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The Shamisen
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Book Synopsis The Shamisen by : Henry Mabley Johnson
Download or read book The Shamisen written by Henry Mabley Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shamisen is a traditional Japanese musical instrument. It was introduced to Japan in the mid-sixteenth century via China and the Ryûkyû Islands, and was quickly established as a culturally significant musical instrument in its new context. The instrument - a three-string lute - developed numerous styles of performance and is found as a solo and ensemble instrument in diverse social and cultural contexts. The shamisen is known as an instrument of geisha in the entertainment districts; it is used in kabuki and bunraku theatre; and also has an established place within a wide-range of performance traditions, many of which are depicted in woodblock prints and other art depicting everyday life of the Edo period. This book, which is based on the author's field research in Japan, is a history of the shamisen. It locates the instrument within its various social and cultural contexts, and includes accompanying illustrations (e.g., woodblock prints, photographs and illustrations) to help show visually the place of the instrument in traditional and modern Japan.
Book Synopsis Snakeskin Shamisen by : Naomi Hirahara
Download or read book Snakeskin Shamisen written by Naomi Hirahara and published by Delta. This book was released on 2006-04-25 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Summer of the Big Bachi to Gasa-Gasa Girl, Naomi Hirahara’s acclaimed novels have featured one of mystery fiction’s most unique heroes: Mas Arai, a curmudgeonly L.A. gardener, Hiroshima survivor, and inveterate gambler. Few things get Mas more excited than gambling, so when he hears about a $500,000 win–from a novelty slot machine!–he’s torn between admiration and derision. But the stakes are quickly raised when the winner, a friend of Mas’s pal G. I. Hasuike, is found stabbed to death just days later. The last thing Mas wants to do is stick his nose in someone else’s business, but at G.I.’s prodding he reluctantly agrees to follow the trail of a battered snakeskin shamisen (a traditional Okinawan musical instrument) left at the scene of the crime…and suddenly finds himself caught up in a dark mystery that reaches from the islands of Okinawa to the streets of L.A.–a world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.
Book Synopsis Japanese Music & Musical Instruments by : William P. Malm
Download or read book Japanese Music & Musical Instruments written by William P. Malm and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1990-06-15 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interesting and authoritative book includes essential facts about the various forms of Japanese music and musical instruments and their place in the overall history of Japan. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments has three main orientations: The history of Japanese music Construction of the instruments Analysis of the music itself. The book covers in a lucidly written text and a wealth of fascinating photographs and drawings the main forms of musical expression. Many readers will find the useful hints on purchasing instruments, records, and books especially valuable, and for those who wish to pursue the matter further there is a selected bibliography and a guide to Tokyo's somewhat hidden world of Japanese music. It will be found an invaluable aid to the understanding and appreciation of an important, but little-known, and fascinating aspect of Japanese culture.
Book Synopsis Composing for Japanese Instruments by : Minoru Miki
Download or read book Composing for Japanese Instruments written by Minoru Miki and published by University Rochester Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unique sounds of the biwa, shamisen, and other traditional instruments from Japan are heard more and more often in works for the concert hall and opera house. Composing for Japanese Instruments is a practical orchestration/instrumentation manual with contextual and relevant historical information for composers who wish to learn how to compose for traditional Japanese instruments. Widely regarded as the authoritative text on the subject in Japan and China, it contains hundreds of musical examples, diagrams, photographs, and fingering charts, and comes complete with two accompanying compact discs of musical examples. Its author, Minoru Miki, is a composer of international renown and is recognized in Japan as a pioneer in writing for Japanese traditional instruments. The book contains valuable appendices, one of works Miki himself has composed using Japanese traditional instruments, and one of works by other composers -- including Toru Takemitsu and Henry Cowell -- using Japanese traditional instruments. Marty Regan is Assistant Professor of Music at Texas A&M University; Philip Flavin is a Research Fellow in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University, Australia.
Download or read book Nagauta written by William P. Malm and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2006-01-15 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of Japanese music explore Nagauta or literally "long song"--the delicate and complex music that accompanies kabuki theater--in great detail. The Kabuki theater of Japan has achieved a growing reputation as one of the world's most brilliant achievements in the field of theater. And the number of studies made on the subject in the West has been considerable. Yet, in spite of the fact that so much of the unique brilliance of the kabuki stage depends on the character of its music, the manner in which it is used, and its integral connection with the development of the dramatic impact of the plays, very little has been written on this phase of the genre. Of particular interest are the attempts to explore the various approaches to form music in the vast repertoire of this living art music. The playing techniques of the instruments are explained, and the relations of each instrument's music to the vocal line and to the overall design is shown. The analysis is accompanied by two compete transcription of nagauta in Western notation. These transcriptions are the first complete scores of nagauta ever printed. Additional musical examples, bibliography, discography, and glossary-index add value to the text.
