The International Shakuhachi Society

Home

Schools

Discography

Lineage Charts

Pieces

People

Glossary

Other Sites

Teachers

Governors

For Sale

Member's Area

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

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Shiki no tomo is a koto kumiuta composed by Hisamura Kengyo. The title literally means 'Companions of the Four Seasons,' and the texts of the four songs praise, in turn, plum blossoms, the Japanese cuckoo (hototogisu), the moon, and snow.

This song-cycle is classified into the ura ('inside') category (1) of 'koto kumiuta,' and is widely performed.

Hisamura was a student of Yasamura Kengyo (d. 1779, the composer of 'Hi-en no kyoku') and the teacher of Yoshizawa Kengyo II (1800-72, the composer of 'Chidori no kyoku').

(1) Kumiuta are traditionally classified into four categories according to the degree of profundity and stylistic proficiency required and sometimes the technical difficulties involved. These are omote (lit. "outside"), ura (lit. "inside"), naka (lit. "interior"), oku (lit, "deep interior"). By way of illustration, it may be helpful to imagine these categories as representing the structure of the imperial palace or a Shinto shrine with outer and inner walls, and further inside, the outer and inner sanctuaries. It should also be mentioned that these categories represent stages of a student’s progress in the learning of the koto repertoire, and are regulated by the issuing of diplomas along the way.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
With the coming of spring
To my garden,
The first to open
Are the plum blossoms.
I view them as decorations
For your life of one thousand years.
How peaceful is
Their never-changing color!

White dew drops of the waterfall
Splash in thousands
Over and aged rock.
Through the clouds
Of the May rain comes
The cuckoo
His song announcing
The arrival of summer.

Every night I stay up
To view the autumn moon,
So precious
And so brief.
I pity those
Who fail to recognize
The rare beauty
Of these moments.

In the Tenth Month
Even a cold drizzle
Does not change the color
Of the pine-
Covering the green branches,
Is the white snow in fact
The flower that blossoms
Ten times in a thousand years?