Home People Pieces Recordings Bibliography Schools Glossary Sites & Events Teachers Join the ISS Log In

Wakana

若葉

[Genre]Jiuta
[Style]Tegotomono
[School]Ikuta Ryû - 生田
[Composed]Kitajima Kengyō - Koto

History (Tsuge Gen'ichi):

All six song texts of Wakana ('Young Grasses') are derived from the 'Lavender' (Wakamurasaki) chapter in 'The Tale of Genji,' which describes the beginnings of Prince Genji's relationship with Murasaki. She was eventually to become his beloved wife, but when he first met her, she was still a young girl in the care of a guardian.

Each song contains a quotation from one of the six waka poems exchanged between Genji and the bishop and nun with whom Murasaki lives.

Lyrics: (translated by John Teford) (Maeuta:

The New Year has begun and though
but only a few days have passed,
already this morning the Spring
wind blows softly through the
sasa grass and bamboo.
Knowing that his season has
arrived, the nightingale
plumes himself and with great joy
takes wing
and sings. A young maiden keeps
him company and with a prayer
for eternal blessings sets forth
to gather wakana.

Atouta:

Seeing her gentle touch as she
picks the wakana, the many birds.
chirping among the plum blossoms
grow more animated.
The color of the petals and the
voices of the birds
blend
joyfully together.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)

Since first he saw
Those fresh young grasses
The dew on his sleeves
Has never dried.
How lonely
Are the nights
Of the traveler.

As I lie alone
Lost in a reverie
My dreams give way
To a midnight wind
That wanders from the hills.
The roar
Of the waterfall
Brings forth my tears.

Then, farewell.
On my return to the capital
I shall tell my friends:
'Hurry to see
These rare blossoms
On the mountain cherry
Before the winds
Arrive to scatter them.'

When I opened
The pine door
Of my mountain hermitage,
So long shut,
And saw a blossom
Never seen before,
My sleeves were damp
With tears of gratitude.

Since I saw the color
Of a lovely bloom
Dimly last evening,
My distracted heart
Would stay behind
On this mountain
Like the lingering morning mist.
How sad is parting!

Our friendship
Is still as shallow
As the Spring of Shallow Mountain
From which one heedlessly drinks,
Only to regret it later;
Yet for all that
I hope it will
Be everlasting.
Yukari yoshiaru
hatsukusa no
wakaba no ue wo
mitsuru yori
itodo kawakanu
sode no tsuyu
nao ukimasaru
tabine kana

Utsutsuna ya
hitorine
yowa no makura ni
fukimayoo
miyama-oroshi ni
yume samete
namida moyoosu
taki no oto

Iza saraba
miyabito ni
ykite kataran
sakurabana
konoma no keshiki
kotonaru wo
kaze yori saki ni
mise baya

Kakurega fukaki
okuyama no
matsu no toboso wo
mare ni akete
mada minu hana no
kaobase wo
miru yori nururu
koromode

Tasokare suguru
orikara
honokani mieshi
hana no iro ni
mayoo kokoro wa
asagasumi
tachiwazuroo zo
monouki

Itsushika ni
kumisomete
kuyashi to kikishi
yamanoi no
asakinagara mo
saritoto wa
taenu chigiri wo
tanoman

Wakana appears on the following albums

Album Artist

Koten Sōkyoku no Shinzui Volume 2 Koto : Hagiwara Seigin
Shamisen : Tomiyama Seikin I

Abe Keiko Record Set - 04 Voice : Abe Keiko
Shamisen : Abe Keiko
Koto : Fujii Kunie
Shakuhachi : Torii Komudō

Classical Ensemble Music Vol 3 Shakuhachi : Kitahara Kōzan II
Koto : Tomiyama Mieko
Voice : Tomiyama Seikin I
Shamisen : Tomiyama Seikin I
Performance with voice, shamisen, koto and shakuhachi. The original piece for only voice and shamisen was composed in the beginning of the 19th century by Matsuura Kengyo, a most excellent shamisen musician of the day. The koto part was added soon after the original composition by Yaezaki Kengyo, a koto virtuoso who accomplished this style of ensemble music by composing the additional koto parts to almost all of the famous shamisen pieces in those days. (Kengyo is the top of the social rank of the blind in the Edo period.) The title of the piece means young herbs and the poem describes the scene of an ancient New Year's festivity in which young women are gathering young herbs in the field The form of the piece is in three parts: fore-song, interlude and after-song. The so-called interlude, being more important than the term implies, is really the main section of the piece where instrumental skill flourishes. Beside that, the extremely emblematic technique (prolongation of the vowel of each syllable) of the vocal part is a striking feature of this piece.

Fascination of the Shakuhachi - 4 Koto : Yonekawa Toshiko
Shakuhachi : Yamamoto Hōzan
Voice : Satō Chikaki
Shamisen : Satō Chikaki
Composed by MATSUURA kengyo in ni-agari tuning. This piece would normally sound like ha-uta (a short song accompanied by shamisen) but here it is given a gorgeous te-goto (a two-verse song with an interlude between the verses) for koto. This te-goto for koto was made by YAEZAKI kengyo and the lyrics are said to be written by a cerrain MAEDA of Osaka. There was an old custom that on the year's first Day of the Rat, people went out to surrounding fields and brought back plants found there. The plants were regarded as a symbol of the power of nature, and the people hoped to teceive some of this power through it. Young pine tree and young edible grass (wakana) are typical examples of the kinds of things they were after. The main song is supposed to be sung by young maidens picking up wakana, and in this carefree atmosphere that is peculiar to MATSUURA kengyo, spring breezes, the voices of a Japanese nightingale and other birds perched on a plum branch are all described.

