A young girl named Biwa is the heroine of “Heike Monogatari” (The Heike Story), a Japanese anime series. In the series, based on a medieval Japanese war epic called "The Tale of the Heike," Biwa ...

The pear-shaped biwa lute has enchanted listeners in Japan for centuries. Played with a large wooden plectrum, the instrument has four or five strings of twisted silk stretched over four or more deep ...

This article is part of a three-part series. To learn about a shamisen, koto and sanshin master and his music lessons, see here. To learn about a taiko master and her music lessons, see here. The biwa ...