JPH09212161A - Koto and mute for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a mute for a koto which securely provides sufficient muting effect and has a little hindrance to playing operation and a koto with the mute. SOLUTION: A mute 2 composed of a vibration absorber 21 almost in a rectangular prism shape and a plate body 22 which reinforces the vibration absorber 21 is arranged on the top surface of a sound barrel 11, side by side, with the bridge 12 of a head part, and strings are supported by both the bridge 12 and the mute 2. The force operating between the strings 15 and bridge 12 is smaller than that in case of only the bridge 12, and vibration transmitted from the bridge 12 to the sound body 11 is reduced. Then vibration energy propagated to the mute 2 is absorbed by the vibration absorber 21 of the mute 2. In addition, vibration generated by the strings which are played is damped by the mute 2. Further, the vibration absorber 21 is easily made thin by reinforcing the vibration absorber by the plate body 22.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sound absorber attached to a koto koto, which is a kind of stringed musical instrument, and more particularly to a sound absorber for a koto used when it is developed and popular in East Asia.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A koto (so) has 12
It is a chiteran stringed instrument in which many strings, thirteen strings, and at most sixteen strings, seventeen strings or more strings are stretched in the longitudinal direction substantially parallel to the upper surface of the elongated sound drum. Due to its long resonating body, it was also classified as Nagato or long-body chita, and it was one of the stringed instruments developed in East Asia and was introduced to Japan during the Nara era. Most of the playing methods are repellent, and some are rubbed. And the koto, which has a movable pillar, can change the length of the vibrating part of the string (effective string length), which is suitable for playing Japanese music with delicate pitches. It is a simple structure.

Incidentally, the Japanese word "koto" broadly means a stringed instrument, and narrowly means a koto. And
Around the Edo period, when the modern koto was established, the "koto" came to be used as the popular name for the koto. Although the name is confusing, the "koto" and the "kin" often found in China and the like are distinguished as musical instruments.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a koto popular in Japan, and this example is a 13-string koto. The difference between the koto and the koto is that the koto has a movable pillar on the upper surface of the body.
While standing upright and supporting the strings on this, the koto (kin) is not to stand up the movable pillar on the upper surface of the sound drum. In other words, the difference in how to set the effective string length is the fundamental difference between the koto and the kin.

The performer sits near the head of the koto 1 so that the head of the koto 1 is on the right side, and usually attaches a nail made of ivory or the like to the thumb, forefinger or middle finger of the right hand, Part 1
As a measure of the distance from 2 to the plucked position, the little finger of the right hand,
Depending on the school, the ring finger is repelled in the vicinity of the bridge 12 of the string 15 while being arranged along the bridge 12 or slightly separated. At this time, it is also common to hold down the string 15 behind the koto pillar 14 with the left hand to increase the string tension and change the pitch. Such a koto is known as a typical Japanese traditional instrument with a simple structure and rich volume.

[0006]

However, for the koto player, the rich volume of the koto sometimes interferes with the practice. That is, the neighbors of a densely populated city,
For a family member who lives with the performer, the beautiful, rich sound of the performance is often heard as a large unbearable noise.

[0007] Conventionally, in order to weaken the playing sound of the koto, it is partly practiced to put a towel on the stringed part of the koto or to put a thing on a futon so as to close the sound hole on the underside of the koto. It is being tried by musicians. Also, although it is for violin,
It is known that a three-legged comb-like sound absorber is attached to a piece or a string on the reverberation drum to slightly weaken the vibration of the string and change the tone to that of a nose. And, the soft sound device for the koto, whose principle is very similar to the soft sound device of this violin, is
No. 8-126494. The koto weakening device disclosed in this publication is composed of a flexible object (holding part) and a rigid body (stringing part) of a certain weight, and is interposed between the koto pillar and the strings. That is, the flexible object side is attached to the koto pillar, and the rigid body is held by the flexible object so that the stringed part is in close contact with the string at a position separated from the pillar. According to the publication, the frequency characteristics of string vibration are enhanced and damped by appropriately setting the flexibility of the flexible object and the weight of the rigid body.

