Division 28

This is a single piece of music, consisting of 28 parts. In ancient times, in both the East and the West, one way of creating a lunar calendar system to complement the solar calendar was to divide the celestial sphere into 28 uneven segments along the ecliptic or the celestial equator based on the phases of the moon. These segments, as conceived in ancient astronomy, are known in English as the 28 Mansions. They can also be used as reference points for tracking the movement of the moon relative to the fixed stars and to estimate the location of the sun. The origins of this system are said to date back to around 1100 BC, and it is interesting that similar methods were used not only in China, India and Persia, but also in Babylon, Egypt and Greece. Living in the modern age, where almost everything is digitized and evenness has come to be considered as particularly important, I am intrigued that this system of uneven divisions remains in use in some areas of life today. The idea that 28 is a perfect number may have been recognized by people in many parts of the world throughout the ages. This work is dedcated to Toshi Ichiyanagi, who passed away last year.