Satsuma biwa

A Satsuma biwa (left), compared with a Heike biwa (right), on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

• 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.