12C: Medieval Period
Koto’s spread to the public because of the culture sustained by merchants
After the unification of the nation by Oda and Toyotomi, Edo-era began and the culture sustained by merchants reached its peak. People who played Koto were monk at first but then changed into musicians. Yatuzaki who is the origin of Kyoto’s famous sweets is one of the musicians. He was a musician who lost his sight when he was a little and he studied Tsukushi-Ryuso-Kyoku under Hosui. He generated new compositions of Koto by improving Tsukushi-Ryuso-Kyoku. He produced expressive and skilled way of playing and also made the series of compositions and the basis of certain type of songs called Dan-mono.
This is the way how Koto started to be spread to all over Japan from Kyoto.
The appearance of Yamada school and Ikuta school
When Joruri which is human-feeling-based narratives with puppets were popular around Kyoto, Yamada made Yamada school compositions based on the Joruri in Edo(Tokyo). Furthermore, Ikuta improved the way of tuning of strings and the way of playing to suit the ensemble with Shamisen (Japanese traditional instrument). He composed many famous songs and they are called Ikuta school. Upper-classed merchant made their daughters learn Koto and it became a custom among them around this time. The latter half of Edo-era, very famous songs which were constituted by three different parts were born
The change from one melody to several
Yaezaki made this change by composing songs to be played with Shamisen. By this change, the level of ensemble was dramatically risen. In Kyoryu-Tegotomono which were songs such as “Wakana”, ”Keshi-no-hana”, and “Yugao”. Even now we can enjoy these songs at the concerts. The power of expression of Koto was brought out by musician such as Mitsuzaki and Yoshizaki. There are many love-themed songs, for example Godan-Kinuta which expresses the women’s feelings. Kinuta is a stone to make cloth smooth by tapping, and women think about the person who will wear that and whom they love while they use it.
