13 STRINGED JAPANESE INSTRUMENT PROFESSIONAL

Perhaps the most important influence on the development of koto was Yatsuhashi Kengyo (1614–1685).

The tagenso is the newest addition to the koto family, surfacing in the 19th century, it was purposefully created to access a wider range of sound and advance style of play these were made with 17, 21, and 31 strings. These two have relatively stayed the same with the exception of material innovations like plastic and the type of strings. The two main koto varieties still used today are the gakuso and zokuso. With the relief of the rule, women started to playing the koto, but not the chikuso because it was designed for the blind which led to a decline in use other koto proved more useful.

13 STRINGED JAPANESE INSTRUMENT PROFESSIONAL

Women could not play the instrument in the professional world, nor were they allowed to teach it. The koto of the chikuso was made for the Tsukushigato tradition and only for blind men. In one part of The Tale of Genji, the titular character falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman whom he has never seen before, after hearing her playing the koto from a distance. According to Japanese literature, the koto was used as imagery and other extra music significance. Some literary and historical records indicate that solo pieces for koto existed centuries before sōkyoku, the music of the solo koto genre, was established. It was a popular instrument among the wealthy the instrument koto was considered a romantic one. The modern koto originates from the gakusō used in Japanese court music ( gagaku). The azumagoto or yamatogoto was called the wagon, the kin no koto was called the kin, and the sau no koto ( sau being an older pronunciation of 箏) was called the sō or koto. As the number of different stringed instruments in Japan grew, the once-basic definition of koto could not describe the wide variety of these instruments and so the meanings changed. When the koto was first imported to Japan, the native word koto was a generic term for any and all Japanese stringed instruments. This variety of instrument came in two basic forms, a zither that had bridges and a zither without bridges.Īn 1878 depiction by Settei Hasegawa of a woman playing the koto The Japanese koto belongs to the Asian zither family that also comprises the Chinese zheng (ancestral to the other zithers in the family), the Korean gayageum, and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The first known version had five strings, which eventually increased to seven strings. It was first introduced to Japan from China in the 7th and 8th century.

The ancestor of the koto was the Chinese guzheng. The four types of koto ( gakuso, chikuso, zokuso, tagenso) were all created by different subcultures, but also adapted to change the playing style. Variations of the instrument were eventually created, and eventually a few of them would become the standard variations for modern day koto. The term koto appears in the Kojiki in reference to an ancient string instrument in this usage. When read as kin, it indicates the Chinese instrument guqin. However, 琴 ( koto) is the general term for all string instruments in the Japanese language, including instruments such as the kin no koto, sō no koto, yamato-goto, wagon, nanagen-kin, and so on. It does not store any personal data.The character for koto is 箏, although 琴 is often used. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Performance'. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Necessary'. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Functional'. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Analytics'. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.

13 stringed japanese instrument