Tonkori
Tonkori (ト ン コ リ) , also ka , is a stringed instrument played by the Ainu people on the Japanese north island of Hokkaidō . The body consists of a narrow piece of wood about one meter long that has been hollowed out inside. The strings run over two bars up to a pegbox to long opposing pegs. After the design is part tonkori on the bowls zithern .
The number of strings on the tonkori , which is a little over a meter long, varies between three and five; the strings are made from animal tendons or plant fibers. The body is made from the local Ajan spruce ( Picea jezoensis ). When playing, the tonkori is held approximately vertically or at an angle in front of the upper body, with the neck extending over the left shoulder. The player plucks the untrimmed strings from the sides with both hands. The tonkori is used to accompany vocals or is played as a soloist.
In terms of development, the tonkori with its upwardly curved body - like the early slender shape of the Burmese crocodile zither mí-gyaùng - can be traced back to the bamboo tubular zithers that are widespread in East and Southeast Asia, to which the two different types guntang on Bali and kolitong in the north belong to the Philippines. In contrast, the shape of the Japanese vaulted board zithers koto and wagon (body arched downwards) is derived from semi-tubular zithers made of bamboo. Due to the Japanese colonization, there is little documentation today about the Ainu culture and the tonkori . The musician Oki Kano, an Ainu, released a reconstruction of the playing style and the sound with his album Tonkori .
Another rare musical instrument of the Ainu is the wooden frame jaw harp mukkuri .
Some musicians and bands known mainly in Japan use this instrument:
- Oki Kano
- KD earth
- Sanpe (Nobuhiko Chiba)
- ToyToy (Motoi Ogawa)
- Kumiko Sukegawa
- Akira Ifukube
- Marewrew
- IMERUAT
literature
- Alison Tokita: The Ashgate research companion to Japanese music . Ashgate Publishing, Burlington 2008
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Curt Sachs : The musical instruments of India and Indonesia (at the same time an introduction to instrument science). 2nd edition, Georg Reimer, Berlin 1923, p. 100f
- ^ Kurt Reinhard : Chinese Music. Erich Röth-Verlag, Kassel 1956, p. 138