Koto, shamisen, biwa and kokyū… The emotionally rich sound of Japanese string-instruments, in which each note resonates deep within the body, profoundly echoes while literally touching the listener’s heartstrings. The strings that support this unique tone are made from multiple layers of twisted, supple and tough silk threads.

In the Ōto and Nishiyama area in Shiga Prefecture, known for being blessed with beautiful water and active in sericulture and raw silk production from ancient times, strings have been produced for musical instruments since the Heian period. It is said that the making of these strings began when the chief priest of the Ikagu Shrine in Ōto was working for the Department of Divinities in the capital, and used the string he brought for a musical instrument. The instrument then produced a lovely sound. The manufacture of strings for musical instruments made of raw silk thrived in Ōsaka and Kyōto, where performing arts flourished, until the beginning of the Showa period. But a significant drop in demand and the spread of synthetic fibre threads led to a sharp decline, and there are now only three or four companies left in the country. We visited Matusan Hashimoto Co. in Kinomoto-chō,Nagahama -shi which has been supporting numerous musical performers in Japan and abroad, with the largest production volume in Japan and 400 varieties of musical instrument strings, since its foundation in 1908.

Every year around June, at the only remaining zaguri (hand reeling) workshop in the village of Ōto, thread is taken by hand from the cocoons of spring silkworms that have eaten mulberry shoots. The precious raw silk from the zaruri process, is then transported to the Marusan Hashimoto factory. There, it undergoes 12 processes, including reeling, measuring and weighing, before being turned into instrument strings. The komayori twisting process, which was featured in Tsutomu Mizukami’s novel Umi no Koto, is particularly striking: the threads are twisted and pulled together by two people working in unison using weights of a koma (spinning top) made from oak. This process produces high quality strings with excellent durability and sound.

Hidekazu Hashimoto, the fourth-generation president, says: “Each instrument has a tone that suits it and a sound that each player is pursuing. We try to understand which sound each player looks for and devise the contours, luster and afterglow of the sound so that the players can produce the sound they want to make”. While the production of silk instrumental strings is shrinking worldwide, the number of requests for production from overseas, mainly from East Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Mongolia, has been increasing. “Even if the requests are small at first, we believe that by responding to them we can expand the world of instrument string production and gain a better understanding of instrumental silk strings from different parts of the world”. According to Chairman Keisuke Hashimoto, who has been in the business for 50 years and is the holder of the selection and preservation technique, Japanese shamisen makes a sha-rin sound, whereas the Korean traditional instrument makes a be-ran sound. With outstanding skills and delicate sensibility, Marusan Hashimoto reproduces a variety of ancient and modern sounds that transcend national and cultural boundaries.

“Just as the road to the future is a day-by-day process, instrumental strings cannot be made overnight. We want our customers to be satisfied with every string of ours. There is no end to the expression of sound, but we always imagine the world five or ten years from now, sense what we should be doing today, and pursue it relentlessly,” says Hidekazu. As well as continuing to innovate as a world-class silk instrument string manufacturer, in recent years they have also been involved in music education initiatives in schools. Inheriting rare raw silk threads and traditional production methods, the company’s carefully crafted strings, which are designed to meet the wishes of musical performers, protect and nurture traditional music both at home and abroad.

– photo explanation –

［Ⅰ］The silk strings are characterised by their suppleness, glossy luster and beautifully twisted texture.
［Ⅱ］Twisting process known as komayori, in which two people work in unison to apply twists and pulls to threads at the right strength. The number of twists varies according to the thickness of the thread. With thick strings such as gidayū, the string consists of more than about 150 raw silk threads.
［Ⅲ］Raw silk from spring cocoons of silkworms that have grown up eating melting snow from Mount Shizugatake and mulberry shoots
［Ⅳ］The twisted threads are dyed yellow with turmeric. The threads are then glued together by boiling them in glue within which a thinly sliced rice cake is dissolved, before being dried.
［Ⅴ］The strings are finished by winding each batch of strings around a bamboo tube, and securing as a bunch.

Photography by Tomoko Hayashi
Text by Tomomi Takezoe
Translation :Naoko Mabon (WAGON)