However, among the above-mentioned conventional techniques, the weak sound produced by the towel or the futon not only has an uncertain effect on the weak sound, but also tends to cause deterioration of the sound quality of the performance sound, and further hinders the performance operation. Further, among the above-mentioned conventional techniques, the koto weakening device is one in which the weakening device is attached to the koto pillar and brought into close contact with the strings, so that there are severe restrictions on the size of the soft object and the rigid body, and the weakening effect is reduced. Is likely to be inadequate, and as with violin dampeners, timbre adjusters are more appropriate than dampeners.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a weak sound device for a koto and a koto with a weak sound device in which a desired weak sound effect can be surely obtained and which does not hinder the performance operation.

[0010]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a koto sound absorber, a resonating body, a pair of pieces provided on an upper surface of the resonating body and spaced apart from each other, and stretched between the pieces. Attached to a koto equipped with a plurality of strings and a plurality of pillars interposed between the upper surface of the sound drum and the plurality of strings and movable in the extending direction of the plurality of strings. A sound absorber for attenuating vibrations generated in the plurality of strings during stringing, a vibration absorber having an upper surface elastically deformed by contacting the plurality of strings, and a plate body fixed to the vibration absorber to reinforce the vibration absorber. And a side surface that abuts on one of the pair of pieces. The koto muffler according to claim 2 is the koto muffler according to claim 1, wherein the vibration absorber has the plate body fixed to a first side surface and a lower surface that abuts against an upper surface of the echo barrel. The second side surface located on the back side of the first side surface contacts one of the pair of pieces. The koto noise reducer according to claim 3 is the koto noise reducer according to claim 1, wherein the vibration absorber is a felt, and a contact portion of the vibration absorber upper surface has a string contact length of 3 mm or more. It is 12 mm or less, and the amount of compressive deformation that occurs in the vibration absorber when each string elastically contacts the vibration absorber is 1 mm or more and 4 mm or less.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the koto with a sound absorber, a sound drum, a pair of pieces provided on the upper surface of the sound drum and spaced apart from each other, and tensioned in the longitudinal direction of the sound drum supported by the pieces. A plurality of extending strings, a plurality of movable columns that are erected on the upper surface of the sound drum between the two pieces and that respectively support the plurality of strings, and a silencer that damps vibrations that occur during plucking. The sound absorber is provided with a vibration absorber whose upper surface is elastically deformed by contacting the plurality of strings, and a plate body fixed to the vibration absorber to reinforce the vibration absorber. It is characterized in that it has a lower surface that abuts and a side surface that abuts one of the pair of pieces.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, a muffler is arranged along with a piece of a head, and the string and the muffler independently support the strings. Therefore, the force acting between the string and the piece is smaller than that in the case of only the piece, and instead, the force is newly applied between the string and the sound deadening device. The magnitude of the vibration energy propagating from the string to the piece is determined by the magnitude of the work performed by the vibrational force acting between the string and the piece, so the force itself acting between the string and the piece is The smaller the size, the smaller the amount of vibration energy propagating from the string to the piece, and the smaller the amount of vibration propagation from the piece to the sound drum. On the other hand, since a new force is applied between the string and the weak instrument, a vibrating force also acts on the weak instrument, and the vibration energy propagates to the weak instrument. And at this time, the vibrational movement itself that occurs in the string
Since the string is damped by the contact between the weak instrument and the string, the string is rapidly attenuated. In this way, the vibration propagation from the strings to the sound drum in the koto head was divided into two, that is, the propagation through the bridge and the propagation through the bridge. Change to propagation by route.

