Kinuta

Japanese: 砧 - きぬた

Title of a Noh piece. Fourth piece. Written by Zeami. A certain man (waki) from Ashiya, Kyushu, who has been in the capital for three years to pursue a lawsuit, sends a maid named Yugiri (tsure) out of concern for his wife back home. The wife (shite), waiting alone in Ashiya, hears from Yugiri that her husband will return at the end of the year, and, following an ancient Chinese tale, strikes a kinuta (kinuta no dan, kuse) while remembering her husband (kinuta no dan, kuse). However, when she receives another messenger from the capital saying that he will not be returning this year either, the wife falls ill and feels empty (intermission). The husband hurries back after hearing of his wife's death, and when he hangs a bow made of azalea on a keepsake kinuta for the memorial service, the ghost of his wife (gojite) appears and tells her of the hell she lives in, tormented by her delusional belief in karma, but she is able to attain nirvana thanks to the husband's prayers. The first Tossunmi Kawato borrowed this style of music and adapted it from Handayū-bushi to Kawato-bushi during the Kyoho era (1716-1736). In addition, there is a type of jiuta sokyoku music collectively known as "kinutamono" (kinuta music), which was inspired by the sound of the kinuta and the poetic sentiment it evokes.

Kinuta

A district in the southwest of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. The name comes from the fact that the land was used to make kilns, which were used to beat cloth to make it soft and shiny at the same time. It was once a suburban farming village centered on field farming, but with the opening of the Odakyu Line and Tamagawa Electric Railroad (now the Tokyu Denentoshi Line), residential development progressed. It was incorporated into Setagaya Ward in 1936. The area is home to the NHK Technical Research Institute and a film studio, and Kinuta Park is located to the south.

Kinuta

A wooden idiophone. It is used in Kabuki music to express the rural atmosphere of autumn. The kinuji is a musical instrument played on the koto or shamisen using a plectrum (a type of plectrum) to imitate the monotonous rhythm of striking a kinuta, with one note repeated "ten-ren-ten-ren" or "chin-rin-chin-rin." Many pieces were also created to enjoy instrumental techniques over the kinuta (→kinutamono).

Kinuta

Sarashi (bleached cloth) is a tool used to beat and soften cloth. It means a cloth board, and is read as Kinuma Ita in the Wamyō Ruijūshō. The cloth was placed in a mortar and two women facing each other pounded it like pounding rice, but in later times the cloth was spread on a stone or wooden board and beaten alternately with a horizontal pestle.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

能の曲名。四番目物。世阿弥作。訴訟のために都へ上って3年になる九州芦屋の某 (ワキ) は，故郷の妻を案じて下女夕霧 (ツレ) を下す。芦屋にひとり待つ妻 (シテ) は，夕霧から夫が今年の暮れには帰ると聞き，唐土の故事にならって夫を偲びつつ砧を打つ (砧の段，クセ) 。しかし今年も帰れぬという都からの再度の使いに妻は病に伏し，むなしくなる (中入り) 。妻の死を聞いて急ぎ戻った夫は，法要にと形見の砧に梓の弓を掛けると，妻の霊 (後ジテ) が現れ，因果の妄執に苦しむ地獄のありさまを語るが，夫の祈りによって成仏する。この曲趣をかりて1世十寸見河東が半太夫節から享保年間 (1716～36) に河東節に移した曲がある。また地歌箏曲には，砧の音と，それがかもし出す詩情に楽想を得てつくられた「砧物」と総称される曲種がある。

砧
きぬた

東京都世田谷区南西部にある地区。地名の由来は，布をたたいて柔らかくし，同時につやを出すのに使われた砧を打った土地であることによる。かつて畑作中心の近郊農村であったが，小田急線，玉川電気鉄道 (現東京急行電鉄田園都市線) の開通に伴い宅地化が進展。 1936年には世田谷区に編入された。 NHK技術研究所，映画撮影所があり，南方に砧公園がある。