Download or read book The Shamisen written by Henry Mabley Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shamisen is a traditional Japanese musical instrument. It was introduced to Japan in the mid-sixteenth century via China and the Ryûkyû Islands, and was quickly established as a culturally significant musical instrument in its new context. The instrument - a three-string lute - developed numerous styles of performance and is found as a solo and ensemble instrument in diverse social and cultural contexts. The shamisen is known as an instrument of geisha in the entertainment districts; it is used in kabuki and bunraku theatre; and also has an established place within a wide-range of performance traditions, many of which are depicted in woodblock prints and other art depicting everyday life of the Edo period. This book, which is based on the author's field research in Japan, is a history of the shamisen. It locates the instrument within its various social and cultural contexts, and includes accompanying illustrations (e.g., woodblock prints, photographs and illustrations) to help show visually the place of the instrument in traditional and modern Japan.
Download or read book Shamisen of Japan written by Kyle Abbott and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shamisen of Japan teaches you how to professionally play and make the Tsugaru Shamisen, simply and enjoyably! Interested in Shamisen? Enjoy the free Shamisen Crash Course, shop for high-quality Shamisen direct from Japan, and join the growing global Shamisen society at Bachido.com! About the book:It's really two books in one:Step-by-step Construction Manual Each step in the construction of the shamisen is carefully documented Hundreds of pictures along the way Traceable shamisen templatesComplete Guide for Playing Pictures and descriptions of essential tsugaru shamisen techniques Notation for 16 folk songs (Minyo) and tsugaru piecesBook HighlightsSimply written! Yes! What a novel concept! But really, who likes thick, tedious instruction manuals? Shamisen is written simply (mainly because the author's vocabulary ain't that large) in order to directly give you all the knowledge you need to build and/or play tsugaru shamisen. Nothing less, nothing more? than you need.Hundreds of pictures! Almost all instructions in the book are accompanied by an easy-to-see picture! Making the book a useful workshop/classroom material, acceptable coffee table book, and/or bathroom reader, Shamisen of Japan is a fiesta o? pictures which will keep you inspired and interested when the novelty of the English letters wears off.Professional techniques! Learn invaluable shamisen technique used by famous artists like the Yoshida Brothers, Masahiro Nitta, Agatsuma Hiromitsu, Asano Sho and Shinichi Kinoshita!
Download or read book Shamisen of Japan written by Kyle Abbott and published by . This book was released on 2012-03-28 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shamisen of Japan teaches you how to professionally play and make the Tsugaru Shamisen, simply and enjoyably! Interested in Shamisen? Enjoy the free Shamisen Crash Course, shop for high-quality Shamisen direct from Japan, and join the growing global Shamisen society at Bachido.com! About the book:It's really two books in one:Step-by-step Construction Manual Each step in the construction of the shamisen is carefully documented Hundreds of pictures along the way Traceable shamisen templatesComplete Guide for Playing Pictures and descriptions of essential tsugaru shamisen techniques Notation for 16 folk songs (Minyo) and tsugaru piecesBook HighlightsSimply written! Yes! What a novel concept! But really, who likes thick, tedious instruction manuals? Shamisen is written simply (mainly because the author's vocabulary ain't that large) in order to directly give you all the knowledge you need to build and/or play tsugaru shamisen. Nothing less, nothing more... than you need.Hundreds of pictures! Almost all instructions in the book are accompanied by an easy-to-see picture! Making the book a useful workshop/classroom material, acceptable coffee table book, and/or bathroom reader, Shamisen of Japan is a fiesta o' pictures which will keep you inspired and interested when the novelty of the English letters wears off.Professional techniques! Learn invaluable shamisen technique used by famous artists like the Yoshida Brothers, Masahiro Nitta, Agatsuma Hiromitsu, Asano Sho and Shinichi Kinoshita!
Download or read book Japanese Music Musical Instruments written by William P. Malm and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1990-06-15 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interesting and authoritative book includes essential facts about the various forms of Japanese music and musical instruments and their place in the overall history of Japan. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments has three main orientations: The history of Japanese music Construction of the instruments Analysis of the music itself. The book covers in a lucidly written text and a wealth of fascinating photographs and drawings the main forms of musical expression. Many readers will find the useful hints on purchasing instruments, records, and books especially valuable, and for those who wish to pursue the matter further there is a selected bibliography and a guide to Tokyo's somewhat hidden world of Japanese music. It will be found an invaluable aid to the understanding and appreciation of an important, but little-known, and fascinating aspect of Japanese culture.
