Traditional Japanese musical instruments

Percussion

Hyōshigi (拍子木) — wooden or bamboo clappers
Mokugyo (木魚) — woodblock carved in the shape of a fish, struck with a wooden stick; often used in Buddhist chanting
Shōko (鉦鼓) — small bronze gong used in gagaku; struck with two horn beaters
Sasara (ささら) — clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
- Ita-sasara (板ささら) — clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
- Bin-sasara (編木, 板ささら; also spelled bin-zasara) — clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
Kokorikok (筑子, こきりこ) — many people confuse the kokrikok with the kutsara and kutsara are often sold outside Japan under the name kokorikok. In fact, the kokorikok is a pair of sticks which are beaten together slowly and rhythmically.
Kagura suzu — hand-held bell tree with three tiers of pellet bells
Kane (鉦) — small flat gong
Shakubyoshi (also called shaku) — clapper made from a pair of flat wooden sticks

Drums

Kakko (羯鼓) — small drum used in gagaku
Taiko (太鼓), literally "great drum"
- Ōtsuzumi (大鼓) — hand drum
- Shime-daiko (締太鼓) — small drum played with sticks
- Tsuzumi (鼓) — small hand drum
Tsuri-daiko (釣太鼓) — drum on a stand with ornately painted head, played with a padded stick
Ikko — small, ornately decorated hourglass-shaped drum
San-no-tsuzumi (三の鼓), hourglass-shaped double-headed drum; struck only on one side
Den-den daiko (でんでん太鼓) — pellet drum, used as a children's toy

Strings

Biwa

Wind

Flutes

Japanese flutes are called Fue. there are eight different flutes

Hocchiku (法竹) — vertical bamboo flute
Nohkan (能管) — transverse bamboo flute used for noh theater
Ryūteki (龍笛) — transverse bamboo flute used for gagaku
Kagurabue (神楽笛) — transverse bamboo flute used for mi-kagura (御神楽, Shinto ritual music)
Komabue (高麗笛) — transverse bamboo flute used for komagaku; similar to the ryūteki
Shakuhachi (尺八) — vertical bamboo flute used for Zen meditation
Shinobue (篠笛) — transverse folk bamboo flute
Tsuchibue (hiragana: つちぶえ; kanji: 土笛; literally "earthen flute") — globular flute made from clay

Reeded Instruments

Hichiriki (篳篥) — double-reeded instrument used in gagaku

Free reed mouth organs

Shō (笙) — 17-pipe mouth organ used for gagaku
U (竽) — large mouth organ

Horns

Horagai (法螺貝) — seashell horn; also called jinkai (陣貝)

Other

Mukkuri (ムックリ) — jaw harp used by the Ainu people
Koukin (口琴) — general name for the jaw harp, in Edo period also called Biyabon (びやぼん)

Bibliography

Gunji, Sumi and Henry Johnson. 2012. A Dictionary of Traditional Japanese Musical Instruments: From Prehistory to the Edo Period. Tokyo: Eideru. ISBN 978-4-87168-513-9