
, also known as "lute priests", were travelling performers in the era of
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese history preceding the
Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
. They earned their income by reciting vocal literature to the accompaniment of music. were mostly blind, and adopted the shaved heads and robes common to
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
s. The occupation likely had its origin in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, where blind Buddhist lay-priest performers were once common.
The musical style of the is referred to as , which literally means " music". Although these performers existed well before the events of the
Genpei War
The was a national civil war between the Taira clan, Taira and Minamoto clan, Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yori ...
, they eventually became famous for narrating tales about this war. Before sang , they were entertainers and ritual performers. They took on a broad range of roles, including poetry and song, plague prevention, and spiritual purification; it was probably because of their ritualistic duties that they became the caretakers of .
The are considered the first performers of the ''Tale of the Heike'', which is one of Japan's most famous epics. It details battles between two powerful clans, the
Minamoto
was a noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility since 814."...the Minamoto (1192-1333)". ''Warrior Rule in Jap ...
and the
Taira
The was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period of Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto, the Fujiwara, and the Tachibana. The clan is divided into four major groups, named ...
around the 12th century. The Taira (or Heike) were eventually annihilated by the Minamoto (sometimes called the Genji), who systematically killed every male descendant of the Taira. Religion in Japan at the time incorporated many native animistic (
Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
) beliefs into its Buddhist theological framework, leading many court nobles and religious leaders to worry about angry Taira spirits disrupting the peace. The great earthquake around 1185 CE contributed to this sentiment. Since their rituals included placating spirits and preventing plagues, music became a vehicle for placating lingering, resentful Heike spirits. and became immensely popular for the next several hundred years.
Etymology
literally means "lute priest". is derived from , which translates as a teacher who explains Buddhist precepts. The two characters and mean "Buddhist doctrine" and "teacher" respectively. referred to blind priests who played the to accompany their songs about legends, wars, histories, and mythologies. Eventually, referred to non-blind and blind performers and was also used as a suffix to a series of other types of people, such as , , , and .
are referred to in Japanese iconography that dates back to the late
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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...
(794–1185 CE). They are also referred to in the , written by
Fujiwara no Akihira
Fujiwara no Akihira (藤原 明衡; 989? – November 14, 1066) was a Japanese nobleman and '' kanshi'' poet of the Heian period.
Life
Fujiwara no Akihira was the second child of Fujiwara no Atsunobu. His mother was a daughter of 良峰英材, o ...
(989–1066).
History
Origins and proliferation
Shōbutsu, a Buddhist monk of the
Tendai
, also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...
school, was, according to tradition, the first to sing the , around the year 1220. Subsequently, two different factions of were formed. These were the Ichikata school, founded by Akashi Kyoichi, and the Yasaka School, founded by Yasaka Kigen. Ranks were assigned to on the basis of skill, the highest being , followed by , and .
The proliferation of the Yasaka and Ichikata factions heightened with the contributions of
Akashi Kakuichi
also known as was a Japanese Buddhist monk of the early Muromachi period of Japanese history, noted as the blind itinerant lute player (''biwa hōshi'') who gave the epic ''Heike Monogatari'' its present form.
Life
Little is known about his ea ...
(1300–1371). A noted , Kakuichi's narration is currently accepted as the definitive version of the . A documented reason for this is that Kakuichi was largely responsible for forming the Ichikata guild. This preceded the formation of the , a self-governing guild of . The Tōdō received income in two ways: patronage from the
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
aristocracy and military, and its monopoly over the teaching and transmission of . To be accepted as a disciple, an aspiring student would have to pay a fee, after which the study of each new piece of music required payment.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, performed for the military elite and the aristocracy, including the regional feudal lords. Public performances were also given during Buddhist temple services. The general population had the further option of attending Kanjin performances, which they were required to pay a fee to see.
Sengoku to Edo period
The
Ōnin War
The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era name, Japanese era during which the war started; the war ende ...
(1467–1477) proved a trying occurrence for the proliferation of the . The war instigated the
Sengoku period
The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...
(15th–17th centuries), an era of civil war and political–military conflict that lasted for nearly two centuries. In this time, many musicians turned their attention to the or the three-stringed lute. Therefore, not only did the conflict cause a loss of performers, but also a decline in the number of listeners of the .
However, the complete demise of the was prevented by the
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...
, who favored the art of performance. Ieyasu ultimately reunified the country by establishing the
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
, and became a fervent patron of the .
