Theatrical Genres: Kabuki

Present-day kabuki theater makes use of many instruments that have been incorporated over the course of many years. In its infancy, at the beginning of the seventeenth century (Gunzi 1969), kabuki music was played on a handheld flat gong ( kane ) that the performers struck as they danced and chanted Buddhist prayers. In the early seventeenth century, the four instruments (si byôsi) used in nô drama—nôkan (transverse flute), ko tuzumi (shoulder drum), ô tuzumi (side drum),...