Download or read book Ko Uta Little Songs of the Geisha World written by Liza Crihfield and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-03 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book of Japanese poetry and lyrics explores a little-known style of Japanese song called Ko-Uta. A Ko-Uta is translated as "little song" in Japanese. Unfamiliar to most Westerners, ko-uta are particularly in tune with the tradition of Japan's Edo-era merchants. Some ko-uta are aesthetic, many are earthy. Ko-uta are sung to the accompaniment of the shamisen—a traditional, three-stringed Japanese lute. Ko-uta come to life when they are sung, and the best example of where they live is in the geisha world. To help give some idea of the geisha world, this Japanese music book has provided a complete score of one song. Readers with some experience with haiku and other forms of Japanese poetry will find that ko-uta share many things with those forms. Yet, ko-uta retain their own unique interest, making this book a fascinating addition to any collection of Japanese literature or art.
Download or read book The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music written by David W. Hughes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-03 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Music is a frequently neglected aspect of Japanese culture. It is in fact a highly problematic area, as the Japanese actively introduced Western music into their modern education system in the Meiji period (1868-1911), creating westernized melodies and instrumental instruction for Japanese children from kindergarten upwards. As a result, most Japanese now have a far greater familiarity with Western (or westernized) music than with traditional Japanese music. Traditional or classical Japanese music has become somewhat ghettoized, often known and practised only by small groups of people in social structures which have survived since the pre-modern era. Such marginalization of Japanese music is one of the less recognized costs of Japan's modernization. On the other hand, music in its westernized and modernized forms has an extremely important place in Japanese culture and society, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example, being so widely known and performed that it is arguably part of contemporary Japanese popular and mass culture. Japan has become a world leader in the mass production of Western musical instruments and in innovative methodologies of music education (Yamaha and Suzuki). More recently, the Japanese craze of karaoke as a musical entertainment and as musical hardware has made an impact on the leisure and popular culture of many countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This is the first book to cover in detail all genres including court music, Buddhist chant, theatre music, chamber ensemble music and folk music, as well as contemporary music and the connections between music and society in various periods. The book is a collaborative effort, involving both Japanese and English speaking authors, and was conceived by the editors to form a balanced approach that comprehensively treats the full range of Japanese musical culture.
Download or read book The Gei of Geisha Music Identity and Meaning written by KellyM. Foreman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese geisha is an international icon, known almost universally as a symbol of traditional Japan. Numerous books exist on the topic, yet this is the first to focus on the 'gei' of geisha - the art that constitutes their title (gei translates as fine art, sha refers to person). Kelly M. Foreman brings together ethnomusicological field research, including studying and performing the shamisen among geisha in Tokyo, with historical research. The book elaborates how musical art is an essential part of the identity of the Japanese geisha rather than a secondary feature, and locates current practice within a tradition of two and half centuries. The book opens by deconstructing the idea of 'geisha' as it functions in Western societies in order to understand why gei has been, and continues to be, neglected in geisha studies. Subsequent chapters detail the myriad musical genres and traditions with which geisha have been involved during their artistic history, as well as their position within the traditional arts society. Considering the current situation more closely, the final chapters explore actual dedication to art today by geisha, and analyse how they create impromptu performances at evening banquets. An important issue here is geisha-patron artistic collaboration, which leads to consideration of what Foreman argues to be the unique and essential nexus of identity, eroticism and aesthetics within the geisha world.
Download or read book The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History written by Bonnie G. Smith and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 2710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Women in World History captures the experiences of women throughout world history in a comprehensive, 4-volume work. Although there has been extensive research on women in history by region, no text or reference work has comprehensively covered the role women have played throughout world history. The past thirty years have seen an explosion of research and effort to present the experiences and contributions of women not only in the Western world but across the globe. Historians have investigated womens daily lives in virtually every region and have researched the leadership roles women have filled across time and region. They have found and demonstrated that there is virtually no historical, social, or demographic change in which women have not been involved and by which their lives have not been affected. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History benefits greatly from these efforts and experiences, and illuminates how women worldwide have influenced and been influenced by these historical, social, and demographic changes. The Encyclopedia contains over 1,250 signed articles arranged in an A-Z format for ease of use. The entries cover six main areas: biographies; geography and history; comparative culture and society, including adoption, abortion, performing arts; organizations and movements, such as the Egyptian Uprising, and the Paris Commune; womens and gender studies; and topics in world history that include slave trade, globalization, and disease. With its rich and insightful entries by leading scholars and experts, this reference work is sure to be a valued, go-to resource for scholars, college and high school students, and general readers alike.
