Biwa hōshi

A Template:Transliteration in a 1501 illustration

Template:Nihongo, also known as "lute priests", were travelling performers in the era of Japanese history preceding the Meiji period. They earned their income by reciting vocal literature to the accompaniment of Template:Transliteration music. Template:Transliteration were mostly blind, and adopted the shaved heads and robes common to Buddhist monks. The occupation likely had its origin in China and India, where blind Buddhist lay-priest performers were once common.

The musical style of the Template:Transliteration is referred to as Template:Nihongo, which literally means "Template:Transliteration music". Although these performers existed well before the events of the Genpei War, they eventually became famous for narrating tales about this war. Before Template:Transliteration sang Template:Transliteration, they were entertainers and ritual performers. They took on a broad range of roles, including poetry and song, plague prevention, and spiritual purification; it was probably because of their ritualistic duties that they became the caretakers of Template:Nihongo.

The Template:Transliteration are considered the first performers of the Tale of the Heike, which is one of Japan's most famous epics. It details battles between two powerful clans, the Minamoto and the Taira around the 12th century. The Taira (or Heike) were eventually annihilated by the Minamoto (sometimes called the Genji), who systematically killed every male descendant of the Taira. Religion in Japan at the time incorporated many native animistic (Shinto) beliefs into its Buddhist theological framework, leading many court nobles and religious leaders to worry about angry Taira spirits disrupting the peace.Template:Citation needed The great earthquake around 1185 CE contributed to this sentiment. Since their rituals included placating spirits and preventing plagues, Template:Transliteration music became a vehicle for placating lingering, resentful Heike spirits.<ref>Tokita 61</ref> Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration became immensely popular for the next several hundred years.

Etymology

Template:Nihongo literally means "lute priest". Template:Nihongo is derived from Template:Nihongo, which translates as a teacher who explains Buddhist precepts. The two characters Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo mean "Buddhist doctrine" and "teacher" respectively. Template:Transliteration referred to blind priests who played the Template:Transliteration to accompany their songs about legends, wars, histories, and mythologies. Eventually, Template:Transliteration referred to non-blind and blind performers and was also used as a suffix to a series of other types of people, such as Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, and Template:Nihongo.<ref>Ishi 293</ref>

Template:Transliteration are referred to in Japanese iconography that dates back to the late Heian period (794–1185 CE). They are also referred to in the Template:Transliteration, written by Fujiwara no Akihira (989–1066).<ref>Tokita 60</ref>

History

A Template:Transliteration with his audience from an emaki painted in the 14th century

Origins and proliferation

Shōbutsu, a Buddhist monk of the Tendai school, was, according to tradition, the first Template:Transliteration to sing the Template:Transliteration, around the year 1220.<ref>Japan Encyclopedia: 78.</ref> Subsequently, two different factions of Template:Transliteration were formed. These were the Ichikata school, founded by Akashi Kyoichi, and the Yasaka School, founded by Yasaka Kigen.<ref>The Asiatic Society of Japan: 4.</ref> Ranks were assigned to Template:Transliteration on the basis of skill, the highest being Template:Nihongo, followed by Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo.<ref>Groemer: 4.</ref>

The proliferation of the Yasaka and Ichikata factions heightened with the contributions of Akashi Kakuichi (1300–1371). A noted Template:Transliteration, Kakuichi's Template:Transliteration narration is currently accepted as the definitive version of the Template:Transliteration.<ref>Ashgate: 78.</ref> A documented reason for this is that Kakuichi was largely responsible for forming the Ichikata guild. This preceded the formation of the Template:Nihongo, a self-governing guild of Template:Transliteration. The Tōdō received income in two ways: patronage from the Kyoto aristocracy and military, and its monopoly over the teaching and transmission of Template:Transliteration. To be accepted as a disciple, an aspiring student would have to pay a fee, after which the study of each new piece of music required payment.

