The nagauta “Tuna-Yakata” is highly rated as an excellent achievement among the modem Japanese musical works. It has been transmitted to today since it was composed in 1869 and is still one of the most popular nagauta.
The composer of this piece is KINEYA Kangoro III (KINEYA Rokuzaemon XI). It was reported that he was satisfied with its result as the best one among his many original works. He was ambitious to rivive old musics. “Tuna-Yakata” was produced when he found out an old music “Tuwamono-Azumayazukuri” performed in 1741 but remaind only worded.
Added “Kusemai” part several years after the first performance, this music became more popularly played. However, there has not been yet an established theory on who originally composed it, when it was composed, or whether Kangoro himself composed it additionally or not, leaving many different opinions. Generally the accepted theory is that “Kusemai” is a diversion from the words of “Kumoi-no-Satokotoba” which was performed by ICHIKAWA Yaozo II in February 1772. However there were many who had doubts about it as the diverted part was very little.
Recently there was discovered a song book “Kyoran-Ura-Yamabuki” which was performed in November 1833. This was composed by KINEYA Rokuzaemon X and presented for madman dance played by ICHIKAWA Yaozo IV. The words are fully same as “Kusemai” which we play now, being different in tuning; “Kusemai” is Ni-agari (2nd string major) and “Ura-Yamabuki” is San-sagari (3rd string minor). Kangoro, composer of “Tuna-Yakata” was attended as one of the players for “Ura-Yamabuki” when it was first performed. Furthermore, in 1857 Rokuzaemon composed “Irodorimoyoshi-Sumiregusa”, in which the Aikata (intermezzo) was almost same as that of “Kusemai”. Kangoro was also a member of the first place of performance of this play. Rokuzaemon X was father of Kangoro. It might be possible that Kangoro got some hints from the above-mentioned two works to arrange melody and melodic motif into his composition of “Kusemai”.
YOSHIZUMI Jikyo talked that the addition of “Kusemai” resulted from the fact that, after “Tuna-Yakata” was published in 1874, some dancer desired to produce a dance of “Tuna-Yakata” and requested to make this piece a little longer for his dancing, then the Kusemai part was added on.
Therefore, I hold the following views to reach a conclusion on composer of “Kusemai”: 1) Kangoro, a composer of “Tuna-yakata”, created “Kusemai” getting hints from his father's two works. It was added after 1874 since this part was not included in the original text published in 1874.
2) The words are diverted from “Kyoran-Ura-Yamabuki”, not from “Kumoino-satokotoba” that has been accepted so far.
3) There might be some confusion due to the facts that name of dancer for respective piece was ICHIKAWA Yaozo only with difference of age (the second or the fourth), there were the same words used in both plays, and further, a madman was mainly described in either play.

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'Ma' originally means 'space' in Japanese. We have regarded the beauty of 'Ma' as essentially significant in Japanese traditional arts. But it is equally essential in the understanding of Japanese traditional music to appreciate the 'Ma'-unique pause between sounds of strings (shamisen etc.), drums (tsuzumi etc.) and winds (hu-e etc.). In this paper, I have discussed the relation between the character of Japanese traditional music and 'Ma', and explained how the expression of 'Ma' is possible and what the expression of 'Ma' signifies.

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