Download or read book Asian American Fiction History and Life Writing written by Helena Grice and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last ten years have witnessed an enormous growth in American interest in Asia and Asian/American history. In particular, a set of key Asian historical moments have recently become the subject of intense American cultural scrutiny, namely China’s Cultural Revolution and its aftermath; the Korean American war and its legacy; the era of Japanese geisha culture and its subsequent decline; and China’s one-child policy and the rise of transracial, international adoption in its wake. Grice examines and accounts for this cultural and literary preoccupation, exploring the corresponding historical-political situations that have both circumscribed and enabled greater cultural and political contact between Asia and America.
Download or read book Life of Geisha written by Eleanor Underwood and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book of Geisha culture and history features beautiful antique photographs and a wealth of information. Geisha have the odd distinction of being both legendary and real, and this book helps clarify those differences. Myth by nature is monolithic, transcending history and individuals, whereas the reality is a variety of geisha communities in different areas of Japan, Status hierarchies among communities in the same city, and of course differences among individual geisha. The Life of Geisha illustrates the fascinating world of Japan's powerful and seductive geishas, a fading yet beautiful world that has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. This striking book contains full-color woodblock prints made during Japan's famous Edo Period, historic and contemporary photographs of geisha life, and images of the "floating world," Japan's mysterious artistic subculture. The accompanying text includes evocative Japanese poems and haikus. All celebrate the beauty and creativity of the geisha, who with her exquisitely detailed costume, elaborate makeup and hairstyle, and artfully ritualized behavior, chastely beguiles and entertains Japan's most powerful men.
Download or read book Traditional Folk Song in Modern Japan written by David W. Hughes and published by Global Oriental. This book was released on 2008-01-31 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study moves from tradition to modernity, explores a range of topics such as: song life in the traditional village; rural–urban tensions; local min’yo ‘preservation societies’; the effects of national and local min’yo contests; the ‘new folk song’ phenomenon; min’yo and tourism; folk song bars; recruitment of professionals; min’yo’s interaction with enka popular songs and with Western-derived foku songu; the impact of mass mediation; and min’yo’s role in maintaining or creating local identity. The book contains a plate section, musical examples, and a compact disc.
Download or read book Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments written by William P. Malm and published by Kodansha International. This book was released on 2000 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Malm's scholarship is impeccable... Of equal importance is the fact that he is an excellent performing musician who has studied extensively in Japan." -Choice
Download or read book The Japanese Art of Sex written by Jina Bacarr and published by Stone Bridge Press. This book was released on 2004-05-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to use the ancient and modern Japanese sexual practices of court ladies, courtesans and geisha to spark romance and deliver an erotic "floating world" of pleasure to you and your partner.
Download or read book The Postwar Development of Japanese Studies in the United States written by Helen Hardacre and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-07-17 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of twelve essays with useful bibliographies, in the fields of history, art, religion, literature, anthropology, political science, and law, documents the history of United States scholarship on Japan since 1945.
Download or read book The Postwar Developments of Japanese Studies in the United States written by Helen Hardacre and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1998 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of twelve essays with useful bibliographies, in the fields of history, art, religion, literature, anthropology, political science, and law, documents the history of United States scholarship on Japan since 1945.
Download or read book Spiritual Dimensions in the Music of Edmund Rubbra written by Lucinda Cradduck and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-20 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edmund Rubbra’s music has given him a reputation as a ‘spiritual’ composer, who had an interest in Eastern thought, and a mid-life conversion to Roman Catholicism. This book takes a wide and detailed view of ‘spiritual’ dimensions or strands that were important in his life, positioning them both biographically and within the context of contemporaneous English culture. It proceeds to interpret through detailed analysis the ways these spiritual aspects are reflected in specific compositions. Thematical treatment of these spiritual issues, touching on Theosophy, dance, Eastern religions and thought, nature, the evolutionary theory of Teilhard de Chardin and the Christ figure, presents a multi-faceted view of Rubbra’s life and music. Its contribution to a scholarly re-evaluation of his place within twentieth-century British music and culture engages and meshes with several areas of current scholarly research in the arts and humanities, including academic interest in Theosophy, modernism and the arts, experimental dance and the Indian cultural renaissance and East–West musical interactions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also adds to a burgeoning body of writings on music and spirituality, fuelled by the popularity of later twentieth-century and contemporary composers who make more overt spiritual references in their music.
