Images and wooden remains of simple two-stringed board-zithers date from as early as the Late and Final Jomon periods. Finds are widespread and becoming increasingly frequent.
In the Late Yayoi period larger types appear with five and six strings. Some of these are big - up to 5 ft (1.5 m) long. Pictures and statuettes show they were played lying across the musician's lap.
The number of the strings echoes Western six-stringed lyres and in the smaller instruments could have allowed a similar strumming technique. However, this would not work for the larger zithers with more widely-spaced strings: in these, like the modern koto and Korean kayagum, each string probably had a separate little moveable bridge, and the player probably fingered and plucked the strings individually. The strings of this replica are of silk.
