Koto

Passed from teacher to student

A koto does not make music unless someone teaches it. For most of its history the repertoire travelled from person to person, taught by ear and by memory, with spoken syllables standing in for plucked patterns. The instrument itself came from China. Historians generally agree that a zither of the zheng type reached Japan around the seventh or eighth century, where it entered court ensembles of gagaku and became a vehicle for aristocratic music. Exact dates and routes are uncertain, and the early Japanese forms were probably different from today’s.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the koto found a new life outside the court. Musicians linked to temples in Kyushu created a tradition of songs with koto accompaniment, and in Kyoto the blind musician Yatsuhashi Kengyō (1614–1685) is widely regarded as the founder of the modern solo repertoire. His title, kengyō, marked the highest rank in the guild of blind musicians. Tradition credits him with reshaping tunings and compositions, though some attributions to him are debated.

A hollow dragon of paulownia

Traditional descriptions compare the koto to a dragon, and the parts carry names that reflect it: the arched top is the dragon’s shell, the ends its horns and tongue. The body, about 180 to 190 centimetres long, is carved from paulownia wood, with a hollow underside and a slightly convex top. A museum example of the early seventeenth century is inlaid with metal, ivory and tortoiseshell, showing the decoration that court and merchant patrons valued.

Thirteen strings of equal length and thickness run from one end to the other. Silk was the traditional material, although synthetic strings are now common. Each string rests on a movable bridge, called a ji or kotoji, which was once ivory and is now often plastic. The strings’ pitch depends on where the bridge is set, so tuning means sliding thirteen small pieces along the body. The player wears three picks, called tsume, on the thumb, index finger and middle finger of the right hand.

Clarity, decay and bent pitch

Because the strings are identical in length, the koto’s sound comes from tension and bridge position rather than a graded series of string sizes. Each pluck produces a clear, bell-like tone with a moderate decay, then fades into the hollow body, which acts as a resonating chamber. The picks give a crisp attack, and the thin silk or synthetic string supplies brightness without harshness. The sound is sharp at the start and soft at the end, which suits quick runs and lingering pitches alike.

The left hand adds expressive detail. Pressing a string behind its bridge raises its pitch by a semitone or more, easing off the pressure lets the pitch slide back, and shaking the string creates a wavering vibrato. These techniques allow a koto to imitate the contour of the voice, with notes bent into place rather than struck cleanly. In many pieces such bends are built into the melody and are not merely decoration.

Scales built by moving bridges

Thirteen strings do not mean thirteen fixed notes. Tuning by moving bridges means a single koto can be set to many scales. A widely used tuning, hira-joshi, is a five-note scale whose intervals include two semitones, two major thirds and a whole tone, repeating across the strings in several octaves. Other tunings organise the strings differently, and pieces often specify their own. One college collection describes a typical range as a little over two octaves.

Strings are traditionally numbered from the player’s far side, one to ten, followed by the names to, i and kin for the last three. The lowest strings are deep and resonant, the middle rich and round, and the highest brighter and thinner. A larger sibling, the 17-string bass koto, developed in the early twentieth century and is widely credited to the composer Miyagi Michio, extends the range downward, adding weight that a standard koto lacks.

Kneeling at the strings

The player kneels at the right-hand end of the instrument, which lies along the floor or on small stands. The right hand plucks with the three picks, often using rolling patterns, tremolo and scraping strokes across strings, while the left hand, positioned beyond the bridges, presses and bends the strings. This division of labour lets a player shape notes after they sound, an effect that sets the koto apart from many plucked instruments in which pitch is fixed at the moment of plucking.

Students traditionally learned pieces orally, singing mnemonic syllables that stood for plucked figures, and numbered notation later supported this practice. Teaching was organised into schools and family-like lineages. Two schools are especially prominent in the classical tradition: the Ikuta school, from the Kansai region, and the Yamada school, from Edo (now Tokyo). Each has distinct preferences in technique, repertoire and instrument shape. Both remain active today.

