Traditional Japanese music recommendation.

Ken C.

Ken C.

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I have a yearning to listen to some traditional Japanese music. Any recommendations?
 
Kodo rocks (in an ancient Japanese drumming sort of way)...

[youtube]iUYv9nozIN0[/youtube]


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[youtube]Paw8apqxqeA[/youtube]
 
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+1 on Kodo. You may also want to try to get your hands on some Kohachiro Miyata and Ensemble Nipponia.
 
Some more Kodo, because everybody loves the O-Daiko (the big drum)...

[youtube]kI4Mqb5_jJU[/youtube]

[youtube]ae816ILBNM0[/youtube]
 
One of my old time favorites is Tori - Kadozuke Hachigaeshi by Yoshikazu Iwamoto
 
markksr said:
Kodo rocks (in an ancient Japanese drumming sort of way)...
Click to expand...

Indeed it does, even more so live. The bass was so loud where we saw them I had to walk out or it was going to make me sick, and this was a non amplified concert (I don't even get seasick). I was also told that they are some serious runners as an interesting side note.
 
KODO. You guys beat me to it! Been my motivational music both in martial arts and life for almost 20 years! You can practically feel the martial spirit just reverberating.
 
Ken C. said:
I have a yearning to listen to some traditional Japanese music. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Sounds like all folks here wanna do is bang on things......Kodo, good God. (Good stuff) Swap the d for a t and you have Japan's traditional stringed instrument. Throw in in a shakuhachi (literally translated to one foot eight - the length of a traditional shakuhachi or flute/pipes) and you've got the making of the gentler dulcet sounds reminiscent of a sweeping panorama of Fuji-san framed with cherry blossoms.

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[youtube]chwADnoFDng[/youtube]


The shamisen although a very traditional instrument of Nihon seemed more popular in Ryukyun music when I lived in Japan. Dueling shamisens as shown here however won't get you "porked" even as far out as Iriomote.

[youtube]w5rs7pfZuPs[/youtube]


Shamisen with taiko

[youtube]09vfa4vuHFY[/youtube]



Kitaro has synth'd over 40 instruments and even plays taiko in his New Age recordings. No so traditional but heck even the most peaceful of men needs to bang on something once in a while.......:D

[youtube]5vwEIoXcS1A[/youtube]



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Good stuff, Java, thanks... :thumbup: Needless to say, I particularly enjoyed the "Shamisen with taiko" video.

While searching Youtube for Kodo videos the other day I came across this video of a song named "Kodo", I didn't include it because it is not a traditional song, if fact, it is apparently the soundtrack to a video game.

youtube said:
Music video of Kodo by Yoshida Brothers. Yoshida Brothers song "Kodo" is the theme song for Nintendo's Wii game console. Check out the video! The Song is in include album "Yoshida Brothers II" It was released from Domo Music Group. www.domo.com
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Pretty darn cool just the same...

[youtube]Ron17xFNBf0[/youtube]
 
That Yoshida Brothers piece reminds me a LOT of "Tsuki no Sei" by... you guessed it... Kodo.

Toru Takemitsu didn't limit himself to traditional Japanese music, but he was almost solely responsible for re-popularizing its use in film in the 1960's:

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markksr said:
Good stuff, Java, thanks... :thumbup: Needless to say, I particularly enjoyed the "Shamisen with taiko" video.

While searching Youtube for Kodo videos the other day I came across this video of a song named "Kodo", I didn't include it because it is not a traditional song, if fact, it is apparently the soundtrack to a video game.



Pretty darn cool just the same...

[youtube]Ron17xFNBf0[/youtube]
Click to expand...

Way cool! Complex stuff for something that's just half a guitar. :thumbup:


Let's add more strings, electrify em, and make em non-traditional for a moment. I first heard Kazumi Watanabe years ago in Japan when he was a Jazz virtuoso. Here he's hangin' with his bro-sans....

[youtube]fF18ae_SUjo[/youtube]

Freakin' imbedding disabled. Try this link Kazumi Watanabe, Char, & Osamu Ishida

Sorry for the thread drift. I won't post any Sadao Watanabe, Casiopea, or Keiko Matsui.....:o Back to traditional.



This is a style called gagaku or elegant music vice ongaku which is fun music (fun sound). This was traditional Shinto classical music reserved for entertaining the Imperial Court.

According to the Wilipedia:

Today gagaku is performed in two ways. Gagaku can be performed as kangen, concert music for winds, strings and percussion, or as bugaku, or dance music for which the stringed instruments are omitted. Komagaku survives only as bugaku.

Contemporary gagaku ensembles, such as Reigakusha (伶楽舎), perform contemporary compositions for gagaku instruments; this sub-genre of contemporary works for gagaku instruments, which began in the 1960s, is called reigaku (伶楽).
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The lady on the right plays a free reed instrument called a sho. I believe the center lady is playing a hichiriki, a kind of double reed flute. There are artists today who play a G or a Bb hichiriki that is loosely called a bamboo sax..... and it is hard to fathom the sound that little thing can put out. The gentleman to the left is jamming on a ryuteki or "dragon flute".

[youtube]O8I546-QL_c[/youtube]

These are the only reed instruments played in gagaku. The strings include the takubiwa, the gakuso (or koto), and the wagon. Percussion includes the shōko, the kakko, the tsuri-daiko (an ornate type of O-daiko drum), the ikko, the san-no-tsuzumi, and the shakubyoshi.


Oyasuminasai waga miuchi....:D
 
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^ Good stuff! I can just imagine watching the fields dance gently in the wind under Mt. Fuji! (a new addition also to my tai chi chu'an music).
 
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