Posts Tagged "bowed instruments"

The kokyû – the Violin’s Forgotten Cousin

The kokyû – the Violin’s Forgotten Cousin

  • 12th November 2016

In Not by Love Alone I wrote about “the violin’s forgotten cousin” and Japan’s very own bowed instrument; the kokyû 胡弓 (or 日本胡弓). Its origins are disputed. According to the most plausible theory, it was developed in Japan in the late sixteenth century from the shamisen 三味線, a three-stringed plucked…

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