hi alice again, 'taisho-koto' that you mention is still sold in japan. 'taisho' means the era of 2nd former japanese emperor 80 years ago, and 'koto' means japanese harp. it possibly made by suzuki, violin and harmonica and many other acoustic instrument maker in japan, price is not cheap around $500 i suppose. taisho-koto is similar to auto harp. it has very unique sound that has only 3 string in different pitch, maybe unison: 2 same pitch and one octave low, closely arranged to be picked at the same time, and when key down, capo like bar place to the each fret. not mute like autoharp but fret like a finger to the guitar. what's interesting for me is that there are electric taisho-koto and i astonished about sampling synthesized taisho-koto also exist. -takeo