Satsuma biwa

• Japanese: 薩摩琵琶 (Satsuma biwa)

Satsuma-biwa is a style or genre of narrative storytelling in which the storyteller accompanies him or herself on a lute-like musical instrument called a biwa.

The style is based on the Heike-biwa tradition, but uses a larger biwa, which is said to produce a more dramatic sound. It emerged in Satsuma province in the 16th century, and originally focused on a repertoire of stories aimed at the moral or educational edification of young men, women, and the elderly. However, schools of Satsuma-biwa which developed in the Edo period added military tales and other dramatic pieces.

Satsuma-biwa enjoyed a revival in the Meiji period.

References

• Malm, William. "Music Cultures of Momoyama Japan." in Warlords, Artists, and Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century. University of Hawaii, 1981. p170.