Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [41]
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TRADITIONAL MUSIC & ITS INSTRUMENTS
Gagaku is a throwback to music of the Japanese imperial court. Today, ensembles consist of 16 members and include stringed instruments, such as the biwa (lute) and koto (13-stringed instrument derived from a Chinese zither that is played flat on the floor), and wind instruments such as the hichiriki (Japanese oboe).
Shamisen is a three-stringed instrument resembling a lute or banjo with an extended neck. Popular during the Edo period, particularly in the entertainment districts, it’s still used as formal accompaniment in kabuki and bunraku (classical puppet theatre) and remains one of the essential skills of a geisha.
Shakuhachi is a wind instrument imported from China in the 7th century. The shakuhachi was popularised by wandering Komusō monks in the 16th and 17th centuries, who played it as a means to enlightenment as they walked alone through the woods.
Taiko refers to any of a number of large Japanese drums. Drummers who perform this athletic music often play shirtless to show the rippled movements of their backs.
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Cinema
Japan has a vibrant film industry and proud, critically acclaimed cinematic traditions. Renewed international attention since the mid-1990s has reinforced interest in domestic films, which account for an estimated 40% of box-office receipts, nearly double the level in most European countries. Of course, this includes not only artistically important works, but also films in the science-fiction, horror and ‘monster-stomps-Tokyo’ genres for which Japan is also known.
At first, Japanese films were merely cinematic versions of traditional theatrical performances, but in the 1920s Japanese directors starting producing films in two distinct genres: jidaigeki (period films) and new gendaigeki films, which dealt with modern themes. The more realistic storylines of the new films soon reflected back on the traditional films with the introduction of shin jidaigeki (new period films). During this era, samurai themes became an enduring staple of Japanese cinema.
The golden age of Japanese cinema arrived with the 1950s and began with the release in 1950 of Kurosawa Akira’s Rashōmon, winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice International Film Festival and an Oscar for best foreign film. The increasing realism and high artistic standards of the period are evident in such landmark films as Tōkyō Monogatari (Tokyo Story; 1953), by the legendary Ōzu Yasujirō; Mizoguchi Kenji’s classics Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Ugetsu; 1953) and Saikaku Ichidai Onna (The Life of Oharu; 1952); and Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai). Annual attendance at the country’s cinemas reached 1.1 billion in 1958, and Kyoto, with its large film studios, such as Shōchiku, Daiei and Tōei, and more than 60 cinemas, enjoyed a heyday as Japan’s own Hollywood.
As it did elsewhere in the world, TV spurred a rapid drop in the number of cinema-goers in Japan in the high-growth decades of the 1960s and ’70s. But despite falling attendance, Japanese cinema remained a major artistic force. These decades gave the world such landmark works as Ichikawa Kon’s Chushingura (47 Samurai; 1962) and Kurosawa’s Yōjimbo (1961).
The decline in cinema-going continued through the 1980s, reinforced by the popularisation of videos, with annual attendance at cinemas bottoming out at just over 100 million. Yet Japan’s cinema was far from dead: Kurosawa garnered acclaim worldwide for Kagemusha (1980), which shared the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Ran (1985). Imamura Shōhei’s heartrending Narayama Bushiko (The Ballad