What is “shôka-chô” in the Late Meiji Era?

: Its Structural Peculiarity and the Educational Background Which Led to the Establishment of this Style

Abstract

  This writing aims to clarity the structural peculiarity of so-called “shôka-chô”, the characteristics of “shôka” composed in around 1900 with the rhythm of “tautophony within one basic beat” and the educational background which led to the establishment of this style.

   The publication of Shintaishi-shô (Japanene Poetry in a New Style) in 1882 had a significant meaning in the history of music education. More specifically, the versification of seven-five rhythms advocated in it formed the basic structure of the subsequent shôka lyrics. And chanting this seven-five rhythms gradually developed into the musical composition structure with the rhythm of tautophony called “shôka-chô” today. As the background of this development, the educational focus on moral education after the promulgation of The Imperial Rescript on Education in 1890, the necessity to make various virtues chanted even in the shôka lyrics of seven-five rhythms, and the aim of shôka to gain the position of one subject as shôka by teaching school songs including educational contents of other subjects as a supporting method for education of other subjects such as geography and history can be pointed out. That is, the shôka of this era characterized by “shôka-chô” had the purpose to contribute to moral education by including the lyrics teaching subjects or lessons in seven-five rhythms into the rhythm of tautophony within one basic beat.