Tsugaru-jamisen

Tsugaru-jamisen　(津軽三味線) is a genre of shamisen music originating in Aomori prefecture in the northernmost area of the Japanese island of Honshū. It is today performed throughout Japan, though associations with the Tsugaru area of Aomori remain strong.

What is Tsugaru-jamisen?

The genre is played on a large shamisen with thicker strings than those used for most other styles. Unlike other forms of shamisen that use cat skin as a covering for the "do", or soundbox, the Tsugaru-jamisen uses dog skin as its traditional material. The "bachi" (plectrum) is proportionately small. Tsugaru-jamisen is easy to recognize by its percussive quality (the plectrum striking the body of the instrument on each stroke) and the lilt of the rhythms performed. Unlike most other Japanese music, some Tsugaru-jamisen pieces are in triple time, though the three beats are not accentuated in the manner of Western music.

Tsugaru-jamisen has a large and steadily growing repertory. Details are of course arguable and there is some variation among performers. Interviews with noted shamisen virtuosi such as Takahashi Chikuzan and Yamada Chisato and recordings issued by stars of the past allow one to produce the following table. It should be noted that most titles given below exist in two versions: in song form (a vocal line with shamisen and drum (taiko) accompaniment); and as a solo shamisen piece (see sixth group below). Recently, younger performers have been attempting to combine Tsugaru-jamisen playing styles or motives with jazz, rock, and other forms of more commercial music. With the exception of the shin min’yō of group E these songs are usually considered to be “traditional.”

The Tsugaru-jamisen repertoire

* Kudoki bushi (Quasi-narrative songs)
** “Suzuki Mondo”
** “Jonkara kudoki”
* Tsugaru (no) mitsumono (“Three Tsugaru Songs”)
** “Tsugaru jongara bushi”
*** shin bushi (new song)
*** naka bushi (middle song)
*** kyū bushi (old song)
*** shin kyū bushi (new old song)
** “Tsugaru yosare bushi”
*** shin bushi (new song)
*** kyū bushi (old song)
** “Tsugaru ohara bushi”
*** shin bushi (new song)
*** kyū bushi (old song)
* Tsugaru (no) itsutsumono (“Five Tsugaru Songs”)
** “Tsugaru aiya bushi”
** “Tsugaru san-sagari”
* Kyū min’yō (“Old folk songs”)
** “Yasaburō bushi”
**“Tsugaru jinku”
** “Dodarebachi”
** “Ajigasawa jinku”
**“Tosa no sunayama”
**“Tsugaru ondo”
**“Torajōsama”
** "Tanto Bushi"
** Others
* Shin min’yō (“New folk songs”)
**“Waiha bushi” (Composed in 1932 by the singer Narita Unchiku [1888-1974] )
** “Ringo bushi” (Composed by Narita Unchiku in 1954).
** Others
* Kyokubiki (shamisen solos and improvisation). Potentially all songs of B, C, D, and E (most commonly B), as well as free improvisation, freely entitled by performers.
** “Iwaki” (Takahashi Chikuzan)
** “Arashi” (Yamada Chisato)
** Others etc.
* Gassō or kyoku-awase (ensemble playing of multiple shamisen, occasionally supplemented by other instruments such as percussion, taishō-goto, koto, etc.). Most often versions of “Jonkara bushi;” sometimes other songs of groups B to E above; occasionally newly composed pieces or free improvisation on standard patterns.

Playing method

Tsugaru-jamisen is characterized by many distinct phrases and styles. The player will often strike the strings and skin very hard and fast with the bachi. A technique unique to the Tsugaru-jamisen style in recent years is the tremolo played with the back of the bachi without hitting the skin.

Discussion of the repertory

Group A presents songs that are only rarely heard today, though they were once the mainstay of the repertoire of itinerant, often blind, musician-beggars known as bosama. At the start of the twentieth century these kudoki were gradually displaced by shorter non-narrative songs. The bosama (and, in time, other performers) tended to concentrate their efforts on some five favorite songs (Group C). By the middle of the twentieth century three songs (Group B) and their shamisen versions had become the core of the Tsugaru-jamisen repertoire, which they remain today. Indeed, “Jonkara bushi”--in a version that the old bosama would probably not even recognize--has today become virtually a symbol of the timeless “spirit of Tsugaru.”

