I have watched just a few anime series and Naruto is on of those. The original track starts with strings with a mellow Guitar background and Flute, then comes the Piano and the Koto (I think?) which is just beautiful.
Original
A Little Tangent
Heard of Japanese Jazz?
While I was thinking about the Japanese flute in the track above, I wanted to share about Japanese Jazz.
Jazz in Japan was popularized by the American and Filipino Jazz musicians. It was critisized among the conservative elites in the 1920s but it survived. During World War II, it was banned as it was considered as the “enemy music”. But that was too late.
The Shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) has a distinct sound which along with other traditional Japanese instruments gives a complete different life to the American Jazz music, making it the Japanese Jazz.