A evening with the Japanese koto

I had a really nice lunch and dinner today over at a friends house here in Ireland. The couple are from Japan, and like us, staying for a year before heading home. The wife has been learning the Japanese koto (琴) or “harp” for many years, and treated us to a nice “concert” after lunch:

The koto is a long instrument, though very light-weight. I took this photo of my friend’s koto here. It’s on a cell-phone camera, so I apologize for the quality. Believe me, it’s bigger than it looks. You can kind of see the sheet music in the background. What’s written are numbers in Chinese characters, so the player knows to pluck string 5, then string 3, and so on. In addition, there are extra marks for special kinds of plucking. Usually, the koto is played with three fingers on the right hand only, but the left hand is used to push down on left side of the koto, after the small white “bridges” in the middle, to create a kind of “twang” to the string as it’s being plucked. It’s sounds much better than I am describing it.

I never have heard a koto before live, so we sat around the living as she played three or four songs, and it really sounded awesome. It really felt like being in a nice traditional tea-house somewhere in Kyoto or something; it really had that “Japanese sound”, if you know what I mean. I was very glad to have the opportunity.

So, if you ever get a chance to hear a koto live, definitely do not miss the opportunity. Even if you’re tone-deaf like me, I am sure you’ll enjoy it.

Namu Amida Butsu