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Mouth organ (shō)
Mouth organ (sho)
Mouth organ (shō)
Fujiwara Masaoki (Japanese, active early 18th century)
1715
Object Place: Yawata, Japan
Medium/Technique
Wood, bamboo, silver, lacquer
Dimensions
Height 49.5 cm, diameter 7.2 cm (Height 19 1/2 in., diameter 2 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Foster Charitable Fund, Samuel Putnam Avery Fund, Frank M. and Mary T. B. Ferrin Fund, John Wheelock Elliot and John Morse Elliot Fund, Alice M. Bartlett Fund, and Joyce Arnold Rusoff Fund
Accession Number2002.136
CollectionsAsia, Musical Instruments
ClassificationsMusical instruments – Aerophones
DescriptionWind chamber of gold-lacquered wood, decorated with chrysanthemum blossoms. Short, elliptical mouthpiece, covered at end with plate of silver. Seventeen pipes of bamboo, three with finials of silver, all held in place by ring of silver.
InscriptionsInscriptions on one of the pipes indicate that the instrument was made in 1715, apparently by a Shinto priest, of the rank of Negi, named Fujiwara Masaoki for the Iwashimizu Shrine.
ProvenanceBefore 2002, sold by source unidentified, Japan, to a gentleman; by 2002, gift of the family of a gentleman to Steven Wayne, Newburyport, Massachusetts; 2002, sold by Wayne to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 26, 2002)
Taishikicho no Netori
Performed by Yoichi Fukui on a modern instrument