Winter 2012
Anthro 138 J
Music of Japan and Okinawa

Course Syllabus

A survey of the musics that developed in the islands of Japan and Okinawa from the perspective of the social, political and economic forces that played upon the culture and that formed the context of these musical languages. Japan is unique in that music traditions from virtually every period in its history survive, albeit at times in modified form, until the present day. Japan will be viewed in terms
of the major historical periods from which the various traditions sprang

The age of the Gods and Shintoism
	Earliest peoples and music
	Ainu
	Early Japanese
	Kagura
	Shintoism and music
Importation of Foreign forms from Korea, China and Central Asia Beginning 7th C.
	Gagaku
The rise of the Noble class until the 12th Century
	Music life in the court
	The Genji
Music in the context of the warring states from 12thC
	Narrative based on Buddhist recitation
	Development of the Noh Theater
	Buddhist mysticism in the arts
The rise of the merchant class
	Joururi
	Bunraku
	Kabuki
	Shamisen forms
	Koto music and shakuhachi
	Foreign elements in Nagasaki
Music in the Ryukyu Islands
	Shamanism
	Folk forms
	The Okinawan court at Shuri
	Development of Court style
	Amami
	Yaeyama Islands
	Koten
	Minyo
	Okinawan music beyond Okinawa
The Meiji Restoration
	Re-evaluation of traditional forms
	Introduction of Western music and education
Modern Japan
	Urban Folk
	Matsuri bayashi
	Urban pop forms
	Modern pop
	Japanese classical music

Updated 1.10.12

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