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This is a Sokyoku piece in the Kumiuta style from the Ikuta Ryű school . This piece was composed for koto by Yatsuhashi Kengyo .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
The title means 'Song of the Distant Sky.' One of the 'Thirteen Yatsuhashi Song Cycles,' this song cycle is considered to be his masterpiece. His originality is most significant in this piece. A new tuning of the koto was introduced here, possibly for the first time. Thus, the tuning was named kumoi-joshi after the title of the piece. The texts of all six songs deal with unsuccessful love, but each complete in itself and they are not interrelated.

After the fifth song, an instrumental interlude, 'Kin no shirabe' is inserted.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Since we can meet
Only secretly
My heart
Is filled with longing.
Chika no Shiogama (1)
Is a place near only in name
The distance which separates us
Consumes my soul and body.

Will you never leave my heart?
And yet your heart
Long ago left me.
Not about my lot
Do I worry
But about yours.
The man who has become
The talk of the town.

Only rarely
Do we meet
Only tears
Dampen my sleeve.
On the morrow
We shall be separated;
Tears flow
At the thought.

Idle thoughts
In the rain
Call back days gone by.
Adding to my melancholy
The night wind through the pines
Rustles
Then taps
On my lowly cottage door.

Like a boat without a rudder
I drift,
Aimless and alone.
The sound of waves
Crashing on
The rocky shore
Breaks my heart,
Into a thousand pieces.

Every one knows that
Even the thunder god,
Roaring in the distant sky,
Strikes from afar.
This being so,
Why should my love
Not be fulfilled
By the gods?

(1) This place name literally means 'Nearby-Salt-Kiln.'

Kumoi no Kyoku appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 04  (Listen)		Nakanoshima Kin'ichi