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[[File:Heike-biwa.jpg|right|thumb|320px|A member of the contemporary fusion music group AURA-J performing a portion of the ''[[Tale of the Heike]]'' on [[biwa]].]]
*''Japanese'': 琵琶法師 ''(biwa houshi)''
''Biwa hôshi'' were blind itinerant storytellers, prominent in the mid-[[Heian period]] through the [[Muromachi period]]. Performers of epic tales, accompanying themselves on the ''[[biwa]]'' (a stringed, lute-like instrument related to the Chinese ''[[pipa]]''), they are particularly associated with the ''[[Tale of the Heike]]''.
The ''biwa hôshi'' tradition began in mid-Heian period, with blind men seeking refuge at Buddhist temples, where they learned to play the ''biwa'', and to entertain with stories, and may have adopted the custom of wearing monastic robes. The ''biwa'' was associated with an ability to contact unseen or supernatural forces; because of this, combined with the monastic robes worn by these lay performers, many began to regard the ''biwa hôshi'' as, perhaps, wielding some special abilities to ward off disease, pacify angry spirits, or the like. Blind biwa-playing storytellers thus came to travel the country, providing entertainment, supernatural services, and moralizing tales, for a living.
By the 1200s, [[Kyoto]] was home to a great many ''biwa hôshi'', as was the area in and around [[Enryaku-ji]] on [[Mt. Hiei]]. The [[Genpei War]] ended in [[1185]], and the political after-effects were still being felt, and so, it has been suggested, there were many stories about the conflict circulating, as well as much demand for such stories. And so, the earliest versions of the tradition of reciting ''The Tale of the Heike'' were born. There is most likely no singular original version, but in the 1330s, [[Yoshida Kenko|Yoshida Kenkô]] related in his ''[[Tsurezuregusa]]'' that a former [[Shinano province]] official by the name of Yukinaga composed the ''Tale'' and taught it to a blind man named Shôbutsu to tell; further, he suggested that the performance tradition of the ''Tale'' incorporated an emulation of Shôbutsu's own vocal characteristics.
{{stub}}
==References==
*Helen McCullough trans., ''The Tale of the Heike'', Stanford University Press (1990), 6-8.
[[Category:Kamakura Period]]
[[Category:Muromachi Period]]
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]
*''Japanese'': 琵琶法師 ''(biwa houshi)''
''Biwa hôshi'' were blind itinerant storytellers, prominent in the mid-[[Heian period]] through the [[Muromachi period]]. Performers of epic tales, accompanying themselves on the ''[[biwa]]'' (a stringed, lute-like instrument related to the Chinese ''[[pipa]]''), they are particularly associated with the ''[[Tale of the Heike]]''.
The ''biwa hôshi'' tradition began in mid-Heian period, with blind men seeking refuge at Buddhist temples, where they learned to play the ''biwa'', and to entertain with stories, and may have adopted the custom of wearing monastic robes. The ''biwa'' was associated with an ability to contact unseen or supernatural forces; because of this, combined with the monastic robes worn by these lay performers, many began to regard the ''biwa hôshi'' as, perhaps, wielding some special abilities to ward off disease, pacify angry spirits, or the like. Blind biwa-playing storytellers thus came to travel the country, providing entertainment, supernatural services, and moralizing tales, for a living.
By the 1200s, [[Kyoto]] was home to a great many ''biwa hôshi'', as was the area in and around [[Enryaku-ji]] on [[Mt. Hiei]]. The [[Genpei War]] ended in [[1185]], and the political after-effects were still being felt, and so, it has been suggested, there were many stories about the conflict circulating, as well as much demand for such stories. And so, the earliest versions of the tradition of reciting ''The Tale of the Heike'' were born. There is most likely no singular original version, but in the 1330s, [[Yoshida Kenko|Yoshida Kenkô]] related in his ''[[Tsurezuregusa]]'' that a former [[Shinano province]] official by the name of Yukinaga composed the ''Tale'' and taught it to a blind man named Shôbutsu to tell; further, he suggested that the performance tradition of the ''Tale'' incorporated an emulation of Shôbutsu's own vocal characteristics.
{{stub}}
==References==
*Helen McCullough trans., ''The Tale of the Heike'', Stanford University Press (1990), 6-8.
[[Category:Kamakura Period]]
[[Category:Muromachi Period]]
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]
