Our Final Destination: Japan

Hello, you guys! It’s been a while, but I am finally back. Unfortunately, this will be my last post on The World's Ensemble. The last place that we will be visiting today is Japan. Japan is a country that I really would like to visit someday so I decided to make my last blog be about a country that really interests me.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.state.gov%2Fcountries-areas%2Fjapan%2F&psig=AOvVaw1ikMgU0CdmYWs7mNh5FCc5&ust=1606019387713000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCJCAzM3mku0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAM

Japan has many music genres but the first one that I will be talking about today is classical music. Classical music has strong influences from China. According to Britannica.com, evidence of dotaku bronze bells that date back to 300 BCE resembled Chinese metalwork. In the sixth century AD, Japan was introduced to Buddhism through Korea which led to the shomyo genre. Shomyo is Buddhist chanting music that resembles more with the Chinese based on the notes, scales, melodies, and rhythms. These chants start off with a soloist who sings an opening phrase establishing a pitch for the other monks to join him. Buddhist chants that are called syomyo have two Chinese scales called the ryo and the ritsu and usually start off slow and speed up towards the end of the song.

Another Japanese folk genre is gagaku. This genre is different from shomyo includes dancing and singing. This genre was performed in the Imperial court for many centuries and set the idea of nobility for other art forms such as poetry and folk music. Gagaku has three parts called saibara, komagaku, and togaku. Saibara is Shinto religious music and komagaku and togaku come from Korea and China. The instruments that are used in gagaku are the oboe (hichiriki), transverse flute (ryuteki) and the mouth organ (sho) and percussion instruments called the kakko which is a small drum, shoko, and taiko which were all about of the ensemble style in the 19^th century. The classical dance in gagaku is called bugaku and it has four styles: civil dances, warrior dances, running dance, and dances for children. At the end of the 12 century during the Kamakura period gagaku was rarely performed in the courts and were performed in the aristocrats’ homes.

Bunraku is a traditional theatre genre that uses puppets to narrate a story. This name comes from a puppet master, Uemura Bunrakuken, who founded the theatre of Osaka. This theatre is where puppet performances were held. Puppets are half live sized dolls that range from one foot to four feet. The puppet masters dress in all black to make themselves invisible while they are moving the dolls. There are one principal operator and one or two assistants that help the operator to help make the puppet's facial expressions. There is one narrator who speaks for all the puppets. There is also music accompanying the performance that paces the narration. Stories are often on themes of love, heroic legends, and tales based on historical events. You can still see the performance of Bunraku. These days, they are performed in modern theaters and have one performance in the afternoon and one in the evening. You can watch Bunraku in the National Bunraku Theatre in Osaka or in the National Theatre in Tokyo.

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Now for something a little more modern, J-pop. In the Taisho Period which lasted from 1912 to 1926, Japanese popular music received its influence from Jazz, Blues and strings and the harmonica. Japanese composers mixed these Western elements into their songs using the pentatonic scale. In the 1960s, rock music was mixed in with Japanese music. Artists translated American music into Japanese but then they got inspired to write their own lyrics. In the 1980s, female idols came to arise, and in the 90s Japan had the second-largest music industry in the world.

I hope you all enjoyed learning about Japan and the other country that I posted about. It has been a pleasure creating this blog and I enjoyed reading all of your comments. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the year.

Sources:

“Bugaku.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/bugaku-Japanese-dance.

“Bunraku-Za.” World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts, 30 May 2016, wepa.unima.org/en/bunraku-za/.

“Bunraku.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/Bunraku.

“Bunraku.” Japanese Puppet Theater, www.japan-guide.com/e/e2092.html.

“Gagaku.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/gagaku.

“Gagaku.” Gagaku - New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gagaku.

“History Of Japanese Music.” Audio Network, www.audionetwork.com/content/the-edit/inspiration/history-of-japanese-music.

“Predominant Musical Traits.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/Japanese-music/Predominant-musical-traits.

“Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan.” Buddhist Music of Japan, www.personal.utulsa.edu/~john-powell/Buddhist_Music/Japan.html.