science

Tonkori

Tonkori is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tonkori rather than just read about it. In short: The tonkori (トンコリ) is a plucked string instrument played by the Ainu people of Hokkaidō, northern Japan and Sakhalin. It generally has five strings, which are not stopped or fretted but simply played "open".

Key takeaways

Tonkori belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tonkori to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tonkori from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The tonkori (トンコリ) is a plucked string instrument played by the Ainu people of Hokkaidō, northern Japan and Sakhalin. It generally has five strings, which are not stopped or fretted but simply played "open". The instrument is believed to have been developed in Sakhalin. By the 1970s the instrument was practically extinct, but is experiencing a revival along with the increased interest in Ainu heritage.

Construction The instrument is typically constructed of a single piece of Jezo spruce approximately a metre long. Its shape is traditionally said to resemble a woman's body, and the corresponding words are used for its parts. A pebble is placed within the body-cavity of the instrument, granting it a "soul". The instrument tends to measure approximately 120 cm long, 10 cm wide, and 5 cm thick. The tonkori's strings are made of gut, deer tendon, or vegetable fiber. While five-string tonkori are the most frequently mentioned, they could have as few as two or as many as six strings. The strings are not tuned in order of pitch, but are instead in a reentrant tuning alternating between higher and lower strings, rising and falling by a fifths in a pentatonic scale, often a-d'-g'-c'-f'. A similar style of reentrant tuning a was used by the ancient Japanese version of the koto, the wagon.

Performance

The tonkori is played angled across the chest, strings outward, while both hands pluck the open strings from opposite sides. The instrument was used to accompany songs or dances, or played solo. The tonkori was traditionally played by both men and women. One description of traditional tonkori technique noted that a player would strum across all the strings, and then pluck a single string with his opposite hand. Another description notes that "the thumbs pluck in an outward direction only."

Revival

The most prominent modern tonkori performer is Oki Kano, who often uses the instrument in contemporary and cross-cultural performances and recordings. The researcher Nobuhiko Chiba has been prominent among those researching and analysing the instrument and its music.

Etymology The term tonkori is an onomatopoeic description of the sound of the instrument. The tonkori was also referred to as the ka ("string"). The late-1800s explorer A. H. Savage Landor documented the tonkori, stating that it was referred to only as mukko ("musical instrument"). Linguist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney noted that /tonkori/ was sometimes pronounced with either a voiced or voiceless stop on the initial sound: [donkori] or [tonkori]. One 1962 French publication notes the usage of the spelling donkori in an earlier work, while the 1969 Asian Review appears to use tonguri and tongari as alternate spellings.

Players Oki Kano K.D earth (in Japanese) Sanpe (Nobuhiko Chiba) ToyToy (Motoi Ogawa) Kumiko Sukegawa

See also Ainu music Ainu fiddle Nares-jux, a similar instrument of Siberia

External links Tonkori.com

Further reading The Ainu Tonkori: A Manual for Learning and Guide to Performance Practice, Jack Claar, Dr. Joseph Amato

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tonkori

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tonkori claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tonkori before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tonkori ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tonkori

In research: Tonkori appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tonkori in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tonkori is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Ainu musical instruments, Japanese inventions, Zithers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tonkori outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Tonkori” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Tonkori in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tonkori means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tonkori out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tonkori in simple terms?

Why does Tonkori matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tonkori?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tonkori.