The songs of group D, though no less traditional than those of groups A, B, and C, were not, it seems, a major part of the bosama repertoire. Instead, they tended to be sung by non-professionals, generally without shamisen accompaniment. But with the Tsugaru-jamisen “boom” after World War II, these songs began to receive renewed attention. Shamisen accompaniments were composed or arranged by such performers as Takahashi Chikuzan (Takahashi 1983:142). Somewhat earlier there had been a nationwide movement to produce “new folk songs” (see Hughes 1985:144-54, 281-309; Kojima 1970), resulting in the songs listed in Group E. More recently still, solo shamisen versions of the songs of Group D have been arranged. Solo versions of the older songs have become the center of the repertoire, leading to the development of long solo improvisations (Group F) and ensemble playing (Group G).

One of the most interesting characteristics of the Tsugaru-jamisen repertoire is what might be termed its cumulative nature. As can be seen from the listing of songs in Group B, newer variants of songs tend to coexist alongside older versions, rather than replacing them. Although the older songs and their shamisen accompaniments or shamisen solo versions have no doubt themselves been somewhat transformed from what they were many decades ago (and they of course were never an entirely uniform to begin with), it remains certain that the “old,” “middle,” and “new” versions are differentiated not merely stylistically but also historically. Their structural differences contain, as it were, a congealed history.

Notable players

*Shirakawa Gunpachirō
*Takahashi Chikuzan
*Kida Rinshōe
*Fukushi Masakatsu
*Oyama Mitsugu
*Mihashi Michiya
*Yamada Chisato
*Shibutani Kazuo
*Hiromitsu Agatsuma
*Michihiro Sato
*Yoshida Brothers
*Kevin Kmetz
*Masahiro Nitta
*Mike Penny

References and further reading

Daijō Kazuo
Daijō has spent most of his life studying Tsugaru-jamisen and met many of the old bosama. His writings, often in semi-novelistic form, emphasize that everything originated with one "Nitabō". Most scholars reject this monolinear derivation of the genre.
*1984 Genkon Tsugaru-jamisen. Gōdō Shuppan.
*1986 “Tsugaru-jamisen no rekishi: sono seishin to fūdo.” In Tsugaru-jamisen taizen (6 cassettes and book). Tokyo: King Records K25H-5274-8.
*1995 Tsugaru-jamisen no tanjo: minzoku geinō no seisei to ryūsei. Tokyo Shin'yosha.

Groemer, Gerald
*1991 " The Autobiography of Takahashi Chikuzan: Adventures of a Tsugaru-jamisen musician". Warren Michigan: Harmonie Park Press.
*1993 "Tsugaru-jamisen ni okeru sokkyō ensōteki yōso no bunseki" Tōyō ongaku kenkyū 57:41-61.
*1999 "The Spirit of Tsugaru: Blind Musicians, Takahashi Chikuzan, and the Folk Music of Northern Japan". Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press. 321 pp., illust., biblio.(The most detailed study of Tsugaru-jamisen to date in any language. Includes a translation of Takahashi Chikuzan's autobiography (Takahashi 1983))

Hughes, David
*1985 "The Heart’s Home Town: Traditional Folk Song in Modern Japan". PhD dissertation, University of Michigan.(introduction to Japanese folk song in general).

Kimura Genzō
*1974 “Tsugaru-jamisen no keifu (1-24),” Tōō Nippō, Oct.16-Dec.14.

Kojima Tomiko
*1970 “Shin-min’yō undō no ongakushi-teki igi.” Engekigaku 11:1-29.(Study of the "new folk song" movement)

Matsuno Takeo
*1935 “Tsugaru min’yō-shi.” Kyōdo-shi Mutsu 1:90-118; 3:115-157; 4:93-112.

Suda Naoyuki and Anthony Rausch
*1998 "The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music". Aomori: Aomori University Press. (Abridged translation of Daijō 1995 and includes some more general anthropological material). Takahashi Chikuzan
*1973 Tsugaru-jamisen Takahashi Chikuzan (liner notes). Tokyo: CBS Sony SODL 17.
*1983 "Jiden: Tsugaru-jamisen hitori tabi". Tokyo: Shinshokan. (Autobiography of one of the Tsugaru-jamisen greats of the past. Translated in Groemer 1991 and 1999).

Tanaka Sadako
*1984 Tsugaru-jamisen no “mitsumono” ni okeru hikaku kenkyū--kyokubiki o chūshin toshite. Unpublished master’s thesis, Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku.

External links

* [http://www.research.umbc.edu/eol/9/yamada/index.html Article on Yamada Chisato]
* [http://www.nitaboh.com/english/index.html Nitaboh Official Site] (about feature movie around - disputed - origin of Tsuragu-jamisen style)
* [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6591 Anime News Network: 'Nitaboh'] (more info on the movie)