Editing Music of Japan (section)

===Biwa hōshi, Heike biwa and goze===
{{stack|[[File:Gifujyou5848.JPG|thumb|upright|Biwa]]}}
The [[biwa]] (琵琶 - Chinese: [[pipa]]), a form of short-necked [[lute]], was played by a group of itinerant performers ([[biwa hōshi]]). The root of Biwa music was [[The Tale of the Heike]]''.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sonic.net/~tabine/heike081003/Heike_mainpage.html|title=Welcome to The Tale of Heike (Heike monogatari)|website=www.sonic.net}}</ref> Biwa hōshi'' organized into a guild-like association. The biwa is Japan's traditional instrument.''{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}''
<!--　In addition, numerous smaller groups of itinerant blind musicians formed, especially in the Kyushu area{{Citation needed|date = November 2009}}. These musicians, known as mōsō (盲僧 ''blind monk'') toured their local areas and performed a variety of religious and semi-religious texts to purify households and to bring about good health and good luck.  They also maintained a repertory of secular genres. The biwa that they played was considerably smaller than the Heike biwa (平家琵琶) played by the biwa hōshi.{{Citation needed |date = November 2009}}　-->

[[Lafcadio Hearn]] related in his book ''[[Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things]]'' (1903) "Mimi-nashi Hoichi" (Hoichi the Earless), a Japanese ghost story about a blind biwa hōshi who performs "The Tale of the Heike".<ref name="auto1"/>

Blind women, known as [[goze]] (瞽女), toured beginning in the medieval era, sang and played accompanying music on a lap drum.{{Citation needed |date = November 2009}} From the seventeenth century they often played the [[Koto (musical instrument)|koto]] or the [[shamisen]]. Goze organizations sprung up in many places, and existed until the 21st century in [[Niigata Prefecture]].{{Citation needed|date = November 2009}}