{{for|the traditional Japanese bowed instrument|Kokyū}}
[[File:Japfiddle.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Commonwealth troops with a Jap fiddle during World War I]]
The '''Jap fiddle''' or '''Japanese fiddle''' was a one-stringed bowed instrument used by street performers, [[music hall]] performers, and [[vaudevillians]]<ref name="Experimental musical instruments">{{cite book|title=Experimental musical instruments|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=xAkwAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=1 April 2012|year=1994|publisher=Experimental Musical Instruments|page=13}}</ref> around the start of the 20th century, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States. The instrument was particularly associated with Cockney [[blackface]] performer [[G. H. Chirgwin]].<ref name="CowgillRushton2006">{{cite book|author1=Rachel Cowgill|author2=Julian Rushton|title=Europe, empire, and spectacle in nineteenth-century British music|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=gFWVWesJcTIC&pg=PA273|accessdate=1 April 2012|date=December 2006|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-5208-3|pages=273–}}</ref> A variant was later produced with a vibrating membrane and horn for amplification,<ref name="Hunt1985">{{cite book|author=Christine Hunt|title=I'm ninety-five-- any objection?|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=y8IhAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=1 April 2012|year=1985|publisher=Reed Methuen|isbn=978-0-474-00040-9|page=36}}</ref> as a one-stringed [[phonofiddle]].<ref name="Society1983">{{cite book|author=English Folk Dance and Song Society|title=English dance and song|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=ilVLAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=1 April 2012|year=1983|publisher=The English Folk Dance and Song Society|page=10}}</ref>
The instrument was likely named for its vague similarity to the Japanese [[kokyū]], as in the late 1800s interest in East Asia had been piqued by the opening of Japan to foreign trade.<ref name="Society2000">{{cite book|author=American Musical Instrument Society|title=Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=i1UJAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=1 April 2012|year=2000|publisher=American Musical Instrument Society.|page=201}}</ref>
