Japanese Folk Music

1. JAPANESE FOLK
MUSIC
Sarah Poff

2. Several types of traditional Japanese
Music (hogaku)
• Gagaku: Ancient court music from China and Korea. Oldest
type of Japanese, traditional music
• Biwagaku: Music played by the Biwa, a kind of guitar with 4
strings.
• Nohgaku: Music played during Noh performances. Constists of
a chorus, the Hayashi flute, the Tsuzumi drum, and other
instruments
• Sokyoku: Music played with the Koto, a type of zither with 13
strings. Accompanied by Shamisen and Shakuhachi
• Shakuhachi: Music played with a bamboo flute
• Shamisenongaku: Music played with the Shamisen, a guitar
with only three strings
• Minyo: Japanese folk song

3. Gagaku
• Main style of music in the 17th century, brought to Japan
by Buddhist and Confucisit monks spreading spiritual and
philosophical teachings.
• Gagaku= means elegant/refined music
• Entered japan 612 and became the priveledged music of the court.
• Gagaku had influences from Korean, Chinese and Indian music

4. Instruments Gagaku
• The instruments forming a Gagaku ensemble (7th century
were made of strings, percussion, and wind.
• These instruments were the first foreign musical
instruments to reach Japan from China
• Percussion instruments
• Drums, da-daiko, gongs, cymbals
• Stringed instruments
• The wagon, 7 stringed zither, gaku-so, 13 stringed table zither, the
ancestor of the koto, the gaku-biwa, 4-stringed lute
• Winds
• Hichiriki, short double-reed instrument, the sho, a mouth organ,
three transverse flutes (the kagura-bue, koma-bue, ryuteki)
• Shakuhachi

5. Important Japanese traditional
instruments
• 1) The Biwa
• A lute
• Ancestor: Arabic Ud
• Came to China during Nara period (553-794) from China
• Pear shaped body
• Four/five strings
• Strings are plucked with a large wooden plectrum (bachi)
• Creates a buzzing resonance (called sawari or rattle)
• The strings are made of silk and are very elastic

6. Important Japanese instruments
• 2) The Koto
• Most praised instrument by Japanese court and commercial class
• Similar to the Piano in western countries
• A table zither, 2 meters long
• Originated from China- similar to China’s guzheng
• Japans national instrument
• In the 17th century: it was used to accompany dances, and
became a part of ensembles
• During the Nara period
• Gaku-so (12/13 strings)
• Wagon (6 strings)

7. Traditional Japanese Instruments
• 3) The Shamisen
• 3-stringed lute with a resonance box covered either with cat or dog
skin
• Came to Japan around 1562 from Okinawa (edo period)
• Different sizes of Shamisen were created for different occasions
• Became the instrument of choice for the developing social life of
Japan
• Produces buzzing sound
• Used for all types of occasions: theatres, geisha houses, festivals,
folk music

8. Four forms of Minyo (Folk music)
Japanese folk songs can be classified in four main categories
1. work songs
2. Religious songs (sato kagura)
3. Songs for gatherings such as weddings, funerals, festivals
(matsuri)
4. Childrens songs (warabe uta)
Many minyo are connected to forms of work or to specific trades
and were orignally sun between work or for specific jobs. Other
minyo function simply as entertainment, as dance
accompaniment, or as a components of religious rituals.
Distinct to different areas of Japan, each have different styles.
Differing scale structure, language and textual forms.

9. • Before westernization (1850) in Japan (there were no
western influences) and the most popular form of music
was min’yo, regional folk songs
• STRONGLY influenced by music from China
• Due to the use of Chinese instruments (koto, shakuhachi, wadaiko
drums)
• Minyo was inspired and created by the lullabies of farmers
planting their rice crops, fishermen catching fish in their
nets.
• Nostalgic references to these ways of life
• Songs from different districts and areas in Japan are very
different from other districts.
Min'yō (民謡)

10. Min'yō (民謡)
• Originally sung by non professionals, ordinary people
• Developed through the performance of professional
female singers (geisha) with a shamisen accompaniment.
• Originally sung unaccompanied, solo, or vocal groups.
• Call and response chant
• Developed to become highly virtuosic in the 20th century
• Later on, during Edo Period, instruments were added as
accompaniment on shamisen, koto, biwa.
• These accompaniment parts later formed their own genre
such as Tsugaru-jamisen.

11. Characteristics
• Sparse rhythm
• Regular chords are absent
• Impossible to beat time to the music
• Silence is an important part of all songs
• Structure: Scale Theory in Japanese Folk
• Focus is on creating music that flows in an attempt to
mirror the behavior of nature
• Typical for songs to start off at a slow pace and pick up
speed as they progress

12. Today
• The term shin min’yo refers to new songs that have been
composed since this time to attract tourism and greater
national awareness of a particular area in Japan.
• Radio has spread these songs to a much wider audience-
spreading traditional values nationwide

13. Sakura
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chwADnoFDng
• Traditional Japanese folk song depicting spring, season of
Cherry blossoms
• Popular urban melody of the Edo period
• Pentatonic scale

14. Works Cited
• http://www.farsidemusic.com/historyJa.html#folk
• http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/japan.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_Sakura
• http://www.facts-about-japan.com/traditional-music.html