On July 30, 2019, a Japanese harp (Koto) workshop was held at the Ohanachaya Moriya-tei located in Katsushika Ward, as an event for international students to experience Japanese culture.

It was a workshop held in a traditional Japanese house, using 11 Kotos. Tokyo Geidai alumna Ms. Yasuko Fukuda who graduated from the department of Japanese traditional music was served as the lecturer and explained the history and details of Koto such as its schools and structure. After asking her a number of questions, participants listened to a performance by Ms. Fukuda and her assistants Mr. Hayashi and Ms. Hagioka who are both graduate students at Tokyo Geidai.

After the performance, participants were separated into two groups and practiced a famous Koto piece “Sakura” in turns. Most of them have no prior experience playing the Koto, but when they put three picks on their fingers and played, the opening tune was in sync and everybody yelled with delight.

Mr. Fernando Neves from São Paulo, Brazil, who is an international student in Tokyo Geidai and a Koto player acted as an interpreter to provide translations from Japanese to English.

Comments such as “It was fun!” and “I wanted to play more!!” were raised from the participants. It was impressive to see students in different study fields learned eagerly to play the Koto and played the whole piece of music.

(International Affairs Division)