Japan
Japanese

Wood, hide, lacquer, silk, paint
Early-Mid 20th century
Height: 11.25 in, Diameter: 9.125 in
Membranophone – Struck Directly – Two-headed – Hourglass Shape

This hourglass-shaped (waisted) drum is decorated with stalks of ripe millet in gilt hiramaki-e (low-relief lacquer work) on a black lacquer background. The drum heads are secured by adjustable red silk cords. The two most commonly used tsuzumi are the ko-tsuzumi and the ō-tsuzumi, used in the music of the Noh and Kabuki theatre. This smaller ko-tsuzumi is held on the player’s right shoulder and is hit with fingers of the right hand. The drummer can produce four different pitches by changing the rope tensions with gentle left-hand squeezes.

Ancient Japanese court orchestra music had three types of tsuzumi drums, of which only the san no tsuzumi form survives in komagaku style (courtly music of Japanese, Korean, and other non-Chinese, non-Indian ancestry). The tsuzumi is related to the Korean changgo, a larger hourglass-shaped, two-headed drum. (Also shown in this collection).