Changes

*''Japanese'': 御座楽 ''(uzagaku)''

*''Japanese'': 御座楽 ''(uzagaku)''

Uzagaku (lit. "seated music") was the chief form of court music in the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] used for formal court ceremonies including [[Ryukyu seasonal observances|seasonal observances]] such as celebrations of New Year's and Mid-Autumn Festival; enthronement and [[Chinese investiture envoys|investiture]] ceremonies; and the like.

Uzagaku (lit. "seated music") was the chief form of court music in the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] used for formal court ceremonies including [[Ryukyu seasonal observances|seasonal observances]] such as celebrations of New Year's and [[Mid-Autumn Festival]]; enthronement and [[Chinese investiture envoys|investiture]] ceremonies; and the like.

Like the kingdom's formal processional music tradition, known as ''[[rujigaku]]'' (lit. "street music"), ''uzagaku'' was based heavily upon [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] musical traditions. However, where ''rujigaku'' closely emulated the comparable formal, courtly, ritual processions of the Ming and Qing courts, and where Korean ''[[aak]]'', Japanese ''[[gagaku]]'', and Vietnamese ''nha nhac'' court music traditions similarly borrowed from the ancient, highly ritualized ''[[yayue|yǎyuè]]'' music of [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] and [[Song dynasty]] court ceremonies (based in turn on traditions said to stretch back to the [[Zhou dynasty]]), ''uzagaku'' instead took Ming and Qing folk, popular, theatrical, banquet, and entertainment music and elevated them in Ryûkyû into formal ritual music of the royal court.

Like the kingdom's formal processional music tradition, known as ''[[rujigaku]]'' (lit. "street music"), ''uzagaku'' was based heavily upon [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] musical traditions. However, where ''rujigaku'' closely emulated the comparable formal, courtly, ritual processions of the Ming and Qing courts, and where Korean ''[[aak]]'', Japanese ''[[gagaku]]'', and Vietnamese ''nha nhac'' court music traditions similarly borrowed from the ancient, highly ritualized ''[[yayue|yǎyuè]]'' music of [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] and [[Song dynasty]] court ceremonies (based in turn on traditions said to stretch back to the [[Zhou dynasty]]), ''uzagaku'' instead took Ming and Qing folk, popular, theatrical, banquet, and entertainment music and elevated them in Ryûkyû into formal ritual music of the royal court.<ref name=kaneshiro>Kaneshiro Atsumi 金城厚, “Ryūkyū no gaikō girei ni okeru gakki ensō no imi” 「琉球の外交儀礼における楽器演奏の意味」, ''Musa'' ムーサ 14 (2013), 58-59.</ref><ref>Chia-Ying Yeh, "The Revival and Restoration of Ryukyuan Court Music, Uzagaku: Classification and Performance Techniques, Language Usage, and Transmission," PhD thesis, University of Sheffield (2018), 14-21.</ref>

Employing an array of Chinese musical instruments such as ''[[pipa]]'', ''[[erhu]]'', and Chinese types of flutes, dulcimers, zithers, drums, gongs, and chimes; Chinese language lyrics; and [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty]] melodies, it is not to be confused with the Ryukyuan ''[[sanshin|uta sanshin]]'' tradition, which features [[Ryukyuan languages|Ryukyuan language]] lyrics; and distinctively Ryukyuan tuning, scales, and melodies. The ''uzagaku'' tradition died out following the [[1879]] [[Ryukyu Shobun|abolition and annexation of the Ryûkyû Kingdom]], leading to the ''uta sanshin'' tradition becoming the core of what is today considered "classical Okinawan music" or "Ryukyuan classical music" (古典音楽, ''koten ongaku''). However, while ''uta sanshin'' songs were certainly performed within the royal court and related contexts, they were most likely performed only for banquets, entertainments, and other somewhat less ritualized contexts; historical records strongly suggest that at court ceremonies conducted as part of official ritual court business, such as formal audiences granted by the king to his officials, it was ''uzagaku'' and not ''uta sanshin'' music that was performed as part of the ceremonies themselves.

