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G LOSSARY O F S ELECTED T ERMS

Brief definitions are given for a selection of Japanese words that occur within the text. Many of these only occur once and thus are unlikely to need looking up, but they are included here so that a read-through of the Glossary might evoke a sense of the vocabulary of the min’yo- world. Many also occur in the General Index under appropriate headings. Sino-Japanese characters are included in a few cases to pre- vent ambiguity.

aji: ‘flavour’, an essential but bushi: common suffix in folk song undefinable element in good min’yo- titles; derived from fushi ‘melody’ performance buyo--kayo-: dances to accompany ameuri: sweets vendors enka; also called kayo--buyo- angura: ‘underground’ folk group chiho--riyo-: a 1930s designation for anko-iri: ‘filled with sweet bean- folk song paste’; a type of sweet bread cho-: ‘town’; also pronounced machi atouta: ‘aftersong’ cho-nin: ‘townspeople’, often implying bareuta: ‘bawdy songs’ especially merchants bin-zasara: a set of concussion daikoku-mai: dance of the god plaques used for percussion Daikoku, performed door-to-door at biwa: pear-shaped lute usually used to New Year’s accompany sung ballads danmono: (among other meanings) long bon-odori: dances of the Bon festival ballads in the repertoire of the goze bosama: ‘priest’, but also a common densho-: (oral) transmission, tradition traditional term for a blind male dento-: tradition musician dodoitsu: a traditional popular song bunka: ‘culture’ genre which has given its name to bunka-fu: 3-line staff teaching the 7-7-7-5 poetic metre notation for shamisen do-rakumono: pleasure-bent carouser bunmei: ‘civilization’ do-yo-: ‘children’s songs’, generally Bunraku: traditional puppet theatre composed rather than traditionally buraku: hamlet evolved and transmitted 2240_GST.qxd 11/26/07 8:47 PM Page 365

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Edo sato-kagura: a Tokyo-area shrine hayashi(-kotoba): ‘words of masque encouragement’; a responsorial enka: popular song genre closely refrain in leader-chorus folk songs; linked with min’yo-; also called also called utabayashi. nihon-cho- kayo-kyoku; in Meiji and hikyoku: ‘secret pieces’ taught only to Taisho- periods, a kind of protest song successors fo-ku dansu: international folk dance hiradaiko: ‘flat drum’; a shallow fo-ku no kamisama: ‘God of folk’ as tacked-head stick-drum applied to Okabayashi Nobuyasu hiwai: ‘bawdy’ fo-ku shinga-: folk singer’ ho-gakki: traditional Japanese fo-ku songu: modern, composed songs instruments in the American tradition of popular ho-gaku: traditional Japanese classical folk songs music, but nowadays also applied to fue: ‘flute’ pop genres recorded in Japan by fu-ga: ‘aesthetic, elegance, refinement’; Japanese performers pronounced feng’ya in Chinese hozon: preservation fukyu-: ‘dissemination’ hozonkai: ‘preservation society’ furusato: native place, home town or ie: household community iemoto: head of an artistic ‘school’ fuzoku(-uta): court song genre of the under the ‘headmaster/houshead’ Heian period system ga: elegant, refined iemoto seido: ‘headmaster/househead gagaku: Japanese court music system’, a pyramidal familistic geijutsu kayo-: ‘art song’ in the Western structure for artistic transmission sense iki: ‘elegance’ geimei: ‘artist’s name’, stage name in: (pronounced yin in Chinese, as in geinin: performing artists yin-yang) hemitonic pentatonic scale; gei o nusumu: ‘steal the art’, a learning also called the miyako-bushi scale philosophy of informal transmission inaka-bushi: anhemitonic pentatonic genchi rokuon: field (as opposed to scale; also called min’yo- or yo- scale studio) recording iwai-uta: celebratory or gendai: ‘modern’ congratulatory songs gendaika: modernization jimoto yu-shi: ‘local volunteers’, a gidayu-: music of the Bunraku puppet common term to designate unnamed theatre performers in a field recording goeika: Buddhist hymns jun-ho-gaku: ‘pure/true Japanese goto-chi songu: ‘local praise songs’ music’: traditional Japanese music goze: blind itinerant women musicians Kabuki: traditional townspeople’s haiku: a poem genre theatre hakkutsu min’yo-: ‘excavated folk songs’ kagura: Shinto music and dances haru-tauchi: agricultural ritual kai : group, association, society performance; also called ta-asobi kakegoe: time-keeping or ornamental hauta: short parlour songs with calls in folk song shamisen kakuon: ‘nuclear tones’ according to hayariuta: popular songs Koizumi’s modal analysis of Japanese hayaru: to become popular music hayashi/-bayashi: instrumental kane: a hand-gong, also called accompaniment surigane or atarigane