This research focused on the physical movements, which were the main expression media of traditional performances such as dance and sports, and tried to elucidate the spirit, which could be seen as one side of society and culture. It was common in anthropological research of traditional dances, sports, and events to explore an abstract idea from the outline information that surrounds the physical movement. This paper aimed to analyze the structure and function of the physical movement along the lines of the “black box” trend. Additionally, elucidation of the spirit from characteristic physical movements, that was extraction of the expressional intention, was a further aim.
In order to approach such a subject, the traditional performance “
Hotoke-Mai” was used as an example.
Hotoke-Mai reflects the public spirit of Buddhism in the form of traditional dance.
By the following viewpoints and methods, this paper analyzed seven
Hotoke-Mai.
I. The relative frequency of extraction patterns, and the whole composition of the movement element by body part.
II. Moving phrases and stillness poses, and patterns of these combinations.
III. Lines of physical movement in moving phrases.
IV. The form of the dancers' hands.
V. Formation changes the entire body, and direction of the individual body.
As a result, the following things were found out.
(1) With regard to overall tendencies of
Hotoke-Mai, firstly, “limited patterns of movement repeated regularly”, where six moving patterns were made into a single composition, was seen. Secondly, quick rotational movement and jumping movement, which were dance movement frequently used by Japanese traditional performance, were not accepted. From these results, it was possible to interpret
Hotoke-Mai as static dance.
(2) It was possible to divide the dance into the
Hotoke-Mai (A), characterized by upper limb movement, and the
Hotoke-Mai (B), characterized by trunk movement. Each movement characteristic was as follows.
(A) : a high center-of-gravity position, an erect body axis, the line of centripetal / curvilinear / circumductional of upper limbs, the pose of a specific hand, systematic formation change of the entire body and body directivity in all directions.
(B) : a low center-of-gravity position, a flexional-extentional body axis, the line of the centrifugal / linear / swinging of trunk,
nanba /
henbai, the regular position, body directivity in four directions (90 degree conversions).
(3) The characteristics of physical movement were interpreted as follows, and expressional intentions were extracted.
The movement-characteristics of (A) were an erect body axis and a diversity of expression with the upper limbs. This was in line with the Japanese Buddha image, and in agreement with the characteristics of molding physical expression. In particular, it agreed with the pause of a specific hand, which could be regarded as a means of the
in to express the concrete Buddha. That was,
Hotoke-Mai (A) controlled the movement of the upper limbs, and was considered to direct an appearance of the Buddha effectively by making the movement of upper limbs concentrate the spectator's eye. Moreover, formation and physical directivity attained appreciation of all and could be said to hold strong spectator appeal. Therefore, the similar images of the “Buddha” would be interpreted as being expressed by physical movement as people visualize a statues or pictures of Buddha.
There was a close resemblance between the movement characteristics of (B) and movements that bent and lengthened whole-body repeatedly, especially the trunk, as in the case of worshipping God or Buddha. It was considered that these were symbolically expressing magic-acts, such as
hairei,
harai, and
shizume. Moreover, the formation and physical directivity could be
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