By the 13th and 14th centuries, Template:Transliteration performed for the military elite and the aristocracy, including the regional Template:Transliteration feudal lords. Public performances were also given during Buddhist temple services. The general population had the further option of attending Kanjin performances, which they were required to pay a fee to see.Template:Citation needed

Sengoku to Edo period

The Ōnin War (1467–1477) proved a trying occurrence for the proliferation of the Template:Transliteration. The war instigated the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries), an era of civil war and political–military conflict that lasted for nearly two centuries. In this time, many Template:Transliteration musicians turned their attention to the Template:Transliteration or the Template:Transliteration three-stringed lute. Therefore, not only did the conflict cause a loss of performers, but also a decline in the number of listeners of the Template:Transliteration.<ref>The Biwa in History: 143.</ref>

However, the complete demise of the Template:Transliteration was prevented by the Template:Transliteration Tokugawa Ieyasu, who favored the art of Template:Transliteration performance. Ieyasu ultimately reunified the country by establishing the Tokugawa shogunate, and became a fervent patron of the Template:Transliteration.

During the Edo period (1600–1868), the Tokugawa shogunate provided the Tōdō with special privileges and substantial financing, which the Tōdō then distributed to members according to rank. The Edo period also marks the era in which the shogunate designated Template:Transliteration as one of its official ceremonial forms of music. Accordingly, new schools of Template:Transliteration appeared, many of which were influenced by the newly introduced Template:Transliteration and its accompanying styles of music. The two predominant schools that came about during the Edo period were the Maeda-ryū founded by Maeda Kyūichi, and the Hatano-ryū founded by Hatano Kōichi. Both figures were members of the Shidō-ha, which was the most active branch of the older Ichikata school.<ref>The Biwa in History: 142.</ref>

Collaborations were formed between amateur aficionados of the Template:Transliteration who, over the course of the Edo period, made small revisions to the musical notation of the Template:Transliteration score. The ceremonial form of the Template:Transliteration performed for the shogunate became increasingly solemn and refined to meet the standards of the intellectual class. Moreover, to ensure the development of the Template:Transliteration score, improvisation notably declined.

Meiji period to present

In 1868, the Meiji Restoration heralded the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate. This ultimately contributed to the abolition of the Tōdō, which undermined social privileges for the musicians and reduced the availability of avenues for performance. The Hatano-ryū, in particular, underwent a debilitating decline in popularity, so much so that it struggled to survive in Kyoto until the middle of the 20th century.<ref>Musical Narrative: 81.</ref> In addition, the rise in popularity of the Template:Transliteration, which accompanied contemporary songs and narratives, made the ancient tales of the Heike appear antiquated. By the end of the Edo period, the Template:Transliteration had replaced the Template:Transliteration as the most common instrument used among blind musicians.

The Template:Transliteration tradition persisted, however, through the Tsugaru lineage (transmitted by sighted performers) and the Nagoya lineage (transmitted by professional blind musicians of the Tōdō tradition), both of which belonged to the Maeda-ryū.<ref name=ash82>Ashgate: 82.</ref> The Tsugaru lineage consisted of Kusumi Taisō (1815–1882), who learned the Template:Transliteration of the Edo Maeda-ryū, as well as his sons Tateyama Zennoshin and Tateyama Kōgo, both of whom lamented the decline of Template:Transliteration in the late years of Meiji and sought to foster a number of pupils. In Nagoya, a city which had been a thriving centre for Template:Transliteration performance, a small faction of blind male players continued to transmit Template:Transliteration alongside other mediums of music of growing popularity, such as the Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration. Differences exist between these lineages due to geographical separation and changes that have occurred uniquely in time. For example, the Nagoya lineage relied almost entirely on oral transmission. Nevertheless, the Nagoya Template:Transliteration and Tsugaru Template:Transliteration were both nominated by the Japanese government as "Intangible Cultural Properties" in 1955 and 1959 respectively,<ref name=ash82/> with Nagoya performers Inokawa Kōji, Doizaki Masatomi and Mishina Masayasu nominated as national treasures.

