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It is apparent that by the 8th century the documented history of Japanese music had begun. Although that predates an equal state of Western music history by some 100 years, certain interesting parallels between the two traditions can be made. Both seem more clearly established in the same general 200-year period, a short time when compared with Chinese music studies. Both developed a musicalnomenclature heavily influenced by the music of religious organizations: the Roman Catholic Church in the West, Buddhism in Japan. Both traditions were equally influenced by the theories of a foreign culture from over the nearest sea: Greece for Italy and China for Japan. Herein many differences arise, one of the most significant being that, in the Japanese case, the foreign tradition of China at the time of its first major influence was alive and strong and could apply practical musical information and instrumentations as well as theories, whereas the Greek tradition was long dead by the same period, when European monks turned to it for guidance. Nevertheless, one can see that the general length and beginning of each history are comparable. Before discussing Japanese music in chronological detail, one should make an attempt to envision general characteristics, realizing that in doing so the tendency is to apply aphorisms to music that stretches over a series of styles as old and varied as the music of Europe from Gregorian chant through Claude Debussy. Keeping in mind that caveat, one can put forth general guidelines for the appreciation of Japanese traditional music.

Aesthetic and formal ideals

The guidelines fall under three general concepts: (1) the sound ideal, (2) the structural ideal, and (3) the artistic ideal; but those three things are not clearly separate in any musical event.

Sound ideals

In general one can say that the most common sound ideal of Japanese music is to produce the maximum effect with a minimum amount of material. For example, the taiko drum of the Noh drama consists of a barrel-shaped body over which are lashed two cowhide heads some 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter stretched over iron rings. Wooden sticks are used to hit one head. Obviously, the sound potentials of the drum are many, but they are deliberately suppressed. For example, the sticks are made of very soft wood, and the strokes are applied only to a small circle of soft deerskin in the centre of the head. The taiko, like Japanese ink paintings, accomplishes a great deal by concentrating on very carefully chosen limitations of the medium.

Another feature of much Japanese traditional music could be called the chamber music sound ideal. No matter how large an ensemble may be, one finds that the various instruments are set in such a way that the timbre, or tone colour, of each can be heard. That can be understood in relation to Western chamber music and contrasts with the Western orchestral sound ideal, in which the primary intention is to merge all the instrumental sounds into one glorious colour. The colour separation of Japanese music is quite evident in the large court ensemble (gagaku) as well as in drama music and actual chamber ensembles such as the sankyoku, for koto (zither), samisen (plucked lute), and the end-blown shakuhachi flute. Such textures support the strong multilinear (as opposed to harmonic) orientation of East Asian music.

• 31 scores found for 'Japanese Traditional Music' Details. Japanese Folk Songs Collection: Piano: Mixed Songbook.
• Japanese Artists MusicPacks Japanese music includes a wide array of distinct music styles both traditional and modern. Two of the oldest forms of traditional Japanese music are Buddhist chanting (shomyo), and orchestral court music (gagaku), both of which date to the Nara and Heian periods.

Structural ideals

The structural intents of Japanese music are as varied as those of the West, but one of special interest is the frequent application of a three-part division of a melody, a section of a piece, or an entire composition. This is in contrast to the more typical two-part division of Western music. Of course, examples of both ideals can be found in the music of both cultures; the concern here is with broad generalities. The fundamental terminology of the Japanese tripartite form is jo-ha-kyū—the introduction, the scatterings, and the rushing toward the end. A Western musician might wish to compare this with sonata form and its three parts (exposition, development, recapitulation). But the Western example relates to a complete event and involves the development of certain motives or melodic units (such as first and second themes), whereas the Japanese concept may be applied to various segments or complete pieces that are generally through-composed (i.e., with new material for each segment).

The Folk Music of Japan. Japanese folk music has long fascinated me. It was through music that I first took an interest in Japanese culture, which inevitably lead into a much broader interest in Japan (somehow, I now find myself speaking the language and living in the country). Traditional Japanese music is also composed of folk songs. These songs are mainly related to spiritual rituals and daily work. Although information about Japanese music from prehistoric times is limited, later on, Japanese folk music has become popular and has a more important role. Today, many people around the world like these styles!

Japanese music reveals its logic and its forward motion not by themes but by a movement from one section to a different one until the final section has been reached. Forward motion in motive Western music was often derived during the classical periods from the tension created by chord progressions. In Japanese music such sonic events generally are not used. Nevertheless, the need for aurally recognizable patterns falling into a progression that the informed listener can anticipate is necessary in all music. In Japan such stereotyped patterns are melodic or rhythmic, not harmonic; they will be discussed in detail later. The recognition, whether intellectual or aural, of the existence of such recurring patterns is essential to the appreciation of any music.

