Al-Kindi (Alkindus in Latin, ca. 801-866), the first philosopher of the Islamic world, was a man of encyclopedic knowledge and wrote many treatises under the influence of ancient Greek philosophers. Thereby he built up a sound foundation of Islamic philosophy, which would be succeeded and developed by muslim philosopers such as al-Farabi (Alfarabius in Latin, ca. 870-950) and Ibn Sina (Avicennna in Latin, 980-1038), and by European scholars after the twelfth century. Music was regarded as a science adjacent to philosophy in ancient Greece and the Islamic world as well. Al-Kind's musical theory must hence not be neglected from such viewpoints.
I have tried, in the course of the present paper, to give the full picture of al-Kindi's musical theory through analyzing all his extant treatises on music. These are the following four texts: 1) MS London: British Museum, Oriental Manuscript 2361, fols. 165r-168r; 2) MS Berlin: Staatsbibliothek, Wetzstein II, 1240, fols. 22r-35v; 3) MS Manisa: II Halk Kütüphanesi, Ms. 1705, fols. 107r-109v; 4) MS Oxford: Bodleian Library, Marsh 663, pp. 203-204, 226-238.
The paper is divided into five parts dealing with lute ('ud in Arabic), various elements of music, compositional technique, the perfecting of musicianship, and theory of ethos. The first part describes al-Kindi's explanations on the strings, the method of tuning the strings, execution, the method of practice of 'ud as well as the size and the construction of this instrument. The second part deals with musical tone, interval, tune, transposition, and rhythm. The focus of the third part lies in types of composition; that of the fourth does in what is required to composers. The last part is divided into three sections: the strings of 'ud, colour, and smell.
Throwing light upon the musical theory of al-Kindi, the paper have demonstrated that al-Kindi was not only an introducer of the Greek musical theory to the Islamic world but also an original theorist. He connected, for example, the four strings of 'ud with cosmology, and thought about the influence each string exerted upon the soul.
Another grave issue have come up in the course of the paper: the importance of studying manuscripts and text critique. F. Rosenthal had already pointed out, in his article (1966), the possibility of the mixture of a work of al-Kindi and that of false-Euclid in some folios of MS Berlin. A newly discovered text, MS Manisa, was proved to be a different edition of some parts of MS Berlin. In addition, according to my opinion, MS London, the text being most popular among researchers, has some problems too.
Certainly, MS London deals with various topics of music, but it is much different from the other texts in its contents. The number of strings of 'ud, for example, is five, like the later philosophers such as al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, according to MS London, whereas the number is four in the other texts; diagrams are included only in MS London; unlike the other texts, no idea of astrology is found in MS London.
To settle this problem, the date of copying MS London may yield some clues. The manuscript was copied on November 29, 1662 from a manuscript written at Damascus in the middle of November 1224 based on “an imperfect and undependable” manuscript according to the copyist of MS London. It may therefore well be that there are some interpolations of copyists in MS London. One must hence be careful in citing this text for arguing al-Kind's theory; the full picture of his musical theory described in the present paper must also be renewed whenever the text critique is advanced and a new text is discovered.

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The Kaga domain of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) comprises what are today Toyama and Ishikawa Prefectures. In the past, many blind female performers known as goze wandered throughout this area, singing songs and playing the shamisen. Although the goze of neighboring Niigata Prefecture have been the subject of much research and documentation, the goze of the Kaga domain have as yet received almost no scholarly attention. This study seeks to fill this gap.
Records of goze in the Kaga domain go back to 1619, when blind entertainers were sent to entertain the widow of the first head of the domain. Records of goze living in rural villages around Kanazawa also exist from the early seventeenth century.
In the Toyama area, goze are recorded as being affiliated with a temple in the city of Takaoka. Later, these goze appear to have entertained visitors to the city's pleasure quarters. Both in Toyama and Ishikawa Prefectures, goze seem not to have formed the types of guilds that one finds in Niigata Prefecture.
The last renowned goze of the Toyama area was Matsukura Chiyo (1884-1946, also known as “Chiima”). Recordings of her performances are almost entirely lacking, but people of the area still remember her songs and her activities. The latter half of this study attempts to reconstruct Matsukura's life, tours, and repertory. Several musical examples of performances as remembered by natives of Toyama Prefecture are presented, as is a photograph of Matsukura and her daughter Hana.

