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This is a Sokyoku piece in the Kumiuta style from the Ikuta Ryû school . Hien no Kyoku is also known as: Seiheicho. This piece was composed for koto by Yasumura Kengyo .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
While the ‘Thirteen Yatsuhashi Song Cycles’ are considered almost sacred, this song cycle is regarded as a masterpiece among later works in the same form.

The six songs are preceded by a short prelude (jo). The song-text is based on a free translation of a Chinese poem entitled ‘Ching Ping T’iao by Li Po (701-62), a T’ang poet. The poem relates Emperor Hsuan Tsung’s love life. The first three songs refer to his deceased consort, Wu Hui. The rest of the songs refer to Yang Kuei-fei, his new and ultimate love. ‘Hi-en’ in the title is the Japanese pronunciation of Fei-yen (literally ‘Flying Swallow’), a rare beauty of the former Han Dynasty, the only woman in Chinese history comparable to Kuei-fei in beauty.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
The memory
Of her dancing sleeves
Reaches far across
The clouds
Of the distant past.
I live on,
As fragile as the dew
Lingering on the flower.

She is like
A thousand diamonds
Sparkling in the sky.
No? Then she is
A celestial maiden
Wearing a hair-do
Of gleaming jewels
In the moon.

Like a drop of dew
In the deep red flower,
Her beauty unworldly!
A quick dream - then -
Only a line of clouds
In the morning sky,
And a flood of tears
On my sleeves.

O, those days gone by!
My sleeves are musty
With the past
I air them
On the bamboo screen.
O, look!
A friendly swallow
Comes ‘round the eaves!
To the matchless
Beauty of this flower
Our lord turns his heart,
And as love deepens
For this rare peony
Day after day,
He loses his senses
With infatuation.

‘Flowers in full bloom
Are easily scattered
By the wind.’
I thought only others
Met this fate, but
Now, so have I.
I cannot, then, blame
The spring breeze for blowing.

Hien no Kyoku appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 05  (Listen)		Yonekawa Toshiko