The libretto notation on which remaining Template:Transliteration performance is based today in Nagoya is called Heike Shosetsu. It was composed by Ogino Tomoichi (1732–1801), initially a disciple in the Hatano-ryū faction, before acquiring the post of Template:Transliteration in the Kyoto branch of the Maeda-ryū school;<ref>The Biwa in History: 144.</ref> Tomoichi had great knowledge of both major schools as a Hatano-ryū disciple master. As such, he played a fundamental role in the revival of the Template:Transliteration.

Toru Takemitsu also contributed to the continuation of the Template:Transliteration by collaborating with Western composers. Recognising that traditional Japanese music, and interest in it, was quickly falling out of fashion, Takemitsu, as well as a number of composers before him, noted that studies in music theory and music composition almost entirely consisted of Western theory and instruction. Though some Western composers had begun to incorporate Japanese music and Japanese instruments into their compositions, these composers often focused on those Japanese instruments most similar to Western ones; for example, Michio Miyagi's utilization of the Template:Transliteration. Takemitsu, on the other hand, collaborated with Western composers and compositions to include the distinctly Asian-sounding Template:Transliteration. His well-received compositions revitalized interest in the Template:Transliteration in the modern day.

According to Hugh de Ferranti, modern, live performances of Template:Transliteration narrative singing are rare, with almost all performers being "practitioners of Chikuzen-biwa and Satsuma-biwa".<ref name=ferra13>De Ferranti: 13</ref> The Template:Transliteration "emerged from interaction between moso and the samurai class" in Satsuma Province, starting a period of popularity for "modern Template:Transliteration" until the 1930s, while the Template:Transliteration had its origin in the 1890s in the Chikuzen region of Kyushu, drawing upon aspects of Template:Transliteration music, Template:Transliteration, and the Template:Transliteration technique.<ref name=ferra13/> These traditions enjoyed widespread appreciation during the early 20th century due to the "nationalist, militarist sentiments of late-Meiji imperialist ideology".<ref name=ferra13/> In the post-war era, these traditions were considered "refined classical pursuits", resulting in their popularity beyond Template:Transliteration.<ref name=ferra14>De Ferranti: 14.</ref> The Template:Transliteration itself is also depicted with the image of goddess Benzaiten at her shrines, and in images of the Template:Nihongo "in homes, shops, and offices".<ref name=ferra14/>

Template:Reduced pull quote However, modern associations with Template:Transliteration are mainly connected to the Template:Transliteration, themselves linked to the Tale of Heike and Hōichi the Earless, well-known works taught in schools and readapted for television series, manga, popular literature and other media.<ref name=ferra13/> As such, "most Japanese come to think of the biwa as a battered old string instrument played by a decrepit blind man who looks like a Buddhist priest and wanders about chanting old tales about war and ghosts".<ref name=ferra13/> According to Ferranti, "outside of the realms of scholarship and the few who are involved in learning and performing", few Japanese civilians are familiar with the aural qualities of the Template:Transliteration and cannot recognize its tones with references to ancient war-tales.<ref name=ferra14/> The instrument is viewed as antiquated, a relic of the past that "cannot be a thing of contemporary Japanese life and experience, but is tied forever to the world of the Tale of the Heike; a gloomy world of martial valour and samurai ghosts".<ref name=ferra14/>

Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration in society

Blindness

For most of Japan's recorded history, music and narrative performance were common activities for the blind, whose importance in most other major genres is also unavoidable, save for court and theatre music, from the 13th century until the 19th.<ref>De Ferranti: 20.</ref> Folk and literature attest "invariably about blind Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration", and only in modern times do sighted musicians master such instruments like the Template:Transliteration.<ref>De Ferranti 20-1.</ref>

