Song and dance of ancient Japan

Haniwa (clay figurine) of a zither player
Excavated from the Funayama burial mound, Saitama prefecture

Although we have no clear picture of what music was like in Japan before the large-scale introduction of musical culture from the Asian mainland, there are indications that song and dance were used rites, ceremonies and banquets. Music instruments such as flat zithers have been excavated from sites of Yayoi date (approximately 4th century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.). They appear to represent ancestors of the six-stringed wagon still used in today’s gagaku.

As the nation-state was formed, music and dance handed down by regional clans were brought to the capital, and often performed there as gestures of allegiance. Some of these, taken into court culture, went on to form the basic core of the repertoire of kuniburi-no-utamai, indigenous song and dance forms.