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This is a Jiuta piece in the Tegotomono style from the Ikuta Ryű school . This piece was composed for koto by Minezaki Koto . This piece was composed for shamisen by Mitsuhashi Koto .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
This grand jiuta piece, originally composed by Mitsuhashi Koto of Osaka, is congratulatory in character by describing scenes from the old Japanese New Year.

Nebiki no matsu ('Pine Seedlings') were in ancient Japan believed to bring longevity and happiness when uprooted on the first Day of the Rat (according to the Sino-Japanese zodiac) in the New Year.

This piece is one of the most developed tegoto-mono, having as many as three tegoto (instrumental interludes). As the result of independent arrangements by different koto masters, several different versions of Nebiki no matsu are extant today.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
The Divine Wind of the New Year
Is blowing. Therefore,
Let us offer up a saibara (1),
Performing in the fashion
Of the Sacred Music of Ise,
Though we use flutes of bamboo,
Not of reed (2).

From the reed plain
Of the marshes
Along the Naniwa Shore,
The cry of cranes
Come from Tamino Island
Rises with the rising sun.
Let us imagine
That those auspicious cries (3)
Are a passage of koto music.

Early spring breezes
Blow through the caves.
Rhubarb and ginger (4)
Sprout auspiciously.
Ancient pine trees
Growing by the gate
Of a field watch's house
Put forth new green.
All the world
Is at peace.

The New Year manzai man (5)
Old, yet ever young,
Brings tidings of spring
And a reign of ten thousand years.
The legendary Isle of Eternal Youth
Is none other than
This, our own
Fertile 'Land of Brightness (6).'

(1) Saibara were originally folk songs which were later adapted into the court repertoire and accompanied by instruments of the court orchestra.
(2) Ogi is a kind of reed for which Ise (in the present Mie Prefecture) is famous.
(3) The crane, thought to live a thousand years, is regarded as an auspicious creature.
(4) The Japanese word for rhubarb is fuki. Fuki is a kind of Japanese rhubarb but may be represented by the Chinese characters for ‘wealth’ and ‘honor. The Japanese word for ginger is myoga. Myoga is a plant belonging to the ginger family (zingiber mioga), but may be represented by auspicious Chinese characters meaning ‘divine protection.’
(5) Manzai is a strolling comic entertainer who appears in the New Year season to sing auspicious songs and offer blessings for the coming year.
(6) Akitsushima, which may be translated either 'Bright Island' or 'Autumn Island,' is an ancient name for Japan.

Nebiki no Matsu appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Fascination of the Shakuhachi - 3  (Listen)	Yamamoto Hozan	Tomiyama Kiyotaka	Tomiyama Seikin V
Te-goto piece (a two-verse song with an interlude between the verses) composed hy MITSUHASHI Koto of Osaka in the ni-agari tuning. MITSUHASHI Koto composed the famed SHO CHIKU BAI, and NEBIKI NO MATSU is said to have been composed following the success of this earlier piece. The two compositions are certainly very similar, far more so than other famed pieces such as MINEZAKI's ZANGETSU and YUKI. The piece celebrates the arrival of the new year and is divided into three parts by a te-goro (interlude), each part containing musical elements of kagura, soukyoku, koro-kumi-uta and manzai. It also describes things particular to the city of Osaka, the central city of Kamigara (the western part of Japan and the country's cultural center in old days), in particular the new year in that region.
Japanese Koto Music with Shamisen and Shakuhachi  (Listen)
(Pine Tree Hunting) composed by Koto Mihashi is a traditional piece for shamisen. It was once a custom for people to go out to forests to pick short pine trees to decorate their homes at the New Year. The composition is actually a musical description of a pine tree being plucked from the ground. The three strings of the instrument are plucked and a drum effect is caused by the snapping of the plectrum against both the string and the tight cat skin covering the square box of the instrument.
Jiuta to Sokyoku no Sekai - 5  (Listen)
Shakuhachi no Shinzui-Sankyoku Gasso - 01  (Listen)	Yamaguchi Goro
Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 24  (Listen)	Yamaguchi Goro	Nakanoshima Kin'ichi	Tomiyama Seikin V
Togashi Noriko - 05  (Listen)	Aoki Reibo I		Togashi Noriko