A Study of Medieval Dances in Japan

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25770037
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Aesthetics and studies on art
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: OKIMOTO Yukiko 青山学院大学, 総合文化政策学部, 准教授 (00508278)
• Research Collaborator: FUJITA Takanori 京都市立芸術大学, 教授 ; KOBAYASHI Aoi 青山学院大学, 大学院生
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 乱拍子 / 白拍子 / 猿楽 / 翁

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I have been able to make some significant advances in my research into medieval performing arts, clarifying the answers to several important research questions around the origins of Noh that have long remained sources of ambiguity. I have been able to clarify, for example, that sarugaku actors combined pre-existing popular dances known as shirabyoshi and ranbyoshi into the foundational “Okina”, which has long been acknowledged as the origin of what we now know as Noh drama, but the origins of the Okina itself were previously unclear.
Performing extremely close readings of the few surviving documentary sources in tandem with carrying out observational field research into performing arts permitted me to clarify how earlier generations had unified their customary songs and dances into the Okina.
This research was published as a book titled “Ranbu no chusei” (Dance in Medieval Japan) in 2016. The book was awarded the 2016 Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities.

Free Research Field

芸能史