Japan: Koto Classics

Hearing this album again brings back memories of almost a quarter century ago first coming into contact with the phenomenal music of Japan's classical period and, specifically, the highly expressive koto, which is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world.

In 1990, discovering this mesmerizing music for the first time was part of the realization that our "western" musics, varied and vast as they are, are just one part of an enormous global reservoir of music available to expanding understanding, perception and appreciation.

Of course, there has to be some acclimatizing to the different tunings, scales and sounds made in other forms of music.  For this listener, hearing the solo koto, shakuhachi, oud, sitar, kora or any other number of instruments for other parts of the world, took less of a recalibration than hearing larger ensembles or vocalizations.

The koto, moreover, is a remarkable instrument in that it is both light in tone, but strong in resonance, powerful and heavy on one hand and light and melodic on the other.  It seems to embrace a broad spectrum of sound and perhaps makes it easier to absorb what is heard.

Recorded in 1966 and released as part of the extraordinary Nonesuch Explorer series, the album features the virtuosic playing and emotive singing of Shinichi Yuize, who is still living and is approaching his 93rd birthday.  Yuize has toured around the world and performed with such major figures of Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar and he served as something of a music ambassador for Japan.  When the album was made, Yuize was an artist-in-residence at Columbia University.

The remastering by the great Robert Ludwig, who deserves far more credit for all the amazing work he has done in all musical genres over the decade, further pulls the listener in to the very intimate soundworld created by Yuize's stunning playing and singing.

Koto Classics still has the same impact as twenty-six years ago, which really means that it is a timeless recording.  It will, undoubtedly, feel the same years from now.

Sakura: A Musical Celebration of the Cherry Blossoms

This stellar compilation from the Smithsonian Folkways label offers a variety of traditional Japanese music pieces, with the underlying theme of tying the sounds in to the famed cherry blossoms that bloom in Washington, D.C., the home of the label and its parent museum, The Smithsonian Institution.

The ten tracks provide a nice capsule of sounds within classical Japanese musics over the centuries, starting with the famed folk piece, "Sakura", as performed on the koto, or zither.  Following is "Yasugi Bushi," a minyo, or folk song, that reflects, as the liner notes observe, the traditional saying that "folk song is the heart's home town."  Songs like this were historically for boatmen along the Japan Sea in the mid-nineteenth century and features a particularly emotive and mournful vocal.

"Asadoya Yunta" is another folk tune, but comes from the southern island of Okinawa and concerns the titular female character and her rejection of a wedding proposal from a functionary of the government.

Along with the koto, the instrument most identified with classical Japanese music is the shakuhachi, or the five-hole bamboo flute.  In "Hachigaeshi," Riley Kelly Lee, an American whose father was Japanese and who lives and works in Australia and who became the first non-Japanese to be designated a grand master of the instrument, performs with great facility and emotion on a piece from the 13th through 16th centuries which was performed as part of a Buddhist priest's playing for alms.

Another well-known instrument is the shamisen, and Umewaka Asano plays this three-stringed lute with great assurance and ability, while Sanae Yabumuki sings with great control and expressiveness in the festival piece, recorded at a 1986 Smithsonian festival.

From the northeastern part of Japan comes "The Song of Rice-Husking," featuring another beautiful and keening female vocal and an ensemble of stringed instruments and percussion, as well as some backing chants.  An interesting variation on the album is "Songs of the Stonemason," recorded on location and capturing male workers pounding stone as a percussive rhythm-keeping function for work and singing along.

"Soran Bushi" includes shakuhachi, koto, and a deeper female voice with backing accompaniment for this folk song from Hokkaido in Japan's northern reaches.  This piece is another work song for the retrieval of herring nets from the ocean.  The koto showcase, "Rokudan No Shirabe [Music of the Six Steps]," dates to the 17th-century and highlights the transformation of the instrument from an accompanying to a solo one.  Here, Shinichi Yuize, plays with clarity, delicacy and a sense of refinement that makes his song a highlight on the recording.

Finally, the lengthy eleven-minute epic taiko piece, "Yuudachi," closes this excellent album.  The percussion ensemble Soh Daiko works this 1984 composition by Sandy Ikeda into a vivid musical portrait of the passing of a summer storm and was recorded for the Smithsonian's sesquicentennial celebration on the National Mall at Washington in 1996.

Sakura is a nice capsule statement of the remarkable sounds that come from Japanese classical music and Smithsonian Folkways is to be congratulated for issuing this compelling and highly-enjoyable album.

Japan: Koto Music

This recording of music of the koto, a 13-string instrument about six feet in length played with picks (plectra) on the thumb, index finger and middle finger, demonstrates the phenomenal skill and unerring beauty with which Japanese masters perform on this national instrument.  The delicate high-pitch of the instrument has a highly spiritual quality and the clear and full tones when plucked by these masters are something to behold.

Recorded by Katsumasa Takasago and released on LP for the remarkable Nonesuch Explorer series of "world music" recordings in 1965, this disc was remastered and released in 1998 with a beautiful booklet reprinting Takasago's original notes.  Notably, most of the performers on this album are women, including Master Shogin Hagiwara, who lost her vision at six years of age and earned her degree of "koto master" when seventeen. 

Master Hagiwara takes solo turns on "Rokudan-no-Shirabe," or "Music of Six Steps," a 17th-century piece that has six sections and is a spectacular showcase and on "Shin-Takasago" an 1800s song based on the Takasago drama in the Noh theatrical tradition. This latter is especially beautiful.

She and her student Master Ginsho Mineuchi perform a stunning duet on "Godan-Kinuta," a song for weaving cloth and then a trio performance with Master Kikusui Kofu on the shakuhachi (bamboo flute, of which music there will be discs highlighted here some day) on "Haru-no-Kyoku," or "Music of Spring."  The use of the shakuhachi conveys a mournful, contemplative and highly emotional tone to the piece, as well.

The other two works are "Echigojishi," an 18th-century folk song of a lion dance from an ancient festival in the community of Echigo, performed solo by Master Hatta and the trio piece "Yugao" or "Evening Glory" which includes koto master Yamaguchi with shamisen (three-stringed lute-like instrument) master Kitagawa and Master Kikusui on the shakuhachi.  This song takes its story from the famed The Tale of Genji from the 11th century and a girl named Yugao with whom Genji fell in love, but she died due to a curse from a haunted spirit.  This is a particularly interesting piece and a nice close to a fantastic album of traditional Japanese koto music.

Japan:  Koto Music (Nonesuch Explorer Series, 1965/2008)

1.  Echigojishi  2:02
2.  Godan-kinuta  11:50
3.  Rokudan-no-shirabe  6:03
4.  Haru-no-kyoku  8:57
5.  Shin-takas ago  2:07
6.  Yugao  12:49