, often reaching widths of 25cm (9.8in) or more. Its tuning is A, E, A, B, for traditional biwa, G, G, c, g, or G, G, d, g for contemporary compositions, among other tunings, but these are only examples as the instrument is tuned to match the key of the player's voice. The strings are tuned in fourths, and the melody is played almost exclusively on the highest pitched string. 36 1/2 7 7/8 5 in. Depictions of the pear-shaped pipas appeared in abundance from the Southern and Northern dynasties onwards, and pipas from this time to the Tang dynasty were given various names, such as Hu pipa (), bent-neck pipa (, quxiang pipa), some of these terms however may refer to the same pipa. Heike-biwa is an accompaniment instrument specifically used to chant the Tale of Heike stories () in the traditional way dating from the medieval era. It produces distinctive ichikotsuch () and hyj (). On the plectrum, figure of a golden phoenix with flowers in its beak, The biwa's Chinese predecessor was the pipa (), which arrived in Japan in two forms;[further explanation needed] following its introduction to Japan, varieties of the biwa quadrupled. 4. The four fret type is tuned to E, B, E and A, and the five fret type is tuned to B, e, f and f. It has the largest body and relatively short neck among biwas. These styles emphasized biwa-uta () vocalisation with biwa accompaniment and formed the foundation for edo-uta () styles of playing, such as shinnai and kota.[2]. [24], In the subsequent periods, the number of frets gradually increased,[26] from around 10 to 14 or 16 during the Qing dynasty, then to 19, 24, 29, and 30 in the 20th century. His well-received compositions, such as November Steps, which incorporated biwa heikyoku with Western orchestral performance, revitalized interest in the biwa and sparked a series of collaborative efforts by other musician in genres ranging from J-Pop and enka to shin-hougaku and gendaigaku. Table of Contents 1. Two basic types of wood are used to make stringed musical instruments: woods for soundboards (top plates) and those for frame boards (back and side plates). The Museum's collection of musical instruments includes approximately 5,000 examples from six continents and the Pacific Islands, dating from about 300 B.C. The pipa has also been used in rock music; the California-based band Incubus featured one, borrowed from guitarist Steve Vai, in their 2001 song "Aqueous Transmission," as played by the group's guitarist, Mike Einziger. 3 in. Australian dark rock band The Eternal use the pipa in their song "Blood" as played by singer/guitarist Mark Kelson on their album Kartika. The biwa developed into five different types in its long history: Gaku, Heike, Ms, Satsuma, and Chikuzen. Taiko Related Articles on Traditional Japanese Instruments 1. A new way to classify the acoustical properties of woods and clearly separate these two groups is proposed in this paper. In modern biwa, particularly in Satsuma-biwa, one sometimes strikes the soundboard sharply to get percussive effects. Although this instrument is quite large and a very substantial plectrum is used to excite its strings, its sound is surprisingly soft and meant more for intimate settings rather than concert halls. Over the centuries, several types of biwa were created, each having a certain size plectrum, a specialized purpose, a unique performance technique, and varying numbers of strings and frets. [56], Texts from Tang dynasty mentioned many renowned pipa players such as He Huaizhi (), Lei Haiqing (), Li Guaner (), and Pei Xingnu (). It was in the late 20th century that this instrument started to be re-discovered and re-evaluated in various musical settings, such as soundtrack for movies and ensemble and orchestra music, culminating in Toru Takemitsus signature piece November Steps, which premiered in New York City in 1967. During the Yuan dynasty, the playwright Gao Ming wrote a play for nanxi opera called Pipa ji (, or "Story of the Pipa"), a tale about an abandoned wife who set out to find her husband, surviving by playing the pipa. to the present. Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection - Chikuzen Biwa. An early depiction of pipa player in a group of musicians. However, the playing of the biwa nearly became extinct during the Meiji period following the introduction of Western music and instruments, until players such as Tsuruta Kinshi and others revitalized the genre with modern playing styles and collaborations with Western composers. L 31 1/2 W. 11 13/16 D. 1 5/16 in. What is the hornbostelsachs classification of biwa instrument - 9005546 The traditional Satsuma-biwa has 4 strings and 4 frets (Sei-ha and Kinshin-ryu schools), and newer styles have 5 strings and 5 frets (Nishiki and Tsuruta-ryu schools). In the 13th century, the story The Tale of Heike ()was created and told by them. Players hold the instrument vertically. In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate collapsed, giving way to the Meiji period and the Meiji Restoration, during which the samurai class was abolished, and the Todo lost their patronage. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Most contemporary performers use the five string version. The Museum's collection of musical instruments includes approximately 5,000 examples from six continents and the Pacific Islands, dating from about 300 B.C. [38] It has however been suggested that the long plectrum depicted in ancient paintings may have been used as a friction stick like a bow. 36 1/2 7 7/8 5 in. From the Dingjiazha Tomb No. Blind priests would play them in order to tell stories and tales of ancient war. Biwa (Japanese instrument) - MIT Global Shakespeares Biwa (Japanese instrument) The Biwa is a Japanese teardrop lute, similar to the lute and the oud, with a short neck and frets. There are three small soundholes on the soundboard: two visible ones (hangetsu) partially covered with moon-shaped caps made of ivory and a hidden one (ingetsu) beneath the string holder. [1][2] Modern researchers such as Laurence Picken, Shigeo Kishibe, and John Myers suggested a non-Chinese origin. The nishiki-biwa (), a modern biwa with five strings and five frets, was popularised by the 20th-century biwa player and composer Suit Kinj (, 19111973). However, following the collapse of the Ritsury state, biwa hshi employed at the court were faced with the court's reconstruction and sought asylum in Buddhist temples. Updates? Sandstone carving, showing the typical way a pipa was held when played with plectrum in the early period. A. Odaiko B. Taiko C. Tsuridaiko D. Tsuzumi 2. 1800 Geography: Japan Culture: Japanese Medium: Wood, mother-of-pearl and ivory Dimensions: 35 12 1/8 11 1/2 in. Upon its arrival, the biwa was used in purely instrumental music in the court culture the instrument appears in various works of literature and art in the 10th -12th centuries, depicting nobles enjoying it in rituals as well as in their private lives. And thanks to the low tension of the strings, it is easy to bend the strings by adding pressure. Influenced by the recitations of blind priests, the music of the heike biwa reflects the mood of the text. These monophonic do not follow a set harmony. In the present day, there are no direct means of studying the biwa in many biwa traditions. NAKAMURA Kahoru, the biwa player with whom we worked, mentioned that for a concert including pieces in two different modes, she tunes two biwas before the concert. In all biwa styles, except for Gaku-biwa (: please refer to the section Types of Biwa), fingers are positioned between the frets, not on the frets. The strings are numbered from the lowest (first string) to the highest (fourth string). The biwa (Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. These tunings are relative, the actual pitches a given biwa is tuned to being determined by the vocal range of the singer/player. de Ferranti, Hugh. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. Example 4 shows that the biwa's melodic pitch doubles the basic melodic tone on the downbeat of almost every measure, except in measure 4 where the melodic tone 'E' is supported with a 'D' in the biwa's part. At the beginning of the Meiji period, it was estimated that there were at least one hundred traditional court musicians in Tokyo; however, by the 1930s, this number had reduced to just 46 in Tokyo, and a quarter of these musicians later died in World War II. Yo-sen has 2 tones regarded as auxiliary tones. Multiple strings are often played in one pluck like an arpeggio. The biwa, originally an instrument of high society, gradually spread among wandering blind monks who used this instrument to tell stories. The surface of the frets is constantly shaved down by the strings, and one of the most important points in the maintenance of the biwa is to keep the surfaces as flat as possible to get goodsawari, The narrative biwa music adopts a relative tuning; the pitch is decided to match with the players range of voice. Kakisukashi: This is a three or four-note arpeggio with two strings in unison. The fourth and fifth strings, if 5-stringed, are tuned to the same note. [71][self-published source] In 2014, French zhongruan player and composer Djang San, created his own electric pipa and recorded an experimental album that puts the electric pipa at the center of music. length The archlute ( Spanish: archilad, Italian: arciliuto, German: Erzlaute) is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the performance of solo music, and the Renaissance tenor lute, which lacked the bass range of the Northern Wei dynasty (386534 AD). Generally speaking, biwa have four strings, though modern satsuma- and chikuzen-biwa may have five strings. It is an arpeggio that is always starting from the first string (the lowest) and swepping upwards to either the second, third or fourth string. The 5 String Pipa is tuned like a Standard Pipa with the addition of an Extra Bass String tuned to an E2 (Same as the Guitar) which broadens the range (Tuning is E2, A2, D3, E3, A3). 