During the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
(1600–1868), the Tokugawa shogunate provided the Tōdō with special privileges and substantial financing, which the Tōdō then distributed to members according to rank. The Edo period also marks the era in which the shogunate designated as one of its official ceremonial forms of music. Accordingly, new schools of appeared, many of which were influenced by the newly introduced and its accompanying styles of music. The two predominant schools that came about during the Edo period were the Maeda-ryū founded by Maeda Kyūichi, and the Hatano-ryū founded by Hatano Kōichi. Both figures were members of the Shidō-ha, which was the most active branch of the older Ichikata school.
Collaborations were formed between amateur aficionados of the who, over the course of the Edo period, made small revisions to the musical notation of the score. The ceremonial form of the performed for the shogunate became increasingly solemn and refined to meet the standards of the intellectual class. Moreover, to ensure the development of the score, improvisation notably declined.
Meiji period to present
In 1868, the
Meiji Restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
heralded the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate. This ultimately contributed to the abolition of the Tōdō, which undermined social privileges for the musicians and reduced the availability of avenues for performance. The Hatano-ryū, in particular, underwent a debilitating decline in popularity, so much so that it struggled to survive in Kyoto until the middle of the 20th century. In addition, the rise in popularity of the , which accompanied contemporary songs and narratives, made the ancient tales of the Heike appear antiquated. By the end of the Edo period, the had replaced the as the most common instrument used among blind musicians.
The tradition persisted, however, through the Tsugaru lineage (transmitted by sighted performers) and the Nagoya lineage (transmitted by professional blind musicians of the Tōdō tradition), both of which belonged to the Maeda-ryū.
[Ashgate: 82.] The Tsugaru lineage consisted of Kusumi Taisō (1815–1882), who learned the of the Edo Maeda-ryū, as well as his sons Tateyama Zennoshin and Tateyama Kōgo, both of whom lamented the decline of in the late years of Meiji and sought to foster a number of pupils. In Nagoya, a city which had been a thriving centre for performance, a small faction of blind male players continued to transmit alongside other mediums of music of growing popularity, such as the and . Differences exist between these lineages due to geographical separation and changes that have occurred uniquely in time. For example, the Nagoya lineage relied almost entirely on oral transmission. Nevertheless, the Nagoya and Tsugaru were both nominated by the Japanese government as "
Intangible Cultural Properties" in 1955 and 1959 respectively,
[ with Nagoya performers Inokawa Kōji, Doizaki Masatomi and Mishina Masayasu nominated as national treasures.
The libretto notation on which remaining performance is based today in Nagoya is called Heike Shosetsu. It was composed by Ogino Tomoichi (1732–1801), initially a disciple in the Hatano-ryū faction, before acquiring the post of in the Kyoto branch of the Maeda-ryū school; Tomoichi had great knowledge of both major schools as a Hatano-ryū disciple master. As such, he played a fundamental role in the revival of the .
]Toru Takemitsu TORU or Toru may refer to:
*TORU, spacecraft system
*Tōru (given name), Japanese male given name
*Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
*Tõru
Tõru is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western Es ...
also contributed to the continuation of the by collaborating with Western composers. Recognising that traditional Japanese music, and interest in it, was quickly falling out of fashion, Takemitsu, as well as a number of composers before him, noted that studies in music theory and music composition almost entirely consisted of Western theory and instruction. Though some Western composers had begun to incorporate Japanese music and Japanese instruments into their compositions, these composers often focused on those Japanese instruments most similar to Western ones; for example, Michio Miyagi's utilization of the . Takemitsu, on the other hand, collaborated with Western composers and compositions to include the distinctly Asian-sounding . His well-received compositions revitalized interest in the in the modern day.
According to Hugh de Ferranti, modern, live performances of narrative singing are rare, with almost all performers being "practitioners of Chikuzen-biwa and Satsuma-biwa".[De Ferranti: 13] The "emerged from interaction between moso and the samurai class" in Satsuma Province
was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Satsuma" in . Its abbreviation was .
History
Satsuma's provincial capital was Satsumasendai. Dur ...
