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means A traditional Japanese short-necked lute with a pear-shaped body, played with a large plectrum and used to accompany sung narrative and ballads.

from The name traces back to the Chinese pipa, a similarly shaped lute, whose name entered Japanese and shifted in pronunciation to biwa. The instrument itself arrived in Japan from mainland Asia over a thousand years ago via the broader Silk Road family of necked lutes, and it later found a dramatic niche in biwa hōshi performance — blind itinerant monks and minstrels who chanted epic war tales like the Heike monogatari, including ghost stories, to its stark, percussive twang.