The is a small Japanese drum. It has a short but wide body with animal skin drumheads on both its upper and bottom sides. The hide is first stretched on metal hops, then stretched over the body. Similar to the

tsuzumi The or ''tsuzumi'' is a hand drum of Japanese origin. It consists of a wooden body shaped like an hourglass, and it is taut, with two drum heads with cords that can be squeezed or released to increase or decrease the tension of the heads resp ...

and to African

talking drum The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to change the pitc ...

s, both drum heads are bound together with cords so that the drum heads are bound by each other. Like the larger

taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming m ...

drums, the shime-daiko is played with sticks called "

bachi ''Bachi'' (, ; also ''batchi'') are straight, wooden sticks used on Japanese taiko drums, and also the plectrum (written ) for stringed instruments of Japanese origin such as the shamisen and '' biwa''. For percussion Drum bachi (, ) are ...

," while it's suspended on a stand. Being very taut, the shime-daiko has a higher pitch than that of normal taiko. Shime-daiko are used in various Japanese music ensembles, from

nagauta is a kind of traditional Japanese music played on the and used in kabuki theater, primarily to accompany dance and to provide reflective interludes. History It is uncertain when the was first integrated into kabuki, but it was sometime dur ...

hayashi Hayashi (wikt:林, 林, literally "forest, woods"), is the 19th most common Japanese surname. It shares the same character as the Chinese surname Lin (surname), Lin. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese synchronized swimmer *, Ja ...

, to folk music, or

min'yō , ''Nihon min'yō'', Japanese ''min'yō'' or Japanese folk music is a genre of traditional Japanese music. Characteristics Styles Many ''min'yō'' are connected to forms of work or to specific trades and were originally sung between work ...

ensembles.

Etymology

The word "shime-daiko" comes from a larger word "tsukeshime-daiko" () often shortened to simply, "shime-daiko" or "shime". The prefix "tsukeshime" () incorporates the verbs ''tsukeru'' (, "to fasten; to attach"), and ''shimeru'' (, "to fasten; to tie"); the compound connotes a tight, secure fastening.

External links

Japanese Traditional Music
* ''Shime-Daiko'' {{Authority control Drums Membranophones Japanese musical instruments