The kumiuta and danmono traditions of Japanese koto music

Dr. Adriaansz provides a first, detailed description and analysis of the twin traditions of solo-instrumental and vocal-plus-instrumental pieces for the large zither of Japan, the koto, together with transcriptions in full of thirteen items from a repertory that acquired its present character, if not its present faces, in the seventeenth century, and looks back to a yet earlier period. To these he adds an account of the instrument itself, which, though supplying information not hitherto available in a Western language, is neither as systematic nor as complete as present standards of descriptive organology demand. The allotment of pages reveals the proportions of this study: introduction, 50 pp.; instrumental items (danmono), 70 pp.; vocal-and-instrumental items (kumiuta), 111 pp.; anthology of thirteen items (out of a total repertory of 60), 186 pp.