Design and Development of Polyester/Silk Composite So-String
Akio Sakaguchi, Hirokazu KIMURA, Yoichi Matsumoto, Hideo Morooka · Journal of Textile Engineering · 2014
So (Koto) is a traditional Japanese horizontal harp. Recently, for this music instrument, there are two types of strings made from silk and polyester filaments. The former is not only the strong points of tone and sound but also the weak point of durability and the latter has greater durability. In this research, we investigated how to produce novel silk so-string with good functionality. A composite so-string was designed with combining a silk so-string as core layer and a polyester filament yarn as sheath layer. And the durability and pleasant tone of composite so-string were examined. The following results were obtained: (1) the durability of the composite so-string was improved over 40 % in a comparison with the silk so-string; (2) The attenuation ratio of the composite so-string was better than that of the polyester so-string; (3) Additionally, the harmonic distribution of the composite string was nearly equal to that of the silk so-string.