Images: Reiko Kimura: Traditional and Contemporary Music for Japanese Koto

Most of the koto music performed on this recording by Reiko Kimura evokes some aspect of nature: waves, birds, trees, sunrise, and the seasons. Japanese artists have sometimes depicted the koto (or a related instrument) being played by scholars contemplating the natural world, as in the screen above—an approach incorporated from Chinese tradition.

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

The second piece on this recording, Chidori no Kyoku, begins with an introduction and a then short segment representing waves (11:56–13:16), followed by a section depicting plovers, a kind of shorebird. Long a favorite subject for Japanese artists, waves appear most famously in The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai’s widely reproduced woodblock print from the 1830s. Later in his career, when he was 88 years old, Hokusai painted the dramatic scene above, bursting with the dynamic energy of the sea.

Left: Detail, Breaking Waves. Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849). Japan, Edo period, 1847. Ink and color on silk. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1905.276

The title of the second piece on this recording, Chidori no Kyoku, refers to the plover (chidori), a type of shorebird. Japanese artists have depicted plovers since the Heian period (794–1185), a tradition represented more recently in these woodblock prints by Ohara Koson. The piercing call of the plover, “chi-yo, chi-yo,” might evoke for Japanese speakers the word chiyo (for thousands of generations), a sentiment used to wish someone a long life. The poem that introduces the full version of Chidori no Kyoku reads, “At Shionoyama, frequenting the sand spit, plovers call out, ‘You, my lord, May you live eight thousand years! You, my lord, may you live eight thousand years!’”

Left: Plover and New Moon. Ohara Koson (Shoson, 1877–1945). Japan, ca. 1926. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper. Robert O. Muller Collection, S2003.8.2042

Right: Plover (Kibitz) On Post. Ohara Koson (Shoson, 1877–1945). Japan. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper. Robert O. Muller Collection, S2003.8.1883  

According to composer Minoru Miki, the third piece on this recording (Godan no Shirabe) is intended “to communicate the intensified pulse of the rising sun as it looms up through the morning from the east.” The nineteenth-century painting above shows a giant rising sun along with two other auspicious symbols, a crane and a peach tree, suggesting it was created for a birthday, New Year, or another important time of transition.

Auspicious Symbols: Crane, Rising Sun and Peach. Okamoto Shuki (Japanese, 1807–1862). Japan, Edo period, ca. 1850. Ink and color with gilt on silk; ivory jiku. Purchase, F1998.297

The changing of the seasons is represented in the last piece on the recording, Minoru Miki’s Hanayagi (The Greening). According to the composer, his music “sings in praise of the brilliant life-power of the seasons as they slowly shift from spring to early summer.” The Japanese screen above, from the Edo period (1615–1868), is meant to be read from right to left, as the flowers transition from spring to summer blossoms, a technique frequently employed in Japanese screen paintings to depict multiple seasons in a single narrative image.

Flowers and a Brook. Japan, Edo period (1615–1868). Six-panel screen; color over gold on paper. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1897.28