Artistic ideals

Japanese Folk Music

One of the artistic ideals of Japanese music is equally clear in all of East Asia. It is the tendency for much of the music to be word-oriented, either through actual sung text or through pictorial titles of instrumental pieces. With the exception of variation pieces (danmono) for the Japanese koto, one can seldom find a purely instrumental piece in the spirit of, for example, the Western sonata or symphony. Japanese ensemble pieces, like those of China and Korea, are either dance pieces, instrumental versions of songs, or descriptive. That ideal in all of East Asia was not weakened until the late 19th century, when such music was forced to compete with Western idioms.

Guilds

By the same token, the ideal of the composer as genius, so dear to Western hearts since the 19th century, had little place in earlier Japanese music. In Japan, as in China and Korea, the names of many composers are known, but the actual setting of their music was and still is often done by a group of fairly anonymous people. One may know who was helping out at a given time and in a given place, but in any written form of the music helpers’ names, or even the name of “the” composer, may often be missing. The process might best be called communal composition. In East Asia, particularly in Japan, the performer is often the person remembered and noted. Such an ideal is understood in the West by fans of popular music. Although that ideal has given way to the Western composer “star” system in modern Japan, it does reflect an important social setting for any appreciation of the older Japanese classical traditions. In keeping with that artistic ideal, one should add that often there is not one “correct” version of a given piece. Most traditional music is organized under guild systems, and each guild may thus have its “secret” version of a well-known piece. A given guild will play its version precisely the same way in each performance, for improvisation has practically no role in any of the major genres of all East Asian music. Differences are maintained between guild versions, however, in order to identify a given group’s musical repertoire as separate from all the rest.

The separation of guild styles can be carried further to one more artistic ideal, which holds that it is not just what one plays on an instrument but how one plays it. For example, in the case of the taiko drum mentioned above, the manner in which players sit, pick up the sticks, strike the drum, and put the sticks away will reveal the name of the guild to which they belong and also can be used to judge their skill in performance. No Japanese instrument is merely played. One could almost say that its performance practice is choreographed. Such distinctions exist in the music of other East Asian cultures as well, although the clues to their understanding have not yet been revealed to outside listeners and viewers. This brief discussion of their existence in Japanese music will serve to enhance the appreciation of at least one Asian tradition as the discussion turns to a chronological study of its many styles.

'Sakura Sakura' (さくら さくら, 'Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms'), also known as 'Sakura', is a traditional Japanesefolk song depicting spring, the season of cherry blossoms. It is often sung in international settings as a song representative of Japan.

Contrary to popular belief, the song did not originate in ancient times; it was a popular, urban melody of the Edo period.

Melody[edit]

The 'Sakura Sakura' melody has been popular since the Meiji period, and the lyrics in their present form were attached then. The tune uses a pentatonic scale known as the In scale.

Expressed as diatonic notes in the major scale, the In scale is 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 (1), 10 (3); or the notes E F A B c e^[1] (nominally A minor); or in solfège Mi Fa La Ti Do Mi. The melodic scale can either be represented in older Western musical theory by the Phrygian minor or the Phrygian major mode, with the 3rd and 7th notes in the scale omitted.

Because the melody spans a modest range, it is ideally suited to instruments that have a limited pitch range, such as the Native American flute (similar to the Shakuhachi).^[2]The melody arranged by Ongaku Torishirabe-gakari was included in Collection of Japanese Koto Music issued in 1888, for beginning koto students in the Tokyo Academy of Music.^[3]

Lyrics[edit]

The original lyrics^[4] are listed as the second verse in the table below. In 1941, the Ministry of Education published a new verse in Uta no hon (うたのほん 教師用 下) which was listed first, with the original verse listed second.^[5]

In popular culture[edit]

• The first lines of the original verse ('sakura sakura yayoi no sora wa mi-watasu kagiri') serve as a prelude to Bon Jovi's song 'Tokyo Road' from their second album 7800° Fahrenheit (released in 1985).

• Kidsongs uses its own version of 'Sakura' for I Like To Teach The World To Sing.

• Japanese band BUCK-TICK used this melody in live versions of their 'Victims of Love' song in the early '90s.

• Alfred Reed's 1994 Fifth Symphony 'Sakura' is based on this folk song.

