Music and the Rites in Ancient China

【光る君へ】第4回 五節の舞姫

1.

Imagine a world in which music functions to represent political and spiritual power. Where the vibrations of certain syllables or musical tones exert influence over people’s minds. And the correct performance of ritual dances is a necessary component for the transfer of political power —or the start of a new age.

As I mentioned last week, during the Heian period, the word 祭り事 “matsuri koto” encompassed not just festivals and rites, like it does today, but also meant “to govern” —since political rule and performing the rites were one and the same. And a crucial aspect of this “matsuri koto” concerned music and dance. Music was, therefore, not understood as some sort of entertainment or lovely diversion, but rather was a powerful means of moral cultivation for those present and participating—as well as an important tool of governing used to harmonize the world of human beings with that of heaven. The beautiful was the virtuous.

Not surprisingly, the origins of this idea stretches very far back in history— all the way back to ancient China. Starting in the Western Zhou (1046-771 BCE) Yayue (雅樂; lit. 'elegant music') was a style of music performed at court and in temples, and over time came to represent —along with the laws and rites— aristocratic and imperial power itself.

This was something fully embraced by the Heian court in Japan. Written using the same characters, but pronounced as gagaku 雅樂, Japanese “elegant music” was divided into three types: Saibara (native Shinto), Komagaku (Korean and Manchurian) and Togaku (Tang Music).

Both Saibara and Togaku dances feature prominently in the Tale of Genji—but perhaps none more than the Saibara dance Gosechi no Mai (五節舞). The dance shows up in chapters 11,12,13,14 and especially in chapter 21, when Genji, who is still unable to forget the gosechi dancer from the earlier chapters, goes on to sponsor a dancer at court—a young woman from the provinces with whom his own son promptly grows infatuated —Like father, like son?

2.

Because this particular dance is mentioned so many times in the Genji, I was not surprised when the gosechi no mai was featured in Episode Four of the Taiga Drama 光る君へ. The episode gets its title from the dancers of this dance 五節の舞姫 and unfolds as Murasaki Shikibu is asked to stand in as a dancer for one of the very high-ranking ladies who doesn’t want to do it.

I didn’t know much about this dance until this week, when I learned that Gosechi no Mai has long been included as part of the festivities celebrating a new emperor taking the throne in Japan. It was a huge responsibility and an honor to be asked to perform as one of the four or five maidens, since the dance has always been performed as part of the transfer of imperial power. Because Japan has the longest continuous imperial family in the world—and because the imperial household is extraordinarily conservative—many of the glorious songs and dances that have long died out in China and further west—are still preserved, slowed down and fossilized, in the Japanese imperial household.

And this includes the Gosechi no mai, which was performed in Japan as recently as the ascension of the Showa Emperor in 1928

3.

The dance has a wonderful origin story in a legend from the era of Emperor Tenmu (died 686) about how a heavenly maiden appeared one day on earth and danced at Yoshino. The dance was characterized by the dancer waving her sleeves in five different dances.

Another origin story for the dance, however, suggests that Emperor Tenmu invented the dance with the aim of teaching his subjects the wonders of reiraku, the Chinese philosophy of the rites and music. In this story, the Gosetsu (五節) in the dance’s name refers to Gosei (五声 - five tunes) and this was the emperor’s way of promoting rei (propriety) and raku (music) among the people of Japan.

And finally, as if this was not enough, there is a famous poem from the Kokinshu (collected in the Hyakunin-isshu as well), which was written by the Buddhist bishop Sōjō Henjō. The poem was composed after the bishop was deeply moved watching the Gosechi no Mai dance:

「天つかぜ 雲の通ひ路 吹きとぢよ をとめの姿 しばしとどめむ」Sōjō Henjō, (僧正遍昭, 816 – 890),

Wishing the heavenly winds

blow closed that path through the clouds

detaining the dancing maidens here on earth a little longer

Bishop Henjo is one of the original Six Immortal Poets of Japan—and here at the bottom is Peter Macmillan’s translation of the poem —much better than mine!! I am a big fan of his Hyakunin Isshu translation.

Notes:

1. I wrote about the marvelous Togaku Dance of the Blue Waves here.

2. For Maya: have you seen this Tumblr about the Genji? This is the chapter on the Maidens of the Gosechi no mai.