Tsuru no Koe appears on the following albums

	Album	Artist
	Fascination of the Koto 2	Voice : Yonekawa Toshiko Shamisen : Yonekawa Toshiko Voice : Yonekawa Toshiko II Koto : Yonekawa Toshiko II
Tsuru no koe (Voice. of cranes) Composed by Tamaoka kengyo at the end of 18th century. The crane, along with the turtle, is a symbol of felicity and longevity in the Japanese culture. For this reason, this short piece is performed very frequently.
	Fascination of the Shakuhachi - 1	Voice : Inoue Michiko Shamisen : Inoue Michiko Shakuhachi : Yamamoto Hōzan
A ha-uta piece composed by TAMAOKA kengyo. The ha-uta (popular songs with shamisen accompaniment) genre is sometimes thought of as rather depressing, with songs like KUROKAMI and YUKI, but this piece is encouraging. The lyrics describe a couple; a wife forced to separate from her husband because of poverty rises to be a servant to a noble man and meets her husband again. The hard luck at the beginning is merely implied, lending rhe piece a certain profundity.
	How to Play the Shamisen and the Koto (Disc 2)	Koto : Nakajima Keiko Shamisen : Ozawa Kazuko
	Sankyoku Gassō Dai Zenshū vol. 15 (三曲合奏大全集１５)	Shakuhachi : Hoshida Ichizan II Shamisen : Tomizaki Shunkin Koto : Tominaka Fumikazu Voice : Tomizaki Fumiyo
	Sasagawa Shizue no Shigei Vol. 2	Shamisen : Sasagawa Shizue Koto : Suzuki Kazuko
	Sō no Shiori (Ikuta Ryū) vol 2	Voice : Kikuhara Hatsuko Shamisen : Kikuhara Hatsuko Koto : Fujii Kunie
	Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 15	Shamisen : Noda Sachiyo Voice : Nakajima Keiko
	Song of Daybreak	Shakuhachi : Bruce Huebner
Instrumental music in Japan is closely linked to vocal music. Shakuhachi players, for example, learn pitch and rhythm by vocalizing, and much of shakuhachi ornamentation is derived from vocal and shamisen music. Kinko players have often joined sangen and koto players of the vocal music jiuta in collaboration, and through this jiuta has had a great influence on Kinko honkyoku. The close relation of the voice, string and shakuhachi lines is evident in Tsuru no Koe “The Crane’s Call”, one of the so-called hauta pieces within the jiuta repertoire, a Kamigata area (Kyoto/Osaka) chamber music developed by blind musicians. On this recording we used the longer 2.0 nishaku (two “foot” instrument tuned to C, rather than the standard 1.8 I’shaku, ha’sun (one “foot”, eight “inch”) instrument tuned to D, to facilitate the vocalist’s range. Synopsis of song text: Caught in a sudden shower, a young traveler takes cover under the eaves of a humble tree-thatched house by the road. A young woman comes out from the house, explains that the rain may take awhile to stop and invites the traveler inside. Since it is just to wait while the shower passes, he accepts. However, the rain continues, and eventually evening falls. Concerned that the road at night in the rain would be dangerous, the young woman asks him, if he can stand the poor house, to take shelter there for the night. The man hesitates at first; after all, he doesn’t know her and it appears that she is alone. In the end he decides to stay. Through the evening they talk and become more and more close. Eventually the man announces that he loves her. While she wonders to herself if a man who has just met her can really be sincere in his love, a single note of a crane’s call can be heard. This omen convinces her of his sincerity. They are eventually married and live together until they grow gray in their old age.
	Togashi Noriko - 03	Shamisen : Togashi Noriko