Japanese biwa: instruments for ensemble and storytelling
琵琶
The Japanese biwa is a plucked lute with a short, fretted neck, a bent-back head and a plectrum. Its traditions include court ensemble music, storytelling, Buddhist rites and modern composition. Names such as gaku, Heike, mōsō, Satsuma and Chikuzen connect particular instruments with different ways of performing.
Gaku-biwa and scoop-shaped bachi
String and fret counts, plectra and playing posture depend on the type.
Heikyoku tells The Tale of the Heike, with instrumental preludes and interludes.
Arrival in Japan, the formation of regional traditions and modern alterations belong to different periods.
01
How the instrument and performance fit together
A short neck, a bent-back head and a plectrum
A biwa has a rounded wooden body, a short neck and a head that bends backwards. Strings extend along the neck and body, passing above frets called jū. A player sets them sounding with a plectrum, or bachi. Four strings are common, while some types and later developments have five.
B1Tuning peg
B2Bent-back head
B3Fret supporting the string
B6String running over the frets
Heike-biwa neck parts, keyed below.
Koizumi Fumio Memorial Archives, Tokyo University of the Arts; object and photograph undated.
Different ways of stopping the strings
On the gaku-biwa, the player presses the strings on the frets. Mōsō traditions use taller frets and press between them, a method inherited by Satsuma and Chikuzen biwa. The shape of the plectrum and the angle at which the instrument is held also belong to its playing technique.
Low-fret contact: the finger presses the string against the top of the wooden fret.Pressing between high frets: conceptual geometry
Tradition
Stopping the string
Gaku-biwa
On the frets
Mōsō, Satsuma, Chikuzen
Between taller frets
Gaku-biwa in an ensemble
The usual gaku-biwa has four strings and four frets. Held horizontally and played with a small, scoop-shaped plectrum, it contributes to the rhythm of tōgaku ensemble music alongside the gakusō zither. Its role is therefore understood through an ensemble as well as through the object itself.
Gaku-biwa and scoop-shaped bachi
Gaku-biwa in the Geidai collection guide; object and photograph dates unstated.
Heike-biwa and the intervals in a story
A typical Heike-biwa has four strings, five frets and a triangular-ended plectrum, and is held horizontally. Medieval biwa hōshi used it for the telling of The Tale of the Heike, an art also called heikyoku. Instrumental preludes and interludes frame passages of narration.
PreludeInstrument
NarrationVoice
InterludeInstrument between passages
A1Crescent sound hole
A2Wooden soundboard
A3Plectrum guard
A4String anchor / bridge
Heike-biwa body parts, keyed below.
Koizumi Fumio Memorial Archives, Tokyo University of the Arts; object and photograph undated.
Mōsō-biwa in religious and narrative settings
Blind religious performers in Kyushu and the Chūgoku region used biwa with scripture recitation at temple services and prayers in followers’ homes. They could also tell entertaining stories during visits. Regional instruments differed; four strings and four to six frets are typical specifications in the Arts Council’s account.
Satsuma-biwa and its large fan-shaped bachi
The Arts Council’s representative Satsuma-biwa has four strings and four frets. Held vertically, it is played with a broad, fan-shaped plectrum that can strike the soundboard as well as the strings. Later instruments developed from this tradition have other string and fret arrangements.
Satsuma-biwa and broad fan-shaped bachi
Satsuma-biwa and its broad bachi; object and photograph dates unstated.
Chikuzen-biwa can play beneath the voice
Chikuzen instruments and their plectra are relatively small. Four- and five-string forms have five frets; the five-string instrument gradually became predominant. As well as preludes and interludes, the music includes passages played while the performer sings or narrates, continuing a practice associated with mōsō traditions.
Five-string, five-fret Chikuzen-biwa schematic
Chikuzen-biwa and its plectrum, in the Geidai collection guide.
02
Changing instruments and settings
Arrival and early court use
Hamamatsu’s museum places the biwa’s arrival in Japan in the seventh to eighth centuries. Professional musicians played gagaku at court ceremonies, banquets and Buddhist services in the Nara period. Heian aristocrats also learned the instrument, performing ensemble repertory and solo pieces.
Front and back of the Shōsōin five-string biwa with mother-of-pearl decoration. This early straight-necked instrument differs from later biwa with bent-back heads and from the modern five-string Chikuzen type.
Imperial Household Agency; a treasure transmitted from the Nara period. Photograph undated.
Narration became an art to study
Heikyoku circulated in courts, temples, aristocratic houses and regional lords’ castles, flourishing in the Muromachi period. In Edo Japan it appeared in shogunal ceremonies and was also studied by sighted tea practitioners and literary amateurs. Its transmission extended beyond professional blind performers. Biwa also accompanied jōruri narration. After the shamisen arrived in the later sixteenth century, it took over that accompanying role.
Members of the Heike-gatari research group hold their instruments horizontally at a study session on 15 January 2018. This is contemporary work on transmission and reconstruction.
Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties; January 2018 activity report.
Separate histories for Satsuma and Chikuzen
The museum traces samurai performance of mōsō-biwa in Satsuma to the mid-Edo period, with the present instrument’s form developing from the Tenpō era (1830–1844) onward. It treats the story of Shimazu Tadayoshi ordering its invention as a later account. In mid-Meiji Hakata, performers including Tachibana and Yoshida helped create Chikuzen-biwa by combining existing mōsō, Satsuma and shamisen techniques. Satsuma and Chikuzen biwa became popular nationally from the late 1890s into early Shōwa.
Tradition
Development
Satsuma
Mid-Edo performance; present form develops from Tenpō
Chikuzen
Mid-Meiji combination of existing techniques
New forms and twentieth-century composition
Modern players continued to alter strings, frets and body construction. Tsuruta Kinshi adapted her instrument and techniques to her music, worked on the music for Kwaidan, and played the biwa part in Tōru Takemitsu’s November Steps (1967). The performing art “biwa” was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property in 2016: the designation concerns the art of performance.
Check your understanding
How are the strings sounded, and where are the frets?
A bachi plucks the strings; the frets sit on the short neck. How the strings are stopped varies between traditions.
What distinguishes the settings of gaku-biwa and Heike-biwa?
Gaku-biwa participates in gagaku ensembles; Heike-biwa accompanies the telling of The Tale of the Heike.
Why is “four strings” an incomplete definition?
Four is common, but Chikuzen instruments and some modern developments also have five strings.
How can voice and instrument be arranged?
Heikyoku mainly uses preludes and interludes. Chikuzen-biwa also includes playing at the same time as the voice.