The International Shakuhachi Society

Kotoji no Kyoku

琴柱の曲

This is a piece of genre Koten from the Kinko Ryû - 琴古流 School.

"Kotoji" means "bridge used for Koto strings" and the sight of a row of Koto bridges was compared with a row of flying geese. The characters which mean "wild geese going" are used for the term "Koto" instead of the regular one's.

This piece was originally a preliminary piece to "Kinuta Sugomori". After its beginning (Tsu-ro, tsu-ro, ro), a special breathing technique called "Asane" (shallow sound) is used.

Kotoji no Kyoku appears on the following albums

	Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
	Complete Collection of Honkyoku from the Kinko School - Vol 2 - Disc 4	Aoki Reibo II
	Flute of the Misty Sea, The	Andreas Fuyu Gutzwiller
The meaning of the title is far from clear. The piece is played today as an introduction to longer pieces. Its origin is unknown and only in 1927 was it adopted into the collection of authentic honkyoku by Miura Kindo. Possibly it is a fragment of a longer piece.
	Kinko Ryu Honkyoku - 8	Aoki Reibo II
	Shakuhachi no Shinzui-Shakuhachi Honkyoku - 12	Yamaguchi Goro

The International Shakuhachi Society - 2013