FREQUENTLY ASKED TAISHOKOTO QUESTIONS

E.What was the original taishokoto like?

The original taishokoto was called "Kiku-koto". (Kiku is chrysanthemum and koto means Japanese harp). Many books on the history of Nagoya city mentioned about the Kiku-koto as "the new two stringed musical instrument that was put on sale in Nagoya on September 9, 1912. September 9 was the day of Kiku no Sekku (Chrysanthemum Festival). So consequently it was named Kiku-koto." (#20.＆21.)This instrument had the design of Chrysanthemum on its top board .

There is another view on why the musical instrument was called Kiku-koto. Kiku is the flower and the Emperor’s family crest. Kiku is also a Japanese symbol. Goro Morita may have intended to show that this musical instrument was representative of the Japanese Koto by using the word "Kiku". Or he may have intended to say taishokoto is quite different from so called "Koto". This may mean that he named it"Kiku koto"at first and after that he decided to begin to sell on September 9, (Chrysanthemum Festival) for the purpose of his business success. （#22.）The Japanese character is shown on the taishokoto. You can find the difference in the printed character symbol of koto. See the symbols below. The red character is correctly written in Japanese.

#20. Designed mark of chrysanthemum
Seen horizontally

#21. The beginning model


#22.Watch each black and red Japanese character, the red one is correct.

If this view is right, one can relate to his enthusiasm for his invention and naming of his instrument. On the other hand, we got a realistic opinion that the wrong character meant "Not for selling model". We investigated several " two stringed taishogotos". Every model has the black character. This means it may not be right. If the"Not for selling model"was something like a rumor and a kind of promoting way for selling, the person who thought of this idea might have said"We got it!!"as this model was thought precious and let people buy a great many. We introduce another view. He named Kiku-koto as he referred to (#23.) ●4.Kikusui crest in Japan for the appearance of taishokoto. We think that these opinions might be causes for this model being popularly sold and influenced by Mr.Goro Morita’s attractive character.

#23.kikusui crest