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Paper short abstract

This paper analyzes waterborne gagaku performance, its sound and impact on ancient court society. Examples are drawn from pictures and diaries of government officers from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, and thus, this paper relies heavily on earlier studies in philological history.

Paper long abstract

Ancient Japanese picture scrolls feature a special pair of boats used for waterborne musical performances, called “dragon and fowl heads” (竜頭鷁首) because of the beautiful sculptures of those imaginary creatures on the bow of each. Focusing on these “dragon and fowl heads,” this paper describes the event, its sound, and its impact on ancient court society. Examples are drawn principally from pictorial materials as well as descriptions in the diaries of executive government officers from the eleventh to fourteenth century.

First, to consider the illustrated scroll “Komakurabe gyōkō emaki” in which characteristic representations of two surviving gagaku performance genres, tōgaku and komagaku, are depicted: the dragon image, musicians in red-colored costume, and left-side location are iconographic of the tōgaku genre, which pairs up with the similar komagaku genre, characterized by the green color, Chinese phoenix, and right-side location that appear on the other, fowl head boat. Separately, though, picture scroll “Nenjūgyōji emaki” and an entry from the diary Taiki—both from the twelfth century—depict a scene in which the dragon head boat only carried dancers and made no music.

Next, an emperor’s visit at the mansion of Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1028), a very influential statesman, is analyzed. In Michinaga’s diary Midōkanpakuki as well as Shōyūki by Fujiwara no Sanesuke, we see that musicians were situated apart from the dancers in a very different location. While the dancers performed on land, their musical accompaniment was played from a boat on the water. At a nighttime feast, lower ranking performers afloat and higher ranking nobles on land played the same pieces together, yielding various visible and audible effects in a magnificent contrast of art and nature. Considering its social impact, the approach and proximity of music from the boats is highly significant as an artistic device introducing a sense of unity—a rare experience in the highly class-conscious court of the time.