What instruments are used in traditional Japanese pop music?

Sapporo, Guzheng, Sanweixian and Pipa are the most important traditional musical instruments in Japan.

Shakuhachi (shakuhachi) is a vertical wind instrument made of bamboo tube, with five holes. Shachi was widely played by a group of monks in the Tokugawa era. Playing shakuhachi should be combined with the spirit of Zen to achieve the effect of epiphany, which is called blowing Zen. Therefore, in the process of playing, whether inhaling or blowing to release sound through musical instruments, we should interpret it with the greatest spirit.

Guzheng is a large 13 string guzheng, which is played with the first three fingers of the right hand kneeling, with the body flat in front of the player.

Sanweixian is a three-stringed instrument originated from banzuqin. The performance of the shell is related to the traditional Japanese kabuki. Its theme song comes from a part of the traditional folk song "Changtai" in the Edo period of Japan, so the playing time is not long, only about two and a half minutes.

Pipa is a Japanese pipa with five strings and wooden strings. Ogino Mato (folding fan as target) is a solo of Pipa, with a total length of 39 seconds, and its style and characteristics are very musical. The origin of this music is closely related to a legendary fan dance.

Phonological Expression of Japanese Traditional Music

For centuries, traditional Japanese musical instruments have been expressed by unique melodies.

Japanese custom and Japanese spiritual world. From wind instruments with a history of 1,000 years to Japanese stringed instruments in the18th century,

With the inheritance of Japanese traditional performing arts, they have developed into a unique phonological expression in Japan.

Author: Shang Shenkang (Honorary Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts)

Photo courtesy: (1) Tokyo University of the Arts, (2) Where to collect, and (3) Xiazhong Memorial Consortium.

Three-stringed and plucked instruments

Sangqin is played with three strings. It is used in kabuki, literary music and other performing arts. The piano is about 100 cm long.

People who are not familiar with traditional Japanese music may think that all players who wear kimonos play almost every tune with instruments such as lyre or flute. In fact, there are 50 categories of Japanese traditional music, and some people say there are 80 different types. Only a small part of them are played by pure musical instruments, and most of them are a combination of singing and music. Moreover, the vocals are mostly single melody (solo or chorus), and the accompaniment is mostly single instrument.

Japanese traditional music is classified according to whether the vocal methods, musical instruments and timbre are the same. For example, "Yitaifu Music", "Chang Zu Music" and "Three Strings" (that is, Long song) are all combinations of aria and three-string accompaniment. If there is only one timbre difference between aria and musical instruments, they are considered as different types of music. In other words, each type has its own vocal and musical instrument timbre.

But there are many subtle differences between singing and musical instruments in timbre, and only experts can hear them. Japanese traditional music pays great attention to the nuances of these timbres and is very careful not to mix them up or blend them together. It can be said that this is one of the reasons why the classification of Japanese traditional music is so fine.

The form and performance of Japanese musical instruments also fully reflect the subtle differences in Japanese traditional music in paying attention to timbre. Like other countries in the world, Japanese musical instruments can be roughly divided into percussion instruments, wind instruments and playing instruments.

Drum is one of the typical percussion instruments in Japan. In Japan, most drums are played with two drumsticks, but drums are played with fingers. In order to ensure the delicate timbre, the player needs to adjust the tightness of the drum head tie or breathe into the drum head according to the drum sound to keep the drum head moist.

Bamboo flute is a playing instrument. The singing accompaniment in kabuki uses 12 kinds of bamboo flutes according to the range. Even in local festivals, people use two or three different kinds of flutes. In a word, Japanese traditional music expresses all kinds of timbres needed by music through various small and meticulous designs.

The most representative of traditional musical instruments is probably Sanxian, which is a kind of stringed instrument. Qin Sang is used in many types of Japanese pop music, and it also fully reflects the diversity of Japanese traditional music.