According to De Ferranti, the act of playing lutes for alms by blind musicians finds its roots in Indian Buddhist culture during the 1st millennium CE.<ref name=ferra21>De Ferranti 21.</ref> As early as the 4th century, blind itinerants in South Asia, described by texts such as the Template:Transliteration as holy men, played lutes for alms.<ref name=ferra21/> A 7th-century text from China and Japan's early 12th-century Template:Transliteration recount this story, while other "scattered accounts" of blind lute-laying priests can be found in Tang-period volumes from the Chinese mainland.<ref name=ferra22>De Ferranti 22.</ref> In the Shanbei region near Inner Mongolia, "blind beggars who recited tales and travelled with pipa accompanists were common", prior to the 1949 revolution.<ref name=ferra22/> Under Mao Zedong, blind itinerants called Template:Transliteration (Template:Lang-zh) played a three-string lute in "household ritual contexts" using their narrative "as a potent force for social reform" by the Communist Party.<ref>De Ferranti 22-3.</ref>

Prior to the spread of Buddhism during the 6th to 9th centuries, it was "generally acknowledged that in Japanese ritual life blind men and women [were] respected as shamanic celebrants who bore numinous power because of their separation from the world experienced by others".<ref name=ferra245>De Ferranti 24-5.</ref> Historically, the blind performed healing rituals for curing illness and exorcising spirits.<ref name=ferra24>De Ferranti: 24.</ref> For music, plucking or striking string instruments also have ritual meanings, and were tasks probably given to blind individuals to perform in belief of their shamanistic abilities.<ref name=ferra245/> The Azusa Yumi was utilized for summoning deities in a pre-Buddhist ritual, likely involving the blind. The role of early Template:Transliteration in delivery the vocal performance of battle tales "to allay the fury of slain warriors' ghosts" further implies a shamanistic qualification of the blind.<ref name=ferra245/> Historical references suggest Template:Transliteration were involved in both divination and also in this fundamental role of placating aggravated spirits, especially those killed in battle.<ref name=ferra25>De Ferranti: 25.</ref>

The intimate ties between the Template:Transliteration and the blind in the Tōdō and various regional groups for Template:Nihongo3 further cement this inseparable relationship. Blindness was a necessary condition for membership in these organizations, which looked after blind Template:Transliteration performers and professionals and blind Template:Transliteration ritualists respectively.<ref name=ferra26>De Ferranti: 26.</ref> In the Tōdō, Template:Transliteration performers came to control the guild, and thus the lives of many Japanese blind people. According to the legends of these institutions, "the lineage of blind Template:Transliteration players ultimately is traced to ... a blind disciple of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, called Gankutsu Sonja".<ref name=ferra267>De Ferranti: 26-7.</ref>

However, according to Hugh de Ferranti, not all blind Template:Transliteration players of antiquity "were completely lacking the sense of vision and knowledge of music".<ref name=ferra21/> Indeed, many people called blind were likely "only impaired in their vision", evidenced by the denotation of words for blind people such as Template:Nihongo, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Nihongo.<ref name=ferra21/> Also, many blind individuals gain the ailment gradually, resulting from aging, illness, or accident, meaning literacy may have been acquired earlier in life.<ref name=ferra21/> Hugh de Ferranti states that notable numbers of Template:Transliteration performers "were sighted and in some cases literate", evidenced by records of the Jojuin Template:Transliteration tradition and historical membership of the Gensei Hōryū Template:Transliteration group.<ref name=ferra21/> Such individuals thus must be acknowledged for potential importance in producing written texts and in the "transmission of repertory".<ref name=ferra21/>

Religious significance

Buddhist iconography throughout East and South-East Asia depict short-necked lutes being played by celestial beings as well as the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who led such divine musicians. Avatars of Sarasvati, "the Template:Transliteration-playing Hindu goddess of music, wisdom, and eloquence", also play the lute in Tibetan and Chinese iconographic displays; such avatars correspond to Benzaiten, a Japanese deity known for holding a Template:Transliteration in her benevolent arms.<ref name=ferra29>De Ferranti: 29</ref>

