HANDBOOK OF THE COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 87 



(96840, pi. 30/) has no sound box, the strings being stretched on a 

 curved board which is deeply grooved on the underside with five 

 grooves cut by a gouge. The string passes through an ivory eyelet 

 in the body, thence through a small hole in a rounded stick of hard 

 redwood, and thence to a vertical tuning peg. It is ornamented with 

 12 small figures of birds (1 missing) and 1 small disk of ivory, prob- 

 ably to indicate where the string should be stopped, and a sunken 

 panel of tortoise shell framed in redwood. 



A two-stringed koto (95719) has a sound box, open at the end, 

 and rests on a stand ornamented with purple silken cords like those 

 on the instrument. The strings are stretched between bridges, and 

 on the body of the instrument are six small figures of birds in low 

 relief, possibly to show where the strings should be stopped. 



The foregoing examples of the koto belong to the first class of in- 

 strument. No specimen of the second class is exhibited. The third 

 class of koto is distinguished by its greater number of strings and its 

 movable bridges. The sounding board is hollowed out inside and 

 the strings are stretched between permanent bridges or nuts at each 

 end of the instrument, all the strings being the same size and length. 

 The difference in pitch is made by small movable bridges, one for 

 each string, which raises them to a height of at least 2 inches above 

 the sounding board; thus each string produces only one tone. The 

 position of these bridges is sometimes changed rapidly during a per- 

 formance. Besides this, the fingers of the performer's left hand are 

 used to press a certain one of the strings, thus raising the pitch one 

 or two semitones, as may be desired. The plucking of the strings is 

 done with the " tsume " already described. Long ago a Japanese 

 named Yatsuhashi devoted much study to making improvements in 

 the koto, insisting chiefly upon the use of hard " kiri " wood, thor- 

 oughly seasoned, for the sounding board. He called his earliest 

 attempts the "autumn mist" and the "murmuring of the pines" 

 koto and as a result of his labors the modern forms of the instru- 

 ment were developed. One of these is used by professionals, and its 

 beauty consists in the beautiful graining of the natural wood; the 

 other is known by the name of his pupil,* Ikuta, and is elaborately 

 decorated. It is used chiefly by lady amateurs. 



Three specimens of the Ikuta-Koto are exhibited. The body of 

 94958 is of thin kiri wood and rests on four low feet. It is strung 

 with 13 silk strings, each having an adjustable, inverted Y-shaped 

 bridge and two fixed bridges at the ends of the belly. No. 95718 

 has a flat back of kiri wood and the belly is formed of nine joints 

 of Satsuma bamboo, split lengthwise, and pressed to form about 

 a third of a cylinder. It has 13 silk strings colored green, pink, 

 white, and black. The bridge is gold lacquered with applied de- 

 signs in light-colorod bamboo and brocade silk. Special attention 