, starting a period of popularity for "modern " until the 1930s, while the had its origin in the 1890s in the Chikuzen region of Kyushu, drawing upon aspects of music, , and the technique.[ These traditions enjoyed widespread appreciation during the early 20th century due to the "nationalist, militarist sentiments of late-Meiji imperialist ideology".][ In the post-war era, these traditions were considered "refined classical pursuits", resulting in their popularity beyond .][De Ferranti: 14.] The itself is also depicted with the image of goddess Benzaiten
is an East Asian Buddhism, East Asian Buddhist Dharmapala, goddess who originated from the Hindu Saraswati, the patroness of speech, the arts, and learning.
Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the sixth through eighth centuries, mai ...
at her shrines, and in images of the "in homes, shops, and offices".[
However, modern associations with are mainly connected to the , themselves linked to the ''Tale of Heike'' and '']Hōichi the Earless
is the name of a well-known figure from Japanese folklore. His story is well known in Japan, and the best-known English translation first appeared in the book '' Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things'' by Lafcadio Hearn.
A version ...
'', well-known works taught in schools and readapted for television series, manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
, popular literature and other media.[ As such, "most Japanese come to think of the biwa as a battered old string instrument played by a decrepit blind man who looks like a Buddhist priest and wanders about chanting old tales about war and ghosts".][ According to Ferranti, "outside of the realms of scholarship and the few who are involved in learning and performing", few Japanese civilians are familiar with the aural qualities of the and cannot recognize its tones with references to ancient war-tales.][ The instrument is viewed as antiquated, a relic of the past that "cannot be a thing of contemporary Japanese life and experience, but is tied forever to the world of the ''Tale of the Heike''; a gloomy world of martial valour and samurai ghosts".][
]
and in society
Blindness
For most of Japan's recorded history, music and narrative performance were common activities for the blind, whose importance in most other major genres is also unavoidable, save for court and theatre music, from the 13th century until the 19th. Folk and literature attest "invariably about blind and ", and only in modern times do sighted musicians master such instruments like the .
According to De Ferranti, the act of playing lutes for alms by blind musicians finds its roots in Indian Buddhist
Buddhism is an ancient Indian religions, Indian religion, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (Mahajanapada), Magadha (now Bihar, India). It is based on the teachings of The Buddha, Gautama Buddha, who lived in the 6t ...
culture during the 1st millennium CE.[De Ferranti 21.] As early as the 4th century, blind itinerants in South Asia, described by texts such as the as holy men, played lutes for alms.[ A 7th-century text from China and Japan's early 12th-century recount this story, while other "scattered accounts" of blind lute-laying priests can be found in Tang-period volumes from the Chinese mainland.][De Ferranti 22.] In the Shanbei
Northern Shaanxi or Shaanbei () is the portion of China's Shaanxi province north of the Huanglong Mountain and the Meridian Ridge (the so-called "Guanzhong north mountains"), and is both a geographic as well as a cultural area. It makes up the so ...
region near Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...
, "blind beggars who recited tales and travelled with pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rangi ...
accompanists were common", prior to the 1949 revolution.[ Under ]Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
, blind itinerants called ( zh, s=说书的, links=no) played a three-string lute in "household ritual contexts" using their narrative "as a potent force for social reform" by the Communist Party.
Prior to the spread of Buddhism during the 6th to 9th centuries, it was "generally acknowledged that in Japanese ritual life blind men and women ere
Ere or ERE may refer to:
* ''Environmental and Resource Economics'', a peer-reviewed academic journal
* ERE Informatique, one of the first French video game companies
* Ere language, an Austronesian language
* Ebi Ere (born 1981), American-Nigeria ...
respected as shamanic celebrants who bore numinous power because of their separation from the world experienced by others".[De Ferranti 24-5.] Historically, the blind performed healing rituals for curing illness and exorcising spirits.[De Ferranti: 24.] For music, plucking or striking string instruments also have ritual meanings, and were tasks probably given to blind individuals to perform in belief of their shamanistic abilities.[ The ]Azusa Yumi
An is a sacred bow (''yumi'') used in certain Shinto rituals in Japan, as well as a Japanese musical bow, made from the wood of the Japanese or Japanese cherry birch tree ('' Betula grossa''). Playing an ''azusa yumi'' forms part of some Shinto ...
was utilized for summoning deities in a pre-Buddhist ritual, likely involving the blind. The role of early in delivery the vocal performance of battle tales "to allay the fury of slain warriors' ghosts" further implies a shamanistic qualification of the blind.[ Historical references suggest were involved in both ]divination
Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...
and also in this fundamental role of placating aggravated spirits, especially those killed in battle.[De Ferranti: 25.]
