Gagaku Japanese Imperial Court and Dance Performance

  

Blake and I found a flyer for a free concert near Himeji castle and thought: Why not check it out? The performance was scheduled during the middle of the week, so we weren't completely sure if we would attend. As the date got closer one of the community members who is a music teacher invited us to go and any doubt we had about attending was erased. It was definitely worth it! I had not heard about Gagaku before attending this concert. Gagaku is a classical Japanese Imperial Court dance and the oldest surviving music in Japan. Gagaku came to Japan from China near the the 7th century. Today Gagaku is performed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace and at other ceremonies such as weddings. Gagaku has two parts: kangen is a musical ensemble with winds, strings and percussion, and bugaku is a classical dance performance with musical accompaniment of wind and percussion instruments.

   

The video is a Batou dance piece. The dance piece has a solo dancer dressed in red with a mask, long hair, a hooked nose, and pronounced eyebrows. The mask helps portray emotion to the audience and the movement tells a story. After the performance the audience was allowed to go on stage and try out the instruments and kimonos. We were interested in the percussion instruments and Blake was able to try out a few of them. It was a bit hectic on stage because everyone wanted to try an instrument or put on a kimono. I had not heard of gagaku before this performance. The concert was a free event because they are trying to revive the public interest among Japanese and foreigners alike on this important Japanese national treasure. I think they did pique quite a few peoples' interest in this matter. There's so much history and so many unique instruments involved that I came out wanting to know more about this music and its performers.