This article has two aims: firstly, to investigate the procedures used in the transmission of secret pieces in the biwa (lute) tradition of the early medieval period, based on the examination of a number of written works describing the details of the ceremony performed for such transmission; and secondly, from the writer's standpoint as a researcher on Bunki-dan (a collection of tales concerning music history and focussing on the biwa, compiled around 1270 by Bunkibo Ryuen, a student of Fujiwara no Takamichi), to undertake a detailed description of the Nishi (lit, west) school of the biwa tradition which was founded by Fujiwara no Takamichi, student of the Myoon'in, Fujiwara no Moronaga (1138-1192), from its initial establishment until its eventual decay.
The three manuscripts concerning the ceremony for transmission of secret pieces used as material in this study are as follows:
1. Gakka dengyo shiki, myo (a manuscript in the Fushiminomiya collection of the Archives and Mausolea Department of the Imperial Household; also, included in Gunsho ruiju, 2)
2. Biwa dengyo shidai (a manuscript in the Fushiminomiya collection of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo; also in Fushiminomiya gokiroku, 7)
3. Biwa dengyo shidai (a manuscript in the collection of the Research Archives for Japanese Music, Ueno Gakuen College)
The first manuscript is an Edo-period copy of a copy made by Saionji no Sanekane of the original proceedings of the ceremony written by the Myoon'in (Moronaga); the second is described in its colophon as the procedure handed down by Sanekane to his son Kanesue; and the third is described on its outside cover as being in the hand of Emperor Komyo (emperor of the Northern Dynasty, reigned 1336-1348, died 1380). Aside from the one important distinction concerning the site of the ceremony (i. e. whether it was held at the Myoondo, a temple dedicated to Myoonten [a variant name for Benzaiten, the goddess Sarasvati], or the house of the person receiving instruction into the secret tradition), there is no great difference between the proceedings written in each manuscript. It seems clear that the procedure defined by Moronaga continued to be employed in later centuries.
The oldest record in extant historical sources concerning the proceedings of the ceremony is that of Shoji 2nd year (1200), 18th March, when Nijo no Sadasuke transmitted secret pieces to Morisada Shinno. Sadasuke himself was a student of Morinaga's, and it seems likely that the proceedings for the ceremony that he used were based on a precedent set by Moronaga, and that the ceremony itself was probably already an established practice at this time. Inferring from the evidence provided by the three manuscripts above, it is possible to say that the ceremonies practiced in the middle ages were all based on an original formula for the proceedings established at the end of the Heian period by Moronaga. Further inquiries into the later history of the secret piece tradition has shown that its central school was that of the Saionji family, and that two other schools, the Nijo school founded by Sadasuke and the Nishi school founded by Takamichi, existed as side branches.

