Sarah plays the koto

Curious about the koto?

The koto (Japanese zither) plays an important role in my book, The Same Moon, the story of when I ran far, far away — to Japan — to find my way home.

As I settled into my rural community, a local club invited me to join them in studying and performing the koto (Japanese zither), and that helped me find my place in the small Japanese town where I spent two years.

Before I left Japan, my sensei gave me her old koto and asked me to share koto music with people in the United States. I later continued my studies in Portland, Oregon, with Seiha Miyabi Kai School of Koto, where I earned a level four certification. 

If your group is interested in a koto demo, please let me know.

At an April 2019 launch party for the first edition of The Same Moon, friends asked me to play the koto, so they could take a photo. One took a video instead. Here are a few bars of “Sakura”—“Cherry Blossoms.”

A young child peeks inside the koto
Kids love the koto. This little guy used his grandma’s smartphone/flashlight to peer inside the belly of the koto. (I had told him the koto’s parts are named like a dragon’s: mouth, eyes, belly, tail, claws … )
When I visited a school, this student tried playing a song.
A piece of koto music -- Japanese characters printed in boxes on white paper -- sits on top of a orange and floral brocade case, which sits on top of the green cover of a piece of koto sheet music.
This is what koto music looks like. It’s a form of tablature and is read top to bottom, right to left.

Click here to read “Zithering Away,” my essay exploring the koto, which was published in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal.

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