|
|
| THE LOST-AND-FOUND KOTO OF
YATSUHASHI |
| by Alexander Mackay-Smith
IV |
| One morning in 1957, an elderly woman in Nagano
was listening to a Japanese National Radio program about traditional Japanese
music. Two distinguished musicologists were discussing the history of koto
music. One thing was clear, they agreed: Yatsuhashi-ryu koto or the koto style
of Yatsuhashi Kengyo, the founder of modern koto music, was long lost. It was
completely extinct. She was so astonished she leapt to her feet. But I play
Yatsuhashi style, she thought. Am I the only one left? In fact, Shin Sanada was,
indeed, the last performer of Yatsuhashi-ryu koto in Japan. Her discovery set
the world of Japanese music on its collective ear. Subsequently she was
designated a National Intangible Cultural Resource. She performed widely, her
full repertory was recorded, and most important, a number of students came to
learn her art to carry it on. The true style of Yatsuhashi Kengyo was rescued
from oblivion. The so or koto has been played in Japan since before accurate
records emerge. In Heian times, the nobles of the court amused themselves with
the native 6-string wagon, the Chinese 7-string ch'in, and the 13-string so,
also Chinese. The music they played has been utterly lost in Japan, however,
preserved only in ancient tablatures, every symbol of which is the subject of
scholarly dispute. Legend has it that courtiers fleeing the civil wars of the
Middle Ages took refuge in rural Kyushu and brought their music with them. There
is no proof of this, but in the 16th-century, a style of 13-string koto music
was centered in northern Kyushu called Tsukushi-goto after the old name for the
region. Some of the pieces listed in its repertory bear titles also found in
Heian sources, so perhaps there is some truth in the tradition. |
| . |
| Tsukushi-goto
never spread outside its home in what is now Saga Prefecture. After maintaining
a tenuous existence through the Edo Period, it finally died out in the middle
years of this century, its last two players discovered too late for the style to
be rescued. Early in the 17th-century, however, a master of Tsukushi-goto named
Hosui traveled east to Kyoto and then to Edo (modern Tokyo). His art was not
well received by the cognoscenti, but a blind shamisen player befriended him and
persuaded Hosui to teach him Tsukushi style. This shamisen player subsequently
recast the Tsukushi pieces in a scale and format more appealing to Edo Period
taste, and settling in Kyoto, he adopted the name Yatsuhashi Kengyo where he
achieved a nationwide reputation. (The title Kengyo was awarded by the Tokugawa
government to blind musicians of the highest rank.) The principal element of
Yatsuhashi's style was kumiuta or the song suite, an arrangement of short songs
from various sources with instrumental interludes. There were also pure
instrumental pieces called danmono, a loosely-structured variation form. For his
koto, Yatsuhashi employed the tunings hira-joshi and kumoi-joshi, both based on
the popular Edo in scale and still the most important tunings used in koto music
today. Yatsuhashi avoided the rather solemn and spiritual quality of Tsukushi
style, seeking a style which was both elegant and popular, while avoiding
vulgarity. The poems he selected for his kumiuta were taken from serious
literary sources, unlike the pop songs used in shamisen kumiuta. Before
Yatsuhashi's time, koto music had been exclusive, the preserve of a noble few.
Now, however, it was taken up by the new urban elite as an elegant
accomplishment. |
| . |
| Yatsuhashi's
style spread rapidly, and soon proper young women, daughters of merchants and
samurai all over the country, were learning the koto. Yatsuhashi's followers
continued to develop the style, and in the 18th-century, the masters Ikuta
Kengyo and Yamada Kengyo established new schools of koto music which came to
dominate the field. They retained Yatsuhashi's pieces as the core, but greatly
expanded the repertory. Some scholars believe that Yatsuhashi's student Kitajima
Kengyo may be responsible for the arrangements of the Yatsuhashi pieces used in
these schools. Virtually all present-day koto schools stem from the Ikuta or
Yamada schools. In a few places, though, the original Yatsuhashi style continued
to hang on. One such place was the castle town of Matsushiro, now part of Nagano
City, where the ruling Sanada family gave official support to Yatsuhashi koto
and discouraged the teaching of other styles. Many members of the Sanada family
themselves played, and Yatsuhashi koto style was popular with Matsushiro samurai
families up through the Meiji Era. The 20th-century brought in Ikuta and Yamada
koto, and Yatsuhashi koto went into a rapid, but almost unnoticed, decline.
Until that fateful day in 1957, Shin Sanada had assumed that other Yatsuhashi
players must exist somewhere in the country, but she gave it little thought.
When she realized the truth, she resolved to devote the remainder of her life to
reviving and passing on the style. By the time she died in 1975 at age 92, she
had succeeded. Yatsuhashi koto was known again, and a hard core of players had
been built up. Sanada was succeeded by her daughter Yoshiko, who has continued
the style. Today the school counts about fifteen qualified players in both
Matsushiro and Tokyo, including five with teacher's diplomas and one who is
designated to succeed Yoshiko Sanada (herself now past 80) as head of the
school. Everyone who studied the koto learns such fundamental Yatsuhashi works
as Kudan, Fuki and Ogi no kyoku. Few people today, however, have heard them in
the Yatsuhashi style. |
| . |
| . |
About the
author:
Alexander Mackay-Smith IV, a long-time resident of Tokyo and
connoisseur of music and art, has studied traditional Japanese music for the
past 18 years. He plays the Chikuzen biwa and writes about Japanese music and
art for several journals. This article was published in The Japan Times, Tokyo
on April 18, 1993. |
|
|
