1000/416: 11 April 2011: Koto Player

1000/416 a photo by nmonckton on Flickr.

Well - still in York. We had sort of decided that we would give the National Railway Museum a miss, when we noticed that they were advertising a 'Japanese festival'.

Obviously, festival has several meanings, because when we got there it was rather quiet. They do have a Bullet Train that you can climb aboard - and very impressive it is too. And, tucked away among all the other trains there was a display area where people did traditional Japanese things at regular intervals. While we were there it was koto playing.

This lady seemed rather baffled by the idea of giving a koto demonstration surrounded by train-spotters - to the point of acknowledging that we probably weren't there to hear her play. She was unnecessarily modest - she could make it sing, and sing beautifully enough to keep everyone's attention.

It was a bit challenging from a photographer's point of view as there wasn't much light, and I didn't want to use flash. In this one I think I got the balance between the calmness of her pose and the speed of her hands about right.