The Museum possesses a collection of 159 musical instruments handed down in the Kishu (Wakayama) Tokugawa family. They are replete with accessories and associated documents through which we can learn the origins of the various instruments and gain insight into the process of how the daimyo family collection was formed.
One item in the collection is the sho with the name "Banguju" pictured at the far left. The collector, the daimyo Tokugawa Harutomi, wrote a memorandum for that sho, The Record of the Arrowroot Sho (1810), in which he stated that the instrument gave out a smooth sound, that as its name, meaning "happiness in all things" implied, it was indeed felicitous, and that he was entranced by it. It comes with many accessories, including an inner case with a gold-lacquer arrowroot pattern inside the lid.
The biwa ("lute") named "Flower Moon" is also part of the collection. It is said that the "evening cherry blossom" design that decorates the plucking surface of the biwa was drawn by Harutomi himself.
The koto ("zither") named "Leaf Chrysanthemum" was said to be a favorite of the empress Go-Sakuramachi (1740-1813). She later bestowed it on Jimyoin Motoatsu. Among the kotos in this collection it is in particularly good shape, and there is a Chinese-style mother-of-pearl inlay in a pattern of chrysanthemum leaves and flowers on the head and the tailpiece.