Minneapolis Institute of Art

Four-string biwa

Japan

Date: 19th century
Medium: Wood with lacquer and gold
Department: Asian Art
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Art

Though its strings are now missing, this lute originally had four strings, making it a biwa, a plucked, stringed instrument with origins in Persia. It was transmitted to China (where it is known as pipa) around 2, 000 years ago and to Japan by the 700s The oldest illustrations of The Tale of Genji that survive today, which were created around 1130, include a picture of one of the novel’s main characters, Prince Niou, playing a similar lute next to his pregnant wife, Nakanokimi. Asia

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