The intimate ties between the and the blind in the Tōdō and various regional groups for further cement this inseparable relationship. Blindness was a necessary condition for membership in these organizations, which looked after blind performers and professionals and blind ritualists respectively.[De Ferranti: 26.] In the Tōdō, performers came to control the guild, and thus the lives of many Japanese blind people. According to the legends of these institutions, "the lineage of blind players ultimately is traced to ... a blind disciple of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
, called Gankutsu Sonja".[De Ferranti: 26-7.]
However, according to Hugh de Ferranti, not all blind players of antiquity "were completely lacking the sense of vision and knowledge of music".[ Indeed, many people called blind were likely "only impaired in their vision", evidenced by the denotation of words for blind people such as , , and .][ Also, many blind individuals gain the ailment gradually, resulting from aging, illness, or accident, meaning literacy may have been acquired earlier in life.][ Hugh de Ferranti states that notable numbers of performers "were sighted and in some cases literate", evidenced by records of the Jojuin tradition and historical membership of the Gensei Hōryū group.][ Such individuals thus must be acknowledged for potential importance in producing written texts and in the "transmission of repertory".][
]
Religious significance
Buddhist iconography throughout East and South-East Asia depict short-necked lutes being played by celestial beings as well as the Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
goddess Saraswati
Saraswati (, ), also spelled as Sarasvati, is one of the principal Devi, goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of knowledge, education, learning, arts, speech, poetry, music, purification, language and culture. Together with the godde ...
, who led such divine musicians. Avatar
Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...
s of Sarasvati
Saraswati (, ), also spelled as Sarasvati, is one of the principal Devi, goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of knowledge, education, learning, arts, speech, poetry, music, purification, language and culture. Together with the godde ...
, "the -playing Hindu goddess of music, wisdom, and eloquence", also play the lute in Tibetan and Chinese iconographic displays; such avatars correspond to Benzaiten
is an East Asian Buddhism, East Asian Buddhist Dharmapala, goddess who originated from the Hindu Saraswati, the patroness of speech, the arts, and learning.
Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the sixth through eighth centuries, mai ...
, a Japanese deity known for holding a in her benevolent arms.[De Ferranti: 29]
Japanese iconography indicates two female lute-playing deities: the aforementioned Benzaiten and Myōonten; their identities are often fused together, but both have their roots in the continental Asian tradition, and can be traced from Sarasvati through various forms.[De Ferranti: 30-2.] Benzaiten represents eloquence while Myōonten epitomizes music itself.[ As the bodhisattva named "Miraculous Sound", Myōon Bōsatsu is described in the Lotus Sutra and was important for players in court society.][ Her influence would spread beyond the court, integrating itself especially in the tradition. After the early 8th century however, most sculptures and iconographic depictions show the pipa instead of the lute.][
Locations whose name contain the characters or sounds also have sanctified lore. ]Lake Biwa
is the largest freshwater lake in Japan. It is located entirely within Shiga Prefecture (west-central Honshu), northeast of the former capital city of Kyoto. Lake Biwa is an ancient lake, over 4 million years old. It is estimated to be the 13 ...
is famous for Chikubu-shima, where Taira no Tsunemasa performs at the Benzaiten shrine, whose deity appears in the form of a white dragon.[De Ferranti: 33.] Especially in Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...
, there are hills, valleys, ponds, and bridges throughout Japan, where performers supposedly buried or offered instruments to the local waters.[ Other legends of certain sects and accounts from ancient texts further the sacred associations of the instrument.][
]
Women
Despite the depiction of Benzaiten
is an East Asian Buddhism, East Asian Buddhist Dharmapala, goddess who originated from the Hindu Saraswati, the patroness of speech, the arts, and learning.
Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the sixth through eighth centuries, mai ...
