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After years of civil war, in the Edo period (1600 - 1868) there were centuries of peace. Although theoretically the warrior class was dominant, in reality the vast majority of samurai were rather impoverished while the merchant class became very prosperous. Unable to display their wealth and power too openly, the commoner class expressed themselves in the worlds of the pleasure quarters, Kabuki and Bunraku puppet theaters and popular fiction. Kabuki began as dance and then developed into very sophisticated drama, but music is an integral part of it. The lyrical Nagauta style accompanied dances and provided the background music for the plays. It took in the Joruri or narrative music style of Gidayu from the puppet theater and also gave birth to Joruri styles like Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto that only appear in Kabuki. Then the puppet theater grew up together with Gidayu, the most sophisticated form of Joruri, with narrative singing and shamisen music.
Origins of Joruri
In Edo music styles, there is an important distinction between narrative and lyrical styles. Narrative styles tell a story, while lyrical styles sing songs. Narrative styles mix song and speech for a kind of musical style that is centered on the words. Sometimes it is a kind of chanting which draws on the long tradition of chanting from Shomyo, Heike Biwa and Noh. Even in lyrical styles, the meanings of the words are more important than they are with, say, Italian opera, but fundamentally, lyrical styles emphasize rhythm and melody. In the Edo period a rich variety of narrative styles or "Joruri" developed and the most important style is Gidayu Bushi, which accompanies the Bunraku puppet theater. But lighter songs also developed in a rich variety, especially together with the Kabuki theater and the most important lyrical style to appear was Nagauta.
The most important aspect of Edo period music is the development of Joruri. The word "Joruri" is heavily redolent of Buddhism and there are many explanations of the name. In the Muromachi period, a story about a woman named Joruri seems to be the first story told in the narrative style that came to be called Joruri.
The rough story is this: in the village of Yahagi in the province of Mikawa, Choja, the greatest courtesan of the eastern highway gave birth to a beautiful woman named Joruri Gozen after praying to the twelve gods of Yakushi. Just at this point, the young son of the late head of the Genji clan, a boy later to be known as Yoshitsune, but then under his boyhood name of Ushiwakamaru was traveling with a powerful man from Michinoku (the name for the Tohoku region). They spent the night at ChojaÕs house and Joruri Gozen fell in love with Yoshitsune at first sight. Princess Joruri and Yoshitsune exchanged poetry, which made them intimate and they slept together. However, in the morning, Yoshitsune continued on his journey to distant Michinoku. The tale begins with the birth of Joruri Gozen after Choja prayed to the Buddha and continues with several episodes of Buddhist miracles. But the names "Choja" and "Gozen" are closely associated with outcasts and show that this tale was quite medieval in mood. When the tale of Joruri was performed, it was probably recited to the rhythmical beats of a fan; the shamisen was not introduced until later.
The Introduction of the Shamisen and Development of Joruri Narrative Music
The shamisen was a variation of the snakeskin covered Jabisen which came to Japan from the Ryukyu kingdom in the 1560's. A large plectrum was used, like that for the biwa, since the first musicians to play the shamisen were biwa players. Then gradually the shamisen was introduced to accompany Joruri storytelling and then the music was combined with puppets and gradually grew more complex.
In the first century of the Edo period, Sugiyama Tango-no-Jo and Satsuma Joun went from Kyoto to Edo and became popular with new styles of Joruri narrative singing. They had many students who went on to establish new forms of singing themselves, some of which remain today including Kato Bushi, Geki Bushi and Ozatsuma Bushi. Other students include Miyakodayu Itchu, the founder of Itchu Bushi, and Takemoto Chikugo-no-Jo who founded Gidayu Bushi. Most of these styles only remain as names or in a minor way as one of the styles preserved as Kokyoku, but Takemoto Chikugo-no-Jo, better known as Takemoto Gidayu revolutionized Joruri music and developed the Gidayu style that is used in the puppet theater and Kabuki today. Itchu Bushi continues as a minor form of music, but is much more important because the style called "Bungo Bushi" sprung from it. In turn, Bungo Bushi gave birth to Tokiwazu, Tomimoto and Kiyomoto, the three most important styles of narrative music for Kabuki dance, as well as the narrative style Shinnai.