Japanese iconography indicates two female lute-playing deities: the aforementioned Benzaiten and Myōonten; their identities are often fused together, but both have their roots in the continental Asian tradition, and can be traced from Sarasvati through various forms.<ref name=ferra302>De Ferranti: 30-2.</ref> Benzaiten represents eloquence while Myōonten epitomizes music itself.<ref name=ferra302/> As the bodhisattva named "Miraculous Sound", Myōon Bōsatsu is described in the Lotus Sutra and was important for Template:Transliteration players in court society.<ref name=ferra302/> Her influence would spread beyond the court, integrating itself especially in the Template:Transliteration tradition. After the early 8th century however, most sculptures and iconographic depictions show the pipa instead of the lute.<ref name=ferra302/>

Locations whose name contain the characters or sounds Template:Transliteration also have sanctified lore. Lake Biwa is famous for Chikubu-shima, where Taira no Tsunemasa performs at the Benzaiten shrine, whose deity appears in the form of a white dragon.<ref name=ferra33>De Ferranti: 33.</ref> Especially in Kyushu, there are Template:Transliteration hills, valleys, ponds, and bridges throughout Japan, where performers supposedly buried or offered instruments to the local waters.<ref name=ferra33/> Other legends of certain sects and accounts from ancient texts further the sacred associations of the Template:Transliteration instrument.<ref name=ferra33/>

Women

Despite the depiction of Benzaiten, the patron deity of music revered by Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration, as a female entity and the existence of highly celebrated female Template:Transliteration players in 20th century, with the "exception of avocational performance by women in the court music tradition", professional Template:Transliteration players were men until the Template:Transliteration's use in the 16th century.<ref name=ferra36>De Ferranti: 36.</ref><ref name=ferra39>De Ferranti: 39.</ref> Along with blindness, maleness was a necessary condition for admission to the Template:Transliteration and Tōdō.<ref name=ferra36/> However, it was common in Tang China for women to play the pipa, as it was also common for courtly women from the Heian through Muromachi periods to learn Template:Transliteration in childhood.<ref>De Ferranti: 37.</ref> There are also a few rare references to both sighted and blind female entertainers who may have played Template:Transliteration, though in the Edo period, some female enthusiasts learned from Template:Transliteration professionals as a recreational activity.<ref name=ferra378>De Ferranti: 37-8</ref>

Itinerant women performers did still exist in medieval Japan, though they are most frequently shown playing the Template:Transliteration drum.<ref name=ferra38>De Ferranti: 38</ref> In the Edo period, singers called Template:Transliteration often accompanied themselves on the Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration, the latter of which was played by "affluent blind women who taught it to the wives of samurai and merchants".<ref name=ferra378/> The former along with its wooden imitation, Template:Transliteration were played for performance to procure alms, house to house; this was called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Interlanguage link.<ref name=ferra38/> In Kyushu, Template:Transliteration were not uncommon with such performers mentioned in the Tōdō's late-18th-century accounts.<ref name=ferra38/> Although not bona fide members of the guild, Template:Transliteration held annual festivals, and this profession continued to be viable into the mid-1900s.<ref name=ferra38/>

Social status

Though blindness in Japanese society has historically been stigmatized "as the result of a Buddhist interpretation of the condition as a form of karmic punishment", other factors also led to the marginalization and discrimination of blind musicians.<ref name=ferra42>De Ferranti: 42</ref> In general, the blind were treated according to the restrictions of their societal rank.<ref name=ferra43>De Ferranti: 43</ref> In other words, commoner townsmen (Template:Transliteration) and warrior–rank blind people "were allowed to engage in the professions available to all of similar rank, within the constraints of their visual impairment", while those in agrarian households were expected to contribute to the payment of land taxes via any means of labor possible.<ref name=ferra43/> However, the most common professions for all such peoples included music, massage, acupuncture and moxa therapy, while ritual work was common in specialized locations.<ref name=ferra43/>

