Azuma Hakkei
吾妻八景
| [Genre] | Jiuta |
| [Style] | Nagauta |
| [Composed] | Shamisen - 1829 |
History (William P Malm):
| Composer: Kineya Rokusaburo IV A common topic in Japanese paintings, scrolls, or folding screens is the eight views of something, usually in the four seasons. Azuma Hakkei depicts eight famous places in Tokyo during the Edo period: Nihonbashi, Mount Fuji, Gotenyama, Suruga, Miyatogawa, Sumidagawa, Emonzaka, and Ukishima. The scenes start on an early spring morning and end on a winter evening. Azuma Hakkei is one of the favorite early compositions in purely concert (ozashiki) nagauta. Free of choreography, the shamisen is able to expand its interludes into genuinely new music. The composition is usually performed by singers and shamisen alone. Instead of the traditional Kabuki dance form, the piece is influenced by the kumiuta tradition, which consists of alternate songs and instrumental interludes. |
Poem :
| The mist at the foot of the Nihonbashi Bridge. As if dyed by Edomurasaki grass, bountiful Japan has turned pink. Mount Fuji is capped with white snow. Abundant flowers at the edge of the clouds. Beautiful Gosho cherry blossoms, appealing to the eye. At Gotenyama, crowds of people. Butterflies, drunk on the fragrance of the flowers in the garden, peeping at a lady with a kanzashi (hairpin), singing merrily on the boat with a reed screen. Nightengales far away singing the first song of spring. The pine tree on which an angel hung her heavenly dress and danced in Miho in Suruga. Looking at the raft man far below the cliff of Surugadai wearing an Amida straw hat reflecting the sun. The Miyato River, which runs near a temple, flows through Asakusa carrying various flowers. Instead of going to the temple, where has the happy young man gone? He is getting drunk at a sake shop. On the day of the festival, I stroll through the streets, divided like a matsuba hairpin. Treading on dewdrops on my way to the Sumida River, my eye catches the seven autumn grasses. The sound of pounding cloth come to my ears. The letter the messenger brought excites my heart. Opening the letter, shall I learn the news? When did the boat pass Emonzaka? Attracted to the misesugagaki, the music geisha girls are playing, I forgot myself and stayed too long. Just like the morning snow, my love deepened, but must not endure. I heard very pleasant koto music when I stayed overnight with the geisha at an inn near Ukishima island. With the music, the wind from Mount Toe blew the maple leaves like flowers. Both the rich and the poor offer prayers to Benzaiten, the goddess of music. I will visit the eight famous sights near a venerable lake. |