From the early 1960s, Takemitsu began to make use of traditional Japanese instruments in his music, and even took up playing the "biwa"—an instrument he used in his score for the film "Seppuku" (1962). In 1967, Takemitsu received a commission from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, to commemorate the orchestra's 125th anniversary, for which he wrote "November Steps" for "biwa", "shakuhachi", and orchestra. Initially, Takemitsu had great difficulty in uniting these instruments from such different musical cultures in one work. "Eclipse" for "biwa" and "shakuhachi" (1966) illustrates Takemitsu's attempts to find a viable notational system for these instruments, which in normal circumstances neither sound together nor are used in works notated in any system of Western staff notation.