Book Synopsis Japanese Tattoos by : Brian Ashcraft
Download or read book Japanese Tattoos written by Brian Ashcraft and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking of getting a Japanese-style tattoo? Want to avoid a permanent mistake? Japanese Tattoos is an insider's look at the world of Japanese irezumi (tattoos). Japanese Tattoos explains the imagery featured in Japanese tattoos so that readers can avoid getting ink they don't understand or, worse, that they'll regret. This photo-heavy book will also trace the history of Japanese tattooing, putting the iconography and kanji symbols in their proper context so readers will be better informed as to what they mean and have a deeper understanding of irezumi. Tattoos featured will range from traditional tebori (hand-poked) and kanji tattoos to anime-inspired and modern works--as well as everything in between. For the first time, Japanese tattooing will be put together in a visually attractive, informative, and authoritative way. Along with the 350+ photos of tattoos, Japanese Tattoos will also feature interviews with Japanese tattoo artists on a variety of topics. What's more, there will be interviews with clients, who are typically overlooked in similar books, allowing them to discuss what their Japanese tattoos mean to them. Those who read this informative tattoo guide will be more knowledgeable about Japanese tattoos should they want to get inked or if they are simply interested in Japanese art and culture.
Download or read book The Koto written by Henry Mabley Johnson and published by Hotei Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Henry Johnson is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Otago, New Zealand, where he teaches and undertakes research in Ethnomusicology and Asian Studies.
Book Synopsis Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations by : Christopher Yohmei Blasdel
Download or read book Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations written by Christopher Yohmei Blasdel and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-09 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations is a compendium of seventy-three representative songs from the well-known genre of traditional Japanese Edo-period sankyoku ensemble music. Including extensive annotations along with commentaries and notes on their musical and performative aspects, the collection begins with an overview which traces the history of the jiuta sōkyoku genre and the various socio-political influences at work in its formation. The translations and analyses are followed by a substantive glossary and bibliography, allowing for a deeper understanding of both the literary and musical aspects of jiuta sōkyoku compositions. Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations is a comprehensive anthology that will be of great interest to researchers, including ethnomusicologists, Japanese studies scholars and poetry lovers who are fascinated with the literary and musical impact of the Edo period.
Book Synopsis Japan's Musical Tradition by : Miyuki Yoshikami
Download or read book Japan's Musical Tradition written by Miyuki Yoshikami and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What makes Japanese music sound Japanese? Each genre of Japan's pre-Western music (hogaku) morphed from the preceding one with singing at its foundation. In ancient Shinto prayers, words of power recited in a prescribed cadence communicated veneration and community needs to the divine spirit (kami). From the prayers, Japan's word-based music evolved into increasingly more sophisticated recitations with biwa, shamisen, and koto accompaniment. This examination reveals shortcomings in the typical interpretation of Japanese music from a pitch-based Western perspective and carefully explores how the quintessential musical elements of singing, instrumental accompaniment, scale, and format were transmitted from their Shinto inception through all of Japan's music. Japan's culture, with its unique iemoto system and teaching methods, served to exactly replicate Japan's music for centuries. Considering Japan's music in the context of its own culture, logic, and sources is essential to gaining a clear understanding and appreciation of Japan's music and dissipating the mystery of the music's "Japaneseness." Greater enjoyment of the music inevitably follows.
Book Synopsis Sensational Knowledge by : Tomie Hahn
Download or read book Sensational Knowledge written by Tomie Hahn and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-07 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DVD contains: Examples of performances.
