JAPANESE GARDENS

Japanese gardens (Kanji 日本庭園, nihon teien) are seen in temples, some seen in ruins of feudal lords’ mansions and others seen in residences of politicians and businesspeople. In addition, some of them were created in sites of public facilities and hotels.

Commonly, Japanese gardens have pond in the centre, and inequalities of the ground or artificial hills on which garden stones, trees and plants are placed, in order to represent seasonal changes in the scenery. One of the popular techniques used in the gardens are the technique to express the way the water flows from deep in the mountains and gradually becomes bigger stream by creating artificial water falls. There are also popular technique to stand and combine rocks and stones, and technique to imitate Penglaishan, a crane island, and a turtle island in order to add religious meaning the garden. Lanterns, arbours and tea houses are also often placed throughout. Since the Muromachi era, gardens in which water current is expressed not by using water but by stones, sand and plants have appeared. This technique is called “dry landscape” style. After the Edo Period, the technique called “borrowed scenery”, which takes advantage of the landscape outside the garden, was also used.

Korakuen Garden

Korakuen Garden (後楽園) is one of Japan's official Three Great Gardens and hence Okayama's number one attraction. The name means "Garden of Pleasure After", a reference to a famous Confucian quote stating that a wise ruler must attend to his subjects' needs first and only then attend to his own. Entering through the South Gate, the first impression is that of a giant lawn, crisscrossed with wide paths and the occasional teahouse to break the monotony. But the interesting stuff is lurking on the sides: waterfalls, tiny shrines, miniature maple forests, a lotus pond, even a greenhouse filled with orchids and cacti. Cross the Moon-Viewing Bridge (Tsukimi-kyo) from the front of Okayama Castle to get in. Entry ¥350, open 8 AM to 5 PM daily.

SHAMISEN

A shamisen or samisen (Japanese: 三味線, literally "three taste strings"), also called sangen (literally "three strings") is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum. The pronunciation in Japanese is usually "shamisen" (in western Japan, and often in Edo-period sources "samisen") but sometimes "jamisen" when used as a suffix (e.g. Tsugaru-jamisen).

Shamisen Construction

The shamisen is similar in length to a guitar, but its neck is much slimmer and without frets. Its drum-like rounded rectangular body, known as a dō, is covered with skin in the manner of a banjo, and amplifies the sound of the strings. The skin is usually from a dog or cat, but in the past a special type of paper was used and recently various types of plastics are being tried. On the skin of some of the best shamisen, the position of the cat's nipples can be seen.

The three strings are traditionally made of silk, or, more recently, nylon. The lowest passes over a small hump at the "nut" end so that it buzzes, creating a characteristic sound known as sawari (This is a little like the "buzzing" of a sitar, which is called jawari). The upper part of the dō is often protected by a cover known as a dō kake, and players often wear a little glove on their left hand, to facilitate sliding up and down the neck. This glove is known as a yubi kake. There may also be a cover on the "head" of the instrument.

Shamisen Playing

In most genres the shamisen is played with a large weighted plectrum called a bachi, which was traditionally made with ivory or tortoise shell but which now is usually wooden, and which is in the shape likened to a ginkgo leaf. The sound of a shamisen is similar in some respects to that of the American banjo, in that the drum-like skin-covered body, known as a dō, amplifies the sound of the strings. As in the clawhammer style of American banjo playing, the bachi is often used to strike both string and skin, creating a highly percussive sound.

In kouta (short song) and occasionally in other genres the shamisen is plucked with the fingers.

Shamisen History and genres

The shamisen derives from the sanshin (a close ancestor from the southernmost Japanese prefecture of Okinawa and one of the primary instruments used in that area), which in turn evolved from the Chinese sanxian, itself deriving ultimately from Central Asian instruments.

The shamisen can be played solo or with other shamisen, in ensembles with other Japanese instruments, with singing such as nagauta, or as an accompaniment to drama, notably kabuki and bunraku. Both men and women traditionally played the shamisen.

