How to Draw Japan
Music & Instruments — 100 Designs in 6 Steps
Series: How to Draw Japan
- AuthorAki Wakamatsu
- PublisherTakikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC
- CategoryHow to Draw
- FormatEPUB ebook
About this book
Draw the instruments of Japan — from a shamisen's long neck to the thunder of the great festival drum.
Created in Japan by a Japanese author and a Japanese publisher. This is the music volume of the How to Draw Japan series — the only English drawing book that puts fifty Japanese instruments on the shelf next to the orchestra.
Inside, 100 original designs, each taught in exactly 6 steps:
Chapter 1 — Strings of Japan: shamisen, Tsugaru shamisen, biwa, kokyu, koto, wagon and Okinawa's snakeskin-patterned sanshin (drawn as a pure dot pattern — never a real skin). Chapter 2 — Winds of Japan: shakuhachi, shinobue festival flutes, the double-reed hichiriki, and the seventeen bamboo pipes of the sho. Chapter 3 — Drums & Festival Percussion: odaiko great drums, hand drums, temple bells, the wooden fish, gongs and every kind of festival clapper. Chapter 4 — School & Concert Instruments: grand piano, violin family, flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitars, marimba and xylophone. Chapter 5 — Tiny Instruments & Music Tools: kalimba, ocarina, harmonica, metronome, tuning fork and the conductor's baton. Chapter 6 — Chibi Instruments: ten favourites at half size and double roundness.
Why this book works when others don't: The blueprint never moves. Every design is built from one fixed construction — guides, silhouette, parts, details — so the instrument you start in Step 2 is the exact instrument you colour in Step 6. No redraw shock, ever. The SOUND layer. In Step 5, each instrument gains its scene — festival lanterns, stage curtains, shrine lanterns, sound waves — plus its player's prop: bachi plectrum, taiko mallets, violin bow. An instrument must exist before it can be heard. 600 step drawings + 100 practice pages. One full practice page for EVERY design, not a token few at the back. Countable parts, counted. Strings, tacks, holes, keys and bars are taught as numbers — the real secret of drawing instruments.
Perfect for beginners, manga artists building prop skills, music students, and anyone who loves Japanese culture. Every design is an original, generic design — no brand logos, no maker names, no real song scores.
Draw it. Hear it. Keep drawing music Japan.