Book Synopsis The Kumiuta and Danmono Traditions of Japanese Koto Music by : Willem Adriaansz
Download or read book The Kumiuta and Danmono Traditions of Japanese Koto Music written by Willem Adriaansz and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1973 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments by : William P. Malm
Download or read book Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments written by William P. Malm and published by Kodansha International. This book was released on 2000 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Malm's scholarship is impeccable... Of equal importance is the fact that he is an excellent performing musician who has studied extensively in Japan." -Choice
Book Synopsis The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music by : David W. Hughes
Download or read book The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music written by David W. Hughes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-03 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Music is a frequently neglected aspect of Japanese culture. It is in fact a highly problematic area, as the Japanese actively introduced Western music into their modern education system in the Meiji period (1868-1911), creating westernized melodies and instrumental instruction for Japanese children from kindergarten upwards. As a result, most Japanese now have a far greater familiarity with Western (or westernized) music than with traditional Japanese music. Traditional or classical Japanese music has become somewhat ghettoized, often known and practised only by small groups of people in social structures which have survived since the pre-modern era. Such marginalization of Japanese music is one of the less recognized costs of Japan's modernization. On the other hand, music in its westernized and modernized forms has an extremely important place in Japanese culture and society, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example, being so widely known and performed that it is arguably part of contemporary Japanese popular and mass culture. Japan has become a world leader in the mass production of Western musical instruments and in innovative methodologies of music education (Yamaha and Suzuki). More recently, the Japanese craze of karaoke as a musical entertainment and as musical hardware has made an impact on the leisure and popular culture of many countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This is the first book to cover in detail all genres including court music, Buddhist chant, theatre music, chamber ensemble music and folk music, as well as contemporary music and the connections between music and society in various periods. The book is a collaborative effort, involving both Japanese and English speaking authors, and was conceived by the editors to form a balanced approach that comprehensively treats the full range of Japanese musical culture.
Book Synopsis "The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning " by : KellyM. Foreman
Download or read book "The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning " written by KellyM. Foreman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese geisha is an international icon, known almost universally as a symbol of traditional Japan. Numerous books exist on the topic, yet this is the first to focus on the 'gei' of geisha - the art that constitutes their title (gei translates as fine art, sha refers to person). Kelly M. Foreman brings together ethnomusicological field research, including studying and performing the shamisen among geisha in Tokyo, with historical research. The book elaborates how musical art is an essential part of the identity of the Japanese geisha rather than a secondary feature, and locates current practice within a tradition of two and half centuries. The book opens by deconstructing the idea of 'geisha' as it functions in Western societies in order to understand why gei has been, and continues to be, neglected in geisha studies. Subsequent chapters detail the myriad musical genres and traditions with which geisha have been involved during their artistic history, as well as their position within the traditional arts society. Considering the current situation more closely, the final chapters explore actual dedication to art today by geisha, and analyse how they create impromptu performances at evening banquets. An important issue here is geisha-patron artistic collaboration, which leads to consideration of what Foreman argues to be the unique and essential nexus of identity, eroticism and aesthetics within the geisha world.
Book Synopsis Shakespeare East and West by : Minoru Fujita
Download or read book Shakespeare East and West written by Minoru Fujita and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Shakespeare Association meeting, held in Tokyo in August of 1991, was regarded by many of the participating academics as a milestone in terms of the quality of the papers given and extent to which the intercultural and cross-cultural study of Shakespeare had been developed. This volume contains the principal contributions (10) to the panel on Acting and Language in Shakespeare and Eastern Drama, specially edited for publication by Minoru Fujita who teaches at the Graduate School of Culture, University of Osaka, and Leonard Pronko, Professor of Theatre at Pomona College, Claremont, California. The papers are presented in three sections: Playhouses and Performances, Literary History, and Interpretation and Theoretical Issues.
Download or read book Geisha written by Liza Dalby and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the geisha--practioners of music and dance and unmarried companions to the Japanese male elite.
Book Synopsis Kabuki Plays on Stage. Volume 2 by : James R. Brandon
Download or read book Kabuki Plays on Stage. Volume 2 written by James R. Brandon and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2002-05-31 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kabuki Plays On Stage represents a monumental achievement in Japanese theatre studies, being the first collection of kabuki play translations to be published in twenty-five years. Fifty-one plays, published in four volumes, vividly trace kabuki's changing relations to Japanese society during the premodern era. Volume 1 consists of thirteen plays that showcase early kabuki's scintillating and boisterous styles of performance and illustrates the contrasting dramatic techniques cultivated by actors in Edo (Tokyo) and Kamigata (Osaka and Kyoto). The twelve plays translated in Volume 2 cover a brief period, but one that saw important developments in kabuki architecture, acting, dance, and the manipulation of characters and themes. As the series title indicates, the plays were translated to capture the vivacity of performances on stage. The translations, each accompanied by a thorough introduction that contextualizes the play, are based not only on published texts, but performance scripts and the study of the plays as they are performed in theatres today. Each volume is lavishly illustrated with rare woodblock prints in full color of Tokugawa- and Meiji-period productions as well as color and black-and-white photographs of contemporary performances.
