BIWA: Japanese musical instrument

The biwa is a short-necked fretted lute from Japan. The musical instrument is often used in narrative story telling. The musical instrument is the chosen musical instrument of Breten, goddess of music, poetry and education in Shinto.

The biwa came into Japan in two versions. Since that time, the number of the instrument has more than quadrupled. Guilds supporting the players of the musical instrument, especially the biwa hoshi, assisted proliferate the musical development of biwa for many years. Biwa hoshi performances overlain with performances by other players of the musical instrument several years prior to heikyoko and continued until the modern day. The overlap led to the rapid evolution of the musical instrument and its usage and made the musical instrument the most prominent musical instrument in Japan.

Yet irrespective of the popularity of the musical instrument, the Onin War and following Warring States Period obstructed the tutelage of the biwa and minimized the number of proficient users of the musical instrument. With the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period, the players of the musical instrument lost their patronage on the instrument.

By the later part of the 1940s, the biwa, a complete tradition of Japan, was almost abandoned for western musical instruments; meanwhile, thanks to combined efforts by musician in the country, interest in the musical instrument being revived. Japanese musician and foreign musician have started embracing Japanese traditional musical instruments, especially the biwa, in their compositions.

The musical instrument came to Japan in the 7^th century and was raised from the musical instrument called pipa, while the pipa itself came out of an analogous musical instrument in the Western Asia. This version of the musical instrument is called gaku-biwa and was used in gagaku group; also it is the most popularly known version. While the origin is not clear, another version of the musical instrument found its way to the Kyushu province. The thin version of the musical instrument known as mōsō-biwa or kōjin-biwa was found in ceremonies as well as religious rites.

Through the next many centuries, players of the musical instrument of both traditional intersected frequently and fabricated new music pattern and new musical instruments. By the Kamakura period, the heike-biwa had become a popular musical instrument. The heike-biwa can be described as a cross between both the gaku and the mōsō versions of the musical instrument. The musical instrument retained the rounded shape of the gaku-biwa and was performed with the use of a large plectrum that is like the mōsō-biwa. The heike-biwa was as well small, like the mōsō-biwa and was used for analogous reasons.

While the contemporary Satsuma-biwa and the chikuzen-biwa, both find their origin with the mōsō version of the musical instrument, the Satsuma version of the musical instrument was used for moral and mental physical activity by samurai of the Satsuma Domain in the course of the Warring States period, and later in overall performances. The chikuzen-biwa was used by the Buddhist monks visiting private residences to play memorial services, not only for the rites of Buddhism, but as well as telling entertainment stories and news however accompanying themselves on the biwa, and this forms of storytelling  was said to be spread in this manner.

Not much about the musical instrument seems to have been written about these musical instruments was approximately the 16^th century to the mid-19^th century. What is called the three major streams of the musical instrument emerged during that time: zato, shifu and the chofu.

By the middle part of the Meiji period, improvement had been made on the musical instrument and easily understandable music was composed min quantity. At the starting point of the Taisho period, the Satsuma-biwa was reformed into the Nishiki biwa that was popular among the female players of the musical instrument at that time. With this the musical instrument met a great period of prosperity and the melodies themselves were not just about the Story of the Heike but melodies linked to the Sino Japanese War and also the Russo-Japanese War like Takeo Hirose gained fame.

 There are more than seven types of the musical instrument, characterized by the number of strings the instruments have, the sounds they can manufacture, the type of plectrum used on the musical instruments and their use. Some version of the musical instrument includes;

a.     Gagaku-biwa – a larger and heavy version of the musical instrument that has four string and four frets. The instrument is exclusively used for the gagaku. The musical instrument produces unique Ichikotsuchō (壱越調) and Hyōjō (平調). The plectrum of the musical instrument is thin and small, usually rounded and produced from a hard material like boxwood or ivory. This version of the musical instrument is not used in accompanying singing.

b.    Gogen-biwa – this T’ang version of the musical instrument can be found in the painting of court orchestras and this instrument was used in the context of gagaku, nevertheless was removed with the reforms and standardization that took place in the court orchestra in the 10^th century.

c.     Mōsō-biwa – this version is a biwa that has four strings. This musical instrument is used to perform Buddhist mantra and melodies. The musical instrument is analogous in shape to the chikuzen-biwas, though with a much more narrow body. The plectrum of the instrument differs in size and material. The four fret version of biwa is tuned to E, B, E and A and the five fret version is tuned to B, e, f^♯ and f^♯, also the six fret version is tuned to B^♭, E^♭, B^♭ and b^♭.

d.    Heike-biwa – a version of the musical instrument that have five fret and four strings. This instrument is used to play Heike Monogatari. The instrument’s plectrum is somewhat larger than the plectrum of gagaku-biwa, though the musical instrument is much smaller when compared to the chikuzen-biwa in size. This version of the musical instrument was formally used by travelling biwa minstrels, and the size of the instrument kept it to the indoor play and improved the portability. The tuning of the musical instrument is A, c, e, a or A, c-sharp, e, a.

e.     Satsuma-biwa – this version of the musical instrument is with four strings and four frets. This version of biwa was made popular during the Edo period in Satsuma region by Shimazu Nisshinsai. The frets of this musical instrument are raised 4 cm from the neck of the instrument permitting notes to be bent many steps higher, each of them manufacturing sawari or buzzing drones. The box wood plectrum of this musical instrument is wider than others. The musical instrument is traditionally manufactured from the mulberry, even though some other hard woods like Japanese zelkova can be used in the production. The tuning of this musical instrument is A, E, A, B, for traditional version of the musical instrument, and G, G, c, g, or G, G, d, g for the modern compositions.

f.       Chikuzen-biwa – this is a version of the musical instrument that has four or five strings and four or five strings. The musical instrument was made popular in the Meiji period by Tachibana Satosada. The plectrum of this version of the musical instrument is much smaller than that of the Satsuma version of the musical instrument. The size, weight and shape of the plectrum depend on the player’s sex. The plectrum of the instrument is often manufactured from rosewood with boxwood or ivory tips for the plucking of the instrument’s strings the size of this musical instrument differs, depending on the sex of the player. Male players of this musical instrument use somewhat wider or longer instrument than the version of the instrument used by the children and women. The body of this musical instrument is never struck with the use of the plectrum when playing the musical instrument. The five string version of the musical instrument is played upright, while four string version of the musical instrument is played held on the side. This version of the musical instrument is tuned to match the voice of the singer. A sample tuning for the four string version of the musical instrument is B, e, f^♯ and b and the four string version of the musical instrument could be tuned to C, G, C, d and g.

Commonly saying, the biwa is seen as one of Japanese main musical instruments and for this, the instrument has influenced and been influenced by some other traditoional musical instruments and compositions in the history of the instrument in Japan.