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Paper short abstract:

Focusing on the management style of the Kanze school taiko performers, this paper investigates Kanze Motoki (1845～1924), the fourteenth head, who overcame the turbulent Meiji period when he and other Nōgaku (Noh and Kyogen) performers had lost their patronage.

Paper long abstract:

In the Edo period, Nōgaku (Noh and Kyogen) was the ceremonial art of the bakufu. The Meiji Restoration (1868) collapsed the bakufu, causing Nōgaku performers to lose their patronage, and their opportunities to perform greatly declined as a result. The Meiji Restoration is considered to be the worst crisis to Nōgaku in all its history. Among noh-hayashi (music ensemble) players, taiko performers suffered the most, since the taiko is included only in three quarters of the about 240 standard Noh plays, and its performers had less opportunities to perform. Kanze Motoki (1845-1924), the fourteenth head of Kanze school taiko performers overcame this crisis.

Motoki was in his late-twenties when he succeeded his father Sakichi as the head of the Kanze school taiko performers in 1872, and remained in the position until 1924, which spans the modernizing periods of Meiji and Taisho. He had a progressive mindset as seen in the publication of Kanze-ryū taiko tetsuke (Kanze School taiko music notation) in 1910. Also, due to his basic performance skills of taiko and from his knowledge about Nōgaku that he had acquired in the former Shogunate era, he was respected as an elder who had thorough insight about the past. These points reveal that Motoki, in his processes of managing the school, tried to conserve the inherited custom, but at the same time worked to modernize it. By looking into his performance activities and his management style of artistic transmission as head of school, these accounts help to clarify the measures he has taken for the school’s survival and recognizes his overall accomplishments. However, the full extent of his impact are yet to be known.