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	Music of Japan Japanese music info and reviews

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Isolated for centuries, and still reveling in its uniqueness even as it voraciously sucks up influences from other countries, Japan has a musical tradition that stretches back centuries and includes some of the most interesting styles and instruments found on Earth.

Among the more popular Japanese instruments are taiko drums, shakuhachi, and the sanshin and shamisen. Modern musicians like Agatsuma, Joji Hirota and the Yoshida Brothers are adapting traditional Japanese music for the modern world, creating in the process music that crosses genres and continents while retaining the intangible and inescapable Japan-ness found in everything the country does and is.

Japanese Music Info

Joji Hirota

Joji Hirota is a multi-instrumentalist from Japan, especially famed for his percussion. He specializes in traditional Japanese music, and plays such instruments as taiko drums and the shakuhachi (a Japanese flute). He is very active on the world music scene, recording for Peter Gabriel's Real ... [more]

Shamisen

The shamisen is perhaps the most famous of all traditional Japanese instruments. Resembling a 3-stringed guitar with a thin neck, its body is covered with taut animal skin and it is usually plucked with a bachi (a kind of pick made of ivory, wood or tortoise shell). Its arresting sound can soothe or excite, and inspires visions of a beautiful Japanese zen... [more]

Taiko Drums

"Taiko" refers to the several types of traditional Japanese drums both conceived of in Japan and borrowed from other countries. While taiko drums have been in Japan for centuries, the modern kumidaiko style, which began in the 1950's, is by far the most prevalent form... [more]

Yoshida Brothers

Japan's most recent contribution to the world music scene is the sensational shamisen duo known in Japan as "Yoshida Kyoudai", the Yoshida Brothers. Ryoichiro and Kenichi play an updated form of shamisen music - accompanied by modern percussion, synthesizers, and other accoutrements, they rock their ancient 3-stringed instruments... [more]