Appreciate
Outline
Performance of the rōei Tōgan
Tōgan (‘East bank’) is a typical rōei, whose text was composed by the mid-Heian Japanese writer Yoshishige no Yasutane (?–1002).
Fujiwara no Kintō included it in the ‘Spring’ section of his Wakan rōei-shū (‘Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing’) as a poem appropriate to sing in early spring.
It is one of the 14 rōei included in the Meiji sentei-fu (‘Selected Scores of Meiji’), one of seven in the first collection of scores of 1876.
Accompaniment is supplied by one each of three winds: mouthorgan shō, reedpipe hichiriki, and transverse flute ryūteki,.
Form of the piece (text and translation)
| ichi-no-ku | solo | tougan seigan no | On the east bank and the west bank, |
|---|---|---|---|
| unison | yanagi chisoku onajikarazu | the willows bud at differing rates; | |
| ni-no-ku | solo | nanshi hokushi no- | On the northern branches and southern branches |
| unison | -o ume | of the plum tree, | |
| san-no-ku | solo | kairaku | the blossoms open and fall |
| unison | sude ni kotonari | at different times. |
Points for appreciation
Yoshishige no Yasutane’s couplet expresses joy at the coming of spring, observing differences in the way that trees react to the warmth of the spring sunlight.
The melodic patterns used in the piece are standard and its text is well balanced. It is one of the most often performed of the 15 pieces of the current repertoire, one of which was not included in the Meiji scores because of its Buddhist content.