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Influx, mixture or estrangement of cultures from the West to the East violently took place from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries. Following the currents of Sinoism and Japonism, many Westerners streaming into the Far East brought with them the music and culture of their countries. As a result, contact and cultural exchange occured between China, Japan and the Wset. It is of great interest to trace the development of intercultural communication.
The present paper will focus on three points: 1) after acculturation, how to establish Christian music, and how to incorporate Chinese music into it; 2) in intercultural communication the relation in terms of the influence power of both parties, that is, between the sender and receiver; and 3) how to place this phenomenon in the history of musical study. From theses three perspectives, the writer interprets materials used in her paper and develop a diagramatic framework for the reception of Protestant Christian music in China.
The writer mainly treat the articles on the Chinese recorder as the materials recorded by the sender and the articles in Sheng-ge yu Sheng-yue as recorded by the receiver, and the Hymns in Chinese published in China as the result of acculturation.

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Royu was the name of several generations of iemoto who transmitted the musical genre of Ogie-bushi. Much remains obscure about Royu, but a search through the Kansei choshu shokafu, a genealogy compiled in 1812 by the Tokugawa bakufu, brings to light some important information regarding Ogie Royu II. This paper is a report on these findings.
One of the most important documents concerning Ogie Royu II is the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba, a deed of transfer written in 1847 by someone named “Arita”. This man claims to be the younger brother of Royu II. Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba stems from the time that Ogie Royu III was granted the name “Royu.” From this record one learns the years of the second Royu's birth and death, and his real name. Royu II was a warrior named Arita Eikitsu (Yasutaka). He was born in 1727 and died in 1795. He entrusted the position of family head to his younger brother and took on the artist's name of Royu II. At the time he received this name, the Royu I changed his name to Tairin.
According to the Kansei choshu shokafu, however, Eikitsu died in 1789. Eikitsu retired from public office after the first Royu's death in 1788. According to the Kansei choshu shokafu, it was not Eikitsu, but rather Eikitsu's older brother Mokitsu (Yasuhisa) who died in 1795. Mokitsu retired from public office in 1777 and accepted his younger brother as an adopted child in order to allow Eikitsu to assume the family headship. This last fact corresponds to the record found in Kinsenshi ni takusuru kotoba. From the above information it thus becomes obvious that Royu II was not Arita Eikitsu, but rather Eikitsu's older brother Mokitsu.
Who was, then, the “Arita” and “younger brother” of Royu II who appears in the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba? In the Kansei choshu shokafu Mokitsu is listed as having only one younger brother, Eikitsu. Thus “Arita” could not have been Mokitsu's younger brother. In the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba, “Arita” states that he is 81 years old. “Arita”'s age differs from the age of Mokitsu's grandchild Yasunao by only one year. Thus it is possible that “Arita, ” the author of Kisenshi ni takusuru Kotoba is none other than Yasunao. It remains unclear, however, why Yasunao would call himself the “younger brother” of Mokitsu, or why he wrote this deed of transfer.
According to the Rakusho tosei mitate sanpuku-tsui, a record dating from 1780, Royu II did not have much success. In fact, as can be learned from Yanagisawa Nobutoki's En'yu nikki, Royu I continued to be called “Royu” even after he had officially changed his name to Tairin. No compositions of Royu II have been transmitted. It appears, then, that Royu II took a back seat to the first Royu's extraordinary activities.
From the above mentioned documents the outlines of the history of the first few generations of Royu can be reconstructed. More research is necessary, however, on the context in which the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba was written.

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The distinctive feature of the Yanagawa-shamisen is its unique sound. One aspect of the elegance of the instrument is the beauty of its tone. In order to produce this sound it is necessary to learn how to use the plectrum through oral instruction.
When compared with other shamisen, the only feature that does not differ is the length of the neck:
1. The neck is thin and the curve between the neck and the body is slight. The end of the neck is rather thicker.
2. The slim body is light. The width of the wood on the surface is thick but the inside thin as though it has been scooped out.
3. The skin has eight nipples (it is thin and flexible).
4. The high bridge is made of tortoise shell.
5. The length between the string and skin on body is wide.
6. The thin strings have the following size: string 1=11, string 2=10, and string 3=8.
7. The strings are tied to a tassel made of gold or silver thread which is attached to a metal support.
8. The slender plectrum is thinner where it is held (in the palm) than at the end (where it plays the strings).
Performance:
During performance the plectrum does not hit the skin.
1. The plectrum is held lightly in the palm.
2. One is disciplined through oral training on how to use the plectrum.

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