Originally, the piece is made of a hard material,
It has a high vibration propagating design, and the vibration propagating from the bridge to the sound drum is quite good. On the other hand, the sound absorber is made of highly elastic material and has a high vibration absorption design.
As a result, the vibration propagating property is low. That is, the vibration energy that has propagated to the sound absorber is absorbed by the vibration absorber made of the vibration absorbing material of the sound absorber in a considerable amount, and the amount of vibration propagation to the sound drum is reduced. In addition, the vibrational motion itself generated in the strings is also damped by the vibration absorber having a high string vibration damping property, which is appropriately elastically deformed. Therefore, the total amount of vibration propagation from the strings to the sound drum at the head is greatly reduced. The smaller the vibration energy propagating to the reverberation drum, the smaller the energy emitted by the koto as sound waves in the air. This is because the conversion effect of receiving the vibration energy propagating from the strings and radiating it into the air as a sound wave is mainly performed by the sound drum. Therefore, by substituting a part of the string support force for the sound deadening device, and appropriately adjusting the magnitude of the string support force of the piece in advance, the desired weak sound effect can be surely obtained.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. First, with reference to FIG. 6, the structure of the koto to which the muffler according to the present embodiment is attached will be described in detail. 1 is 13
It is a string koto, and is shown as an example of the koto. Koto 1
Has a resonating body 11, which is also called a body or a tank, and is a protagonist that radiates string vibration into the air as a sound wave. The sound drum 11 is made of a hollow hollow wooden body whose surface is slightly raised and is long and slender. The barrel is formed by scooping paulownia wood to form a boat-shaped tank, and a back plate is attached to its opening.
The sound drum 11 is likened to a dragon, and its upper surface 11a is
The side surface is called the rock, and the back plate on the lower surface is called the belly / dragon belly. Although not shown, the belly has two sound holes. The head is called a crown and the tail is called a dragon tail.
To the head and tail of the instep, that is, to the head and tail of the upper surface 11a,
The pieces (bridges) 12 and 13 are fixed by fitting without adhering, and support both ends of a string 15 stretched orthogonally to the longitudinal direction of the sound drum 11. This piece 12 is called a dragon horn, and Karaki is used, and the piece 13 at the tail is called a cloud angle. A quarter quadrant 16 made of the same material as the corner is fitted on the upper surface 11a of the circumference of the corner to stabilize the corner,
It is bonded to the body 11. Between the string 15 and the upper surface 11a of the sound drum 11 in which the movable pillars (14) are tense in correspondence with the respective strings 15 on the upper surface (instep) 11a between the dragon angle 12 and the cloud angle 13 And supports the strings 15. Pillar 1
4 is also called a koto pillar or koto pillar, and the effective string length can be freely changed by adjusting the position in the longitudinal direction.
The pitch emitted by can be set quite freely. The strings 15 are made by twisting silk threads, but in recent years, synthetic fibers such as polyamide and polyethylene terephthalate have also been used.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing, as an example, a softening device 2 for a koto. 21 constituting the silencer 2 has an approximate size 6
It shows a substantially rectangular parallelepiped vibration absorber having a size of mm × 20 mm × 250 mm (volume of 30 cubic cm), and the resonating body 1 is attached when mounted.
The cross section perpendicular to the upper surface 11a of No. 1 is a vertically long rectangle and is slightly curved in the longitudinal direction. The bottom surface 21b of the vibration absorber 21 is
The upper surface 21 a of the sound drum 11 contacts the upper surface 21 a, and the upper surface 21 a contacts the lower side of the string 15. The vibration absorber 21 is made of felt or elastomer (elastic modulus at room temperature is 1 so that the vibration of the string 15 can be absorbed.
It is formed by using a vibration-absorbing material such as a polymer elastic body having a elongation of 10 kgf / square mm and an elongation of 100% or more.
Although a felt, especially a soft felt, is preferable in terms of vibration absorbing performance, but if ease of manufacture is required or a slight low noise is acceptable, an elastomer elastic body such as rubber or synthetic rubber may be partially attached to the lower portion of the vibration absorbing body 21 or the like. It may be used as a composite structure in which only the upper tangential side is made of felt, or the entire vibration absorber 21 may be made of an elastomer elastic body. Further, when the felt fibers are extended in the longitudinal direction of the sound absorber 2, not only is the cutting easy, but also the stability of the shape and dimension is good, and there is a variation in the amount of compression when they come into contact with the string 15 and undergo compression deformation. Few. The silencer 2 further includes a plate body 22, and the plate body 22 is made of a material having higher rigidity (large Young's modulus) than the vibration absorber 21. For example, a synthetic resin such as polymethacrylic resin is suitable. In order to reinforce the vibration absorber 21, the plate 22 is bonded to one long side surface 21c of the vibration absorber 21. By attaching the plate 22 to the long side surface 21c, the vibration absorber 21 is significantly reinforced. Therefore, even if the vibration absorber 21 has a considerably thin shape, the vibration absorber 21 can withstand a strong pressing force from above by the string 15, and the vibration absorber 21 is virtually free from buckling. It is very important to make the width of the vibration absorber 21 as thin as possible so as not to hinder the string plucking operation. When the members 21 and 22 are bonded together, the plate body 22 is formed of a material having good adhesiveness to the vibration absorber 21. Instead of using an adhesive, a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape may be used for attachment, or it may be sewn in places. Then, both ends in the longitudinal direction may be filled with a rubber seal for preventing peeling. In a weak sound performance test of the weak sound device 2 described later, the string 15 has a diameter of 1 to 2 m.
Although m of m is used, if the felt volume of the vibration absorber 21 is set to 4 cubic cm or more for a normal koto having a string in this range, the weak sound effect can sufficiently be exerted, so that the above-described composite structure is developed. It is possible to make the upper part of the vibration absorber 21 a felt and the lower part a material having high rigidity as appropriate to serve as the plate body 22. Further, the plate body 22 is replaced by the vibration absorber 21.
When placed inside, the softener 2 has a very clean and beautiful appearance.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view for explaining the mounting of the weak sound device 2 for the koto on the koto 1. First, with the other long side surface 21d to which the plate 22 is not bonded being the side of the bridge 12, the weakening device 2 is inserted into the upper surface 11a of the sound drum 11 below the string 15. The muffler 2 at this time is drawn by an imaginary line in FIG. The insertion is between the pillar 14 and the piece 12, and the insertion is easy if the insertion is performed at a position close to the pillar 14. Next, holding the both ends of the sound absorber 2 and moving the sound absorber 2 along the string 15, the other long side surface 21 d of the vibration absorber 21 is brought into contact with the side surface of the piece 12. The muffler 2 at this time is depicted by a solid line in FIG. With the sound absorber 2 and the bridge 12 arranged side by side, the lower surface 21b of the vibration absorber 21 is the upper surface 11a of the sound drum 11.
The upper surface 2 of the vibration absorber 21 is abutted against (often the upper surface of the quadrant 16 that constitutes a part of the upper surface 11 a of the sound drum 11).
1a contacts the lower side of the plurality of strings 15. Then, the silencer 2 supports the plurality of strings 15 together with the piece 12. In order to reduce the adverse effect on the vibration of the string 15 by supporting the string 15 by the muffler 2, the muffler 2 is attached to the bridge 12.
It is desirable to attach it as close as possible to. That is, it is desirable that the long side surface 21d of the vibration absorber 21 and the side surface of the piece 12 are in close contact with each other. Further, depending on the position of the pillar 14, some strings 15 may not come into contact with the upper surface 21a of the vibration absorber 21, but in that case, a rubber having a vibration absorbing property and easy to mold is suitable, but A wedge-shaped spacer (not shown) may be formed, and this spacer may be inserted between the low-pitched sound device 2 and the upper surface 11a of the sound drum 11 so as to aim at a height insufficient portion. Although it is more difficult to wear than a koto, it is also possible to attach the low-pitched sound device 2 to a koto.