, the patron deity of music revered by and , as a female entity and the existence of highly celebrated female players in 20th century, with the "exception of avocational performance by women in the court music tradition", professional players were men until the 's use in the 16th century.[De Ferranti: 36.][De Ferranti: 39.] Along with blindness, maleness was a necessary condition for admission to the and Tōdō.[ However, it was common in ]Tang China
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
for women to play the pipa, as it was also common for courtly women from the Heian
The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to:
* Heian period, an era of Japanese history
* Heian-kyō, the Heian-period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto
* Heian series, a group of karate kata (forms)
* ...
through Muromachi
The , also known as the , is a division of History of Japan, Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially establ ...
periods to learn in childhood.[De Ferranti: 37.] There are also a few rare references to both sighted and blind female entertainers who may have played , though in the Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, some female enthusiasts learned from professionals as a recreational activity.[De Ferranti: 37-8]
Itinerant women performers did still exist in medieval Japan, though they are most frequently shown playing the drum.[De Ferranti: 38] In the Edo period, singers called often accompanied themselves on the or , the latter of which was played by "affluent blind women who taught it to the wives of samurai and merchants".[ The former along with its wooden imitation, were played for performance to procure alms, house to house; this was called .][ In Kyushu, were not uncommon with such performers mentioned in the Tōdō's late-18th-century accounts.][ Although not bona fide members of the guild, held annual festivals, and this profession continued to be viable into the mid-1900s.][
]
Social status
Though blindness in Japanese society has historically been stigmatized "as the result of a Buddhist interpretation of the condition as a form of karmic punishment", other factors also led to the marginalization and discrimination of blind musicians.[De Ferranti: 42] In general, the blind were treated according to the restrictions of their societal rank.[De Ferranti: 43] In other words, commoner townsmen () and warrior–rank blind people "were allowed to engage in the professions available to all of similar rank, within the constraints of their visual impairment", while those in agrarian households were expected to contribute to the payment of land taxes via any means of labor possible.[ However, the most common professions for all such peoples included music, massage, acupuncture and moxa therapy, while ritual work was common in specialized locations.][
As for itinerant performers, the most affluent could "make a living during the Edo period as teachers and performers based at their homes", while the rest (representing the majority of and ) relied on , regarded as a form of begging, despite its ritual associations.][ Door-to-door performances delivered by professionals associated to shrines and temples also occurred in the historical practice of seasonal rites and celebrations for farming areas; they were considered to be of low status by the middle class, however, and were affiliated with the Sanjō districts in which "the discriminated classes" lived.][ However, folk beliefs in the visits of during such harvest festivals to rid villagers of impurity upon receiving gifts from householders may have provided a socio-cultural basis for the willingness to offer food and money to itinerant performers; further, was seen as an act of merit.][De Ferranti: 44.]
According to Hugh de Ferranti, iconographic and literary sources generally portray as solitary and pitiable figures, though wealthy and powerful individuals also exist in such representations.[ Sometimes they are depicted as mysterious, frightening, and potentially dangerous individuals while in other sources, they are "ridiculous" characters "to be made fun of, at times with unbridled cruelty".][ Folklore links to ghosts through their placation of wronged spirits and the chinkon ritual performance, accounts for their fearful quality.][De Ferranti: 45.] However, plays called feature deliberate tricking of a blind so that he becomes lost and disoriented, or suffers losses and misunderstanding.[De Ferranti: 46.] Such action is provoked by sighted individuals for pure amusement, as in the stories of Saru and Tsukimi .[ Picture scrolls marry this "similar sense of as bizarre, somewhat frightening figures who can nevertheless be taunted".][De Ferranti: 47.] In these images, people "look out from their houses at the players and appear to be laughing or jeering at them", while children run away from and dogs bark at them.[
]
Development of the style
The present trend of scholarly analysis is to consider the 's origin as having arisen first as a recitation for the purpose of spreading Buddhism.[Gish: 135.] According to the or ''Essays in Idleness'', in the reign of the cloistered emperor Go-Toba
was the 82nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1183 through 1198.
This 12th-century sovereign was named after Emperor Toba, and ''go-'' (後), translates literally as "later"; ...
, Yukinaga – the man in charge of the household of the chief advisor to the emperor, Fujiwara Kanezane
, also known as , is the founder of the Kujō family (at the encouragement of Minamoto no Yoritomo), although some sources cite Fujiwara no Morosuke (908–960) as its founder.
Kanezane organised the compilation of the Kitano Tenjin Engi, the his ...
– often exchanged poems with the imperial court.[ He was invited to an imperial discourse on poems, and unable to recall two of the seven virtues, was thus named the Jack of Five Virtues.][Gish: 136.] Embarrassed, he gave up on learning poetry and took the tonsure, and became a monk under the abbot Jien
was a Japanese poet, historian, and Buddhist monk.
