What is ‘Itchu-bushi’ ?

History and Characteristics of the Itchu-Bushi

History
The Itchu-bushi is the origin of Edo Jōruri style’s shamisen music.

Miyako Itchu I was born in 1650 as the second son of the abbot of Myōfukuji Temple in Kyoto. He gradually unified the various types of shamisen music that flourished in Kyoto at that time. He later moved to Edo (the former name of Tokyo), where he established the Itchu-bushi style of music.

In the Edo period (1603-1867), the Itchu-bushi became a dominant influence; that was said, “There is no house without a mouse and an Itchu-bush practice book.” The upper class of Edo merchants were especially fond of it.

For more than 300 years since then, the original musicality and spirit have been faithfully handed down to the present time.

Furthermore, the founder’s music was passed on to his disciples, who developed into schools such as Tokiwazu, Kiyomoto, Shinnai, and Tomimoto. It was Itchu-bushi that became the origin of these various schools and profoundly influenced whole shamisen music. Itchu-bushi occupies an important place in the history of Japanese music, and its artistic value is highly regarded.

Characteristics
Itchu-bushi uses a Chuzao(Middle Neck Size) Shamisen and takes the style of reciting Jōruri along with the shamisen. The musical characteristics of shamisen music are that it has a particularly delicate and elegant tone and atmosphere. The sounds are so refined and meticulously assembled that they can no longer be added or subtracted.

Half a century after the Sengoku era(1493-1590), when peace had arrived, and art and culture began to blossom, Miyako Itchu I tried to make the Pure Land(paradise) appear in people’s hearts through music instead of sutras. In the representative song “Tatsumi no Shiki,” the scenery of Uji in Kyoto is likened to the Pure Land. Scenes such as the brilliance of light reflected on the water’s surface are expressed as the Impressionist arts that emerged and blossomed in Europe nearly 200 years later, such as Monet’s paintings and Debussy’s music.

The song “Koharu Kamiyui no Dan,” said to have been composed by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, who was the Japanese playwright, the greatest of the Edo period, often called the “Shakespeare of Japan,” for the Itchu-bushi, expresses the most profound subtleties of a woman in love in a relaxed and elegant melody filled with emotion. Even today, the song still brings tears to the listener. Also, songs such as “Shojo” and “Shakkyo” express the deep spiritual world in music and give dreams and hopes to those who listen to them. In addition, about 80 songs, such as “Komachi Shôshô Michiyuki（The Journey of Komachi and Shôshô)”  and “Yugasumi Asamagatake”, have been handed down to the present day.