Michio Miyagi

Michio Miyagi [Wakabe; Suga], [Nakasuga Kengyō]
(b Kobe, 7 April 1894; d Kariya, 25 June 1956). Japanese player of the zoku-sō (the 13-string koto) and composer.

A son of Kunijirō Wakabe, he was given the family name of Suga as an infant. By the age of seven he was totally blind. He became in 1902 a disciple of Nakajima Kengyō II, a koto master of the Ikuta School; in 1903 he made his début as a solo performer, and in 1905 he received a certificate of highest proficiency in koto playing, earning the professional name of Nakasuga. Two years later he went to Korea, where he taught the koto and shakuhachi in Jinsen (Inch'ŏn) and then in Keijō (Seoul). In 1909 he wrote his first composition, Mizu no hentai, a song with koto solo which won considerable fame. He received the professional title of Kengyō in 1912; and in 1913, when he married Nakako Kita, he assumed the surname Miyagi, after which he became best known as Michio Miyagi. In 1914 he met Seifū Yoshida, who became a lifelong friend and with whom he began in 1920 the Shin Nihon Ongaku (New Japanese Music Movement), aimed at adapting elements of European music to composition for Japanese instruments. Meanwhile he had returned to Japan in 1917 and settled in Tokyo. The first concert devoted to his music was given successfully on 16 May 1919 and was followed by more in 1920 and 1921.