To See The Major Characteristics Of Japanese Koto Music From The Perspective Of Ikuta-ry

Chinese zither appeared in Qin Dynasty, and it was highly developed in Tang Dynasty. During China’s Tang Dynasty, the economic strength was as strong as the empire’s cultural influence, meanwhile,the Tang13-strings zither was in this period spread to neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Mongolia, Korean and Japan, and then it formed today’s Vietnam’s Zheng, Mongolia Zheng, Korean Gaya Qin and Japan thirteen string zither(koto) in its process of localization. Japan still retained the Tang zither which was brought back from Tang Dynasty nowadays.More importantly, the traditional koto music is still an important part of music culture in Japan today, whether in the professional music (traditional Japanese music) or folk amateur learning activities are very popular. The object of this study focused on Japanese Dcuta-ry koto music,the word which is mentioned in the text of Japanese traditional music is mainly refers to the "Su Zheng" which was formed since seventeenth Century, and JJarta-ry is a representative genre of Japanese koto, the author started her research on the basis of literature research combined with field investigation results, I went to Tokyo to learn koto music. I used the methods of ethnomusicology to analysis the koto music system. In the first chapter,1reviewed the development history of Japanese koto music, and introduced the koto’s shape, production technology and process. The second chapter is the introduction of raw classified playing techniques. In the third chapter, the author expounds the music characteristics of koto,which is under the influence of Japanese cultures. At present, many research is only focus on in the theoretical level, the academic study of Japanese koto music, but our attention of playing skills is not enough. The living study of the Japanese koto music, especially on the playing skill and music characteristics of the music, may enrich the musical diversity, or may make certain contribution to the development of our contemporary Zheng music.