Ikuta Ryu Sokyoku Senshu Volume 03 (上) Shamisen : Yazaki Akiko
Voice : Miyagi Kazue
Koto : Miyagi Kazue

Inoue Michiko no Shigei - Volume 4 Shamisen : Inoue Michiko
Koto : Yagi Keiji
Shakuhachi : Yamaguchi Gorō
Shamisen : Abe Keiko

Kikuhara Hatsuko Zenshu vol. 10 Voice : Kikuhara Hatsuko
Koto : Kikuhara Hatsuko

Kikuhara Hatsuko Zenshu vol. 8 Voice : Kikuhara Hatsuko
Koto : Kikuhara Hatsuko

Kyomono Series Vol 1 Matsuura Kengyo - NY Sankyoku Kai Shakuhachi : Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin
Koto : Kanogawa Keiko
Voice : Henry Horaku Burnett
Shamisen : Henry Horaku Burnett
The text of Wakana depicts a young maiden going out into the spring field to gather young plants or herbs for the Imperial Kitchen that, on a certain day in early spring, the herbs were to be picked and made into a hot soup, which was then drunk with great ceremony to prevent illness in the coming year. Matsuura's musical setting conveys an overall feeling of the gentleness and serenity of springtime. It is this aspect of the piece, so beautifully portrayed in the music, that has made Wakana one of the most cherished compositions in the repertoire today.

Maeuta:
The New Year has begun.
Though but a few days have passed,
Already, this morning, the spring wind
Blows softly through the bamboo grass.
Knowing that his season has arrived,
The nightingale plumes himself:
With great joy he takes wing, and sings.
A young maiden would accompany him
With a prayer for eternal blessings on her lips,
She sets forth to gather wakana,
The first herbs of spring.

Ato uta:
Seeing her gentle touch,
As she picks the young herbs,
Myriads of birds, chirping away
among the plum blossoms,
Grow yet more animated.
How the color of the petals,
And the voices of the birds,
Blend auspiciously together!

Sankyoku Gassō Dai Zenshū (zoku) vol. 3 (続三曲合奏大全集3) Shakuhachi : Aoki Reibo II
Voice : Ōta Hisako
Koto : Ōta Hisako
Voice : Andō Emi
Shamisen : Andō Emi

Seiha Hogakkai Play Favorites 02 - Matsuura Kengyo Voice : Sugino Masataka
Koto : Nakashima Yasuko
Shamisen : Nakanishi Masasō

Sō no Shiori (Ikuta Ryū) vol 7 Koto : Nakashima Yasuko
Voice : Satō Chikaki
Shamisen : Satō Chikaki

Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 28 Voice : Abe Keiko
Shamisen : Abe Keiko
Voice : Fujii Kunie
Koto : Fujii Kunie
Shakuhachi : Torii Komudō

Tozan Ryu - Shakuhachi Honkyoku Shakuhachi : Tajima Shōzan
Play ButtonTozan Ryu Honkyoku Instruction Recording - Vol 1 - Disk 1 Shakuhachi : Hoshida Ichizan II
Shakuhachi : Yamamoto Hōzan

Traditional Music of Japan, The - 02 Shamisen : Abe Keiko
Koto : Fujii Kunie
Shakuhachi : Torii Komudō
This is an example of the Tegoto-mono (a style of song having a big instrumental section). Koto music was formerly often composed as ensemble music for Koto and Shamisen (Sangen) with song. Some pieces were written first for the Shamisen and later the Koto part was added by another composer. Wakana was composed by Matsuura Kengyo (---1822) of Kyoto for the Shamisen and later for the Koto by Yaezaki Kengyo (---1848) of Kyoto. The Shakuhachi began to join the ensemble of these two stringed instruments toward the end of the Edo Period (the earlier half of the 19th century). The Shakuhachi part (the name of composer is
unknown) follows almost the same melodic line of the Shamisen, while the Koto and Shamisen parts figure in a kind of polyphony. The piece is composed in three sections, the first song (Mae-uta), the second, an instrumental section (Tegoto), and finally, the ending song (Ato-uta). The melody of the first and last songs, while being written with different texts, is the same. The first is sung, however, in a much slower tempo, especially at the very beginning. This extremely slow tempo is characteristic of Koto music in the Ikuta school.

The instrumental section consists of two parts, Tegoto and Chirashi. The first part, Tegoto, begins in a slow tempo and gradually becomes faster. This is a general tendency of Japanese traditional music, Gagaku, Noh, Koto, Shamisen, etc. In the second part, Chirashi, literally meaning to scatter, the music becomes more and more complex and brilliant. The Koto is tuned in Hirajoshi and the Shamisen in Niagari. Throughout the entire piece the tuning remains the same. But, in other pieces, often in longer pieces including more than two instrumental sections, the tuning of both the Koto and Shamisen is changed. In other words a modulation occurs.

The text describes the mild, early spring when nightingales and other birds begin to sing upon the branches of bamboo and plum trees. It mentions the did custom of young girls picking greens (Wakana) in the early spring for food.

The final song is omitted on this record. The Shamisen is referred to as Sangen as was the case in Koto music and Jiuta.

Wakana collection - performance study Voice : Yazaki Akiko
Shamisen : Yazaki Akiko
Voice : Kikuchi Teiko
Koto : Kikuchi Teiko

Wakana collection - performance study Voice : Yagi Keiji
Shamisen : Yagi Keiji
Voice : Sawai Tadao
Koto : Sawai Tadao

Wakana collection - performance study Voice : Ōtake Kazuhisa
Shamisen : Ōtake Kazuhisa
Voice : Yoshimura Nanae
Koto : Yoshimura Nanae

Wakana collection - performance study Voice : Fukunaga Chieko
Koto : Fukunaga Chieko
Voice : Ishii Izumi
Shamisen : Ishii Izumi