Masterpieces of Koto, by Michio Miyagi

Masterpieces of Koto

by Michio Miyagi

supported by

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$4.50 USD or more
Subscription

Subscribe now to receive all the new music Canary Records creates, including this release and 74 back-catalog releases, delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android. You’ll also get access to subscriber-only exclusives. Learn more.

Subscribe Now $65 USD/year or more
Full Digital Discography

143

releases

Get all 143 Canary Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 75%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Solid Treat: Mento in Jamaica ca. 1951-57, He Gives From The Heart: A Retrospective of the Arab-American Violinist and Composer, 1916-65, Shade Your Eyes: Bulgarian-Macedonian Clarinet in Akron, Ohio ca. 1948, Ragas Malkauns & Sohini: Kirana Gharana ca. 1960, Masterpieces of Koto, Arab-American Live Recordings vol. 2: Boston in the 1960s, Tarab Vocal Art in Cairo & Alexandria vol. 4, ca. 1923-28, The Heart of a Mangas: Intersections of Popular Greek Theater & Rebetiko in Chicago & New York, 1923-29, and 135 more. , and , .
Excludes subscriber-only releases.

Purchasable with gift card

$193.25 USD or more (75% OFF)

1.	Sakura Hensōkyoku 06:27	buy track
2.	London no Yoru no Ame (Rainy Night in London) 04:05	buy track
3.	Sarashi Fu-teguruma 07:23	buy track
4.	Haru no Umi (Spring Sea) 06:07	buy track
5.	Ro-kudan 05:42	buy track
6.	Se Oto 05:24	buy track
7.	Mitsu no Asobi (Three Plays) 04:49	buy track
8.	Midare 07:21	buy track

about

The plucked zither derived from the Chinese guzheng spread through east Asia, arriving in Japan over 1400 years ago, and was incorporated into gagaku court music. As it was adapted over several hundred years, it became associated with blind musicians, notably the 17th-century performer Yatsuhashi Kengyō who is credited with making major adaptations to the instrument and for taking it from the courts to the common people.

Similarly, Michio Miyagi (b. Kobe, April 7, 1894) was a blind virtuoso of the instrument who was both an innovator and preservationist of its lineage. Miyagi was born sighted but lost his vision by the age of eight, by which time his mother had left his family, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother. He was apprenticed to a koto master, Nakajima Kengyō II, at age eight and began teaching his own students by the age of 11. When he was 13, his family moved to Korea (under Japanese occupation at the time), where he taught koto and shakuhachi (flute). He began composing at 14. He was recognized and lauded by the age of 22 and moved to Tokyo in 1917 with his first wife, but she died soon after.

The following year, he remarried a poor woman and began teaching his nieces. With the support of the writer Kuzuhara Shigeru, Michio Miyagi was able in 1919 to give a concert, presenting himself as both a serious performer and a composer at the age of 25.

Over the next 25 years, he composed prolifically, authoring over 500 pieces and ten books. He adapted to the instrument many times and extended its playing techniques, but most significantly he is regarded as having kept the koto alive during a period when it was fading away. He performed on the radio in 1925 on the first day of radio broadcast in Japan and recorded prolifically for Victor from 1928 onward. Many of his discs were released overseas.

During the 1930s, he taught at the Tokyo College of Music and was part of a Westward-looking New Japan movement of artists and intellectuals within an authoritarian and nationalist social and political environment. His recording of "Haro no Umi (Spring Sea)" in the 1930s with the touring French violinist Renée Chemet is strikingly similar to work produced a decade later by Eastward-looking Californian avant-gardists of the 1940s including Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, and John Cage.

He toured Spain, France, and England in in 1953. He died on tour at the age of 62 on June 25, 1956 having accidentally fallen from a train. This collection of his recordings was released a few months later as a memorial to him.

credits

released March 2, 2024

Michio Miyagi: koto throughout and composer of tracks 1-7. Arranger of track 8.
Renée Chemet (b. 1888; d. 1977): violin, track 4

Known years of composition:
1 & 5. 1923
2. 1953
4. 1929
7. 1943

Transfers, restorations, and notes by Ian Nagoski

license

about

Canary Records Baltimore, Maryland

early 20th century masterpieces (mostly) in languages other than English.

An hour in clamor and a quarter in rheum.

Tumblr

Recommendations

contact / help

Contact Canary Records

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Canary Records recommends:

Street Musicians of Yogyakarta
by Various Artists

Partially my doing. Canary Records
go to album

If you like Masterpieces of Koto, you may also like:

Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music
by Various Artists

supported by 51 fans who also own “Masterpieces of Koto”

Superb! Impossible to choose a single favorite track but I did. mihalyka
go to album
At Pioneer Works
by Les Filles de Illighadad

supported by 34 fans who also own “Masterpieces of Koto”

I love these women. the voices mesh together perfectly; also the world music is exceptional. I have all of their albums and they're all excellent. Give them a listen. Steve Lake
go to album
Longing for the Shadow: Ryūkōka Recordings, 1921-1939
by Various Artists

supported by 34 fans who also own “Masterpieces of Koto”

Lovely singing and great music. I can really feel the emotion behind each song and how it's sung. The mix of east and west sounds is very inspiring. Long before we had wars we had each others music and were drawn to the sound. The music is beautiful. VUKARI
go to album
Mezcla
by M.A.K.U. Soundsystem

featured on Bandcamp Radio Apr 26, 2016
go to album
Wamono Groove: Shakuhachi & Koto Jazz Funk ’76
by Kiyoshi Yamaya, Toshiko Yonekawa, Kifu Mitsuhashi

featured on Bandcamp Radio Feb 1, 2022
go to album