Employing an array of Chinese musical instruments such as ''[[pipa]]'', ''[[erhu]]'', and Chinese types of flutes, dulcimers, zithers, drums, gongs, and chimes; Chinese language lyrics; and [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty]] melodies, it is not to be confused with the Ryukyuan ''[[sanshin|uta sanshin]]'' tradition, which features [[Ryukyuan languages|Ryukyuan language]] lyrics; and distinctively Ryukyuan tuning, scales, and melodies. The ''uzagaku'' tradition died out following the [[1879]] [[Ryukyu Shobun|abolition and annexation of the Ryûkyû Kingdom]], leading to the ''uta sanshin'' tradition becoming the core of what is today considered "classical Okinawan music" or "Ryukyuan classical music" (古典音楽, ''koten ongaku''). However, while ''uta sanshin'' songs were certainly performed within the royal court and related contexts, they were most likely performed only for banquets, entertainments, and other somewhat less ritualized contexts; historical records strongly suggest that at court ceremonies conducted as part of official ritual court business, such as formal audiences granted by the king to his officials, it was ''uzagaku'' and not ''uta sanshin'' music that was performed as part of the ceremonies themselves.

==History==

==History==

Whereas ceremonial audiences and most other formal political ceremonies conducted by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] involved no music at all, the [[Confucian classics]] state that music and ritual are inseparable, and accordingly music played an essential part in formal court ceremonies in every Chinese dynasty. As in [[Beijing]] and [[Seoul]], formal court ceremonies at [[Shuri]] such as those involving the king's obeisances to Heaven on New Year's, the scholar-officials' obeisances to the king, and/or the welcoming of Chinese or Japanese envoys, involved ''uzagaku'' music being played almost throughout the ceremony, halting whenever a figure was to speak or conduct another important action, and then starting up again afterwards.<ref>Kaneshiro Atsumi 金城厚, “Ryūkyū no gaikō girei ni okeru gakki ensō no imi” 「琉球の外交儀礼における楽器演奏の意味」, ''Musa'' ムーサ 14 (2013), 58-59.</ref> After the end of such ceremonies, banquets and entertainments were often held, depending on the occasion, in one of the palace's secondary halls, accompanied by ''uta sanshin'' music, dances in the tradition today known simply as "[[Ryukyuan dance]]" (''Ryûkyû buyô''), and performances of ''[[kumi udui]]'' or other theatre forms.

Though originally based on Ming music, by the 1660s members of the royal court began to worry that over the centuries the tradition passed down within Ryûkyû may have deviated from the "true" "correct" forms of Chinese music. Members of the [[1663]] Qing investiture embassy to Ryûkyû, including an official named [[Chen Yi]], were thus invited to teach Qing music to members of the court, thus "correcting" or updating their style and repertoire. Qing music thus came to be incorporated into the ''uzagaku'' style and canon. The first performance of Qing-style music by Ryukyuan musicians for a formal court occasion then came in [[1670]], at a celebration for the accession of [[Sho Tei|Shô Tei]] to the throne.<ref>Liao Zhenpei 廖真珮, "Ryûkyû kyûtei ni okeru Chûgoku kei ongaku no ensô to denshô" 琉球宮廷における中国系音楽の演奏と伝承, in ''Uzagaku no fukugen ni mukete'' 御座楽の復元に向けて, Naha, Okinawa: Uzagaku fukugen ensô kenkyûkai 御座楽復元演奏研究会 (2007), 109-110, citing ''Naha shishi'' 那覇市史, vol 7, Naha City Office (1980), pp552-553.</ref>

 

