The purpose of this study is to investigate students' listening attitude towards Japanese traditional music appreciation. The participants in this study were 129 elementary school students with a range from fourth grade to sixth grade. The participants were asked to listen to koto music composed by Michio Miyagi, "Rokudan no Shirabe", and complete an open-ended questionnaire for music appreciation. Grounded Theory Approach (GTA) was used to analyze the data from an open-ended questionnaire for music appreciation, and the data was categorized every grade. This result suggests that most of the participants listened to Japanese traditional music focusing on just Japanese traditional music itself; in addition, six graders, are in the process of learning about koto, showed a considerable interest in techniques and tones of koto. This research finally discussed the necessity of teaching cultural value through Japanese traditional music appreciation.