Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative by Alison McQueen Tokita (review)

Alison McQueen Tokita has produced an encyclopedic study tracing the relationships between the many forms of Japanese sung narrative that constitute a continuous tradition spanning a millennium. She analyzes kōshiki (late-Heian-period Buddhist preaching), Heike narratives, kōwaka, noh, jōruri, kabuki, and nagauta, focusing on works that are still performed today. In every case, she describes narrative content and performance conventions and provides very technical analyses of the sung texts and accompanying instrumental music. Fourteen samples are provided via compact disc. Her focus on the singing and the musical accompaniment is such that she includes musical scores for all the selections on the CD; she also provides translations of the texts of those selections.

Tokita’s examination reveals two general trends, from orality toward textuality and from simple performance features toward complex theatricality. However, while texts became quite fixed, the music remained relatively fluid, despite the use of some number of both verbal and musical formulaic expressions. Tokita also repeatedly identifies both continuity and change. Old genres survive while new ones come into being, often incorporating aspects of the old. Where she proposes reasons for the rise and fall of various genres, she is careful to present her ideas as speculative. She often depends on a simple dualistic conception for categorizing narrative: “hard narratives” describe military conflict and are ritualistic—and, ironically, life affirming—while “soft narratives” focus on suffering, Buddhist salvation, self-sacrifice, and romance (p. 9). Some tales include both hard and soft narrative, such as when warriors experience religious awakening or indulge in love affairs. While these terms are clear, many of the musical terms the book employs had different meanings in different contexts, and this reader was occasionally overwhelmed. Nevertheless, the strength of Tokita’s work is the wealth of information she provides.

Following an introduction of general principles in chapter 1, the second chapter of the book takes up kōshiki, which has been considered the foundation of Japan’s tradition of musical narrative. Kōshiki were aimed at members of the aristocracy from the mid-tenth to the early eleventh century, and some are still performed today. The texts are written in Chinese but read in Japanese (yomikudashi kanbun), and they are relatively easy to understand, although they contain Chinese-derived and Buddhist terminology. They are sung with no instrumental accompaniment. The music is indigenous and seems not much influenced by shōmyō (musical liturgy), nor does it follow the common Chinese pattern of alternating between sung verse and spoken prose. Kōshiki music “is based on the framework of conjunct and disjunct fourths, and melodic progression through three pitch territories,” a feature it shares with all the performed narrative styles covered in the book (p. 34). Tokita identifies three main types of melody, or styles of delivery, that differ by pitch area: shojū (low), nijū (medium), and sanjū (high). The first two are relatively simple, while sanjū is more melodic and complex. Since line lengths vary, these styles are very fluid and flexible. The CD provided with the book contains a section from Nehan kōshiki, which moves from shojū to nijū to chūon (a cadential transitional melody) to sanjū. Thanks to the CD, one can hear for oneself the noticeable contrast between the first two musical types, which are used to narrate the Buddha’s illness and his last words, and the sanjū type, which is used to narrate the Buddha’s death. The textual content where the music is sanjū is quite lyrical, and the music matches this by becoming quite dramatic and emotional.

In chapter 3, “Heike Narrative: The Musical Recitation of The Tale of the Heike,” Tokita outlines several theories about the origins of various aspects of the Heike narrative, which greatly influenced later narratives. As is well known, the performed Heike narrative takes liberties with the historical facts of the late-twelfth-century...