The Koto

A Traditional Instrument in Contemporary Japan

Henry Johnson

2004
Cloth, 200 pp., 108 fc & b/w ills., 19 tables
240 x 285 mm
ISBN 90-74822-63-0
50 / US$ 78.50

The koto is a unique Japanese musical instrument. It has a history in Japan of

over 1200 years and today does much to represent Japan's traditional past. This
book examines this fascinating instrument in terms of its physical form,
manufacture and instrument types, its performance traditions and social
organisations, and its contexts of performance. Each of these aspects is explored
in detail, providing ways of understanding the place of this traditional
instrument in contemporary Japan. This well illustrated volume is the first in
English to examine the koto in such depth. It brings together in one volume a
detailed study of this remarkable instrument.
While acknowledging the instrument's unique place in Japan, the book begins by
exploring the wide variety of koto types that are differentiated and classified
within the diverse spheres of koto performance. This includes a chronological
study of the changes that have occurred in the koto's structure and social
contexts of performance, from its first appearance in Japan to more recent
innovative koto types today.
Much of the information on koto manufacture is gained through ethnographic
field research with instrument makers, and the study of instruments in
museums, archives and in the personal collections of many koto performers.
Each stage of the production process is explored in connection with the ways
the instrument is classified and labelled, as well as the detail of instrument form
and decoration. There follows an examination of the aesthetic system of grading
instruments according to quality and quantity of decoration, and techniques of
construction.
The book looks at traditions of koto performance as social organisations and
how they regulate and influence the transmission of the instrument and its
music. Performance traditions and lineages are explored in terms of their group
structure and hierarchy, and include a study of permit systems and performing
names. An emphasis is placed on the concept of the performing group in order
to illustrate the internal structures of traditions and insider and outsider
perspectives that are very much part of knowing one's place as a koto player. Of
the numerous levels of identity that an individual might have, groupings of koto
players show social relationships internally within their own traditions and
externally vis--vis other traditions.

The final part of the book examines the koto and the significance of its main
performance contexts, by first looking at the role of the player and of mediated
contexts. As the instrument has passed through several different social spheres,
it has developed different types of notation. A study of these visual forms of
music representation helps show how different music traditions have used and
devised notation systems that provide a further means by which the tradition
can identify itself vis--vis other traditions. This is followed by a study of the
koto's scales, tunings and music genres, and also its idiomatic language of
ornamentation, which often has symbolic meaning and can further help show
the instrument's place in Japanese culture.

Contents

Acknowledgements
7
Editorial Notes
8
Introduction
12
1 The Setting
20
2 Instrument Names and Types
3 Manufacture and Component Parts 52
4 Performance Traditions
90
5 Performance
112
6 Conclusion
162
Notes
166
List of Tables
174
Chronology
175
Select Character List
176
Bibliopgraphy
183
Index
191

30

About the author

Henry Johnson is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Otago, New Zealand,
where he teaches and undertakes research in Ethnomusicology and Asian
Studies. Actively involved in interdisciplinary and intercultural studies, he
lectures and performs on a number of instruments, including the Japanese koto
and shamisen, Javanese and Balinese gamelan, and Indian sitar. His research on
Japanese music and musical instruments is found in the books Japanese Cultural
Nationalism and Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalisation, and journals
including Asian Music, The Galpin Society Journal and The Journal of the
American Musical Instrument Society.

This book was published by Hotei Publishing, an imprint of KIT

Publishers, Amsterdam
KIT Publishers/ Hotei Publishing
Royal Tropical Institute (KIT)
P.O. Box 95001
1090 HA Amsterdam

The Netherlands
Phone
+31 (0)20 568 8330
Fax
+31 (0)20 568 8286
E-mail
e.rasmussen@kit.nl
Website www.kit.nl/publishers
www.hotei-publishing.com