The koto (箏 or 琴) is a Japanese plucked half-tube zither instrument, and the national instrument of Japan. It is derived from the Chinese zheng and se, and similar to the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and ajaeng, the Vietnamese đàn …

Koto Sound Dictionary -- definitions dealing with the koto along with some sound examples. Humdrum **koto specification for analysis of koto music. Koto Score Generator -- generate your own koto score based on the Humdrum **koto specification.

There are various techniques to embellish and vary the basic sounding pattern of the koto, such as, among others: use of grace notes: kozume, sawaru, and ren. Grace-note: The pitch of the 2nd beat of the first measure of the shizugaki pattern is emphasized in three ways: First, this pitch is accentuated with a strong attack of the middle finger ...

The Japanese koto is a thirteen-string harp-like instrument related to the modern Chinese zheng (which usually has 21 strings) as well as to the Korean kayagum (with 12 strings). The body of a koto is about 183 cm (six feet) long, 24 cm (ten inches) wide, and is made of paulowina wood.

The tunings hirajoshi and kumoijoshi are two traditional tunings for solo koto repertoire which were developed in the 17th century. In the 19th century, the tunings gakujoshi and nogijoshi were introduced into solo koto performance practice for accompanying folksongs …

The koto is of Chinese origin and was introduced to Japan around the sixth century, and was originally used exclusively by the Imperial Court. By the 17th century, its use became widespread and was enjoyed especially when accompanied by voice, shamisen, or shakuhachi.

Koto notation (13, 17, 20 and 25 string kotos) Doremi note name (Japanese Katakana), English note name. You can choose Part(1-4), Size, Position and Color from dialog. Requires MuseScore 2.0. Install one plugin program file and seven font files. Detailed description (Japanese) http://www-b.uec.tmu.ac.jp/shakuhachi/MuseScore_Koto/

While koto has enchanting and beautiful reverberations and expressions, its notes are never self sufficient as notes of biwa or shakuhaci are. Notes of koto inevitably need the next ones, but once the chain of notes becomes excited and moves busily, there is a danger that its original charms tend to be lost and music turns to be a noisy ...

The Koto music that were composed prior to Meiji period (1868-1912) are often written in the traditional Koto notation, which uses horizontal written system, and the music that was composed after the Meiji period is written in Western style, which uses vertical written system.

Search works by title, composer or instrument. In this section, you can see composers’ notes for traditional KOTO music songs to the latest ones. The list of notes are based on the title’s alphabetical order for your convenience.