SHŌ: Japanese musical instrument

The shō is a reed musical instrument of japan. The musical instrument was introduced from China during the Nara period. The instrument descended from the Chinese sheng, even though the shō seem to be smaller in size. The instrument is made up of 17 slender bamboo pipes, each of which is fixed in its base with the use of a metal free reed. Two of the instrument’s pipes are silent.

The sound of the musical instrument is believed to imitate the call of a phoenix, and it is because of this that the two silent pipes of the instrument are kept as a beautifying element, making two symmetrical wings. Like the sheng from China, the pipes of the instrument are carefully tuned with a drop of wax. As the moisture collected in the shō pipes stops it from sounding, players of the musical instrument can be seen warming the shō over a small charcoal brazier when they are not performing the musical instrument. The shō manufactures sound when the player of the instrument’ breath in inhaled or exhaled from the musical instrument, permitting long period of uninterrupted performance. The musical instrument is one of the main woodwind musical instruments that are used in gagaku. The traditional playing pattern in  gagaku is about the use of tone cluster known as aitake that move simultaneously from one to the other, providing accompaniment to the song.

A larger version of the musical instrument known as u, is lttle used even though some players of the musical instrument like Hiromi Yoshida, started the revival of the instrument in the later part of the 20^th century.

Mayumi Miyata was the first Japanese musician to use the musical instrument as a solo musical instrument for contemporary music. Miyata and other players of the musical instrument that specialize in modern music use specially carved musical instrument whose silent pipes are substituted by pipes that sound notes that are not available on the more traditional versions, producing a wider range of pitches.

Starting the mid-20^th century, a good number of composers from japan have manufactured works for the musical instrument, both solo and in combination with the Japanese and Western musical instruments. Most popular among these composers are Toshi Ichiyanagi, Toru Takemitsu, Jo Kondo, Maki Ishii, Joji Yuasa, Toshio Hosokawa, and Minoru Miki.

The musical instrument was introduced to larger audience by the German musician called Stephen Micus and Icelandic singer-song writer called Björk, who used the musical instrument as the main musical instrument in three songs played by Miyata for the soundtrack album to ‘Drawing Restraint 9’, a movie by her modern media artist friend boyfriend Matthew Barney, about the culture and whaling of Japan.