About the Satsumabiwa
The master player of the 20th Century, Yoshinori Fumon
About Ranjo (Thomas Charles Marshall)
Contact information for Ranjo (Thomas Charles Marshall)
Links
Japanese page “ú–{Œê

Satsumabiwa 3 - - Biwa Notation
 

Song score
This shows the words of the song (black characters), and the names of the sung melodic-patterns that are to be used with those words (red ink). One reads from top to bottom starting at the top-right and finishing at the bottom left. Starting with first column, we have the title - "hanamomiji" or Maple leaf flowers. The first red character to the right of the start of the second column is "chuu" and indicates a melodic pattern that starts from a tone below the 'tonic' or pitch the first string of the instrument is tuned to.
 

Instrumental Notation
This is an example of biwa score. The numbers indicate the pitch relative to the first string of the instrument. The direction of the triangles represents the direction in which the plectrum is strikes the string ( i.e. from above or below). There is no indication of rhythm.
Here is another version of biwa score. It is not so detailed as the other one you saw. I tend to use this type of score. It is read from top to bottom going from left to right.