The ''Shakubyoshi'' (

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

: 笏拍子; is a Japanese

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

consisting of two wooden slabs that are struck together. It is the oldest Japanese percussion instrument and is used to keep time in ancient genres tied to

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 ...

. Its dimensions are 36 centimetres in length, 2.4 centimetres in width at the base, 3.9 centimetres at the tip and 1 centimetre thickness on average. It is held at the base.Minoru, M. Composing for Japanese Instruments. University of Rochester Press 2008

External links

Imperial Court Music and Dance of Japan (Japanese)

References

Japanese musical instruments Asian percussion instruments Idiophones {{Idiophone-instrument-stub