In the above-mentioned state in which the sound absorber 2 supports a plurality of strings 15 together with the bridge 12, the strings 1 are attached to the upper surface 21a of the vibration absorber 21.
5, the contact portion 21e with the string 15 is compressed and deformed by the string 15. In the case of a felt, the compression deformation amount is 1 m when the sound absorber 2 is attached to the standard koto.
The length of contact between the string 15 and the vibration absorber 21 is preferably 3 mm or more and 12 mm or less.
The former reason is that if the amount of compressive deformation of the contact portion 21e with the string 15 is less than 1 mm, the sound absorbing performance is not sufficiently obtained as described later, and if the amount of compressive deformation exceeds 4 mm, the string 15 absorbs vibration. This is because it deeply digs into the body 21, and as a result, the vibration absorber 21 projects between the strings 15 and the string-repelling operation becomes difficult. The deep penetration of the strings 15 into the vibration absorber 21 means that it is difficult to attach the sound absorber 2 to the koto 1. The reason for the latter is that if the contact length between the string 15 and the vibration absorber 21 is less than 3 mm, the low noise performance is not sufficiently obtained as described later, and in addition, it becomes difficult to maintain the shape of the vibration absorber 21. , Contact length is 1
This is because if it exceeds 2 mm, the effective string length is greatly affected, and the pitch becomes audible. The increase in the contact length leads to an increase in the width dimension of the vibration absorber 21, which makes the string plucking operation difficult. It depends on the size of the player's hands,
From the string plucking operation, 10mm or less or 12mm
The following is preferred.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 show how the weak sound performance of the sound deadening device 2 is changed by changing the width dimension and the height dimension of the vibration absorber 21. The weak sound performance of the muffler 2 was evaluated by measuring the time (unit: ms) required for the sound of the koto 1 to be attenuated by 20 dB. If the sound is attenuated in a short time, the weak sound performance of the weak sound device 2 is excellent. It should be noted that the standard of 20 dB attenuation can be said to be a level at which anyone can perceptually feel that the volume has become extremely low and quiet. A 13-string koto 1 was used, the string material was polyethylene terephthalate, and the string diameters of the 13 strings in the stretched state were all 1 mm. The names of the tension strings are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, from the one farther from the performer.
It is called Ten, Dou, Tame, and Width, but of these, I chose three, two, seven, and Tamaki. Two is bass G (actual sound), pillar 1
The string length from 4 to piece 12 (pillow above the dragon) is 975m
m and seven are medium-tone G, and the string length is 525 mm.
The chord length is 260 mm. In Figures 3 and 5, bass G
Is indicated by a dot-dash line, middle tone G is indicated by a solid line, and treble tone G is indicated by a broken line.