Download or read book Snakeskin Shamisen written by Naomi Hirahara and published by Delta. This book was released on 2006-04-25 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Summer of the Big Bachi to Gasa-Gasa Girl, Naomi Hirahara’s acclaimed novels have featured one of mystery fiction’s most unique heroes: Mas Arai, a curmudgeonly L.A. gardener, Hiroshima survivor, and inveterate gambler. Few things get Mas more excited than gambling, so when he hears about a $500,000 win–from a novelty slot machine!–he’s torn between admiration and derision. But the stakes are quickly raised when the winner, a friend of Mas’s pal G. I. Hasuike, is found stabbed to death just days later. The last thing Mas wants to do is stick his nose in someone else’s business, but at G.I.’s prodding he reluctantly agrees to follow the trail of a battered snakeskin shamisen (a traditional Okinawan musical instrument) left at the scene of the crime…and suddenly finds himself caught up in a dark mystery that reaches from the islands of Okinawa to the streets of L.A.–a world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.
Download or read book Shaped by Japanese Music written by Jay Davis Keister and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-06 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study situates musical analysis in the context of its creation, demonstrating that traditional Japanese music is an active socio- cultural system that has been reproduced in Japan from the seventeenth century to the present day.
Download or read book Cultural Commodities in Japanese Rural Revitalization written by Anthony Rausch and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-01-11 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fate of local places increasingly rests on their capability to capitalize on their highly specific local cultural resources. Cultural Commodities in Japanese Rural Revitalization: Tsugaru Nuri Lacquerware and Tsugaru Shamisen examines the dynamics of this reality for the Tsugaru District of the Aomori Prefecture, Japan, and its two dominant cultural commodities, a lacquerware and a musical performance. Organized on the basis of policy, production and consumption, the research points to historical trajectory and a combinative conceptual-operational space as the means of identifying cultural and economic potential for a cultural commodity. This analytical approach provides both for assessing the local consciousness and identifying informed policy and industry management for the commodity, making it possible to realize its potential in local revitaliszation.
Download or read book The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music written by Naoyuki Suda and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Koto written by Henry Mabley Johnson and published by Hotei Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Henry Johnson is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Otago, New Zealand, where he teaches and undertakes research in Ethnomusicology and Asian Studies.
Download or read book Composing for Japanese Instruments written by Minoru Miki and published by University Rochester Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unique sounds of the biwa, shamisen, and other traditional instruments from Japan are heard more and more often in works for the concert hall and opera house. Composing for Japanese Instruments is a practical orchestration/instrumentation manual with contextual and relevant historical information for composers who wish to learn how to compose for traditional Japanese instruments. Widely regarded as the authoritative text on the subject in Japan and China, it contains hundreds of musical examples, diagrams, photographs, and fingering charts, and comes complete with two accompanying compact discs of musical examples. Its author, Minoru Miki, is a composer of international renown and is recognized in Japan as a pioneer in writing for Japanese traditional instruments. The book contains valuable appendices, one of works Miki himself has composed using Japanese traditional instruments, and one of works by other composers -- including Toru Takemitsu and Henry Cowell -- using Japanese traditional instruments. Marty Regan is Assistant Professor of Music at Texas A&M University; Philip Flavin is a Research Fellow in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University, Australia.
Download or read book Focus Music in Contemporary Japan written by Jennifer Milioto Matsue and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focus: Music in Contemporary Japan explores a diversity of musics performed in Japan today, ranging from folk song to classical music, the songs of geisha to the screaming of underground rock, with a specific look at the increasingly popular world of taiko (ensemble drumming). Discussion of contemporary musical practice is situated within broader frames of musical and sociopolitical history, processes of globalization and cosmopolitanism, and the continued search for Japanese identity through artistic expression. It explores how the Japanese have long negotiated cultural identity through musical practice in three parts: Part I, "Japanese Music and Culture," provides an overview of the key characteristics of Japanese culture that inform musical performance, such as the attitude towards the natural environment, changes in ruling powers, dominant religious forms, and historical processes of cultural exchange. Part II, "Sounding Japan," describes the elements that distinguish traditional Japanese music and then explores how music has changed in the modern era under the influence of Western music and ideology. Part III, "Focusing In: Identity, Meaning and Japanese Drumming in Kyoto," is based on fieldwork with musicians and explores the position of Japanese drumming within Kyoto. It focuses on four case studies that paint a vivid picture of each respective site, the music that is practiced, and the pedagogy and creative processes of each group. The downloadable resources include examples of Japanese music that illustrate specific elements and key genres introduced in the text. A companion website includes additional audio-visual sources discussed in detail in the text. Jennifer Milioto Matsue is an Associate Professor at Union College and specializes in modern Japanese music and culture.
Download or read book Japanese Tattoos written by Brian Ashcraft and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking of getting a Japanese-style tattoo? Want to avoid a permanent mistake? Japanese Tattoos is an insider's look at the world of Japanese irezumi (tattoos). Japanese Tattoos explains the imagery featured in Japanese tattoos so that readers can avoid getting ink they don't understand or, worse, that they'll regret. This photo-heavy book will also trace the history of Japanese tattooing, putting the iconography and kanji symbols in their proper context so readers will be better informed as to what they mean and have a deeper understanding of irezumi. Tattoos featured will range from traditional tebori (hand-poked) and kanji tattoos to anime-inspired and modern works--as well as everything in between. For the first time, Japanese tattooing will be put together in a visually attractive, informative, and authoritative way. Along with the 350+ photos of tattoos, Japanese Tattoos will also feature interviews with Japanese tattoo artists on a variety of topics. What's more, there will be interviews with clients, who are typically overlooked in similar books, allowing them to discuss what their Japanese tattoos mean to them. Those who read this informative tattoo guide will be more knowledgeable about Japanese tattoos should they want to get inked or if they are simply interested in Japanese art and culture.
