kayagŭm, Korean board zither with 12 silk strings, 12 movable bridges, and a convex upper surface. Fashioned from paulownia wood, it forms a rectangle about 160 cm (62 inches) long and 30 cm (12 inches) wide.
The player, who is seated on the floor, places one end of the instrument on the right knee while the other end rests on the floor. The strings are plucked to the right of the bridges with the thumb and first three fingers of the right hand, and the left hand presses down or pulls on the strings to the left of the bridges, producing microtonal ornamentations of pitch and the wide vibrato typically found in Korean music.
Known as the national instrument of Korea, the kayagŭm is played in many vocal and instrumental genres, often accompanied by the changgo drum. There are three variant types of kayagŭm, all associated with particular types of music—pungnyu kayagŭm for court and classical ensemble music, sanjo kayagŭm for folk and virtuosic music (such as sanjo, the music genre for which it is named), and “improved” kayagŭm for modern compositions. The kayagŭm is related to the Chinese zheng, the Japanese koto and wagon, and the Korean kŏmungo.