This is a website which introduces Asian musical instruments and the Asian music to kids. You can enjoy comprehensible explanations, videos and images of performers playing tunes, playing techniques and preparation for playing which cannot be seen in ordinary concerts. Besides that, you can also find sound files of the native pronunciation of each musical instrument’s name. In addition, this site includes brief introductions of each country and ethnic people.
Asian’s cultural exchange through music was an ideal of the Late Prof. Koizumi. KFMA, following in his footsteps, has created this website as a way to give back some of our research achievements to society. Click the banner and find a map of the Asian musical instruments! Both kids and adults, enjoy your trip of the Asian sounds with navigations of Shirita, our character.

Note: The production and publication of this website was supported by some aids including the following: “Development of educational resources using musical instruments preserved at arts universities”, JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), 2008-2010 (Head researcher: UEMURA Yukio (Professor, Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku, director of KFMA).

Tokyo University of the Arts, that the KFMA belongs to, is located in Ueno. It is a part of shitamachi, the traditional entertainment and residential districts of Tokyo. Tokyo was called as Edo during the Edo era. Since then, shitamachi has nourished various entertainments as their base ground. This website traces history of shitamachi,, and shows information relating to performances according to each era,? What kinds of entertainments and festivals were held by whom and where? Who supported them? We would like dredge up the entertainment’s history and the memory of craftsmanship which was linked to the entertainments in shitamachi area. In doing so, we will try to reflect on the current tradition of the entertainments and their arts.