Music of Japan

• Nihon or Nippon which means "Land of the rising sun". 


  Japan
• Japan has 6,852 islands.
• Instrumental Music of Japan

  
  

  • Japanese chamber and solo music have slow meditative pace.

  • Traditional Japanese Music is meditative in character.
• Two main modes:

  
  

  •Yo-sen Mode – male scale

  •In-sen Mode – female scale
• The history of traditional music in Japan is rich and varied.
• Many musical forms of Japan were imported from China more than a thousand years ago, but over the years, they were reshaped into distinctively Japanese styles of expression.
• Instruments were adapted and newly created to meet local needs, and the most important of these were the shamisen, shakuhachi, and koto.
• Sakura - “cherry blossoms” 


  traditional Japanese folk song depicting spring, the season of cherry blossoms.
• Sakura Lyrics:

  
  

  Sakura Sakura

  Yayoi nosorawa

  Mi-watasukagiri

  Kasumika Kumoka

  Nioizo Izuru

  Izaya zaya

  Mini yukan
• Kimigayo 


  National Anthem of japan
• An ancient imperial court music and dance,

  Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto.

  Gagaku
• Odaiko - can refer to a large drum of any style, but usually is reserved for drums of the nagado style.
• Tsuzumi - It consists of a wooden body shaped like an hourglass, and it is taut, with two drum heads with cords that can be squeezed or released to increase or decrease the tension of the heads respectively.
• Tsuridaiko - a large hanging barrel drum.
• Taiko - any of various Japanese forms of barrel-shaped drums with lashed or tacked heads, usually played with sticks (bachi).
• Koto - is a 13-string zither that is 2 meters long and made from wood.
• Shamisen - is a plucked stringed instrument, the neck of shamisen is fretless and slim.
• Biwa - is a Japanese short necked fretted lute and is used in narrative storytelling.
• Shakuhachi - it has 4 or 5 finger holes on the front face and a thumbhole on the rear face, it was imported from China for gagaku.
• Nokan - a parallel bamboo flute (fue), is the only melodic instrument with no specific pitch.
• Hichiriki - is a double reed Japanese flute (fue), is used as one of two main melodic instruments in Japanese gagaku music.
• Ryuteki - literally “dragon flute”, Japanese transverse fue made of bamboo.
• Sho - Japanese free reed musical instrument, it was introduced from China during the Nara period.
• Shinobue - also called takebue, the Japanese transverse flute that has a high pitched sound.
• Percussion instruments:

  • Odaiko
  • Tsuzumi
  • Tsuridaiko
  • Taiko
• String instruments:

  • Koto
  • Shamisen
  • Biwa
• Wind instruments:

  • Shakuhachi
  • Nokan
  • Hichikiri
  • Ryuteki
  • Sho
  • Shinobue