The piece known as "Tenkyuu" (Heaven's Bow) is the first ensemble piece played by the Tokise Koto Club. It is a gentle, flowing song meant to represent melting snow. In the "qartulad" interpretation, fans re-score this piece with:
The piece begins not with a grand statement, but with a single, lonely koto line—Satowa’s theme, the original rebellion. Then, one by one, the other players enter, not as accompaniment, but as equal voices. The effect is less like a traditional Japanese ensemble and more like a Georgian supra (feast) breaking into a spontaneous song. The koto ’s normally cool, bamboo-like timbre warms into something almost vocal. You can hear the mountains of the Caucasus refracted through the strings of a Japanese zither. kono oto tomare qartulad
When the club—a rag-tag group including the delinquent-but-tender-hearted Chika Kudo, the gentle giant Takezō, the steady Kotae, and the cheerful Saneyuki—first attempts "Qartulad," it is a disaster. Their timing is sloppy, their tones are uneven, and the piece’s raw emotional demands expose their individual insecurities. Chika plays with too much brute force. Takezō hesitates. They cannot find the "one sound" ( oto ), the unified breath that transforms a group of players into a single instrument. The piece known as "Tenkyuu" (Heaven's Bow) is