Later in the Edo period, shakuhachi began to participate in sankyoku gasso instead of kokyu, and from the first year of the Meiji period, when the governmental protection of "komuso" (a mendicant Zen priest of the Fuke sect) was ended, shakuhachi performers actively entered the world of sankyoku gasso, and therefore shakuhachi predominates over kokyu in sankyoku gasso today.
胡弓の代わりに尺八が加わることも江戸時代後半から行なわれていたが、明治初年に虚無僧制度が廃止されて以降、尺八が積極的に三曲合奏に進出し、今日では胡弓よりも尺八が加わる方が圧倒的に多くなった。