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The shomyo of the Shingon sect is divided into four classes according to modal usage:
1. Rokyoku (pieces in the ryo mode)
2. Rikkyoku (pieces in the ritsu mode)
3. Hanryo-hanrikkyoku (pieces half ryo and half ritsu)
4. Hennonkyoku
The first three classes are distinctions based simply on modal usage, but pieces of the fourth class employ modulations of mode. Pieces of this class begin in one mode, be it ryo or ritsu, and change to the other mode, and finish after modulating back to the original mode. They are most common in the san (hymn) repertoire (comprising Sanscrit hymns [bongo no san] and Chinese hymns [kango no san], which have texts set in verses of four phrases) of which the Shichi bongo no san (“Sanscrit hymn of the Four Wisdoms”) is a representative example.
The basic notation manual of Shingon shomyo (which includes the Nanzan shinryu, Shingi-ha chizan shomyo and Shingi-ha buzan shomyo styles) which has been transmitted until the present day, is based on the Gyosan taigai-shu (also called Gyosan shisho or more simply Gyosan-shu, compiled by Joe in 1496, revised in 1514 and printed in 1646) which is written in the goin-bakase (five-note notation) developed by Kakui in the 1270s (see photograph 1). In addition to this notation, referred to as hon-bakase or basic notation, each school uses its own supplementary system which transliterates and facilitates the reading of the original notation, and which is variously called kari-bakase or tsukuri-bakase (makeshift or fabricated notation). The tuning of each piece in the repertoire is based on the practice of the Shomyo ryakuju-mon of Ryuzen (1258-?). According to this source, the Shichi bongo no san is a hennonkyoku in ryo-ichikotsucho (ryo mode on D) or ryo-sojo (ryo mode on G). Beginning on sho or the second degree (i. e. E) of ryo-ichikotsucho, the piece modulates twice at intermediate points to ritsu-banshikicho (ritsu mode on B), and ends on the second degree (E) of ryo-ichikotsucho.
The scale of Shingon shomyo is based fundamentally on the goin (five-note) scale structure (note names in ascending order kyu, sho, kaku, chi, u), and the special characteristics of each note in the scale depend on the mode of the piece (i. e. whether it is ritsu or ryo). A characteristic melodic ornamental figure called yu (or yuri), for instance, occurs on the kyu scale degree in ryo, and the chi scale degree in both ritsu and ryo. Pieces in the ryo mode characteristically begin and end on the kyu or chi degrees of the scale, while ritsu pieces begin and end on the sho or u degrees of the scale. However, the Shichi bongo no san appears to be an exception to this rule, since notwithstanding the fact that the piece begins and ends in a ryo mode (ryo-ichikotsucho), its initial and final notes are both the sho degree of the scale. In addition, the ornamental figure yu (yuri) is also found on the same degree of the scale, thus contradicting the usual practices of pieces in ryo modes. This contradiction is not only characteristic of this single piece, but can be seen in other pieces in the hennonkyoku group.
Dr. Kindaichi Haruhiko has in his article “Shingon shomyo” (“Buddhist ritual chant of the Shingon sect”, Bukkyo Ongaku, Toyo Ongaku Sensho Vol. VI, 1972) attempted to explain the reason for the occurrence of these unusual features of the pieces in the hennonkyoku group. According to Kindaichi, the shomyo of the Nanzan shinryu school

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The shomyo of the Kosho branch of the Jodo Shinshu sect is known to have been heavily influenced by theshomyo of the Tendai sect. The Kosho branch was originally part of the Honganji branch of the Jodo Shinshu sect, which practiced Tendai shomyo, but in Meiji 9th year (1876) it seceded and established itself as a separate branch of the same sect. From that time on, the shomyo practiced in the Honganji branch gradually shifted away from Tendai practice to a new characteristically individual method of performance. However, in the new Kosho branch, Tendai style shomyo continued to be studied and practiced, and the members of the branch have continued their positive attitude towards adopting Tendai shomyo.
This article, then, deals with the extent to which the members of the Kosho branch have managed to adopt Tendai practices, and by examining the similarities of the practices of the two, attempts to clarify the nature of this relationship. By selecting fourteen pieces from the Kosho branch repertoire said especially to derive from Tendai models, a comparison was made of the melodic patterns employed by the two different groups. As a result, it was found that the names, musical shape and function of melodic patterns in these fourteen pieces were very similar to those in the Tendai shomyo practice, and that the influence of the Tendai practice was accordingly very strong.
However, within the shomyo practice of the Kosho branch, elements other than Tendai shomyo, such as individual practices of the branch and forms derived from the practices of the old Honganji branch, have also contributed to building up the present performance practice, and it would seem to be essential in any further study to consider the melodic patterns of pieces in the repertoire not considered to derive from Tendai models.

