Spirit of Wa: Masterpieces for the Koto — Japan’s Beautiful Melodies

The koto is an instrument with a soft tone and an enchanting sound.

Koto music is perfect for quintessentially Japanese occasions like New Year’s celebrations.

When you listen to it, it feels familiar to the ear and calms the heart.

In this article, I’d like to introduce many famous koto pieces.

By the way, I’ve been using the character “琴” for koto, but some of you might be thinking, shouldn’t it be “箏”?

Strictly speaking, “koto” (琴) and “koto/so” (箏) refer to different instruments.

However, since I want to cover as many pieces as possible, I’m using “koto” here as an umbrella term.

Please read on to the end.