Koto (Zither) (early to mid-1800s): Art, History and Details

Koto (Zither) (early to mid-1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This koto has an elaborately decorated surface, suggesting that it was meant to be admired as a decorative object rather than played as a musical instrument. The vertical design shows a profusion of chrysanthemum flowers and miscanthus grass above a brushwood fence as well as a pair of butterflies.

Object facts

• Title: Koto (Zither)
• Date: early to mid-1800s
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Musical Instrument
• Technique: Wood with colored lacquer, sprinkled gold powder (maki-e), textile, and silk strings
• Dimensions: Overall: 117.8 cm (46 3/8 in.); Widest end: 23.8 cm (9 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1918.359

A detail from the museum

The koto descended from the guzheng, a Chinese zither first imported to Japan in the seventh century.

Collection credit

The Charles G. King Jr. collection; Gift of Ralph King in memory of Charles G. King Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (October 1918): 82–85.
• Moore, Douglas S. "Exhibition of Musical Instruments." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 8, no. 9 (November 1921): 134–143.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.