A Koto is a stringed instrument that originally came from China and then moved into Japan during the 7th and 8th centuries. The Japanese Koto appears as a large instrument that is approximately 6 feet in length, and it consists of a hollow body that is made from kiri, or Paulownia wood. Beneath the body there are two different sound holes, with one on each end of the body. There are 13 different strings and they are tied over the top of bridges that are on each end of the instrument's body. The strings are all the same size as well as the same tension. There is a movable bridge on this instrument, known as a ji, which is placed somewhere along each string's length. The ji is responsible for lifting the strings away from the body so that the strings will resonate when they have been plucked. Each string is tuned by way of sliding these movable bridges along the length of the instrument.

How do you play the Koto?

The player of the Koto will sit at the instrument's top end, plucking the strings in the area that is just to the left of the topmost bridge. The strings are generally plucked with the use of three different picks, known as plectrums, which are attached to three different fingers, one of which is the thumb. The player can make use of their left hand to bend each string in the area just to the left of the ji. When the strings are pressed toward the Koto body, they go sharp, and pulling them in the direction of the ji will cause them to go just slightly flat.

Music and Scores with the Koto

Koto music has been evolving for many centuries now, and even to this day it continues to change. Originally, scores for Koto playing were never committed to paper. Many of the people that played the Koto were actually blind, and for a period of time, Koto playing was an occupation that was reserved for people that were blind. For this reason, writing down the scores simply did not make any sense. As with a number of other types of crafts, the repertoire was maintained through memory, and it was passed down through programs of apprenticeship.

Although the music was not committed to paper, the strings were still named. The string names for the original ten strings are simply the Japanese numbers for one through ten, but the last three strings have unique names.

The first string is ichi. The second string is ni. The third string is san. The fourth string is shi. The fifth string is go. The sixth string is roku. The seventh string is shichi or nana. The eighth string is hachi. The ninth string is kyu. The tenth string is ju. The eleventh string is to. The twelfth string is i. The thirteenth and final string is kin.

Photo Credits: buyalex

Originally posted 2009-10-07 03:29:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Acoustic Musical Instruments, Instrument History, Koto

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centuries, crafts, different strings, fingers, japanese koto, kiri, koto koto, koto music, left hand, memory, movable bridge, movable bridges, occupation, period of time, plectrums, sound holes, stringed instrument, tension, thumb