Edo sato kagura: Ritual, drama, farce and music in a pre-modern Shinto theatrical.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the music of Edo sato kagura, a pre-modern Shinto theatrical that has been performed at neighborhood shrine festivals in the Tokyo area since the Tokugawa period. Specifically, the author analyzes representative pieces performed by the Wakayama shachu, one of four extant Edo sato kagura troupes, to uncover the relationship between the repertoire and the theatrical's fundamental layers of cultural meaning. The primary data for this research comes from some two years of private study by the author with Wakayama Taneo, leader of the Wakayama troupe, as well as direct observation of shrine performances. Edo sato kagura's music must be understood in terms of the theatrical's history. Apparently, Edo sato kagura grew from a largely ritualistic kagura tradition that migrated to the shogunal capital of Edo sometime in the seventeenth century. This transplant underwent a profound transformation in its new home. While it remained partly ritualistic, it also developed drama and farce as fundamental elements. Drama allowed it to prosper as a secularized theatrical amidst the carnival-like atmosphere found at Shinto shrines during the Tokugawa period. Farce contributed to the same end and may also have permitted Edo sato kagura to playfully satirize shogunal rule and the social order it imposed upon Edo life. Analysis reveals that Edo sato kagura's accretion of traditional meanings still echoes in the genre's musical repertoire. The Wakayama troupe transmits thirty selections, and these can be placed into three categories: ritualistic, dramatic, and farcical. Dramatic pieces are, by far, the most numerous. While these range from tranquil to furious, all rely upon continuity and contrast to create and maintain dramatic tension. Homma, Edo sato kagura's one ritualistic piece is much more repetitive. This helps focus attention upon the tradition's ritualistic dances. Nimba, Edo sato kagura's farcical selection holds particular interest since it contains an element exceedingly rare in traditional Japanese music, improvisation.