• In 2003, Ōta Jun'ya composed 'Sakura, Sakura ~ Japanize Dream'^[6] as part of the credits theme for the video game Perfect Cherry Blossom.

• Dream of the Cherry Blossoms by Keiko Abe, a virtuoso percussionist, is a five-minute piece for marimba that is based on 'Sakura Sakura' that has become popular in the marimba repertoire.

• In 2007, it was selected for Nihon no Uta Hyakusen, a collection of songs and nursery rhymes widely beloved in Japan.

• In early the 2010s, Japanese singer Kiyoshi Hikawa performed the second of the two verses of 'Sakura Sakura' - the first and only Enka singer to do so.^{[citation needed]}

• Yukihiro Yoko, a classical guitarist, made an arrangement for his instrument, a theme with variations, in which he uses different guitar techniques to imitate the sound of the koto.^{[citation needed]}

• Babymetal used this melody in their song 'Megitsune' in 2013.

• In 2013 Marc Edwards recorded an album featuring three 20 minute versions of 'Sakura Sakura', in a free jazz electric guitar style.^[7][8][9]

• Many electronic crosswalks in Japan play the melody as 'guidance music'.

• Headhunterz sampled part of this song for his 2017 song 'Path of the Hunter'.

• In Kara, a short film/tech demo created by David Cage and his company Quantic Dream about a robot who is built to serve humanity, the robot is asked to 'sing something in Japanese', after which she sings this song.^[10] Eventually, this short film was adapted into a video game, Detroit: Become Human. In the game, one of the main characters, Markus - an android, is trying to put himself together in a junkyard. This references the short film when Markus stumbles upon a dying Kara model, the one from the film, that is still singing the song.^[11]

• The song appears in the soundtrack of the video game Total War: Shogun 2, playing during the game's campaign map mode.

• The first fourteen notes plays as Piston Hondo's intro theme in some of the Punch-Out!! games

• Flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and harpist Lily Laskine recorded a version for their album: Japanese Melodies for Flute and Harp

• Sakura-Variationen (Sakura Variations) is a 2000 trio composition scored for saxophone, piano, and percussion by Helmut Lachenmann.

• Sakura Sakura also appeared on Wii Music as one of the song selections in the Jam Mode.

• In the Tokyo area, each train station has its own distinctive jingle used to signal train departures. The jingle for the Musashi-Koganei Station is based on Sakura Sakura.

References[edit]

1. ^Lower-case letters are an octave higher; see Helmholtz notation.
2. ^Clint Goss (2011). 'Sakura Sakura'. Flutopedia.com. Sheet music for the Native American Flute. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
3. ^Tsuge Gen'ichi (2016). 'Sakura'. komuso.com. International Shakuhachi Society. who cites
   Ongaku Torishirabe-gakari (arr.) (1888). '桜 Sakura'. In 東京音楽学校編 Tōkyō ongaku gakkō hen [Tokyo Academy of Music] (ed.). 「箏曲集」 Sōkyokushū [Collection of Koto Music]. 1. Tokyo, Japan.
4. ^ ^abc東京音楽学校編 Tōkyō ongaku gakkō hen [Tokyo Academy of Music], ed. (1888). 「箏曲集」 Sōkyokushū [Collection of Koto Music]. Tokyo, Japan.
5. ^ ^abc東京音楽学校編 Tōkyō ongaku gakkō hen [Tokyo Academy of Music], ed. (1941). 「うたのほん 教師用 下」 Uta no hon, kyōiku-yō, ge [Book of Songs for Educational Use]. 2. Tokyo, Japan: 文部省 Monbushō.
6. ^ScarletFlameFlandre (2012-06-27), PCB Staff Roll Theme: Sakura, Sakura ~ Japanize Dream (Re-Extended), retrieved 2017-05-03
7. ^'Sakura Sakura (3 variations) | Marc Edwards'. Marcedwards.bandcamp.com. 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
8. ^Applegate, Grego (2014-04-17). 'Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog: avant free psychedelic metal jazz rock'. Gapplegateguitar.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
9. ^'DogAndPanda Records'. Dogandpanda.com. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
10. ^GameSpot (2012-03-13), Kara - Heavy Rain/Quantic Dream Tech Demo, retrieved 2018-06-26
11. ^MooniGaming (2018-06-03), Detroit: Become Human Kara Tech Demo Sakura Easter Egg, retrieved 2018-06-26

External links[edit]

• [1] Sakura Sakura played in 1959 by three artists from Tokyo's University of Art on three different Koto's (17 string, 13 string and 9 string)
• Sakura Sakura: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Japanese Folk Music Genre