A great variety of dance and music are transmitted from Tang-dynasty China

China possessed a highly developed music culture from ancient times, and the word yayue (Jp. gagaku) was already in use in China from before the Common Era. Meaning ‘correct music,’ this term referred to the accompanied dance music used in Confucian worship.

As its sphere of influence expanded to the west, China embraced the music cultures of city-states situated along the Silk Road. This music, called huyue (Jp. kogaku, ‘barbarian music’) in China, mixed with China’s traditional music to form the many genres of music and dance performed at the Chinese court during the time of the Tang dynasty (7th to 9th centuries).

It was the banquet music of the Tang court, called yanyue (Jp. engaku), that was transmitted to Japan by members of the Japanese missions to the Tang. The new music and dance transmitted from the advanced culture of China went on to form the most important element of gagaku, namely the tōgaku (‘Tang music’) repertoire.

Featured columnThe sources of tōgaku (‘Tang music’)

Five-stringed lute (gogen-biwa) of rosewood with mother-of-pearl inlay
This is the only surviving ancient example of this instrument, probably of 8th-century Chinese manufacture. The instrument itself originated in ancient India.

China has long enjoyed active cultural exchange with the many nations that surround it, and music, whether instrumental or vocal, is no exception. Many music instruments used in gagaku, such as the four-stringed lute biwa (Ch. pipa) and the reedpipe hichiriki (Ch. bili), originally came from other parts of Asia, such as Persia and India. The strong influence of this musical culture on Japan is demonstrated by the similarity of the notation used in the early 10th-century lute score discovered in the Mogao caves of Dunhuang to that used in the fragment of lute notation held in the collection of the Shōsō-in, which dates back to the mid-8th century.

Also transmitted to Japan were rin’yūgaku, music and dance of the ancient Vietnamese kingdom of Champa, and toragaku, music and dance of unclear origins that was very popular in the Nara period but later died out. Both were treated as part of tōgaku (‘Tang music’).