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This is a Sokyoku piece in the Maybe Meiji Shinkyoku style from the Yamada Ryű school . This piece was composed for koto by Yamato Shorei III .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
This lovely piece, Aki no nanakusa ('The Seven Flowers of Autumn'), is one of the compositions selected as teaching material by Ongaku Torishirabe-gakari (the Music Study Committee), and published under the title Sokyoku shu ('Collection of Japanese Koto Music' Vol. 1) in 1888. It is reported that this piece was actually composed by Yamato Shorei (1844-89) in 1884 and revised by Yamase Shoin (1845-1908), both members of the committee. In the course of the interlude (ainote), the first section of Rokudan is heard as the counterpart.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
What are the flowers
That bloom
In autumn fields?
Count on your fingers
And see!
Wearing brocade,
Is the bush clover (1).
Then plume grass (2)
Arrowroot (3) and ominaeshi (4).
Agueweed (5) - who hung up
His hakama?
The wild pink (6) - like children
Indulged by parents.
The morning-glory (7) - brought to life
By the dew.

It was these seven
Flowers of autumn (8)
That the ancients
First loved.
The beauty of these seven
Of the autumn fields -
Their names now
Are famed.
The seven flowers of autumn
Bring fragrance to the fields.

(1) Hagi or lespedeza.
(2) Obana or miscanthus sinensis.
(3) Kuzubana or kudzu vine.
(4) Patrinia scabiosaefolia.
(5) Fujibakama.
(6) Nadeshiko or dianthus superbus.
(7) Asagao.
(8) These 'Seven Autumn Flowers' were praised by Yamanoe no Okura (660?-733?), a Man'yo poet

Aki no Nanakusa appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 55  (Listen)		Nakanoshima Kin'ichi