Kiyomoto-bushi: Narrative Music of the Kabuki Theatre (review)

Kiyomoto-bushi: Narrative Music of the Kabuki Theatre. By Alison McQueen Tokita. (Studien zur traditionellen Musik Japans, 8.) Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999. [400 p. ISBN 3-7618-1469-0. DM 68.]

Kiyomoto-bushi (or kiyomoto) is a branch of Japanese narrative music (joruri) accompanied by the shamisen (three-string lute) that dates from the early nineteenth century. Unlike some narrative music, kiyomoto has been influenced by lyrical music (utaimono), especially from kabuki theater, where it has a place as dance music.

The introductory chapter of Alison McQueen Tokita's new book explores multiple aspects of kiyomoto: its performance, lineage, social structure, musical structure, and place in Japanese music. Tokita views kiyomoto as a reflection of late-Edo-period culture, particularly in its narrative texts. Even though the reader is told that kiyomoto does not have immediate appeal (p. 1), it embodies iki (sophistication) and iroke (cool eroticism), and the singing style is "lustrous, sensuous and refined with a great breadth of emotional expression" (ibid.). The author provides much background information on its relation to shamisen joruri and utaimono and its connection to biwa (lute) traditions. A discussion of lineage provides not only facts about where kiyomoto came from, but also clear evidence of the importance of understanding social structure in relation to music transmission.

Kiyomoto has three main contexts of performance: kabuki dance, nihon buyo (classical or traditional dance), and in private without dance. Along with nagauta (see William P. Malm, Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music [Rutland, Vt.: C. E. Tuttle, 1963]), it is one of the major styles to accompany dance, and the participants in kiyomoto performance include kiyomoto musicians (singers and shamisen players), nagauta off-stage musicians, and kabuki dancers. Of theoretical importance to this part of the book is an examination of the dimensions of kiyomoto narrative (pp. 12- 20); here the author shows clearly that her study is not purely descriptive, but necessarily analytical.

Kiyomoto is a late branch of joruri, established in 1814 from bungo-bushi, via tokiwazu-bushi and tomimoto-bushi. Chapter 1 looks at its roots in a long history of ancient and literary traditions. The shamisen was introduced to Japan in the late sixteenth century and was soon used in narrative and lyrical traditions (see Tokumaru Yosihiko, L'aspect mélodique de la musique de syamisen, Ethnomusicologie, 6 [Paris: Peeters, 2000]). Chapter 2 looks at the history of kabuki dance and the growth of mimetic dance styles, which led to kiyomoto and its own style. Kiyomoto is fundamentally a continuation of tokiwazu and tomimoto, not a new style (p. 47); it is a combination of styles in the context of kabuki dance, and its history is studied accordingly. Chapter 3 provides background information on the shamisen as used in kiyomoto. It introduces types of shamisen, organology, playing position, techniques, solfège, notations, and tunings. Many of these topics vary slightly according to shamisen genre.

The kiyomoto repertory comprises approximately three hundred pieces created mostly between 1814 and 1897, about a third of which are still performed today. Chapter 4 proposes three categories of kiyomoto pieces that reflect eclectic influences: narrative-dramatic, lyric-dance, and ceremonial-lyric. The narrative-dramatic works, serious in nature but often having lighthearted or comic interludes, usually consist of a scene taken from a long play. Lyric-dance pieces were originally scenes from the henge dance suites (quick-change pieces) and mostly short dance vignettes or character sketches. The ceremonial-lyric pieces, performed on auspicious occasions and rarely heard by the public in the Edo period, were usually composed as independent recital pieces rather than as dances.

Chapter 5 looks at the sectional structure of kiyomoto music and its relationship to kabuki dance form, using the latter as an analytic tool. Each section has a name and function, and the sectional structure defines the form. Discussing kiyomoto structure in connection with narrative and non-narrative elements, Tokita argues that "joruri contributed to mature kabuki dance form sections" (p. 113), concluding...