![]() ![]() One of these, the new chikuzen biwa tradition, became popular amongst many thousands of amateurs between c.19. In the Meiji period (1868-1912), sighted musicians created new styles of secular biwa narrative singing inspired by Kyushu mōsō traditions and introduced them to Tokyo. Biwa playing has a long history on Kyushu, and for centuries the art was practiced within the institution of mōsō, blind Buddhist priests who performed sacred and secular texts for agrarian and other rituals. Chikuzen was an historic northern province on Kyushu, the southern-most main island of Japan. Several types of biwa, each with its own social setting and repertoire, have evolved in Japan over the past 1300 years, the specimens pictured here being called most accurately the chikuzen biwa. (I was recently asked off-site if my name has a meaning and so, to provide some useless trivia, although the hiragana "ことみ" has no meaning per se, my name is derived from the kanji " koto" (異) and "mi" (美) and can be translated as "uncommon beauty".The biwa is a plucked lute chordophone of Japan. Short Synopsis: Natsume gets visited (read: possessed) by a youkai who used to play a traditional Japanese instrument called the " koto". Yamazaki also brought a miniature version of the traditional Japanese harp, known as a koto, to the station to play an ensemble with her countryman Soichi Noguchi, who has carried his Japanese flute to the station. Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan First Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877 It is called the koto-ita, and is one of the most primitive of musical instruments the little sticks are used to strike it. They were obtained by playing a stringed instrument called koto, by standing at a cross-street and watching the passers, by manipulating stones, and by counting footsteps.Ī History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era Dairoku Kikuchi 1886 ![]() Geisha, A Life Mineko Iwasaki with Rande Brown 2002 The koto is a large thirteen-stringed lute that rests on the floor when played. 974? Murasaki Shikibu Izumi Shikibu 1920Ģ A koto is called a horizontal harp, but it consists of a number of strings stretched the length of the instrument, the scale made by an arrangement of bridges placed under the strings, and played upon by four ivory keys worn on the four fingers of the right hand. Young men who are unskilled in koto or fué amuse themselves with tonearasoi 1 and imayo, 2 and at such a time this is entertaining.ĭiaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan b. noun Japanese stringed instrument that resembles a zither has a rectangular wooden sounding board and usually 13 silk strings that are plucked with the fingers.noun music a Japanese stringed instrument having numerous strings, usually seven or thirteen, that are stretched over a convex wooden sounding board and are plucked with three plectra, worn on the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of one hand.įrom WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University.The tuning is effected by shifting the position of the bridge, and semitones are obtained by pressing the string behind the bridge.įrom Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It is played with both hands, like the harp. noun A Japanese musical instrument, consisting of a long box over which are stretched thirteen strings of silk, each five feet in length and provided with a separate bridge.noun A Japanese stringed instrument usually having 13 silk strings stretched over a long, hollow, wooden body.From The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
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