Introduction to Japanese Music

Gidayu-bushi - Bunraku

Joruri

• Mid-15th century narrative genre

• Similar to Heikebiwa tradition

• Princess Joruri and Yoshitsune…

• Shamisen added to joruri-mono from 1562

Gidayu-bushi / Bunraku

• Takemoto Gidayu (1651-1714)

• Gidayu-bushi became the representative style of joruri

• The proper term for what is commonly called bunraku, or puppet theatre

History

• The Takemoto-za founded in 1684, in Osaka

• Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725)

• Puppet plays based on joruri narrative, with vocal and shamisen accompaniment

• Rivalry with the Toyotake-za in the same district

History

• Bunraku-za

• Founded in 1790s, and renamed in 1872

• Rivalry with the Hikoroku-za

Shamisen in the history

• Originally not in the programme

• Subservient to the drama and song

• Matsuya Seishichi developed tablature, helping to establish shamisen playing as an important part of gidayu

Performance

• Music is performed by a narrator (tayu) and a shamisen player

• Tayu describes the settings and delivers dialogue

• Puppets controlled by three handlers, since 1734

• Joruri; narrative music, sung with shamisenaccompaniment

• Gidayu-bushi; the performance of jorurinarrative music with puppet theatre

• Bunraku; the name given to the puppet theatre

Motegi Kiyoko, ‘Aural Learning in Gidayū-Bushi: Music of the Japanese Puppet Theatre’,

Yearbook for Traditional Music,Vol. 16 (1984), pp. 97-108

Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura

Jidaimono and Sewamono

• Joruri texts for gidayu come in three kinds

• Jidaimono - period pieces in five dan

• Sewamono - two or three acts, known as maki

• Michiyuki - ‘journeying’ scenes, with dance

Musical Style

• Kotoba – dialogue

• Jiai – accompanied narration

• Fushi – singing

• Shamisen accompanies narration and singing

• Tuned to honchosi, but alters tuning to quote other genres

Vocal delivery

• Narrated from characters’ viewpoints

• Senritsukei (recognisable melodic patterns) used throughout

Structure

• Five-act jidaimono or three-act sewamono

• Dan and sho-dan

• Senritsukei possess narrative and structural functions

Transmission

• Shamisen parts notated with text and tablature

• Vocal parts use symbols to denote senritsukei

Dondoro

• Keisei Awai no Naruto (1695)

• Chikamatsu Monzaemon

• Act 8, Scene I

Resources

• http://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/kabuki/kennelly-bunraku-kabuki.html

• Shamisen II: Japanese Traditional Music(Seven, 1999)

• Japan Ikuta School, Japanese Shamisen(Lyrichord)