There are quite a number of Japanese words and expressions that derive from gagaku. Let’s examine a few that are often used in daily life.

Uchiawase and yatara

The word uchiawase, which means arrangements or planning made for a certain event, derives from the time after the late 16th century when musicians from the three gagaku centers of Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka came together to perform at court. Because their performance traditions differed in various details, they had to make certain decisions about the performance in advance. The word uchiawase literally means ‘beat together,’ and derives from the fact that the percussion players met beforehand to make the rules for a particular performance event.

A derivation that often surprises the Japanese is that of the adverb yatara, which refers to doing something to an extreme or unreasonable degree. It appears likely that this derives from the gagaku word yatara-byōshi, which describes a variant metrical type made up of alternating 2/4 and 3/4 measures. It is easy to get confused when performing in this meter, and this nuance appears to have been extended to imply a disturbance of the normal order.

Senshūraku and ni-no-ku ga tsugenai

One common expression derives from a gagaku piece name. The word used for the final day in a sumō tournament or a run of theatrical performances is senshūraku, literally ‘music of a thousand autumns.’ Senshūraku is a tōgaku piece composed in Japan in the 11th century. One theory has it that it came to refer to the conclusion of something since it was often used to accompany the exit of priests at the conclusion of Buddhist ceremonies. It might be noted here that Robert Garfias borrowed the term for the title of his ground-breaking study of tōgaku, Music of a Thousand Autumns: The Tōgaku Style of Japanese Court Music (University of California Press, 1975).

The expression ni-no-ku ga tsugenai, literally ‘cannot continue the second section,’ is used in Japanese to mean ‘to be at a loss for words.’ It derives from the performance practice of the court song genre rōei. A typical rōei song is divided into three sections, and there is an enormous leap between the end of the first (sung in chorus in an extremely low range) and the beginning of the second (sung solo in an extremely high range). The expression refers to difficulty of singing the opening solo part of the second section (ni-no-ku).