General Research on the Todo Music in Nagoya

1992 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 02610022
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 美学(含芸術諸学)
• Research Institution: TOKYO GEIJUTU DAIGAKU
• Principal Investigator: KAMISANGO Yuko TOKYO GEIJUTU DAIGAKU Music Dept. Prof., 音楽学部, 教授 (20169618)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ONUKI Toshiko TOKYO GEIJUTU DAIGAKU Music Dept. Assist., 音楽学部, 助手 (70015254)
• Project Period (FY): 1990 – 1992
• Keywords: Sokyoku / Jiuta / Nagoya / Todo / Blind musician / Heikyoku / Kokyu

Research Abstract

One of the organizations of the musicians of traditional Japanese music in Nagoya. KOKUHU-ONGAKUKAI, was established in 1893, as a branch office of the nation-wide organization, KOKUHU ONGAKU KOSHUJO. Many of the other branches were disbanded after the head office in Tokyo was closed, but the Nagoya branch has been active up to now. The starting members of the organization were mainly the blind musicians who had belonged to the todo, an autonomous organization of the blind in the Edo period. And they adopted many systems and customs from todo into the new organization. These systems and customs as well as the repertories of todo music are still kept in KOKUHU ONGAKUKAI to some extent.
So, in our project, we researched mainly about KOKUHU ONGAKUKAI from several points of view. The results of the research can be summarized in the following three points.
1. Events-There are about fifteen annual events held by KOKUHU ONGAKUKAI. Among them, we made recordings of seven important events by video films and cassette tapes. One of the most important events is Ninko-sai, whose origin datos back to the Muromachi period.
2. Education Systems-Through interviews and collecting the documents, we investigated the relation of the grades of the pupils and the titles of the teachers to the actual degree of the progress in music. Some titles for the male blind musicians like kengyo, koto were borrowed from todo. The titles are different from those of the female blind musicians and non-blind players. Some systems changed after the last war.
3. Repertories-Some of the todo repertories are played only by the members of KOKUHU ONGAKUKAI, for examples heikyoku and some kokyu pieces. Though the exchange of the repertories often took place in the past. We collected the anthologies owned by KOKUHU ONGAKUKAI or published in Nagoya to know which pieces are peculiar to KOKUHU ONGAKUKAI.