From thirteen strings to thirty

The standard koto, with thirteen strings, is one member of a family. The court-music version used in gagaku, the gakusō, has its own playing conventions and repertoire. In the twentieth century composers and makers extended the instrument, introducing versions with seventeen, twenty, twenty-five and thirty strings. The 17-string bass koto, with heavier strings and a larger body, gave ensembles a low register that resembles the role of a Cello or Double Bass.

Makers have also experimented with materials and hardware. A late-nineteenth-century Japanese example in New York is shaped like a hawk, with European-style tuning pegs and wire strings. A small plastic koto used in the 1970s by the singer David Bowie is held in London. Such instruments show how the koto’s basic plan, a string per bridge, has supported decorative and experimental variations without losing its identity.

Trios, court ensembles and new scores

In its classical setting the koto often joins a shamisen, a plucked lute, and a shakuhachi, a bamboo flute, to form the sankyoku trio, a chamber form that flourished in the Edo period. Songs with koto accompaniment, called kumi-uta, are a core of the older repertoire. Within gagaku, the court orchestra, the gakusō adds a steady, pulsing layer to winds, strings and percussion. These contexts shape both the music and the manner of listening.

Since the Meiji era composers have written new works for the koto, drawing on Western harmony, film, jazz and contemporary concert music while often keeping traditional tunings. Miyagi Michio’s compositions of the twentieth century were especially influential. Today the instrument is taught in schools and conservatories, played in concert halls, and heard in collaborations with Harp, Sitar and other plucked-string traditions from around the world.

Bridges, picks and dry air

A koto is usually stored in a padded case or cover, often in a lacquered box for older decorative instruments. Paulownia wood is light and sensitive to humidity, so sharp swings in moisture or heat may warp the top or damage the lacquer. Keeping the instrument away from radiators and direct sun, and out of damp rooms, reduces the risk. Some players loosen the strings slightly for long-term storage, since they are under steady tension.

Players check their picks, which can crack or wear and are sometimes adjusted with small tools to fit the finger. Bridges should be kept clean and stored carefully, since chipped or lost bridges change tuning. Silk strings are replaced regularly, as they wear with playing, while synthetic strings last longer. Repairs to the wood, lacquer or inlay are best left to specialists trained in traditional instrument-making.

Some details

• Traditional names for the koto’s parts refer to a dragon, including its shell, horns and tongue.
• Yatsuhashi Kengyō’s birth and death dates, 1614 and 1685, frame a century in which the koto moved from temple songs to a solo art.
• A plastic 13-string koto made around 1977, now in the V&A, was used by David Bowie to record the track Moss Garden.
• Until the Meiji period the koto and its teaching were closely associated with guilds of blind musicians, who held ranks that included the title kengyō.

Terms used in this entry

gagaku

Japan’s ancient court music, in which a form of the koto plays a part.

hira-joshi

A common koto tuning built on a five-note scale with two semitones.

ji (kotoji)

One of the thirteen movable bridges that support each string and set its pitch.

kengyō

The highest rank in the guild of blind musicians in pre-modern Japan.

paulownia

A light, fast-growing wood traditionally used for the koto’s body.

sankyoku

A chamber trio, usually of koto, shamisen and shakuhachi.

sōkyoku

The Japanese tradition of solo koto music and song that took shape from the seventeenth century.

tsume

Finger picks worn on the thumb, index and middle fingers of the right hand.

zither

A stringed instrument whose strings run the full length of a flat or slightly curved body.

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References

1. Grinnell College Libraries. koto · Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection. omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/644
2. Senzoku Gakuen College of Music. KOTO | Traditional Music Degital Library. senzoku-online.jp/TMDL/e/01-koto.html
3. Art Fund / Horniman Museum and Gardens. Koto - Art Fund. artfund.org/our-purpose/art-funded-by-you/koto
4. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Koto, Japanese, early 17th century. metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/505626
5. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hawk-shaped Koto, Japanese, late 19th century. metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/502124
6. Victoria and Albert Museum. Koto | V&A Explore The Collections. collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1784498

Sources were consulted for facts and context; the text is original. See Sources and Methodology.