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This article is a study of the musical notation of the shomyo of Horyuji temple, dealing firstly with an introduction to a number of historically important collections of notation, and secondly, using that material to undertake an historical study of the notation itself. In the opening section of the article, collections of notation used in the Horyuji kekae service have been classified. (The kekaee service, held in early spring, is one of repentance and supplication. At the present, three kinds of kekae service are celebrated: the Kichijo keka, which has as its main image of worship the goddess Kichijo or Srimahadevi; the Kannon kekae, with the main image Kannon or Avalokitêsvara, the Goddess of Mercy; and the Yakushi kekae, with the main image Yakushi or Bhêchadjaguru, the Physician of Souls.) In the second section of the article, a group of six manuscripts and associated source material dealing with the shoryoe, a service which commemorates the anniversary of the death of Shotoku Taishi (574-622, son of the female Emperor Suiko and founder of Horyuji temple), have been classified and their contents collated. The six manuscripts in question are:
A. Shoryoe shomyo-shu (Kondo-bon), a shahon (hand-written manuscript) presently held in Horyuji temple, estimated to have been written in the Kamakura period (13th-14th century). The manuscript was found underneath the roof of the kondo (main building) of Horyuji temple during repairs undertaken in the 1940s, and has been identified recently by the Horyuji monk Takada Ryoshin as a collection of shomyo notation for the shoryoe service.
B. Shoryoe shomyo-shu, a shahon held in the Research Archives for Japanese Music, Ueno Gakuen College, Tokyo, estimated to have been written in the Nambokucho period (late 14th-early 15th century). This manuscript appears to have been owned by the Horyuji monk Joyo (1487-1546), who reached a position in the hierarchy of the temple second only to the head of the temple, since it includes his signature. It can be inferred from this that the manuscript was written before Joyo possessed it.
C. Hossoshu sanji kaju, a printed collection of notation of Meiji 37th year (1904), published by the Hossoshu Kangakuin (seminary of the Hosso sect).
D. The notation used at present in shahon form.
E. The same in its printed form.
F. The notation used at present at Yakushiji temple (also in Nara, and until 1950 of the same sect and branch of Buddhism as Horyuji temple).
The collation and comparison of the contents of the above six items has been largely abbreviated because of space limitations. However, the following conclusions have emerged from this study. The systems of notation used in sources A, B and C resemble each other closely. It is hence possible to state that there were no large-scale changes in the notation system from the Kamakura period until the Meiji period. However, at some point after the publication of the 1904 source, the notation system was thoroughly revised, resulting in the development of the notation system used in sources D, E and F. One aspect of this revision is illustrated by the standardization of direction of the notation —in the modern scores notation for pieces in the Shika hoyo service (generally-used service including the bai, sange, bonnon and shakujo pieces) is all written on the right-hand side of the written characters of the text, whereas notation for those pieces called kada unique to the ceremony commemorating the death of Shotoku Taishi is all written on the left-hand side of the text. Included in this section of the article is a chart illustrating the correspondence between notational symbols of the old and new notational systems.
Although it was not possible to distinguish any relationship between the modern Horyuji notation system a

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Biwa dengyo shidai. Manuscript in the possession of the Research Archives for Japanese Music, Ueno Gakuen College. Single scroll, height 31.5cm. Cover of neutral-coloured paper with kirara-zuri (mica print) designs of Chinese flowers and snow. Title on cover “Biwa dengyo shidai Komyoin shimpitsu” (Procedures for the ceremony of transmission of the secret biwa [lute] tradition; in the hand of the ex-Emperor Komyo”, Emperor Komyo of the Northern Dynasty, ruled 1336-1348, died 1380.), written in different hand to text itself. Cover lining sheet of blank paper, width 20.7cm. Central spool of hard wood. Paper of tori-no-ko type, two sheets (first sheet width 43.3cm, second sheet 47cm). For description of contents see article in this volume by Iso Mizue, “Biwa hikyoku dengyo saho no seiritsu to haikei” (“The background and establishment of procedures for transmission of secret biwa [lute] pieces”).

