Introduction to Japanese Music

Kabuki

History

• At the heart of the entertainment districts of Edo-period Japan

• A fusion of many popular styles and genres

• Song, dance and theatre

History

• Ka-bu-ki (‘kabuku’?)

• Okuni, the shrinemaiden

• Women’s kabuki, c.30 years

• Young men’s kabuki, 23 years

Influences

• No theatre

• Narrative genres – heikyoku, joruri

• Puppet theatre – Gidayu

• Popular song and dance - kouta

Theatrical productions

• Lavish sets and staging

• Dance and drama – music is a subsidiary element

• Fierce competition as popular entertainment

Theatrical productions

• Jidaimono - period pieces, samurai tales

• Sewamono - contemporary pieces, peasant or merchant tales

• Aragoto and wagoto styles of performance

Benten Kozō

Musical accompaniment

• Four main genres:

– Nagauta

– Gidayu

– Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto

– Kage-bayashi

• Nagauta is the most common

Musical accompaniment

• On-stage and off-stage

• Small, screened rooms for geza ensemble

• Underscoring –fragmented, sound effects and mood-setting

Nagauta

• Sakata Hyoshiro came to Edo, playing jiutashamisen for Kabuki

• This Edo kabuki music was called nagauta

• Accompanies dance; long interludes; accompanied by No hayashi

Nagauta

• Uses the lightest shamisen type, with smallest neck

• Lyric style (jiuta), with narrative influence

• Accompanies furi rather than mai dancing

• Patterns from No and original kabuki

Listening

• Giappone: Japanese Kabuki Nagauta Music, The Kyoto Kabuki Orchestra (Albatros, 1979)

• Japan: Nagauta, Ensemble Kineya (Ocora, 2000)

For Next Week…

Watch Sukeroku

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkbrsR855T4