Photos:Contemporary Music for Japanese Instruments: Sawai Koto Ensemble

This concert features music for the koto, a thirteen-string Japanese zither played with fingerpicks, and the shamisen, a long-necked lute plucked with a large plectrum. In this detail from a late nineteenth-century woodblock, two women play the koto and shamisen.

Detail, Activities of the Twelve Months in Edo: December. By Toyohara Chikanobu (1838-1912). Japan, Meiji era, 1889. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper. Gift of Moses Albert Walker in memory of Marion Walker, S1995.116.66a-c

The koto was sometimes said to resemble a dragon. Here, an eighteenth-century artist depicts the moveable bridges of the koto as flying geese.

Detail, Descending Geese of the Koto. By Suzuki Harunobu (1724-1770). Japan, Edo period, ca. 1766. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper. The Anne van Biema Collection, S2004.3.21

Japanese artists sometimes showed scholars playing the koto while contemplating nature, an image incorporated from Chinese tradition.

Detail, At Ease in the Countryside: Scholars and Fishermen. By Yamamoto Baiitsu (1783-1856). Japan, Edo period, 19th century. Six-panel screen; ink and light color on paper. F1961.1, F1961.2

Japanese artists also used the koto to represent the Four Accomplishments, four areas of expertise expected of a scholar (another tradition assimilated from China). These areas are music, painting, calligraphy, and the board game weiqi, replaced here by the Japanese game sugoroku. In this painting, the artist has shifted the traditional setting for the Accomplishments through the practice of mitate (the use of unexpected contexts) by portraying not scholars but courtesans of the entertainment district.

Detail, The Four Accomplishments. By Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828). Japan, Edo period, 19th century. Hanging scroll; color and gold on silk. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1903.58

The koto and shamisen often are depicted within the entertainment district of Edo-period Japan (1615-1868). This detail from a hanging scroll by the great artist Utamaro shows geisha playing the shamisen, kokyu (fiddle), and koto in an elite pleasure house located in Shinagawa, once a suburb of Edo (now Tokyo).

Detail, Moonlight Revelry at Dozo Sagami. By Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806). Japan, Edo period, late 18th-early 19th century. Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1903.54

The entertainment districts of the Edo period (1615-1868) also featured theaters for puppetry (bunraku) and live action (kabuki), both of which require music. In this eighteenth-century woodblock print, a kabuki actor takes his role as a warrior, wielding a koto almost as a shield. Prints such as this one often were used as advertisements or souvenirs.

Detail, The Actor Otani Oniji as Omori Hikoshichi. By Torii Kiyomasu II (1706?-1763?). Japan, Edo period, 1743. Woodblock print; ink and hand-applied color on paper. The Anne van Biema Collection, S2004.3.12