In FIG. 3, the contact length between the string 15 and the vibration absorber 21 (same as the width of the vibration absorber 21) is 0 mm (without the sound absorber 2), 3 mm, 6 mm, 9 mm, 12 mm, 18 m.
The result of measuring the sound decay time in place of m is shown. Here, the amount of compressive deformation of the contact portion 21e with the string 15 is constant at 2 mm in all cases. Without the low-pitched sound device 2, bass G
It can be seen that the decay of is particularly slow and takes 921 ms. However, if the contact length with the vibration absorber 21 is 3 mm, the attenuation of the low tone G is greatly improved and the low tone G is attenuated in 425 ms. The low tone G has the attenuation characteristics of the medium tone G and the high tone G. It comes to come close to the attenuation characteristic of. Further, if the contact length with the vibration absorber 21 is 6 mm or more, the three sounds of the low tone G, the medium tone G, and the high tone G will surely be attenuated sufficiently quickly, which is very preferable. Even if the contact length is longer than this, the speed of attenuation is almost the same, and the state is stable.

In FIG. 4, the contact length (width dimension of the vibration absorbing body 21) between the string 15 and the vibration absorbing body 21 is kept constant at 6 mm, and the contact portion 21e of the upper surface 21a of the vibration absorbing body 21 with the string 15 is shown. Compressive deformation amount is 0mm, 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm
The results of measuring the sound decay time are shown instead of. Since the measured values of the low tone G, the medium tone G, and the high tone G are similar to each other, they are represented by the medium tone G. It is understood that the effect is exhibited when the amount of compressive deformation of the contact portion 21e is 1 mm or more. Further, it can be seen that even if the amount of compressive deformation increases, the improvement of the damping characteristic will soon reach the ceiling.

In the experiments so far, the 13th string was used for the koto 1, but FIG. 5 shows the measurement results using the 17th string koto. With a 17-string koto, the names of the strings to be stretched are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, from the one farther from the performer.
They are called nine, ten, one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven, of which two, nine, and six were selected and tested. 2 is a bass D, the string diameter is 2 mm, the string length from the pillar 14 to the piece 12 is 1465 mm, 9 is a medium tone D, the string diameter is 1.8 mm, the string length is 890 mm, and 6 is a high tone D. The diameter is 1.2 mm and the chord length is 485 mm. In the figure, low-pitched sound D is indicated by an alternate long and short dash line, middle-tone sound D is indicated by a solid line, and high-pitched sound D is indicated by a broken line.

