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Born on July 30 of Meiji 37 (1904), Chikushi Katsuko was somewhat of a child prodigy.
She started playing music at age 5, beginning with the kokyu and followed by several
styles of shamisen (gidayu, nagauta and hauta). Later in life, she learned a number
of instruments, including koto, violin, Taisho-goto and various keyboard instruments,
among others. It was her talents on the shamisen that first attracted the notice of
Sakamoto Goro, the head of the Dai Nihon Katei Ongakkai, which was then and is to
this day one of the largest music publishing houses in Japan. In order to foster her
talents, Sakamoto received permission to adopt Chikushi into his family in 1917 and he
moved her to his home town of Hakata (now Fukuokua). Her adoption marked the start of
her intense traditional musical training. She was a natural and could apparently
learn difficult pieces in a matter of days, memorizing Rokudan by the second day and
finishing Chidori no kyoku in four (the extra days were because there was both a song
and an instrumental portion).
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In 1921, Chikushi began working on the publication of new texts for koto music, employing
a new concept invented by Sakamoto of using horizontal lines to indicate bars and beats,
so that tempo and note duration could be shown. (Up to this time, all that was indicated
was a string's number; one's teacher had to provide all the rest of the information.)
Chikushi could transcribe almost on sight or on hearing and many of the transcriptions
she did for the Dai Nihon Katei Ongakkai's standard "green" koto books are still in use
today.
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Chikushi was originally strongly drawn to the violin but, after studying it for a while,
she realized that her hands were too small to reach octaves and she had to give it up.
With the violin gone, her serious interest in playing koto was rekindled. She also
began composing and, in 1923, completed her first koto composition entitled Gekko
Gensoukyoku. The piece ran about four minutes and was originally written for koto
and violin. Chikushi often played the violin part herself.
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In 1924, Sakamoto brought her together with Miyagi Michio. Miyagi played them his newest
piece, Aki no Shirabe, and it was this piece that decided Chikushi to devote the rest of her
life to koto music. Sakamoto's company had been granted the rights to publish Miyagi's pieces.
Thanks to her ear and her ability to understand musically what Miyagi was trying to do, Chikushi
was assigned to Miyagi at his request as his personal scribe. She handled most, if not all,
of his transcriptions for the company for about fifteen years.
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In the early 1920s, Nippon Housou Kyoukai (NHK) was established as the Japan Radio
Broadcasting Corp. Chikushi was one of the first traditional musicians invited to
perform for them. In November 1926, she played two of her compositions (Gekko
Gensoukyoku and Kari to Tsubame) on air and went on over the years to do a number
of other performances for NHK and for other radio and TV broadcasting companies.
She wrote prolifically, developing radical new koto tunings, using revolutionary m
usical styles, attracting powerful sponsors and developing both local and international
followings. She was the official or head koto teacher at several schools, including
Tokyo Semmon Gakuin and Tokyo Komagome Girls' School. She became well-known as a
performer, composer and recording artist.
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In 1948, the "old guards" of the traditional music world decided that her playing style
and her fame justified Chikushi's being given her own koto school and the equivalent
status of iemoto or Grandmaster. In seaching for a school name, one suggestion was
Tsukushi. It was considered auspicious because of its associations with the ancient
Tsukushi koto school (from which both Ikuta and Yamada koto styles were born), with
the old name for the Kyushu area where the school was based, and with the Man'youshu,
in which Tsukushi was mentioned. In order to add a modern touch, the characters were
read as Chikushi and thus the Chikushikai was made official and publicized in 1949.
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During the 1950s and 1960s, Chikushi composed numerous works, regularly gave concerts and went
on tour (both solo and with her school members), recorded many pieces (for King Records and
Teichiku Records, among others) and was featured frequently on radio and TV programs for NKH,
RKB Mainichi and other stations. In 1961, her versions of Chidori no kyoku and Shin Takasago
were specially cited by the Ministry of Education and recommended as mandatory classroom material
for Middle School. Around this same time, she began playing with koto performers of other schools
and made an LP with Sawai Tadao for RCA Victor entitled Chofu no baraado (Ballads of a Lake Breeze).
In 1972, she won the Grand Prize at the Tokyo National Arts Festival.
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In 1972, Chikushi was also awarded the Ranjuu-houshou, the Sacred Order of the Treasure of the
Rising Sun. She was made a national companion of the Japan Academy and was granted a formal
audience with the Emperor afterwards. This award is an imperial award, reserved for those who
dedicate their life to their art. It represented the highest level of achievement in the
Arts & Letters category and bore the highest-level band colour of indigo. Chikushi Katsuko
was the only female recipient in that year.
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Chikushi Katsuko died on October 28 of Showa 59 (1985) at 80 years of age.
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[Source: Maboroshi no koto, by Mochida Katsuhou. All names are shown in Japanese order, surname first.]
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