() is a genre of accompanied vocal

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

court music that existed during the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

in the

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

and

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

regions. It draws from traditional folk music () of the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

accompanied by '' togaku'' instruments, with the exception of the , which are replaced by , wooden sticks used for

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

. It may have developed out of music to drive horses along, as the Chinese characters that compose its name seem to indicate, and , hence ''saibara'' = music to drive horses along as they toil. but, according to German musicologist

Eta Harich-Schneider Eta (Margarete) Harich-Schneider (''née'' Schneider; 16 November 1894 – 10 January 1986) was a German harpsichordist, musicologist, Japanologist and writer. Life Born in Oranienburg, Harich-Schneider later gave her year of birth as 1897, wh ...

, there are several other theories. Song texts are short and simple in character and describe scenes of life. The repertoire was once estimated at some 400 songs. In the late

the aristocracy became more interested in complex foreign musical imports.

Emperor Horikawa was the 73rd emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 堀河天皇 (73)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Horikawa's reign spanned the years from 1087 through 1107. Biography Before his ascension to the ...

(1079-1107), despite the taste for Chinese culture since the Nara period, also cultivated an interest in . Courtiers sang songs for entertainment. A fashionable aristocrat was not regarded ''à jour'' if he did not know of the latest Chinese imports, such as music. In the 14th century, because of the many wars, the repertoire of declined, as many were lost due to the turmoil, and it was only at the crowning ceremony of emperor

Emperor Go-Mizunoo was the 108th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Mizunoo's reign spanned the years from 1611 through 1629, and was the first emperor to reign entirely during the Edo period. This 17th-century sovereign was n ...

, who ruled from 1611 to 1629, at Nijo Palace that a reconstruction of the old pieces was attempted and the famous piece "" was performed at the Imperial palace in

Kyōto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. The emperor's wife, Fujiwara no Fusahi, tells in her court chronicles how little old material could be found. The repertoire today includes newly created folk songs, .

Text of '' (Sea of Ise)

('Near the sea at Ise we want to harvest sea-wheat, while we collect mussels and sea shells we collect pearls, I want to find one pearl.')

References

Harich-Schneider, E: Saibara, Deutsches Jahrbuch für Music, 1963, Harich-Schneider, E: A history of Japanese Music, Oxford UP, 1980 Gagaku {{music-genre-stub