Hand Carved Koto Ji (Bridges)

The dark wooden bridges holding up the koto strings were carved by my father,

Hatsuki Kagawa. During the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII my two older sisters learned how to play the koto from Chihoko Nakashima, the first qualified teacher of

the Ikuta-ryu style. How my parents found kotos in camp, I do not know, but one

koto had ivory bridges, too precious to use for practice. So, my father handmade

bridges with evergreen ironwood that are found in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.

Ironwood is a slow growing tall “nurse tree” where shorter plants and animals find

protection under its canopy. Purple flowers blossom in the spring, and some

ironwood trees are over 800 years old. Like all incarcerates, my father’s livelihood

was taken away. At camp, he had time to learn how to carve bird pins, a skill he

applied to making koto bridges.