As for itinerant performers, the most affluent could "make a living during the Edo period as teachers and performers based at their homes", while the rest (representing the majority of Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration) relied on Template:Transliteration, regarded as a form of begging, despite its ritual associations.<ref name=ferra43/> Door-to-door performances delivered by professionals associated to shrines and temples also occurred in the historical practice of seasonal rites and celebrations for farming areas; they were considered to be of low status by the middle class, however, and were affiliated with the Sanjō districts in which "the discriminated classes" lived.<ref name=ferra43/> However, folk beliefs in the visits of Template:Transliteration during such harvest festivals to rid villagers of impurity upon receiving gifts from householders may have provided a socio-cultural basis for the willingness to offer food and money to itinerant performers; further, Template:Transliteration was seen as an act of merit.<ref name=ferra44>De Ferranti: 44.</ref>

According to Hugh de Ferranti, iconographic and literary sources generally portray Template:Transliteration as solitary and pitiable figures, though wealthy and powerful individuals also exist in such representations.<ref name=ferra44/> Sometimes they are depicted as mysterious, frightening, and potentially dangerous individuals while in other sources, they are "ridiculous" characters "to be made fun of, at times with unbridled cruelty".<ref name=ferra44/> Folklore links Template:Transliteration to ghosts through their placation of wronged spirits and the chinkon ritual performance, accounts for their fearful quality.<ref name=ferra45>De Ferranti: 45.</ref> However, Template:Transliteration plays called Template:Transliteration feature deliberate tricking of a blind Template:Transliteration so that he becomes lost and disoriented, or suffers losses and misunderstanding.<ref name=ferra46>De Ferranti: 46.</ref> Such action is provoked by sighted individuals for pure amusement, as in the stories of Saru Template:Transliteration and Tsukimi Template:Transliteration.<ref name=ferra45/><ref name=ferra46/> Picture scrolls marry this "similar sense of Template:Transliteration as bizarre, somewhat frightening figures who can nevertheless be taunted".<ref name=ferra46/><ref name=ferra47>De Ferranti: 47.</ref> In these images, people "look out from their houses at the Template:Transliteration players and appear to be laughing or jeering at them", while children run away from and dogs bark at them.<ref name=ferra47/>

Development of the Template:Transliteration style

The present trend of scholarly analysis is to consider the Template:Transliteration's origin as having arisen first as a Template:Transliteration recitation for the purpose of spreading Buddhism.<ref name=gish135>Gish: 135.</ref> According to the Template:Transliteration or Essays in Idleness, in the reign of the cloistered emperor Go-Toba, Yukinaga – the man in charge of the household of the chief advisor to the emperor, Fujiwara Kanezane – often exchanged poems with the imperial court.<ref name=gish135/> He was invited to an imperial discourse on poems, and unable to recall two of the seven virtues, was thus named the Jack of Five Virtues.<ref name=gish136>Gish: 136.</ref> Embarrassed, he gave up on learning poetry and took the tonsure, and became a monk under the abbot Jien of the Tendai sect.<ref name=gish136/> Jien was known to gather talent at the Shōren-in temple on Mount Hiei in Kyoto to discuss ways of spreading the Tendai faith.<ref name=gish136/> Many here were Template:Transliteration. It is in this way that Yukinaga legendarily wrote the script of the Tale of the Template:Transliteration, and taught it to a Template:Transliteration from eastern Japan named Shōbutsu, renowned for his impressive narrative delivery and extensive knowledge of warriors, bows, and horses.<ref name=gish136/>

According to George Gish, there were five essential ingredients for the development of the Template:Transliteration:<ref name=gish1378>Gish: 137-8.</ref>

