Hanami is an important Japanese custom and is held all over Japan in spring. Hanami literally means viewing flowers, but it generally indicates cherry blossom viewing. It's said that the origin of Hanami dates back to more than one thousand years ago when aristocrats enjoyed looking at beautiful cherry blossoms and wrote poems.
Gorgeous flowers are main attractions of the festivals, but a variety of traditional Japanese performing arts presented in many festivals. Tea ceremonies held under cherry trees is part of the festival. This is an opportunity for a lot of performing art events taking place. One such performing art is that of playing of the Koto.
The Taisho-koto instrument was invented about 90 years ago. Koto are about 180 centimeters (71 in) length, and made from kiri wood (Paulownia tomentosa). They have 13 strings that are strung over 13 movable bridges along the width of the instrument. Players can adjust the string pitches by moving the white bridges before playing, and use three finger picks (on thumb, index finger, and middle finger) to pluck the strings, otherwise known as plectra.
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