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Horyuji shoryoe shomyo-shu. Manuscript in the collection of the Research Archives for Japanese Music, Ueno Gakuen College. Originally in the possession of Chuin no Joyo (see below). Manuscript, square in shape of accordian-fold type (oricho) measuring 11×11.3cm. Cover of brown paper, although only the back cover remains. First part of manuscript missing. Paper type hishi (kampishi). Text and neumes written in black ink on both sides of paper in a single hand, to which breath marks and other indications have been added in red ink. A sheet of paper has been added at the beginning of the manuscript to form the present cover, the lower left-hand corner of which has the inscription “Chuin/Joyo” in black ink. We may infer from this that the manuscript was already in its present condition at the time it was being used by Joyo. The original date of copying is not clear, but may date back to the Nambokucho period (late fourteenth century?). It has been surmised that Joyo (who, according to the Horyuji betto shidai, died at the age of 59 on the 3rd of August, Tembun 15th year [1546]) used this manuscript at the time when he first took part in the Shoryo service at the age of 16 in Bunki 3rd year (1503).
Underneath the opening title of the manuscript “Bonnon”, there is a small rectangular seal in vermillion reading “Horyuji” (size 1.8×0.9cm). At the end of the manuscript there is a large square seal in black ink (measuring 5.2×5.1cm) which has been erased so that it is now illegible, and within the outline of the seal in the lower left-hand corner the name “Chuin” is written in small characters.
The missing first section of the manuscript is likely to have contained the sections “Bai” and “Sange” since these usually precede the “Bonnon” section which forms the present opening of the manuscript. However, the identity of the material written of the reverse side of the missing section remains unclear, since the “Wasan” section at that point is complete. Other than the parts indicated as red in the typographical reprint of the manuscript (see pp 158-160), there are other indications such as breath marks in “Bonnon” and the last four columns of notation of “Shakujo”
It should be noted that the two Japanese kada “Rokudo enshu” and “Muni mangetsu” are found only in this collection and the Horyuji Kondo-bon. For details see the article in this volume by Takahashi Mito, “Horyuji shomyo kifuho no hensen ni tsuite” (“An historical study of the musical notation of the shomyo of Horyuji temple, Nara”).

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The title page of this publication includes the subtitle “Kabuki and hogaku” in the title of the book, although this has been omitted from that on the cover and in the author's preface to the volume. The contents of the book are divided into three parts: a section dealing with kabuki; a section dealing with the history of the vocal forms of the period (called hogaku here); and a section containing reference material. This organization reflects the author's clear purpose in dividing study of the performing arts of the Edo period into two broad topics: firstly, theatrical aspects dealt with under the heading “Kabuki”; and secondly, musical aspects dealt with under the heading “Hogaku”. Within this framework, the author has arranged a collection of his past articles in both fields.
Since it is likely that criticism on the section dealing with the theatrical aspects of the study has been or will be made by specialists in the field, comment in this review will be restricted largely to the musical section of the study. Before commencing with that, however, a remark must be made concerning the author's division of the topic into two. The author himself is a scholar originally trained in the study of the theatrical aspects of these performing arts, but unlike many of his colleagues who have little practical experience with and tend to ignore the musical aspects of these arts, he has not fallen into the trap of failing to treat those important musical aspects. Although this emphasis on the musical aspects of the performing arts is something that researchers in the field of musicology might expect and take for granted, this is far from being the accepted standard in studies made by most scholars from the theatrical field of study.
Indeed, in the fields of literature and theatrical study, the performing arts of the Edo period are usually understood to comprise the theatrical forms kabuki and ningyo joruri (the gidayu-bushi joruri of the bunraku puppet theatre). Other types of joruri are generally ignored completely. Scholars in these fields, while recognizing the existence of music, regard it as being only a single and secondary aspect of the theatre, and not one that needs to be considered as a separate category within the field of the performing arts. A tendency towards treatment of this type is particularly prevalent in the fields of literature, theatre and the performing arts today, and can be seen quite clearly in the publication of series studies in these fields, where generally speaking, materials concerning the music of the period are completely lacking, or at best included only as a secondary aspect of kabuki. Studies of gidayu-bushi joruri, although treating it fully as a literary and dramatic form, fail to deal adequately with it as a musical genre.
In the past, published works by scholars in the field of theatre and literature with a deep understanding of music, such as Takano Tatsuyuki (1876-1947) and Kuroki Kanzo (1882-1930), illustrate that those scholars did not neglect the necessary treatment of music as an independent characteristic of the performing arts of the period. However, notwithstanding this, literary scholars of the present generation, tending to place more emphasis on folkloric-type studies, have rarely dealt with the history of the vocal music of the Edo period. When considered in the light of this trend, the author's division of the performing arts of the Edo period into the two topics kabuki and hogaku, is one that should be applauded. Moreover, the musics that the author has dealt with are mainly the non-gidayu-bushi genres of joruri, which are often not even considered by a majority of the scholars in his field. One can understand why he did not subtitle the book “Kabuki and joruri”

