Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Koto |
KotoNoun1. Japanese stringed instrument that resembles a zither; has a rectangular wooden sounding box and silk strings that are plucked with the fingers. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Crosswords: Koto |
| English words defined with "koto": koto player. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Koto" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Esperanto (mud), Finnish (home). |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Kotos are about 180cm long and have 13 strings that are strung tautly across 13 movable bridges along the length of the instrument. Players make base pitches by moving these bridges before playing, and three finger picks (on thumb, forefinger, and middle finger) are used to pluck the strings.
The Koto was introduced to Japan in the 7th to 8th century from China (the Chinese inspiration was probably the gŭzhēng). It was initially played in the royal court only, but this situation changed in the 17th century -- primarily because of the influence of one man: Yatsuhashi Kengyo (1614-1684).
Yatsuhashi Kengyo was a blind shamisen player who learnt koto from an "official" court player named Hosui, in defiance of the rules which then stated that koto could not be taught to blind people (or women, incidentaly). Possibly because of his personal experience with these restrictions, Yatsuhashi spent the rest of his life making the koto more accessible.
He invented a new "plain tuning" (hira joushi in Japanese) to play the common peoples' songs more naturally. He composed (or is credited with composing) songs that are still irreplacable staples of the koto repertoire today, including Rokudan and Midare. (These compositions were partly responsible for the koto becoming respected as a solo instrument in its own right.) Perhaps most importantly, his example led other non-elite, including women, to learn the koto too.
Since the Japanese music scene was made over in Western pop music's image, the koto has become less prominent (although many well-to-do young women learn the instrument to help develop an aura of "refinement" that will theoretically attract a better class of husband). However, it is still developing as an instrument; works are written for and performed on 20-stringed and bass kotos, and a new generation of young players like Yagi Michiyo are finding places for the koto in today's jazz, pop and even experimental music.
Kōtō is a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Koto."
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Koto no taiyo (1968) Umi no koto (1966) Koto (1962) Onna de aru koto (1958) Koto no tsume (1957) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Expression using "koto": koto player. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
koto | 161 |
koto ryu | 8 |
koto sachi | 8 |
koto mahou na ni taisetsu tsukai | 8 |
koto restaurant | 6 |
japanese koto | 4 |
koto yaphet | 4 |
koto music | 3 |
instrument koto | 3 |
koto visitor | 3 |
koto radio | 3 |
hakusho koto yu yu | 2 |
japanese koto restaurant | 2 |
juri koto | 2 |
buki koto | 2 |
koto telluride | 2 |
koto yyh | 2 |
inc koto | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "koto"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 琴 . (various references) | ||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | "と (ancient city, business, circumstances, covering up, experience, fact, former capital, glossing over, matter, reason, thing). (various references) | ||||||||||
Pig Latin | otokay เครื่องสายของชาวญี่ปุ่น. (various references) | ||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "koto": kotos, kotow, kotowed, kotower, kotowers, kotowing, kotows. (additional references) | |
Words containing "koto": leukotomies, leukotomy. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "koto" (pronounced kō"tō) |
| 3 | -ō" t ō | Roto. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: took. | |
| Words within the letters "k-o-o-t" | |
-1 letter: oot, too. | |
-2 letters: to. | |
| Words containing the letters "k-o-o-t" | |
+1 letter: kotos, kotow, stook. | |
+2 letters: betook, kotows, kowtow, retook, stooks, strook. | |
+3 letters: booklet, bowknot, cookout, cooktop, folkmot, hooklet, kiloton, kotowed, kotower, kowtows, lockout, lookout, mistook, outcook, outlook, outrock, outwork, partook, pothook, stooked, stooker, talooka, tokomak, topknot, topwork, workout. | |
+4 letters: boathook, bontebok, booklets, bookrest, bootjack, bootlick, bowknots, brookite, brooklet, caretook, cockatoo, cockboat, cockloft, cookouts, cooktops, datebook, folkmoot, folkmote, folkmots, footlike, footmark, footwork, hookiest, hooklets, jackboot, kenotron, kilotons, kilovolt, knockout, knothole, kookiest, kotowers, kotowing, kowtowed, kowtower, lockouts, lookouts, notebook, outcooks, outlooks, outrocks, outsmoke, outspoke, outworks, overtook, pinkroot, pokeroot, pothooks, rookiest, rootlike, smokepot, stockpot, stookers, stooking, stopcock, studbook, talookas, teakwood, textbook, tokology, tokomaks, tokonoma, topknots, topworks, townfolk, workboat, workouts. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4B 6F 74 6F |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.- --- - --- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001011 01101111 01110100 01101111 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)K o t o |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004B 006F 0074 006F |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)45818681 |
| Language | Coverage | Language Translations |
Japanese Kanji | 辭典 , 辞典 , 字引 , 辞林 , 字書 , ディーゼル電気車 , 言海 , 辞彙 , 辞書 , 確定 , ディーゼル電気車 , デ'ドロ酢酸 , 翻訳 | 邦語 , 邦人 , ジャスミン茶 , ほう", ジャパニーズ , ほうじ", คนญี่ปุ่น, าษาญี่ปุ่น, เกี่ยวกับญี่ปุ่น |
Japanese Katakana | じい, じびき, じて", ディクショナリー , じり", じしょ, '"かい, ディクショナリ , デフィニション , ディフィニション , ていぎ, かくてい, へい"ういどう, やくじゅつ, トランスレーション , やくしょ, やくしゅつ, "うどく, ほ"やく, ほ"やくしょ | 邦語 , 邦人 , ジャスミン茶 , ほう", ジャパニーズ , ほうじ", คนญี่ปุ่น, าษาญี่ปุ่น, เกี่ยวกับญี่ปุ่น |
Thai | พจนานุกรม | たい", าษาไทย, เกี่ยวกับคนไทย, ที่เกี่ยวกับประเทศไทย, คนไทย |
English | Dictionary, Definition, Translation | เกี่ยวกับประเทศอังกฤษ, ชาวอังกฤษ, าษาอังกฤษ |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
