The Art of the Koto, Volume 1
On this CD we hear two performers in the prime of their careers,Nanae YoshimuraandSatomi Fukami.Yoshimura was born in Tokyo and began to study thekotofrom the age of three, receiving her teaching license with the Matsu-no-mi Kai of Ikuta schoolkotoperformance at the age of sixteen. She studied the classical repertoire forkotoandjiuta shamisenwithSoju Nosakaof the Kyasha lineage, and contemporary works forkotoandnijugen(twenty-stringedkoto) with Nosaka's daughter,Keiko Nosaka. She has been especially active as a specialist on the latter instrument since the early 1970s.The ideas that shaped Yoshimura's selection of the music on this disc were: music for thekotodeveloped and reached its completion in the Edo period, and the pieces chosen should reflect the flow of that history; they should be representative, and set out in the order in which they were composed; the pieces should also be selected for the representative status of their composers and those selected according to these three criteria should perform a well-shaped program complete in itself. The result was the selection ofRokudan,Midare,Zangetsu,Gondan-ginutaandChidori.Fukami, who appears on tracks 3 and 4, began to study thekotofrom an early age, and later studied with the lateKiyoko Miyagi(a former 'Living National Treasure') andKazue Miyagi.