五段砧 Godan-kinuta – Mitsuzaki Kengyo
This work originally composed for two kotos is considered the highest point of instrumental development in the sokyoku genre of the nineteenth century. The title means a composition consisting of five sections (godan) based on the rhyme pattern of kinuta. Kinuta originally means a wooden block used in former times to press and soften newly woven cloth. Kinuta as a musical piece, however, is an instrumental piece based on the rhythmic patter derived from the soft tapping sound of the fulling block. Sandwiched by two short songs (maeuta ‘introductory song’ and atouta ‘concluding song’), this highly instrumental piece virtually actually shows the tegoto-mono form. The tegoto is composed of two independent pieces, namely Sandan-jishi and Godan-kinuta.