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The Koto
Picture courtesy of Mr. Kozo Ueda.
Photograph received "Best Picture" award in NHK Gakuen kozo competition.
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Please enjoy the first movement of the koto classic "Rokudan"
while you're reading this page.
This may take a bit of time to load, depending on the speed of your internet connection.
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The koto is actually a member of the zither family but, since
many people are not familiar with that instrument, it is
usually referred to as a Japanese floor harp. It is
approximately 6 feet long, 1 foot wide and 2 inches
thick, with a slightly convex shape. It's made from two pieces
of paulownia wood which have been cut lengthwise through the tree.
The top piece is hollowed out in the shape of an upside-down U.
It sits on a flat bottom piece, which makes the sounding board.
In cheaper instruments, these two pieces are glued to each other
and the top, curved piece has lengthwise carvings on its inside face.
However, in more expensive kotos, the top and bottom pieces are
specially cut to fit bevel-set into each other and the top piece
is hand-carved in a herringbone pattern to enhance sound quality.
Originally, koto strings were made of silk. Silk strings are still
used occasionally in concerts, but only for very classical pieces.
They have a muted sound and are extremely expensive and fragile.
They may only last for a single performance. Nowadays, nylon or
tetron strings are used instead. These are more durable and they
give a bigger, brighter sound, which contemporary audiences prefer.
The strings of the koto are balanced on moveable bridges. These bridges
used to be made of wood but, as with the silk strings, wood produces a
rather dull sound. Today, most bridges are made of some kind of plastic.
The preferred bridges for expensive instruments are made of ivory, but
since the ivory trade was stopped, a heavy, extremely high-quality
plastic is often substituted. It was created to simulate ivory's
particularly clear sound.
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Tuning a koto is somewhat different from Western ideas of tuning an instrument. Pieces are
not necessarily written in any particular key - the actual key will depend on what note you
choose to set the first bridge. The choice of this note is determined by factors such as what
other instrument one is playing with, what vocal range is required by the song being sung, etc.
Once you have selected the note for the first string, there are instructions with each piece
for setting the bridges in specific relationships to each other. These "tunings"
are the approximate equivalents of our Western key signatures. In classical pieces, the
tuning is often a pentatonic scale or a modified version of that scale. Since the bridges
are not fixed, however, an infinite range of tunings is possible. In modern pieces, anything
is used, from do-re-mi scales to special tunings invented by the composer for a particular
piece or effect. The koto's harp-like sound is pleasant to listen to and combines easily
with many other traditional and Western instruments.
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The strings are plucked with three ivory picks worn on the thumb, index and middle fingers
of the right hand. In classical pieces, the left hand is usually only used to raise the
pitch (by pressing on a string behind its bridge), to make grace notes or to physically
move the bridges for key changes within the piece. In modern pieces, however, the
left hand is also used for vibrato and to pluck the strings. Koto music is written using
Japanese characters. The strings are numbered from one (lowest) to thirteen (highest) and
the character assigned to each string indicates its number. So koto music is basically a
play-by-number system. Generally, it is written from right to left and from top to bottom.
However, there are some schools of koto where the Japanese characters are written left to
right, simulating the feeling of reading Western music. And, of course, modern music being
written today for the instrument often utilizes standard, Western 5-line notation.
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