Overview

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.

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9781032698540

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Reviews

“Christopher Yohmei Blasdel gives us a handsome publication that is more than just a translation of shamisen and koto songs (jiuta sōkyoku) from 17th to 19th century Japan. For the English reader, this title adds a visual and literary appreciation to the sonic beauty of these songs. A combination of sensitive English imagery and insightful cultural commentary, its content is illustrated by a stunning series of woodblock prints related to the songs. In performance, the addition of shakuhachi (bamboo flute) enhances the aesthetic of the shamisen and koto performance. It seems therefore fitting that the author, an internationally known shakuhachi artist, enhances our understanding of these songs through this celebration of his lifelong engagement with them.” Ricardo D. Trimillos, Ph.D., Editor of Asian Music journal, Professor Emeritus in Asian Studies and Ethnomusicology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa “Christopher Yohmei Blasdel deserves enormous credit for his prolonged dedicated research along with deep cultural exploration and for the clarity of presentation of such a copious amount of detailed explication of this important repertoire that has received so little attention from scholars of Japanese literature and culture. His knowledge and experience of jiuta sokyoku stems from study of and performance on shakuhachi in Japan for over fifty years. Contextualization of the genre permeates the book: in a guiding overview in Chapter 1; in a beautifully written, succinct tracing of its history and its artistic expressivity through time in Chapter 2 by Blasdel and his colleague in the shakuhachi world, Gunnar Jinmei Linder. Of fresh significance here is the rare attention given to expression of sympathy in the texts for the indentured women entertainers in the pleasure districts of Edo Japan, one of the contexts where these songs would have been heard.” Bonnie Wade, Professor Emerita (Ethnomusicology), University of California, Berkeley and specialist in Asian musics

Author Information

Christopher Yohmei Blasdel began the shakuhachi in 1972 under legendary shakuhachi master Yamaguchi Goro, completed his MA in ethnomusicology from Tokyo University of Arts in 1982 and received his shihan license from Yamaguchi in 1984. As a scholar and performer, Blasdel focuses both on traditional and contemporary music. He has released several CDs, shakuhachi reference books and has composed music for NHK documentaries and various films. He co-organized the Boulder World Shakuhachi Festival (1998), the Sydney World Shakuhachi Festival (2008) and was co-founder of the Prague Shakuhachi Festival. He presently lectures at University of Hawai’i and holds a fifth-degree black belt in Aikido. Gunnar Jinmei Linder came to Japan in 1985, with a BA in philosophy and Japanology, and began studies of shakuhachi with Yamaguchi Goro. He received an MA in shakuhachi from the Traditional Music Conservatoire at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1997, and the traditional license shihan in 1998. After many years in Japan as stage and recording artist, as well as teacher of shakuhachi, he returned to his native Sweden and received a PhD in Japanology at Stockholm University in 2012 (Deconstructing Tradition in Japanese Music). In 2016 he received a diploma from the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs for his artistic and academic activities.

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