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soga, otherwise known as enkyoku, was a type of ceremonial vocal music largely cultivated by the Japanese warrior classes from the middle of the Kamakura period to the middle of the Muromachi period (that is, approx. the period 1250-1500). The figure most closely associated with the formation of the genre was a Buddhist priest, Shami Myoku, who lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century. As a medieval art form it precedes the final development of the music associated with early no, on which it is thought to have had a strong influence, and as a vocal form it bridges the gap between the late Heian-period imayo and the medieval kouta. It occupies a unique place in the history of the Japanese performing arts as a purely melodic vocal form that employed fairly long texts. At present, a group of sixteen manuscripts preserve the 161 pieces classified as true soga and twelve sotomono (“external pieces”). A large number of copies of these manuscripts are preserved throughout Japan, but the performance tradition of the genre itself has been extinct since the sixteenth century.
Gamo Mitsuko's new book approaches this genre from a musicological viewpoint, attempting to elucidate its charateristics as a musical form through reconstruction of the music preserved in all existing manuscripts. Until recently, this genre has been treated in detail only by scholars in the fields of Japanese literature and history, and serious attempts at musical examination of the genre have been extremely limited. This book, then, is a well-planned and well-executed attempt which compensates greatly for the lack of musicological research on the genre.
The contents of the book are as follows:
Introduction Musicological research on soga and problems at issue.
Chapter One Bibliographical description of extant soga manuscripts.
Chapter Two Notational signs: kan, otsu, ji and sloping flags.
Chapter Three Notational signs: goin (5-note scale signs), jo, ge and hakase (neumes).
Chapter Four Melody and scale structure.
According to the author, the central section of the research is contained in the third chapter which deals with the notational signs most fundamental in terms of pitch notation, the signs indicating scale degrees, pitch directional movement and melodic outline. As can be inferred from the outline of the contents above, the author first deals with the basic problem of bibliographical study of all of the soga manuscripts existing in Japan at the present day. These she has divided into five different categories according to their value as musical sources. Then, the most reliable source for each individual piece has been carefully selected by comparison of all existing versions of that piece. Only after this basic work was fully completed did she begin the task of attempting to interpret the notation, relying as much as possible on analysis of the notation itself and severly limiting the often dangerous method of equating technical terms and items in the notation with those of similar forms used in related genres such as no and shomyo. By treating each element in the notation individually she has succeeded in discovering the regularities in their usage patterns and hence their individual functions in the soga notational system.
The results of this study are too detailed to be treated in any depth here, but the following simple explanation which adapts the author's summary may suffice to give some indication of the most important discoveries.
1. Three melodic frameworks, ji-form, kan-form and otsu-form, can be distinguished, and each piece uses two or three of these melodic frameworks in its course.
2. Each of the frameworks has its own range, and all three fit together into a range of two octaves according to the following scheme,