The contact length between the string 15 and the vibration absorbing body 21 (width dimension of the vibration absorbing body 21) is 0 mm (without mounting the silencer 2), 6 m
The sound attenuation time was measured by changing m, 12 mm, and 18 mm and shown in FIG. Here, the amount of compressive deformation of the contact portion 21e with the string 15 is 1.5 mm in all cases.
The tendency of FIG. 5 is basically similar to the tendency of FIG. 3 with 13 strings. The contact length of 6 mm is sufficiently effective, but it is necessary to increase the contact length (width dimension of the vibration absorber 21) between the string 15 and the vibration absorber 21 in order to achieve a stable and fast damping state. Understand. However, as already mentioned, the upper limit is determined by the restrictions on plucked string operation. Although the illustration is omitted,
The relationship between the amount of compressive deformation and the speed of attenuation is basically similar to the tendency shown in FIG.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, the koto and the koto's muffler are provided with a muffler alongside the piece of the koto's head, so that the vibrating motion generated on the strings during plucking is reduced. Attenuate with a vessel. In addition to this, since the support of the strings is taken care of by the two pieces, namely the piece and the low-pitched sound device, the force acting between the strings and the pieces is smaller than that in the case of only the pieces. As a result, the vibrational energy propagating from the strings to the reverberation drum is greatly reduced as a whole, and the desired weak sound effect is surely obtained. Also, by attaching the plate body, the vibration absorber of the sound absorber can withstand the strong pressing force of the strings 15 even if the shape is quite thin, so that the shape with a thin width that does not hinder the string plucking operation. Easy to do. Further, by setting the size of the vibration absorber in an appropriate range, the noise reduction effect can be more reliably obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a sound deadening device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a procedure of inserting the weak instrument of the present invention into a koto.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the width of the vibration absorber of the sound absorber of the present invention and the attenuation speed of the 13th string koto.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the compression deformation amount of the vibration absorber of the sound absorber of the present invention and 13
The graph which shows the relationship with the attenuation speed of the string koto.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between the width of the vibration absorber of the sound absorber of the present invention and the damping speed of the 17th string koto.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a 13-string koto.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Koto, 2 ... Silent device, 11 ... Resonator, 11a ... Top of the resonator, 12 ... Piece (head side), 13 ... Piece (tail side), 14 ... Pillar, 15 ... String, 16 ... quadrants, 21 ... vibration absorber, 21a ... top surface, 21b ... bottom surface, 21c ... one long side surface, 21d ... other long side surface, 22 ... plate body (for reinforcement).

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sounding drum, a pair of pieces provided on an upper surface of the sounding drum, spaced apart from each other, a plurality of strings stretched between these pieces, an upper surface of the sounding drum, and the plurality of strings. Is a silencer that is attached to a koto equipped with a plurality of pillars that are interposed between and that are movable in the extending direction of the plurality of strings, and that damps vibrations that occur in the plurality of strings during plucking. A vibration absorber whose upper surface is elastically deformed by contacting the plurality of strings, and a plate body fixed to the vibration absorber to reinforce the vibration absorber. A weak sound device for a koto, which has a side surface that comes into contact with one of the pieces. 2. The sound absorber for a koto according to claim 1, wherein the plate body is fixed to a first side surface of the vibration absorber,
A low-pitched silencer for a koto, wherein a lower surface abuts an upper surface of the resonating drum, and a second side surface located behind the first side surface abuts one of the pair of pieces. 3. The koto sound absorber according to claim 1, wherein the vibration absorber is a felt, and the upper surface of the vibration absorber has a string contact length of 3 mm or more and 12 mm or less, and each of the strings is A weak sound device for a koto, wherein the amount of compressive deformation generated in the vibration absorber when elastically abutting the vibration absorber is 1 mm or more and 4 mm or less. 4. A resonating body, a pair of pieces provided on the upper surface of the resonating body, spaced apart from each other, a plurality of strings stretched between the pieces, an upper surface of the resonating body, and the plurality of strings. In a koto with a silencer, which is interposed between, and a plurality of columns movable in the extending direction of the plurality of strings, and a silencer for damping the vibration generated in the plurality of strings during plucking, The sound absorber includes a vibration absorber whose upper surface is elastically deformed by contacting the plurality of strings, and a plate body which is fixed to the vibration absorber and reinforces the vibration absorber, and a lower surface which abuts the upper surface of the vibrating body. A koto with a silencer, having a side surface that comes into contact with one of the pair of pieces.