Abstract
Zannyasho records that hojoe at Iwashimizu-hachimangu was famous as the second biggest Buddhist rites in medieval Japan. Gagaku was played in a large scale during the ritual process mixed with Shinto elements. The gagaku was referred to as Shigaku, Shibugaku or Shigugaku, any of which means that Shibu, four orchestras (Shingaku, Koma, Rinnyu and Dogaku), played together.
A common historical view of Buddhist rites with gagaku played is buit on important rites of ancient times and the present age (installing services for the Great Buddha at Todaiji, extraordinary rites in the late Heian period, Shoryoe at Shitenoji). The way the orchestras played gagaku at the ancient Buddhist rites changed from four independent units at Todaiji to two in the late Heian period. Greatly influenced by the idea that the two units of the Sayu (the Right and the Left) have shared in the work to play gagaku, we tend to think that the orchestras have been separated into two since the Heian period, and pay no attention to four-in the Medieval Iwashimizu hojoe.
In this paper, I analyzed the four units in terms of Sayu, particularly focusing on the first half of Iwashimizu hojoe. First, I examined the terms of Shigaku, Shibugaku and Shigugaku which were written in historical documents of the 12th to 13th centuries, and reconstructed a possible ritual sequence. Second, I reorganized the former theories about the idea of Sayu, and clarified the ideas of Sayu in various events with a detailed classification. The last, using the classification, I analyzed how the players of the four orchestras were divided into the Right and the Left, and concluded that the Sayu recorded on the historical documents about Iwashimizu hojoe was derived from two orchestra pits which were placed in the right and the left on the site.