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During the last four years, two of which were spent in West Germany as a Humboldt scholar and two of which have been spent back here in Japan, my various experiences and research projects have given me a new insight into approaches to two problems, the further development of which seems to be my immediate task at the present moment. The first of all is the construction of a theory of “double emics”, which will become a central part of a topic with which I have been concerned for many years, namely, ethnomusicology as an ethnoscience. The second deals with the possibility of a new type of historical ethnomusicology, using diatronic indicators derived from ethnoscience, that will be inherently different from historical and musico-historical studies of the past.
My time spent overseas was perhaps most valuable in that it forced me to reexamine my attitudes towards the so-called “etic” (scientific and objective) methods supposedly employed in studies of foreign music cultures. I have become rather suspicious of the supposed “objectiveness” that we are capable of employing in these situations. It seems unlikely to me that there is anyone who can thoroughly ignore the perspectives and methods of thinking that he has developed over the years and which have been shaped by his personal experience. If it is impossible to escape the binds of this acquired method of viewing things, then we cannot help being subjective in our perspectives. If it is true that only culture-carriers (i.e. members of a given culture) can have a truly “emic” perspective of that culture, students of the music of cultures other than their own face a difficult task in either trying to become temporary members of the society that they are studying, or in reverse, maintaining an independent perspective, although this often leads to the unfortunate phenomenon often seen in Western studies whereby a student of another culture uses the standards of his own culture to perform a so-called “etic” and “objective” evaluation of that culture. I think that it is necessary for us to strive towards the development of a double-layered “emic” approach, in which, while applying an emic approach to the music of a certain culture (or even sub-culture within a culture), we retain our own subjectivity as Japanese (or whatever), developing a Japanese method of thinking that will function as an emic approach on a second layer.
The second problem, that of developing an historical ethnomusicology using diatronic indicators derived from ethnoscience, is one I have only begun formulating, the concrete realization of which is still incomplete. What can be said at the moment, however, is that aside from the written documents—historical records, musical manuscripts, etc.—that have been used in historical studies of music until now, there exists an enormous, perhaps even more important body of unwritten materials, such as oral tradition and transmission as reflected in the knowledge of the performers of the music and the actual performance itself, which can and must be used as historical source material. The historical perspectives sought for using this material do not necessarily denote those developed in the West, that is, the tracing of an absolute chronology of an aspect of culture, but may be more of the nature of a relative study of the large-scale cultural shifts to be seen within the culture. A planned study of the music of Oceania may prove to be an invaluable opportunity for developing an appropriate methodology for using non-written historical materials.

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This report deals with three aspects of recent research on music in Aomori prefecture. They are: studies of ancient clay flutes; studies on the itako, blind female shamans who live in the northern part of Honshu; and cataloguing of tape recordings of Tsugaru folk music.
1. Clay flutes.
Report on various clay objects possibly to be classified as musical instruments, that have been excavated at various sites in Aomori prefecture. This will become part of a comparative study of instruments of this type which will also include surveys on and analysis of the forms of instruments unearthed in Africa and Mexico. One interesting aspect which needs to be considered in more detail is that two specimens unearthed in July 1982 at Kotooka in Akita prefecture (which borders on Aomori prefecture) produce notes in the range of a fourth. (See figures 3 and 4, p. 192.)
2. Itako.
Research has been conducted on the itako of the Tsugaru district of Aomori prefecture by an eight-member team with the sponsorship of the Agency of Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government. Research topics have included customs, history, initiation rites, shamanic instruments, texts of sutras and epics, and music. I was given the task of transcribing and analyzing the musical aspects of their sutras and epics. The report will be published by the agency in 1984.
3. Tape recordings of Tsugaru folk music.
Cassette tape recordings of 805 pieces of folk music have been compiled into 129 reels of open-reel tape for purposes of preservation and future use, and will be kept at the City Library of Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture. A catalogue of two parts (index in alphabetical order by title, and index of contents of each reel of tape) was also prepared. The contents were based on a collection made by the late Kimura Genzo (1905-1978), which was supplemented with other recordings, and then organized and re-edited by Kudo Ken'ichi and myself. Three hundred copies of the catalogue were to be published in April of this year.

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The thirteenth congress of the International Musicological Society was held from the 29th August to 3rd September 1982 in Strasburg, France. The theme of the congress was “La musique et la Rite, sacré et profane” (music and rite, sacred and secular). On the invitation of Prof. Kurt Fischer of Basel University (former president of the Society), I participated in a congress of this Society for the first time, and was surprised by its large scale (according to the pamphlet distributed at the congress, there were 469 participants from 26 nations). I was also pleased to see the large number of Japanese scholars present.
I was invited by Prof. Fischer as a representative scholar of Buddhist music to participate on a panel in a section with the theme “Attitude idéoligique des autorités religieuses à l'égard de la musique savante et ses répercussions sur le développement de la musique” (The ideological attitudes of religious authorities towards music and the effects of those attitudes on the development of music). I accepted the invitation realizing this to be an excellent chance to gain further understanding of Buddhist music in international terms. It was also decided that performance of Japanese Tendai sect shomyo (an abbreviated version of the shika hoyo service) should be made after the opening ceremony of the congress. The concert was an apparent success, reaching not only the filled-to-capacity hall, but a large French audience since it was broadcast simultaneously by the French national radio.
The third panel discussion, chaired by Fischer and in which I participated, began the next day at 3:00pm, with representatives of the Christian, Buddhist and Jewish religions present. A Moslem representative from Iran was unable to be present due to political reasons. The discussion, which began after the presentation of summaries of the prepared papers of the panelists by the chairman in English and German, proved to be very lively, and I found myself facing a large number of taxing questions from the other panelists and the floor. I was pleased, too, to find that my rather inadequate French did not have to be used, since English and German were used to a much greater extent.

