A TRAY-LANDSCAPE.
Another art is the making of what are called “tray-landscapes.” For this an elliptical tray, whose diameters are about a foot and a foot and a half, is taken, and on it landscapes and sea-views are drawn with pebbles for rocks and sand of various fineness for the ground. Such a landscape forms an ornament for the parlour.
THE KOTO.
The only Japanese musical instrument taught in girls’ schools is the koto, a kind of zither. As the koto is the most adaptable of all Japanese instruments to western music, it is more readily learnt than others at schools where the piano and the violin are also taught. There are several kinds of koto, the number of strings on them ranging from one to twenty-five; but the one exclusively used at schools has thirteen strings It has a hollow convex body, six feet five inches long and ten inches wide at one end and half an inch narrower at the other, and stands on legs three and a half inches high. The strings are tied at equal distances at the head or broader end and gathered at the other; they are supported each by its own bridge, the position of which varies with the pitch required. Small ivory nails are put on the tips of the fingers for striking the strings.
But extensively as the koto is practised by school-girls and ladies of position, the national musical instrument is the samisen, a Japanese variant of the old European rebec which was introduced into the country by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. In the old days it was considered vulgar to play the samisen, which consequently lay long in obloquy and was only to be found among the merchant and lower classes. But now, though the prejudice against it is still strong among old-fashioned people, it is in greater favour than the koto. It is played everywhere, at home, in story-tellers’ halls and theatres, and at every tea-house party.
In its common form the samisen has a belly, four inches thick and covered with skin, which has convex sides, seven and nearly eight inches respectively, and has attached to it a neck twenty-five inches long with a tail-piece of six inches. There are three pegs in the tail-piece for the three strings of the instrument, which are carried over the neck and tied at the further end of the belly where a small movable bridge keeps them from touching the face of the belly. The belly rests side-wise on the right knee of the player, whose right hand strikes the strings with an ivory plectrum, while the fingers of the left hand support the neck and stop the strings. The top-string is the thickest and has the lowest notes, while the third string is the finest and has the highest notes. The samisen just described is known as the slender-necked samisen; the other kind, which is of larger dimensions, with thicker strings and is played with a heavier plectrum, is only used in singing gidayu, or ballad-dramas.
On the scale of the samisen there is still a great diversity of opinion, musical authorities being unable to agree as to the exact nature of the notes it emits. Its scale is certainly different to that of any European instrument; but, roughly-speaking, its range is about three octaves, the notes of which are put at thirty-six, comprising what would in European music be sharps and flats. The ranges of the two kinds of samisen naturally differ, the smaller giving higher notes than the other.
THE SAMISEN.