The biwa has a shallow, rounded back and silk strings (usually four or five) attached to slender lateral pegs. The instrument is played with a large wedge-shaped plectrum called a bachi. The strings are tuned in fourths, and the melody is played almost exclusively on the highest pitched string.
D. The high scalers were strong, agile workmen who moved on the equipment-strewn cliffs on ropes, using heavy jackhammer drills, dynamite, and crowbars to remove loose rock from the canyon walls, risking their lives to do so.
