The is a Japanese transverse '' fue'' made of

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

. It is used in

gagaku is a type of Japanese classical music that was historically used for imperial court music and dances. was developed as court music of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and its near-current form was established in the Heian period (794-1185) around t ...

, the

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

classical music associated with Japan's imperial court. The sound of the ''ryūteki'' is said to represent the dragons which ascend the skies between the heavenly lights (represented by the '' shō'') and the people of the earth (represented by the '' hichiriki''). The ryūteki is one of the three flutes used in gagaku, in particular to play songs of Chinese style. The pitch is lower than that of the ''

komabue The ("Koma flute") is a transverse bamboo flute, a fue that is used in traditional Japanese court music. Construction The ''komabue'' is typically constructed from bamboo. It is a transverse flute with six finger-holes. It is 36 cm, shorte ...

'' and higher than that of the ''

kagurabue The is a six or seven-hole transverse bamboo flute used to support Japanese kagura is a type of Shinto ritual ceremonial dance. The term is a contraction of the phrase , indicating the presence of gods () in the practice. One major func ...

''. The ''ryūteki'' is held horizontally, has seven holes, and has a length of and an inner diameter of . Unlike the western flute, the holes are not covered by the fingertips, rather, the fleshy part of the finger is used. This allows for better control of "half-holing" techniques and chromatic notes, by simply raising the finger slightly above the holes.

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as t ...

calls for this instrument for his '' El Cimarrón'', and

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

scored for ''ryūteki'' in the original Gagaku-ensemble version of ''Jahreslauf'' (act 1 of the opera ''

Dienstag aus Licht (Tuesday from Light) is an opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen in a greeting and two acts, with a farewell, and was the fourth of seven to be completed for the opera cycle '' Licht: Die sieben Tage der Woche'' (Light: The Seven Days of the Week). It wa ...

'').

References

Gagaku Japanese musical instruments Side-blown flutes Seven tone hole wind instruments Sacred musical instruments {{Flute-stub