Court song and imayō (songs ‘in modern style’)

The typical court-song genre of the Heian court (9th to 12th centuries) is that of saibara. Two other song genres that were popular at the time are fuzoku-uta and imayō. Saibara songs were arrangements of regional folk and popular songs in the style of the music imported earlier from the Asian mainland. Fuzoku-uta were also folksongs, mainly from the eastern regions of Honshu, and appear to have been sung to distinctive folksong melodies.

In contrast, imayō (literally ‘in modern style’) were originally songs sung by female entertainers, including those known as shirabyōshi (dancers who wore male costume). These songs became popular at court, and were favored by people of all social classes. Many texts, generally made up of 4 phrases each with 7 + 5 syllables, were written. Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who was especially fond of imayō, edited a collection of song texts entitled Ryōjin hishō (‘Book of Secrets of Roof-Beam Dust,’ after a Chinese anecdote about two famous singers whose performances caused the dust on the beams to rise up and not settle for three days).

Etenraku and Kuroda-bushi

Etenraku is the most popular of all gagaku pieces. Although it is performed in the three ritsu (minor) modes, the version in the mode hyōjō (on E) appears to have been the most popular since the Heian period, since a great variety of texts were sung to it. These songs were known as Etenraku utaimono (‘Etenraku songs’).

One particularly interesting survival of this tradition is a famous folksong of the Fukuoka area in northern Kyushu. Each verse of Kuroda-bushi, formerly known as Chikuzen imayō (‘Imayō of the Chikuzen region’), is sung to the melody of Etenraku. Its first and most famous verse tells of a warrior of the Kuroda clan, who received a famous spear as a reward for downing a large celebratory drink of sake: “Drink, drink this sake! If you do, the finest spear in the Land of the Rising Sun will be yours! Drink it to show that you are a true Kuroda warrior!”