77-103. Wu Man is probably the best known pipa player internationally, received the first-ever master's degree in pipa and won China's first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. It is made out of wood, with a teardrop-shaped body and a long neck with four or five high frets, and is stringed with four or five silk strings that are plucked by a big pick called bachi (). Its plectrum is slightly larger than that of the gagaku-biwa, but the instrument itself is much smaller, comparable to a chikuzen-biwa in size. The Met Fifth Avenue 1000 Fifth Avenue The electric pipa was first developed in the late 20th century by adding electric guitarstyle magnetic pickups to a regular acoustic pipa, allowing the instrument to be amplified through an instrument amplifier or PA system. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Shanghai-born Liu Guilian graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and became the director of the Shanghai Pipa Society, and a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and Chinese National Orchestral Society, before immigrating to Canada. The sound can be totally different depending on where the instrument is hit, how the plectrum is held, and which part of the plectrum hits the surface. Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection . Biwa playing has a long history on Kyushu, and for centuries the art was practiced within the institution of ms, blind Buddhist priests who performed sacred and secular texts for agrarian and other rituals. Though its origins are unclear, this thinner variant of the biwa was used in ceremonies and religious rites. For the left hand, as mentioned above under the Construction section, bending of the strings (oshikan, ) and delicate control of it to create a vibrato effect (yuri. ) It is the most widely used system for classifying musical instruments by ethnomusicologists and organologists . This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. The peg box is angled about 90 degrees from the neck, and the back of the body is flat, unlike the western lute. The biwa strings are plucked with large wooden pick called bachi (, The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. Typically, the second pitch is fingered on the same string one or two frets lower than the first one, and the note is attacked and then lifted off into the second fret position. The biwa sounds as written, and it is tuned to an A-430Hz. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. [9] When singing in a chorus, biwa singers often stagger their entry and often sing through non-synchronized, heterophony accompaniment. After having arrived in Japan via the Silk Road for purely instrumental music, the biwa evolved over time into a narrative musical instrument. Rubbing the strings: The plectrum is used to rub an open string. The biwa developed into five different types in its long history: . The . These parts can be seen in detail #1: peg box (hanju) with lobster tail-shaped finial (kairbi) [upper left]; four laterally mounted friction tuning pegs (tenju) [lower left]; neck (shikakubi) [right] with a tenon cut at each end (one fitting into a mortise cut into the peg box, the other into a mortise in the narrow end of the resonator) and five high frets (j); and a resonator made of a shallow, teardrop-shaped hollowed out wood shell (k) covered with a flat, thinly-shaven wood soundboard (fukuban) to which is glued a string holder tension bridge (fukuju) just above its rounded end [center]. A. Biwa B. Koto C. Shakuhachi D. Shamisen 3. This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic. Beginning in the late 1960s to the late 1980s, composers and historians from all over the world visited Yamashika and recorded many of his songs; before this time, the biwa hshi tradition had been a completely oral tradition. Thought to be of Persian origin, the biwa was brought to Japan in the 8th century via Central Asia, China and the Korean Peninsula. Performers on the instrument frequently pluck two notes simultaneously, producing a variety of intervals, especially when the singer is silent. In the 20th century, two of the most prominent pipa players were Sun Yude (; 19041981) and Li Tingsong (; 19061976). Western performers of pipa include French musician Djang San, who integrated jazz and rock concepts to the instrument such as power chords and walking bass.