Download or read book Murder on the Cliff written by Stefanie Matteson and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legendary actress Charlotte Graham investigates a geisha’s death at an elegant seaside resort in this chilling cozy mystery that weaves together history, politics, and murder When Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry unlocked the door to Japan, American consul Townsend Harris fell in love with the legendary geisha Okichi. It was to be a doomed romance that ended with the scorned young woman hurling herself into the sea. More than a century later, the citizens of Newport, Rhode Island, celebrate Perry’s journey by inviting Okichi’s last surviving descendant, Okichi-mago, to visit their glittering resort. A famous geisha herself, Okichi-mago’s voyage to Newport is a great diplomatic affair—and it will end in tragedy. In a chilling echo of her ancestor’s death, Okichi-mago falls from one of Newport’s famous cliffs. But Hollywood icon Charlotte Graham can’t believe that the refined beauty would take her own life, so she sets out to find the killer. Mystery lovers with an interest in the history of Japan or old Hollywood will adore Murder on the Cliff. When the rich and famous tangle with murder, there’s no sleuth more suitable to working the case than the glamorous Charlotte Graham. Murder on the Cliff is the 3rd book in the Charlotte Graham Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Download or read book From the Country of Eight Islands written by Hiroaki Sato and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survey of Japanese poetry contains the works of over one hundred poets from the eighth century to the present.
Download or read book Little Songs Of The Geisha written by Liza Dalby and published by . This book was released on 2000-02-01 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional Japanese ko-uta are the musical embodiment of the Japanese geisha in the intoxicating "flower and willow world." Literally, these are "little songs" sung by a geisha who accompanies herself on the 3-stringed shamisen. Liza Dalby, an American who is fully trained in the arts of the geisha, is a magnificent guide who brings alive the spirit of this delightful musical form. This book presents beautiful calligraphy and vivid translations of 25 ko-uta, to which Dalby adds lively explanatory notes illuminating the puns and Japanese literary devices which might otherwise elude the Western reader. She also provides an intro. on the geisha and ko-uta. Also provides traditional musical notations for the shamisen as well as in standard Western form.
Download or read book Counterfeiter and Other Stories written by Yasushi Inoue and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "These three stories illustrate Inoue's versatility, his mastery of detail and his control of narrative structure. Inoue presents the tale as mystery and solution, the tale as psychoanalytic exploration…, the tale as emblematic social history." —Arizona Quarterly In The Counterfeiter, a writer is commissioned to write the biography of a famous painter but becomes fascinated by a man who produced forgeries of the artist's work. Obasute concerns a man's obsession with a legend of old women being taken to a mountain and abandoned, and his interpretation of the actions of members of his family in light of this legend. The Full Moon is a story of company politics, particularly the rise and fall of firm's president, told largely through incidents at annual company parties. Yasushi Inoue was born in 1907. He rose quickly to become one of Japan's most important contemporary writers, winning almost every major Japanese literary prize. Inoue died in 1991.
Download or read book Women in Japanese Society written by Kristina R. Huber and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1992-09-15 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exhaustive bibliography contains more than 2,300 annotated entries on the lives of women in Japan. It includes books and book chapters, articles in scholarly journals and popular magazines, and published conference papers. The authors have diligently researched databases, bibliographies, and indexes, and have based their detailed annotations on a close examination of the works cited. The volume lists works published in English from 1841 to the present, and a particularly significant feature is the inclusion of literary works by Japanese women. The book is further balanced by material on non-Japanese women living in Japan. All materials are available in the United States through standard interlibrary loan sources. A valuable introduction provides detailed instructions for using the volume. The bibliography is divided into a number of broad sections on the public and private lives of women, and entries in each section are grouped in more specific categories covering home life, politics, education, religion, careers, the arts, and other areas. The sections on literature briefly introduce the lives and works of poets and prose writers, listing their individual works available in English translation. A concluding section provides access to reviews and overviews of scholarship on women in Japan. The extensive author, title, and subject indexes make this book of tremendous value to researchers in a wide range of disciplines.