Biography
Jien was the son of Fujiwara no Tadamichi, a member of the Fujiwara clan of powerful aristocrats. His brother was the future regent Fujiwara no Kanezane. Jien became a Tendai mon ...
of the Tendai
, also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...
sect.[ Jien was known to gather talent at the ]Shōren-in
is a Buddhist temple located in the Awadaguchi Sanjōbōchō neighborhood of Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan. It belongs to the Tendai sect of Japanese Buddhism. It is also known as the . Its precincts were designated a National Historic Site i ...
temple on Mount Hiei
is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan.
The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by ...
in Kyoto to discuss ways of spreading the Tendai faith.[ Many here were . It is in this way that Yukinaga legendarily wrote the script of the ''Tale of the'' , and taught it to a from eastern Japan named Shōbutsu, renowned for his impressive narrative delivery and extensive knowledge of warriors, bows, and horses.][
According to George Gish, there were five essential ingredients for the development of the :][Gish: 137-8.]
# Chinese popular sermons designed to appeal to the masses, known as
# Epic ballad narration entitled , later revised into a new or Buddhist chant called the in reference to the six worlds of Buddhism, which became the chief model for the singing
# style of Buddhist preaching with melody, a style favored by Jien
# influence from the Kyoto- school from which idea of accompanying narration with derives
# The story itself chronicling the Taira/Genji Heian period, oft interpreted as one phase of Buddhism's six worlds. The story is treated as a , or sermon with the purpose of enlightenment.
musically is influenced by Buddhist chant, and the and traditions of the from the 11th and 12th centuries.[Gish: 139.] Indeed, it is a combination of the style practiced by and , and narrative.[ Author Yukinaga brought elements of the court tradition, while Jien offered shomyo aspects.][ Shōbutsu as a Kyoto- and a brought unique perspectives as well.][
The instrument itself is a combination of and predecessors.][ Indeed, the relative average distance between the ]fret
A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical inst ...
s is equal to that of , as are the relative height of the frets.[ From Shobutsu, two schools emerged, the Yasaka-ryū school, led by Jōgen, and Ichikata-ryū school, headed by Jōichi.][Gish 140-2.] Akashi Kakuichi
also known as was a Japanese Buddhist monk of the early Muromachi period of Japanese history, noted as the blind itinerant lute player (''biwa hōshi'') who gave the epic ''Heike Monogatari'' its present form.
Life
Little is known about his ea ...
was Jōichi's disciple and a favorite of Ashikaga Takauji
also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...
, possibly due to blood relations.[ Kakuichi soon gained the rank of , the head of guild for the blind, the Tōdō; he died in 1371 during the peak of the .][
Musically, development continued with the Ichikata-ryū, with it spreading into four separate branches.][ During the ]Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, the main branches split further with the influence of the style.[ The main schools were Hatano-ryū and Maeda-ryū, named after their respective founders; intense rivalry between the schools, compounded by changes in the music world at large, contributed to the decline of the tradition.][
The growing utilization of the by the mid-16th century precipitated new innovations in popular music.][ Some of the earliest innovations were carried out by players.][ They would use a -type ]plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...
on the to emulate the buzzing effect and sounds.[ The opportunities with the attracted others, and their patrons and listeners along with them.][Gish: 143] The new idiom of song made the old styles of antiquated, especially with the as a new instrument.
See also
* Blind musicians
Blind musicians are singers or instrumentalists, or in some cases singer-accompanists, who are legally blindness, blind.
Resources
Historically, many blind musicians, including some of the most famous, have performed without the benefit of form ...
References
Bibliography
*De Ferranti, Hugh. ''The Last Biwa Singer: a Blind Musician in History, Imagination, and Performance''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2009.
*Frederic, Louis. ''Japan Encyclopedia''. Belknap, Harvard University Press, 2008.
*Gish, George W. ''The Biwa in History, Its Origins and Development in Japan''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1967.
*Groemer, Gerald. ''The Spirit of Tsugaru: Blind Musicians, Tsugaru-jamisen, and the Folk Music of Northern Japan, with the Autobiography of Takahashi Chikuzan''. Sterling Heights: Harmonie Park Press, 1999.
History of Japanese Traditional Music
Japanese Traditional Music. Columbia Music Entertainment, 2002. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
*The Asiatic Society of Japan
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan
University of Oregon Libraries. University of Oregon, 1918. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
*Tokita, Alison, and David W. Hughes. ''The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music''. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2008.
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Japanese blind people
Buddhism in Japan
Japanese folk music
Japanese folk religion