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Structure and biomechanics of culms of Phragmites australis used for reeds of J apanese wind instrument “hichiriki”
Author(s) -
Kawasaki Masahiro,
Nobuchi Tadashi,
Nakafushi Yuta,
Nose Masateru,
Shiojiri Makoto
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.22469
Subject(s) - phragmites , vascular bundle , homogeneous , botany , wetland , materials science , anatomy , biology , mathematics , ecology , combinatorics
ABSTRACT Hichiriki is a traditional Japanese double‐reed wind instrument used in Japanese ancient imperial court music, gagaku, which has been performed since the 7th century. The best reeds for hichiriki have been made of culms or stems of Phragmites australis ( P. australis ) that are harvested from only a limited reed bed at Udono near Kyoto. The aim of this study is to elucidate why the stems from Udono are the best materials for hichiriki reeds. Plant anatomy was examined for choice stems of P. australis grown in different reed beds in Japan as well as morphology, and the local indentation hardness and Young's modulus of tissues on the cross‐sections of some representatives of hichiriki reeds were measured. It is concluded that the good stems for hichiriki reeds have an outer diameter of about 11 mm, a wall thickness of about 1 mm and comparatively homogeneous structure where harder materials, such as epidermis, hypodermis, sclerenchymatous cells, and vascular bundle sheaths with hard walls, are orderly deployed with softer materials such as parenchyma cells and vascular bundles. This structure has smaller differences of hardness and Young's modulus between the hard and soft materials in the reed, providing the best music performance. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:260–267, 2015 . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.