Japanese Traditional Music

Gagaku, koto, shamisen and shakuhachi coexist, speaking through timbre, silence and melody.

Related

ModeThe kotoThe shakuhachi

Japanese traditional music is not one genre but a set of listening habits shared by gagaku, koto music, shamisen, shakuhachi and folk song.

Origins and era

Between the seventh and eighth centuries gagaku arrived from the mainland and became court ritual music. In the medieval period biwa monks, Noh and Buddhist chant developed vocal traditions. In the Edo period koto, shamisen and shakuhachi formed sankyoku; after Meiji Western music entered schools, and Miyagi Michio wrote new koto works.

What you hear

Koto strings are struck with picks, shakuhachi carries breath noise, and shamisen is hit with a plectrum. Melody is mostly single-line and allows pitch bends and slides. Miyako-bushi and ritsu scales are common, with phrases often falling. Rhythm can be free or cyclical in Noh and folk song, and the pause ma matters as much as pitch.

Key figures

Yatsuhashi Kengyo organised koto tunings, Miyagi Michio brought koto and shakuhachi into modern ensembles, and Takemitsu Toru wrote traditional timbres into orchestral scores. Tsuruta Kinshi and Yamaguchi Goro preserved their schools, while modern ensembles took the instruments worldwide.

Lineage

Gagaku, Buddhist chant, Noh, sankyoku and regional folk song feed in; modern hogaku, film music, world music and New Age come out. Timbre and silence became recognisably Japanese sounds.

Common misunderstandings

It is not only pentatonic, since folk and Ryukyu scales sit beside miyako-bushi and ritsu. Nor is it meditation music, as Noh and shamisen carry strong narrative and rhythm. Treating koto as the only voice misses shakuhachi, biwa and taiko.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Japan（Oxford University Press），用于核对雅乐、三曲与近代邦乐
• William P. Malm, Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments（Kodansha, 2000），用于核对乐器、调式与流派

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.