The most famous and perhaps most demanding of the narrative styles is gidayū, named after Takemoto gidayū (1651-1714), who was heavily involved in the bunraku puppet-theater tradition in Osaka. The gidayū shamisen and its plectrum are the largest of the shamisen family, and the singer-narrator is required to speak the roles of the play, as well as to sing all the commentaries on the action. The singer-narrator role is often so vocally taxing that the performers are changed halfway through a scene. There is little notated in the books (maruhon) of the tradition except the words and the names of certain appropriate generic shamisen responses. The shamisen player must know the entire work perfectly in order to respond effectively to the interpretations of the text by the singer-narrator. From the 19th century female performers known as onna-jōruri or onna gidayū also carried on this concert tradition.

In the early part of the 20th Century, blind musicians, including Shirakawa Gunpachirō (1909-1962), Takahashi Chikuzan (1910-1998), and sighted ones such as Kida Rinshōe (1911-1979), evolved a new style of playing, based on traditional folk songs ("min'yō") but involving much improvisation and flashy fingerwork. This style - now known as Tsugaru-jamisen, after the home region of this style in the north of Honshū - continues to be relatively popular in Japan. The virtuosic Tsugaru-jamisen style is sometimes compared to bluegrass banjo.

J-ROCK JAPANESE ROCK MUSIC

Japanese rock is a form of popular music, often abbreviated to "J-Rock" in much the same way that "J-Pop" is used as an abbreviation of Japanese Pop. J-Rock is one of the most popular forms of music in Japan.

J-Rock History

Psychedelic rock was invented in the 1960s by American and British counterculture figures. Arriving in Japan, psychedelic rock took on a different flavour. Previously known for the drug intake of its performers leaving an impact on the hazy, drugged-out music, J-Rock performers tended to be drug-free, or even adamantly anti-drug (for example, Kosugi Takehisa, Haino Keiji, Nanjo Asahito).

Psychedelic rock first appeared in Japan in the mid to late 1960s. A few Group Sounds bands imitated their Anglo heros, including The Golden Cups, The Tempters, The Mops, The Dynamites and Jacks, whose "Karappo No Sekai" and "Marianne" were two of the first psychedelic recordings from the country.

Like in the UK and US, the psychedelic rock scene was linked to a political movement involving young, spirited students. An economic boom brought many young people to universities, where radical politics abounded. Central to this movement, arising from the late 60s Kyoto student revolts, was the band Les Rallizes Denudés and the Taj Mahal Travellers, followed by Lost Aaraaff.

In the 1970s, singer-songwriters like Kazuki Tomokawa and Kan Mikami became popular. As in the US and UK, Japanese rock spawned a folk-rock scene, there led by Magical Power Mako. At the same time, radical progressive rock was evolving, with distinctly Japanese bands like After Dinner and YB02, Kenso and KoenjiHyakkei.

From the late 1980s popular rock bands such as X Japan helped define the Visual Kei aesthetic in Japanese rock and pop music. "Visual kei" is often focused upon in the West as a uniquely Japanese part of the Rock music scene. Strictly speaking, however, "Visual kei" is not defined by its sound (which may or may not be "rock" music) but by the appearance of the bands.

A fringe movement from the late 1980s in Japanese alternative rock took the form of noise rock, a sound popularised by bands such as Boredoms.

J-ROCK Bands

The 5,6,7,8's
Acidman
Asian Kung-Fu Generation
Bleach03
The Blue Hearts
The Boom
BOØWY
Boredoms
Brahman
The Brilliant Green
Buck-Tick
B'z
Dir en grey
Do As Infinity
GLAY
Guitar Wolf
The Golden Cups
GO!GO!7188
The High-Lows
Janne Da Arc
Kagrra
L'Arc-en-Ciel
Luna Sea
Malice Mizer
Miyavi
PYG
RC Succession
Shonen Knife
the pillows
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
The Tempters
The Tigers
The Yellow Monkey
Vodka Collins
X Japan