In the Edo period, warriors were not allowed to play "shamisen" (a three-stringed Japanese banjo), which was the instrument for ordinary people, and peasants and merchants were not allowed to play "shakuhachi" (a vertical bamboo flute), which was a Buddhist ritual vessel of "komuso" (a mendicant Zen priest of the Fuke sect).
庶民の楽器であった三味線を武士が弾いたり、虚無僧の法器とされた尺八を百姓町人が吹くことは、江戸時代には許されなかった。