[70]. Novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as Jin Ping Mei showed pipa performance to be a normal aspect of life in these periods at home (where the characters in the novels may be proficient in the instrument) as well as outside on the street or in pleasure houses.[24]. often-used technique is rubbing the long side of the bachi on the strings to get wind-like sounds. Modern notation systems, new compositions as well as recordings are now widely available and it is no longer crucial for a pipa players to learn from the master of any particular school to know how to play a score. [42] During the Qing dynasty there originally two major schools of pipathe Northern and Southern schools, and music scores for these two traditions were collected and published in the first mass-produced edition of solo pieces for pipa, now commonly known as the Hua Collection (). The short neck has four raised frets, each one specifically assigned to one of the left hand fingers. Chikuzen biwa music is narrative music much beholding to narrative shamisen music. She lives in San Diego, California and works extensively with Chinese, cross-cultural, new music, and jazz groups. [2], Early literary tradition in China, for example in a 3rd-century description by Fu Xuan, Ode to Pipa,[1][28] associates the Han pipa with the northern frontier, Wang Zhaojun and other princesses who were married to nomad rulers of the Wusun and Xiongnu peoples in what is now Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Ye Xuran (), a student of Lin Shicheng and Wei Zhongle, was the Pipa Professor at the first Musical Conservatory of China, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. At first the chikuzen biwa, like the one pictured in gallery #1, had four strings and five frets, but by the 1910s Tachibana and his sons had developed a five-string model (gallery #2) that, since the 1920s, has been the most common form of the instrument. This seeming shortcoming is compensated for by the frets height and the low tension of the strings. It had a pear-shaped wooden body with two crescent-shaped sound holes, a curved neck, four strings, and four frets. Like pearls, big and small, falling on a platter of jade. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). biwa, Japanese short-necked lute, distinguished by its graceful, pear-shaped body. String-bending for example may be used to produce a glissando or portamento. It may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as daqu (, grand suites), an elaborate music and dance performance. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. However, false nails made of horn existed as early as the Ming period when finger-picking became the popular technique for playing pipa.[24]. greatest depth of resonator Hazusu: This is a sequence of two pitches, where the first one is attacked, and leades to a second one which is not attacked. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. By the middle of the Meiji period, improvements had been made to the instruments and easily understandable songs were composed in quantity. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Samurai ethics and battles were selected as the main themes for this style, called Satsuma-biwa (), and more dynamic techniques were developed. Its plectrum varies in both size and materials. Instead, biwa singers tend to sing with a flexible pitch without distinguishing soprano, alto, tenor, or bass roles. [10][11] This may have given rise to the Qin pipa, an instrument with a straight neck and a round sound box, and evolved into ruan, an instrument named after Ruan Xian, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and known for playing similar instrument. Ieyasu favored biwa music and became a major patron, helping to strengthen biwa guilds (called Todo) by financing them and allowing them special privileges. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. In Japan the loquat is known as biwa (, ) and has been grown for over . As part of, Metalwork by Goto Teijo, 9th generation Goto master, Japan (16031673). Cheng Yu researched the old Tang dynasty five-stringed pipa in the early 2000s and developed a modern version of it for contemporary use. The stroking motion always starts from the 1st string, sequentially sweeping toward the others until it reaches the arpeggios last string. It always starts from the 4th string and stops on either the 3rd, 2nd, or 1st string depending if the arpeggio contains 2, 3, or 4 pitches, respectively. (80 30 3.4 cm), Classification: The six fret type is tuned to B, E, B and b. Also known as mouth organ. Its purpose is to show in context how the biwa uses its various patterns to color some melodic tones. Noted contemporary pipa players who work internationally include Min Xiao-Fen, Yang Jin(), Zhou Yi, Qiu Xia He, Liu Fang, Cheng Yu, Jie Ma, Yang Jing(, Yang Wei (),[64] Guan Yadong (), Jiang Ting (), Tang Liangxing (),[65] and Lui Pui-Yuen (, brother of Lui Tsun-Yuen). A pipa player playing with the pipa behind his back. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used. 89.4.123. Hornbostel-Sachs or Sachs-Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie in 1914. sanxian, (Chinese: "three strings") Wade Giles romanization san-hsien also called xianzi, any of a group of long-necked, fretless Chinese lutes. It is an important instrument in the Peking opera orchestra, often taking the role of main melodic instrument in lieu of the bowed string section. The name "pipa" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "p" () and "p" (). The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments. Famous solo pieces now performed include: Most of the above are traditional compositions dating to the Qing dynasty or early 20th century, new pieces however are constantly being composed, and most of them follow a more Western structure. During the Qing dynasty, apart from those of the various schools previously mentioned, there was Chen Zijing (), a student of Ju Shilin and known as a noted player during the late Qing dynasty. length Malm, William P. 1959. The satsuma-biwa is traditionally made from Japanese mulberry, although other hard woods such as Japanese zelkova are sometimes used in its construction. It is made out of wood, with a teardrop-shaped body and a long neck with four or five high frets, and is stringed with four or five silk strings that are plucked by a big pick called bachi. As well as being one of the leading pipa players of his generation, Li held many academic positions and also carried out research on pipa scales and temperament. Because of this bending technique oshikan (. Sheng. These, according to the Han dynasty text by Liu Xi, refer to the way the instrument is played "p" is to strike outward with the right hand, and "p" is to pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. The left hand techniques are important for the expressiveness of pipa music. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The strings are sounded with a large, thick, fan-shaped plectrum called a bachi (detail #6), traditionally made of wood (the practice bachi pictured here is made from resin). [6] The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. Multiple strings are often played in one pluck like an arpeggio. It is one of the more popular Chinese folk music, often paired with singing. Options are limited when considering that a fingered string between two open strings must be fingered on the 4th fret to avoid damping. L 31 1/2 W. 11 13/16 D. 1 5/16 in. Biwa 6. They included Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, and Su Shi. The strings are made of wound silk. There are some confusions and disagreements about the origin of pipa. These players had considerable influence on the development of pipa playing in China. [8][9] Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called pipa, though written differently (; pp or ; pb) in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the Hu people (a general term for non-Han people living to the north and west of ancient China). The fourth/fifth string G is an octave higher than the second string G. Again, note this is relative tuning; it could be AEAE, GDGD, etc, depending on the players range of voice. This overlap resulted in a rapid evolution of the biwa and its usage and made it one of the most popular instruments in Japan. [21] For example, masses of pipa-playing Buddhist semi-deities are depicted in the wall paintings of the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. The open strings are shown in the first measures, and the pitches assigned the left-hand fingered notes in the following four measures. Its classification is a type of an Aerophone. This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The da and xiao categories refer to the size of the piece xiao pieces are small pieces normally containing only one section, while da pieces are large and usually contain multiple sections. So, here are six traditional Japanese instruments you can listen to today! Among the major variants are the gakubiwa (used in court music), the msbiwa (used by Buddhist monks for the chanting of sutras), the heikebiwa (used to chant stories from the Heike monogatori), the chikuzenbiwa (used for an amalgam of narrative types), and the satsumabiwa (used for samurai narratives). . 5-string: biwa (gallery #2): The instrument was invented in China in the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, during the Jin dynasty. [17] Even higo-biwa players, who were quite popular in the early 20th century, may no longer have a direct means of studying oral composition, as the bearers of the tradition have either died or are no longer able to play.

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