''Uzagaku'' was also performed by Ryukyuan officials on [[nentoshi|embassies to Kagoshima]] and [[Ryukyuan embassies to Edo|to Edo]], chiefly at [[Kagoshima castle]], [[Shimazu clan]] mansions in various cities, and [[Edo castle]], but also occasionally at other castles (such as [[Nagoya castle]]) or at the [[Edo]] [[daimyo yashiki|mansions]] of other ''[[daimyo]]''. Due to fires in [[Kagoshima]] and elsewhere, the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, and other circumstances and developments, no sets of ''uzagaku'' instruments in Ryukyuan or [[Satsuma han|Kagoshima]] collections are known to have survived down to the present day.<ref>Some number of instruments, costumes and other accoutrements, and textual records of lyrics and musical notation (tablature), are believed to have survived within Shuri castle, [[Nakagusuku udun]], or nearby storehouses until 1945; however, these were all lost in the Battle of Okinawa. Yeh, 38.</ref> However, a set of musical instruments gifted to the [[Owari Tokugawa clan]] lords of Nagoya in [[1796]] remains today in the [[Tokugawa Art Museum]], and another set gifted by a Ryukyuan Edo embassy at some point to the lords of [[Tsuwano han]] similarly survived and has since been donated to the Okinawa Prefectural Museum by the inheritors of the Tsuwano collections.<ref>''Sanshin no chikara'', Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum (2013), 75.</ref>

 

Within the Shuri court, the youngest ''uzagaku'' performers were pages known as ''[[koakukabe]]''; they were taught and directed by older officials with titles such as ''gaku keiko bugyô'' ("music practice magistrate") and ''zagaku shihan bugyô'' ("chamber music instruction magistrate").<ref>Liao, 122.</ref> When traveling on embassies to Edo, ''uzagaku'' performers included teenage boys known as ''[[gakudoji|gakudôji]]'' and master musicians known as ''gakushi'', overseen by a single ''gakusei'', the leader of the entire ensemble. When playing together, ''gakushi'' typically played only ''[[suona|suǒnà]]'' (a reed instrument), while ''gakudôji'' played all other instruments.

 

From time to time, Japanese elites took an interest in ''uzagaku'', instructing their own subordinates or court musicians to learn and practice this style of music. This can be mostly seen within the Shimazu house of Kagoshima; ''uzagaku'' was frequently performed before the Shimazu, and it surely was passed along from time to time. One documented instance of such transmission took place in [[1767]], when [[Shimazu Shigehide]] invited [[Gen Teiho|Gen Teihô]] and two other Ryukyuan court musicians to instruct his pages in ''uzagaku'' and in [[Chinese language]].<ref>Watanabe Miki 渡辺美季, "Nihon no naka no Kumemura jin"「日本のなかの久米村人」, in ''Kuninda: Ryûkyû to Chûgoku no kakehashi'' 久米村・琉球と中国の架け橋, Okinawa Prefectual Museum, p49.</ref> Whether this was an exceptional instance or but one of many is unclear. [[Emperor Go-Mizunoo]] suggested in [[1626]] that his court musicians should learn ''uzagaku'', but courtiers complained that incorporating such "barbarian" music into the imperial court would cause the downfall of the realm. [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa shoguns]], similarly, likely suggested that ''uzagaku'' be learned, if only as an entertainment, but nothing came of this; if ''uzagaku'' ever came to be performed regularly or expertly by anyone in Japan, it was almost certainly only in Kagoshima.

''Uzagaku'' was primarily an oral tradition, passed on from masters to students through direct in-person instruction without the use of any written notation. The only written records of ''uzagaku'' music - that is, the melodies and not just the lyrics - come from a [[1913]] interview of [[Kokuba Koken|Kokuba Kôken]], at that time one of the last surviving court musicians from the time of the kingdom, conducted by scholar [[Yamauchi Seihin]].<ref>Kina Moriaki and Okazaki Ikuko, ''Okinawa to Chûgoku geinô'', Naha: Hirugi-sha (1984), 52.</ref>

''Uzagaku'' was primarily an oral tradition, passed on from masters to students through direct in-person instruction without the use of any written notation. The only written records of ''uzagaku'' music - that is, the melodies and not just the lyrics - come from a [[1913]] interview of [[Kokuba Koken|Kokuba Kôken]], at that time one of the last surviving court musicians from the time of the kingdom, conducted by scholar [[Yamauchi Seihin]].<ref>Kina Moriaki and Okazaki Ikuko, ''Okinawa to Chûgoku geinô'', Naha: Hirugi-sha (1984), 52.</ref>

 

 

 

 

 

==References==

==References==

[[Category:Ryukyu]]

[[Category:Ryukyu]]

[[Category:Poetry and Theater]]

[[Category:Poetry and Theater]]