The yayue of China and the gagaku of Japan

One of the sources of Japan’s gagaku is music and dance transmitted from the Asian mainland, most importantly China. It is important to note, however, that Japan’s gagaku is not the same as China’s yayue, even though the two terms are written with the same Chinese characters, 雅楽.

China’s yayue refers to music and dance used to worship imperial ancestors and the gods according to Confucian practices, and first appeared during the ancient Zhou dynasty (1046–256 B.C.). Its music was performed by a large ensemble of instruments classified into eight classes (Ch. bayin, ‘eight sounds’), according to their primary material: metal, stone, string (silk), bamboo, gourd, earth, skin (leather), and wood. Its dances were of two types, civil (Ch. wen) and military (Ch. wu). Although each dynasty reformed its yayue practices as it saw fit, its basic function as formal ceremonial music never changed.

The music culture of China during the Sui and Tang dynasties, the time when it influenced Japan most, included not only this yayue, but also yanyue (‘banquet music’). Yanyue combined China’s traditional music with music originally from city-states along the Silk Road west of China, known as huyue (‘barbarian music’). Yanyue was performed at state banquets, and it was this music that was transmitted to Japan to form the tōgaku (‘Tang music’) repertoire of Japan’s gagaku.

The role played by the gakke (hereditary music families)

Although gagaku reached its fully systematized form during the Heian period (9th to 12th centuries), its living performance tradition continues even today. This is due not only to support and patronage from the rulers of each age and the shrines and temples at which it was played, but also to the hereditary musician families (gakke) that have passed it down from generation to generation.

The families involved have not been singularly responsible for the complete tradition; on the contrary, it was standard practice for a single family to specialize in the transmission of individual instruments or single genres of dance. The families themselves were affiliated with one of three centers, Kyoto, Nara, or the Osaka temple Shitennō-ji. Each family was divided into a main branch and several sub-branches. Collaboration between the many families involved made possible the continuing transmission of the gagaku tradition through various critical periods of decline.

In the modern era, however, fewer members of the gakke families are involved in gagaku performance. Although they once made up the great majority of musicians at the Music Department of the Imperial Household Agency, they number less than half of the Department’s current strength.

‘Spring’ the favored season in the title of tōgaku (‘Tang music’) pieces

A quick glance at the titles of pieces of the tōgaku (‘Tang music’) repertoire shows that spring is the most favored of the four seasons. As well as the “Song of the Spring Warbler” (Shunnōden) whose melody appears to imitate the song of the bird, the bright tone of the mode sōjō, associated with spring, finds expression in the piece “Flowers of a Spring Garden” (Shundeika). The piece “Joy of Spring” (Kishunraku) was customarily performed at the coming-of-age ceremony of the Crown Prince, whose title is written with the characters ‘spring prince.’

This predilection evidently goes back to the Chinese Tang court. Lists of piece names in records from the time include titles that may be translated as “Spring Willows,” “Spring of the Jeweled Capital,” “Spreading Yang in Spring,” “Bright Rays of Spring,” “Blossoms Welcome the Spring,” “Phoenix and Cherry in Spring,” and “Spring in a Myriad of Gardens.”

Perhaps it was spring, with the warm sunshine bringing an end to the cold of winter, that best suited the rich, vibrant culture of the Chinese Tang court.

Decoding the mysteries of the piece names of the komagaku (‘Korean music’) repertoire

While the names of pieces in the tōgaku (‘Tang music’) repertoire are written with Chinese characters that give us a fairly concrete idea of their contents, such as Shunnōden, “Spring Warbler Song,” and Keibairaku, “Emptying Cup Music” (a drinking song), many names of pieces in the komagaku (‘Korean music’) repertoire are written with characters that appear to produce no meaning as they stand, such as that of the famous dance Nasori. The reason for this is that the characters were apparently used to represent the pronunciation of the title in one of the ancient languages of the Korean peninsula; the characters represent sound, not meaning, and consequently the piece names are not always written the same way, since the same sound can be represented by different characters.

In the case of Nasori, it appears that in ancient Korean ‘na’ means ‘devil,’ while ‘sori’ means ‘song’ or ‘melody.’ It has therefore been suggested that the piece may have been used in the devil-expelling rite held annually on the last night of the year, known in Japanese as tsuina. Several researchers are involved in attempts to decode the original meanings of the piece names of the komagaku repertoire through hints from the ancient Korean languages.

Gagaku and the warrior class of the Edo period

Gagaku, brought to fruition by the ruling noble class of the Heian period (9th to 12th centuries), was supported and sponsored by the warrior class during their rule in the succeeding medieval and early-modern periods.

The Tokugawa clan of the Tokugawa shogunate (Edo period, 17th to 19th centuries) were particularly generous sponsors, making special provision of land to the musicians of the ‘three directions’ (Kyoto, Nara, and the Osaka temple Shitennō-ji) who performed at the fiftieth-year memorial ceremony for Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616) in Edo (present-day Tokyo).

There were many other gagaku aficionados among the daimyō (feudal rulers) of the Edo period outside the Tokugawa clan. The daimyō of the Hikone and Kishū domains (located in present-day Shiga and Wakayama prefectures respectively) were known as collectors of antique music instruments. The records of many domains throughout the country detail the use of gagaku in ceremony, as well as in music education at domain schools.

The Edo period, therefore, can be called a second golden age for gagaku, inferior only to the Heian period.

Inheriting the music culture of Asia

The word gagaku derives from ancient China. In addition, gagaku itself preserves influences from the music and dance of many parts of Asia, from east to west. The roots of gagaku, in other words, penetrate deep into the music culture of Asia. Some scholars undertake research on gagaku as part of their wider research on Asian cultural history.

Gagaku can be viewed in a particularly interesting light when we consider that it reflects not only the music culture of Tang-dynasty China, but of music cultures further afield, filtered through the prism of the Tang. The discovery of ancient notation for four-stringed lute in the caves of Dunhuang in western China that closely resembles that still transmitted in Japan for the same instrument (biwa) tells us that the island nation of Japan preserves many elements of musical culture that have been lost or transformed on the Asian continent.

At the same time, we should not overlook the fact that ancient song and dance forms indigenous to Japan have been passed down within the gagaku tradition, influenced by the music and dance transmitted via the Korean peninsula and the Chinese mainland, and yet retaining, in some aspects, elements of their original forms.