1. Chinese popular sermons designed to appeal to the masses, known as Template:Nihongo
2. Epic ballad narration entitled Template:Nihongo, later revised into a new Template:Nihongo or Buddhist chant called the Template:Nihongo in reference to the six worlds of Buddhism, which became the chief model for the singing
3. Template:Nihongo style of Buddhist preaching with melody, a style favored by Jien
4. Template:Transliteration influence from the Kyoto-Template:Transliteration school from which idea of accompanying narration with Template:Transliteration derives
5. The Template:Transliteration story itself chronicling the Taira/Genji Heian period, oft interpreted as one phase of Buddhism's six worlds. The story is treated as a Template:Transliteration, or sermon with the purpose of enlightenment.

Template:Transliteration musically is influenced by Buddhist chant, and the Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration traditions of the Template:Transliteration from the 11th and 12th centuries.<ref name=gish139>Gish: 139.</ref> Indeed, it is a combination of the Template:Transliteration style practiced by Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration narrative.<ref name=gish139/> Author Yukinaga brought elements of the court tradition, while Jien offered shomyo aspects.<ref name=gish139/> Shōbutsu as a Kyoto-Template:Transliteration and a Template:Transliteration brought unique perspectives as well.<ref name=gish139/>

The Template:Transliteration instrument itself is a combination of Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration predecessors.<ref name=gish139/> Indeed, the relative average distance between the frets is equal to that of Template:Transliteration, as are the relative height of the frets.<ref name=gish139/> From Shobutsu, two schools emerged, the Yasaka-ryū school, led by Jōgen, and Ichikata-ryū school, headed by Jōichi.<ref name=gish1402>Gish 140-2.</ref> Akashi Kakuichi was Jōichi's disciple and a favorite of Template:Transliteration Ashikaga Takauji, possibly due to blood relations.<ref name=gish1402/> Kakuichi soon gained the rank of Template:Transliteration, the head of guild for the blind, the Tōdō; he died in 1371 during the peak of the Template:Transliteration.<ref name=gish1402/>

Musically, development continued with the Ichikata-ryū, with it spreading into four separate branches.<ref name=gish1402/> During the Edo period, the main branches split further with the influence of the Template:Transliteration style.<ref name=gish1402/> The main schools were Hatano-ryū and Maeda-ryū, named after their respective founders; intense rivalry between the schools, compounded by changes in the music world at large, contributed to the decline of the Template:Transliteration tradition.<ref name=gish1402/>

The growing utilization of the Template:Transliteration by the mid-16th century precipitated new innovations in popular music.<ref name=gish1402/> Some of the earliest innovations were carried out by Template:Transliteration players.<ref name=gish1402/> They would use a Template:Transliteration-type plectrum on the Template:Transliteration to emulate the Template:Transliteration buzzing effect and sounds.<ref name=gish1402/> The opportunities with the Template:Transliteration attracted others, and their patrons and listeners along with them.<ref name="gish143">Gish: 143</ref> The new idiom of song made the old styles of Template:Transliteration antiquated, especially with the Template:Transliteration as a new instrument.<ref name="gish143" />

See also

• Blind musicians

Bibliography

• De Ferranti, Hugh. The Last Biwa Singer: a Blind Musician in History, Imagination, and Performance. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2009.
• Frederic, Louis. Japan Encyclopedia. Belknap, Harvard University Press, 2008.
• Gish, George W. The Biwa in History, Its Origins and Development in Japan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1967.
• Groemer, Gerald. The Spirit of Tsugaru: Blind Musicians, Tsugaru-jamisen, and the Folk Music of Northern Japan, with the Autobiography of Takahashi Chikuzan. Sterling Heights: Harmonie Park Press, 1999.
• History of Japanese Traditional Music. Japanese Traditional Music. Columbia Music Entertainment, 2002. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
• The Asiatic Society of Japan. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. University of Oregon Libraries. University of Oregon, 1918. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
• Tokita, Alison, and David W. Hughes. The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2008.