Rokudan no shirabe

is one of Yatsuhashi Kengyō’s famous pieces. It was originally a ', a kind of chamber music with the koto playing the leading part, but nowadays the part of the koto is more widely known than the original. The music is made from six columns, hence the name, and there are exactly fifty-two beats in each column, except for the first row, which has four beats more. Each column first begins slowly, and then gets faster and faster, but slows down to the original tempo at the end. Along with the ', it is one of the most popular .