The many musical styles found in Japan have their roots in Japan's particular historical circumstances - China, Korea, Central and Southeast Asia all exerted considerable influence on the early development of music. The history of music in Japan dates back to the third century BC, but the arrival of eighty Korean musicians in 453 AD and the introduction of Buddhism in the mid-sixth century are the key events. Gagaku , court music and religious music , survive from this period, and Buddhist chanting, shomyo , can still be heard in temples today.

Japanese scholars tend to say all music prior to the Meiji reformation of 1868 is traditional, but within that definition there are different styles from each epoch. Early history (400-1200) produced religious and court styles. In the years to 1500, as society became more militarized, theatrical genres like No drama developed and itinerant monks chanted long historical narratives to the biwa , a Japanese lute whose origins can be traced back to the Silk Road in Central Asia.

Between 1500 and 1868, Japanese rulers imposed a period of near total isolation , and outside influences were minimized. Old instruments like the koto (a kind of zither) continued to develop repertoire, as did the shakuhachi bamboo flute. However, it was the three-stringed plucked lute, the shamisen , that came to represent new styles, reflecting the development of a sophisticated pre-modern urban culture.

The shamisen provided the perfect musical accompaniment for popular styles, dance and drama, as well as the narrative folk styles often called min'yo . The nagauta shamisen style for Kabuki theatre also developed at this time, as did the sankyoku , the typical instrumental ensemble of the time - koto, shamisen, shakuhachi and kokyu (a bowed fiddle). Very popular during the Edo period (1600-1868) were the many kinds of folk songs about work, love and so on. Singers were accompanied by shamisen, shakuhachi , drums and flutes.