Download or read book Japan s Musical Tradition written by Miyuki Yoshikami and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What makes Japanese music sound Japanese? Each genre of Japan's pre-Western music (hogaku) morphed from the preceding one with singing at its foundation. In ancient Shinto prayers, words of power recited in a prescribed cadence communicated veneration and community needs to the divine spirit (kami). From the prayers, Japan's word-based music evolved into increasingly more sophisticated recitations with biwa, shamisen, and koto accompaniment. This examination reveals shortcomings in the typical interpretation of Japanese music from a pitch-based Western perspective and carefully explores how the quintessential musical elements of singing, instrumental accompaniment, scale, and format were transmitted from their Shinto inception through all of Japan's music. Japan's culture, with its unique iemoto system and teaching methods, served to exactly replicate Japan's music for centuries. Considering Japan's music in the context of its own culture, logic, and sources is essential to gaining a clear understanding and appreciation of Japan's music and dissipating the mystery of the music's "Japaneseness." Greater enjoyment of the music inevitably follows.
Download or read book Tsugaru Shamisen and Modern Japanese Identity written by Gerald Thomas Mcgoldrick and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shamisen, a Japanese plucked lute dating back to the seventeenth century, began to be played by blind itinerant male performers known as bosama in the late nineteenth century in the Tsugaru region, part of present-day Aomori prefecture in northern Japan. By the early twentieth century it was used by sighted players to accompany local folk songs, and from the 1940s entirely instrumental versions of a few of the folk songs were being performed. In the late 1950s the term Tsugaru shamisen was coined and the genre began to get national attention. This culminated in a revival in the 1970s centred on Takahashi Chikuzan, who had made a living as a bosama in the prewar period. In the wake of the 70s boom a contest began to be held annually in Hirosaki, the cultural capital of the Tsugaru region. This contest nurtured a new generation of young players from all over Japan, eventually spawning other national contests in every corner of the country. Chikuzans death in 1998 was widely reported in the media, and Yoshida Ryichir and Yoshida Kenichi, brothers who had stood out at the contests, were cast as the new face of Tsugaru shamisen. From about 2000 a new Tsugaru shamisen revival was under way, and the music could be heard as background music on Television programs and commercials representing a modern Japan that had not lost its traditions. Through discourse analysis of primary materials, and informed by the authors twenty-five years of direct experience with the Tsugaru shamisen community, this dissertation examines how since the millennial revival the music has come to index a Japanese identity that is modern but still essentially Japanese. It explores ideas developed in the 1930s by thinkers like Watsuji Tetsur and Yanagita Kunio that continue to influence popular conceptions of modernity and tradition in Japan. It traces the one-hundred-year recording history of the music and the proliferation of national contests in recent decades and compares the revivals of the 1970s and the millennium to demonstrate how a genre that previously indexed rural, traditional Japan has come to represent the modern nation.
Download or read book Geisha written by Mineko Iwasaki and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2003-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Kyoto geisha describes her initiation into an okiya at the age of four, the intricate training that made up most of her education, her successful career, and the traditions surrounding the geisha culture.
Download or read book Japan written by C. W. Nikoru and published by Kodansha International. This book was released on 1997 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Original photographs and insightful commentary introduce Japan's natural beauty and rich cultural heritage. These classic images only hint at the story of the seasons in Japan. Nature is not just admired; it is incorporated into every aspect of life, from festivals and the fine arts to the design of homes and the arrangement of seasonal delicacies at the table. The splendors of the landscape have shaped the ancient culture and ongoing traditions of modern Japan. Here, gathered in one opulent volume, are more than two hundred and fifty full-color photographs carefully culled
Download or read book The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan written by M. W. Shores and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-12 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rakugo, a popular form of comic storytelling, has played a major role in Japanese culture and society. Developed during the Edo (1600–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, it is still popular today, with many contemporary Japanese comedians having originally trained as rakugo artists. Rakugo is divided into two distinct strands, the Tokyo tradition and the Osaka tradition, with the latter having previously been largely overlooked. This pioneering study of the Kamigata (Osaka) rakugo tradition presents the first complete English translation of five classic rakugo stories, and offers a history of comic storytelling in Kamigata (modern Kansai, Kinki) from the seventeenth century to the present day. Considering the art in terms of gender, literature, performance, and society, this volume grounds Kamigata rakugo in its distinct cultural context and sheds light on the 'other' rakugo for students and scholars of Japanese culture and history.
