Paper short abstract:

An examination of performance-audience interaction in the musical-storytelling genre of naniwa bushi, through discussions of performance conditions and formulaic phrases that contribute to performer-audience communication, and of the composition and nature of recent naniwa bushi audiences.

Paper long abstract:

Naniwa-bushi is a neo-traditional genre of musical story-telling that emerged as Japan was modernizing in the Meiji period. Although it reached it greatest heights of popularity between 1900 and 1950, it still continues to attract new audiences and performers today.

Its typically small intimate performance space encourages a close interactive relationship between performer and audience. The audience responds with applause after most sections of sung narrative during the piece. It is still not uncommon for appreciative shouts to be heard, and occasionally money wrapped in paper is thrown or taken up to the performer.

Furthermore, the close relationship between performer and audience is built into the form of the piece. The opening section of sung narrative directly addresses the audience, announcing the title of the piece, and humbly asks for tolerance of a poor performance. The piece closes with an apology for a bad performance and for not finishing the story properly. Such formulaic phrases reflect the oral origins of the art with active communication between audience and performer.

It is usually believed that the shrinking naniwa-bushi audiences consist only of aged people with low levels of education, losers in Japan's economic miracle who cling to outdated values of giri-ninjō and a nostalgic Japanese sentimentality. A survey of audiences in Tokyo and Osaka carried out in 2013 tested these assumptions. The survey results will be reported and supplemented by my extensive observations of audience behavior, and changes in recent years.