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This research report deals with my research and investigations over the years into the history of the players of the Chinese seven-stringed plucked zither ch'in (Japanese pronunciation kin) and the search for surviving examples of the instrument in Japan.
I began to work in this area after reading the former Dutch ambassador to Japan R. H. van Gulik's book The Lore of the Chinese Lute (1940), and the article included as an appendix to the book, “The Chinese Lute in Japan”. I also learned the technique of the instrument from van Gulik. After his sudden death in 1964, I was determined to continue his work on research into the Japanese tradition of ch'in players, and perhaps for that reason, I This research report deals with my research and investigations over the years into the history of the players of the Chinese seven-stringed plucked zither ch'in (Japanese pronunciation kin) and the search for surviving examples of the instrument in Japan.
I began to work in this area after reading the former Dutch ambassador to Japan R. H. van Gulik's book The Lore of the Chinese Lute (1940), and the article included as an appendix to the book, “The Chinese Lute in Japan”. I also learned the technique of the instrument from van Gulik. After his sudden death in 1964, I was determined to continue his work on research into the Japanese tradition of ch'in players, and perhaps for that reason, I had the opportunity to inspect large numbers of surviving instruments held by people in Kyoto, Tokyo, Nara, Hong Kong and parts of the Chinese mainland. A scholar and ch'in player from Hong Kong, S. Chan, who taught the instrument to a number of people here, often accompanied me on inspections of instruments.
One of the best chances for examining written records associated with the instrument was given to me in 1970, when with six colleagues I had the opportunity of examining and reporting on 35 items held in the collection of the Tayasu Tokugawa family, which included books from the former collection of the ch'in player Kodama Kuku. A report on this collaborative research was published in Toyo Ongaku Kenkyu Vol. 41-42, 1977. Also in 1970, an exhibition of ch'in materials associated with the player Uragami Gyokudo was held in the Mitsukoshi department store in Nihombashi, Tokyo. I published my first article on the material, “Gyokudo kingaku seikan” in the magazine Kobijutsu (30, 1970) at this time.
My research in the field has been most lively, however, in the past ten or so years. My list of Japanese players of the instrument, in progress throughout this time, has reached approximately three hundred names. Because of the extremely large numbers, I feel that some sort of systematic collaborative effort is essential.
Another exhibition of great significance to me was that held in 1982 at the Saitama prefectural Hall of History (Rekishi-kan), dealing with the material associated with Toko Shin'etsu, the Chinese ch'in performer and Zen teacher who emigrated to Japan in the seventeenth century and founded the Japanese Edo-period ch'in performance tradition. As well as contributing a small article on the ch'in tradition which was published in the catalogue of the exhibition, I took this opportunity to further my research on the ch'in tradition at Mito, where Shin'etsu had lived.
The work of other scholars has also appeared in the last few years. The great-grandson of the ch'in player Mega Yusho, Mega Yuichi, wrote a book concerning his great-grandfather entitled Mega Yusho-den, which was published in 1980. Mitani Yoko, the author of the work Higashi ajia kinso no kenkyu (A Study o f Long-zithers and their Music in the Far East), gave a paper on the contents of the former library of Nagata Chosen (student of both Mega Yusho and Obata Shohi) now held in the

