Japanese Classical

The classical music of Japan, know as Gagaku (雅楽, literally "elegant music"), has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto for several centuries. It consists of three primary repertoires:

1. Native Shinto religious music and folk songs and dance, called kuniburi no utamai
2. A Goguryeo and Manchurian form, called komagaku (named for Koma, one of the Three Kingdoms)
3. A Chinese and South Asia form (specifically Tang Dynasty), called togaku.[1]

Gagaku, like shomyo, employs the Yo scale, a pentatonic scale with ascending intervals of two, three, two, two, and three semitones between the five scale tones. Gagaku is related to theater, which developed in parallel (Noh was developed in the 14th century). Today, gagaku is performed in two ways:

1. as kangen, concert music for winds, strings and percussion,
2. as bugaku, or dance music for which the stringed instruments are omitted.


By the 7th century, the gakuso (a zither) and the gakubiwa (a short-necked lute) had been introduced in Japan from China. Various instruments including these two were the earliest used to play gagaku. The genre was introduced into Japan with Buddhism from the Korean Peninsula. In 589, Japanese official diplomatic delegations were sent to China (during the Sui dynasty) to learn Chinese culture, and upon returning, introduced the instruments and playing style that would become known as gagaku. 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). 20th century composers such as Tōru Takemitsu have composed works for gagaku ensemble, as well as individual gagaku instruments.