Gidayu Bushi
Satsuma Joun's student Chikugo-no-Jo later took the name of Takemoto Gidayu (1651 - 1714) and teamed up with the writer Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653 - 1724) to produce plays combining narrative music and puppets. Musically, Gidayu took all the best features of the famous singers around him and discarded everything old-fashioned. This was such a revolutionary change that all the styles before him are referred to as "Ko Joruri" or "old Joruri." Chikamatsu wrote plays that have such creative power and psychological depth that he is often called "the Japanese Shakespeare." In addition, Takemoto Gidayu had such a distinctive technique and strong presence that he gave his name to a style of music. Before GidayuÕs time, each narrator gave his name to a different style, but after him, all the narrators for puppet theater were narrators within the style of Takemoto Gidayu.
There are many different narrative styles, but unlike styles of music for Kabuki dance like Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto which have a strong lyrical content, Gidayu Bushi is the most strongly narrative. There are extensive sections of dialogue, which the narrator speaks himself, taking all the roles, and even where there is singing, it is very close to chanting. Of course, even with Gidayu Bushi, as time went on, musical aspects became more and more elaborate, especially with the music for the shamisen.
Kabuki and Bungo Bushi Joruri
The music of Gidayu is perfected suited to the personality (what kind of personality, city of merchants) of the city of Osaka where it got its start, but at the same time, a more elegant style of narrative singing called Itchu Bushi began in Kyoto, suited to the personality of the ancient capital. Eventually Itchu Bushi became established in Edo as well, but even before that time, a student of the first head of the Itchu Bushi school named Miyakoji Bungo-no-Jo went to Edo in 1734. He appeared as a singer on the kabuki stage and soon became a sensation. His singing in love suicide plays was so powerful that it seemed to inspire love suicides in real life. His kimono styles and hairdo were widely copied. In the face of Bungo-no-JoÕs popularity, the older styles of Edo narrative singing like Kato Bushi seemed to pale by comparison. Possibly as a retaliation by supporters of older styles of Edo singing, Bungo Bushi was banned by the Edo city magistrate as a threat to public order. Heartbroken, Bungo-no-Jo returned to the Kansai and soon died.
However, a few years later, Bungo-no-JoÕs student Tokiwazu Mojitayu I carried on his teacherÕs tradition with a new style called Tokiwazu and a bit after that, another student named Fujimatsu Satsuma-no-Jo established the Fujimatsu Bushi style. Tokiwazu soon became an important accompaniment to kabuki dances and dance plays, especially with great dance plays associated with the kabuki actor Nakamura Nakazo I (1736 - 1790) in the mid-18th century. Tokiwazu combines the sensuality of Bungo Bushi with a great severity, which probably made it very difficult for the authorities to ban. Fujimatsu Bushi gave birth to a great performer named Tsuruga Wakasa-no-Jo and this eventually developed into Tsuruga Shinnai Bushi. Although Shinnai originally appeared in the kabuki theater, it eventually became restricted to banquet chambers and atmosphere-filled narrative pieces like Akegarasu and Rancho are classics of this style. Another student of Bungo-no-Jo founded the Tomimoto Bushi style of music, more fluid and sensuous than Tokiwazu and eventually, in the early 19th century, Kiyomoto Bushi split off from Tomimoto. Tomimoto Bushi has almost disappeared, but Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto continue to be a vital part of the kabuki theater.
Gidayu developed together with the puppet theater and is strongly narrative, with long sections of dramatic dialogue. The various styles like Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto with their roots in Bungo Bushi grew up to accompany dance plays and pure dances, so when there was dialogue at all, it was usually performed by actors. This means that the narrative singing may have different melodies and a different feeling from the lyrical music of Nagauta, but the contents and function of the music on stage is very similar.
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