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It has long been known that the late Prof. Hayashi Kenzo had, before his death, prepared a musical study of the Heian-period song genre saibara, which unfortunately still remains unpublished. In 1969 I received a letter from the professor, saying that the only obstacle preventing publication of the study was the unavailability of a single musical manuscript of the Ohara Raigoin temple written in the Koan year period (1278-1288). During my work on the medieval vocal genre soga, I was able to locate and examine this manuscript, and now regret that I was unable to inform Prof. Hayashi about it while he was still alive. Recently, on a visit to the late professor's home when I had the privilege of examining his study, I wondered whether he would object to publication of his study now that the manuscript has been located. I am sure it would be appreciated greatly by many members of our Society.
Recently, when my book on soga was finally published, I took the opportunity to visit the scholar Hirade Hisao at his house in Saku, Nagano prefecture, to present him with a copy. He was very ill last year, hospitalized for seven months with heart problems, and complained of bad eyesight and hearing. Loading me with messages for all of his old students and friends, he seemed to enjoy recalling his past meetings with them. As always, he was very uncompromising in regard to his own scholarly output, and although there are likely to be many fine studies of various aspects of the history of ancient Japanese music, he has published very little. I have a large collection of letters from him, full of remarkable information about the gagaku families and musicians, manuscripts and other documents, and feel that it is irresponsible of me to keep these shut up as my own personal belongings. One would like to look forward to a time when these, and other materials that our colleagues are sure to have received, as well as his own unpublished research, might be published for the benefit of all researchers in the field.

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This research report deals with a study of the comparisons made by the researcher Nogami Toyoichiro (1883-1950) between the no theatre and the theatre of classical Greece, especially tragedies, as expounded in a large number of his articles and books, but most clearly dealt with in his 1923 article “No no shuyaku hitori shugi” (published in the magazine Shiso, February 1923 and later included in his book No kenkyu to hakken, “Discoveries and research on no”). It was Nogami's conclusion after comparison of the numbers and types of leading actors, the function of the chorus, and the use of masks, that the comparison of the two theatrical forms was neither a valid nor especially valuable one.
However, in the preliminary arguments put forward in this research report, I have endeavoured to show that a number of Nogami's conclusions are based on over-simplifications and inaccurate pieces of information that have been revised since the time that Nogami wrote his studies. I believe that it is therefore advisable to postpone judgement concerning the value of comparison of the two theatrical forms until a thorough examination and discussion of the problem has been made.

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The existence of the roei “Kyo ni wa daimoku tari” is known from an interesting anecdote recorded in Tachibana no Narisue's Kokon chomon-ju, and it is also included in the first volume of the Wakan roei-shu. However, until recently, the existence of musical notation for the piece was unknown. It is not found in the most widely known of the extant musical manuscripts recording the Toke (Fujiwara family) tradition of roei, the Roei yosho (Inku-bon), Roei yosho (Gyozan-bon), the Roei yoshu, and the Roei-shu of Yomei Archive, Kyoto.
I have had the opportunity since the year before last to work in a veritable treasure house for medieval historical source materials, the Kanagawa prefectural Kanazawa Bunko. Here a single volume, previously mentioned in scholarly literature, has been found to contain the roei in question, complete with musical notation. The manuscript, a hand-copied single volume measuring 13×21cm, is a sadly damaged specimen in kari-toji binding, which contains only 14 roei. It once belonged to the Shomyoji temple monk Jochin (ordained in Oan 2nd year, 1369), a shomyo musician of considerable skill who is known from a large amount of other historical material.
In total, there are five roei manuscripts surviving in Kanazawa Bunko, which preserve 29 roei (three appear more than once). Other than the roei mentioned above, musical notation for a second, “Shizen yoru takenu”, is also known only from these sources. In addition, a Japanese-reading version of a roei usually performed in its Chinese-reading version, “Kashin reigetsu”, as well as an extremely rare example of notation for two roei in the five-note notational style invented by the Buddhist monk Kakui are included. These materials are to be published later this year, in photographic reproduction complete with typographical reprint and bibliographic commentary, in Kanazawa bunko shiryo zensho: kayo, shomyo-hen, Vol. 1.
As well as participating in the preparation of this book, I have taken the opportunity while engaged in examining the musical sources held in Kanazawa Bunko, to photograph the collection there for inclusion in the material held at the Research Archives for Japanese Music, Ueno Gakuen College. In addition, a second volume is planned in the series of photographic reproductions of material held in Kanazawa Bunko mentioned above.

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