Visit to Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments (2)

The museum has exhibition rooms also in the basement. Immediately beside the stairs, there is a big wooden object, which I had mistaken as just a sculpture. Actually, it is a tam tam slit drum from Vanuatu. It is one of the largest ones in the world and was used for rituals. The space in front of it is called “Tenku (sky) Hall” where concerts are held sometimes. The birds near the drum are sound reflecting boards to improve the acoustic of the hall. They are herons respected by people in New Guinea as a spirit or god.

In the exhibition of African musical instruments, there are many drums. The big brown drum is a Nigerian dimkedim made of two big gourds. It is no longer produced.

These are talkative drums used for communication. They can send messages with different rhythms of drums. There were also talkative flutes above them. I wanted to see how they were used. These drums and flutes were one of the most interesting items in this museum.

I saw another interesting musical instrument from Africa: a marimba from Tanzania.

I asked one of the museum staff members if the marimba originated from Africa. According to her, the marimba was spread from Africa to South America with the slave trade, and after that, the marimba was developed to become one of the musical instruments used in orchestras. As she explained, I could see marimbas from South America.

I wondered what kind of musical instruments they had in North America. I remembered an American folksong “Oh Susanna” and the banjo. According to the description in the museum, the banjo also originated from Africa. Behind the banjos displayed, there was mirrors so that we could see the beautiful design on the backside.

The America section had other interesting items such as quenas and maracas. There were so many things to see in the museum. I thought it might be interesting to learn the world history through musical instruments. If you study the background of each musical instrument, you may be able to learn quite a lot.