The family of Koto

Do you know why the Koto has 13 strings?

I found a funny anecdote about this question.

“In ancient China, there was a SHITSU which was an instrument looks like a 25-string Koto.

When the master of the SHITSU handed over his instrument to his two daughters, he separated it to 12 strings and 13 strings for avoiding conflict between his two daughters.

One of them became the Gayageum in Korea. And the other one became the Koto in Japan.

Now, the Gayageum has 12 strings and the Koto has 13 strings.”

There is the family of Koto in Asian countries.

In China, there is the “Guzheng”. Now a day, it has 21 strings in general.

In Korea, 12-string “Gayageum”. In Japan, 13-string “Koto”.

In Viet Nam “Dan Tranh”, in Mongolia “Yatga”, in Indonesia “Kacapi”.

They are instruments of the same group, but each sound is very different.

You can listen to these sounds on the YouTube.

Let’s search the movies and try to listen to them!

References:

『邦楽おもしろ雑学事典』　西川浩平著　ヤマハミュージックメディア　2003