Michio Miyagi

Miyagi Michio (Japanese宫城 道 雄, born April 7, 1894 in Kobe, † June 25, 1956 in Kariya ) was a Japanese koto player and composer.

Miyagi, who became blind at the age of eight years, was a student of the koto teacher Nakajima Kengyô II (二代 中 岛 検 校) and joined eleven years old under the name Nakasuga Michio. In 1897 he came to Korea, where he received the degree of Kotomeisters. Since 1917, he lived as a koto virtuoso in Tokyo. He developed a few new forms of Koto: the siebzehnsaitige Jūshichi gene (十七 弦), the achtzigsaitige Hachijū gene (八十 弦), which is suitable for both traditional Japanese and Western music, and the Tan- Goto (短 琴), also the Dai- Kokyu (大 胡 弓), a large Chinese fiddle.

In 1925 he first came on the radio, where he gave Koto courses. For this he was in 1950 awarded the Culture Prize of the NHK. Since 1930, taught at the Art University of Tokyo. In 1948 he became a member of the Japanese Academy of Art. In 1953 he won the first prize at the International Folk Dance Music Festival in Biarritz and Pamplona. On June 25, 1956, he crashed on a trip to Osaka from the train and died in the hospital of Kariya.

Miyagi composed over one thousand works for koto, some with instrumental or orchestral accompaniment. In his works he merged traditional Japanese music with Western European influences.