Paper short abstract:

This paper will attempt to identify the source of the Heike-related tales in the higobiwa repertory. It will also trace the development of these stories across the genres and elucidate the traditional and original elements in each genre applying narratology and reception theory.

Paper long abstract:

Despite its overwhelming popularity through the centuries, the heike biwa music started to lose its dominating role in the folk performing tradition from around the end of the 16th century. Most biwa hōshi, or blind biwa players, gave up the biwa for shamisen, koto, or kokyū instruments. New genres of oral narratives, such as jōruri, okujōruri performed in Miyagi and Iwate, or gundan of Niigata developed from the performances by blind players with the new instrument shamisen. This new or renewed oral culture rapidly spread all over Japan. After the Edo period, it was only in Kyushu that the biwa was not replaced with the shamisen. In this region, the biwa continued to be a part of the folk performing tradition until the second half of the 20th century due to its primary function in folk religious practices.

The genre of blind biwa music from Kyushu is widely known as the higobiwa. However, the term is relatively new and appears to have been coined not earlier than the Meiji era, as an attempt to distinguish the biwa tradition of Kumamoto from the satsumabiwa and chikuzenbiwa. Today the higobiwa is treated as an independent genre. However, it is evident that over the centuries the higobiwa tradition came into contact with other storytelling genres, borrowed some of the stories, and later reworked them into its own.

In this paper, I will focus on several tales from the repertory of the blind biwa players from Kyushu related to The Tale of the Heike, such as Ichi-no-Tani, Ko-Atsumori, and Kagekiyo. Firstly, I will attempt to identify the source of these tales in the higobiwa repertory, based on the comparative analysis of narrative material in the existing versions and variants of the tales. Secondly, I will trace the development of these stories across the genres and elucidate the traditional and original elements in each genre applying narratology and reception theory.