Music and Arts: Wayang Kulit and Kabuki

• 2 strings


  played through bowing
• Suling


  • flute
  • aerophone instrument
• Kendang


  • horizontal drum beat with the fingers on both ends
  • membranophones
• Tjelempung


  • a zither of thirteen double strings
  • played through plucking
• Japanese theater


  Traditional form of theater which began at the end of sixteenth century
• Japanese theater


  • Ikebana: flowers, minimalist
  • Cherry blossom/ Sakura
  • Origami
• Three classical traditional forms in Japan

  • Kabuki
  • nŌh
  • Bunraku
• Ipponchōshi


  • speeches building up to climax in Aragoto( male character)
  • mastered by few
  • requires strong breath control
• Nori


  A very sensitive capacity of riding the rhythms of shamisen
• Kabuki Theater


  • Japanese theater art
  • Founded by Okuni, a Shinto priestess in 1603
  • High form of play
  • Mostly women performed dances and comic sketches on a temporary stage set
  • acting, singing, and dancing
  • ka: song, bu: dance, ki: skill
• Forms of Japanese music

  • Gagaku- classic court music imported from China during the 18th century
  • Kagura- performed in Shinto shrines
  • nŌ- chant derives from shŌmyŌ, Buddhist chanting
• Nagauta


  • reached a golden age in the first half of 19th
  • dance music for the henge mono or quick change pieces
  • performed by one shamisen or by an entire orchestra of twenty musicians (10 shamisen players, others play the flute and drums)
  • fue taken from the nŌ
  • small drum- kotsuzumi; waist drum
  • Ōtsuzumi; stick drum- taiko
• Shamisen


  • used in Nagauta is Hosozao (thin neck)
  • has a high timbre and can play exquisite melodic lines
• Hosozao (Shamisen)


  • the smallest kind of shamisen
  • the body is small and particularly thin neck specially built for Nagauta ensemble
  • "Nagauta shamisen"
• Shinobue(Flute)


  • a Japanese transverse flute
  • high-pitched sound
  • found in Hayashi and Nagauta ensembles
• Kotsuzumi(Small drum)


  • small and portable drum used to accompany: Nagauta(dance music)
  • Geza(off-stage Kabuki music)
  • traditional folk music
  • player's left hand holds it up to the player's right shoulder and squeezes the rope, while the other hand strikes the head
• Ōtsuzumi(Waist drum)


  • also known as "Ōkawa"
  • hourglass shaped
  • larger version of the tsuzumi
• Taiko(Stick drum)


  • broad range of Japanese percussion instruments
  • any kind of drum usually played with sticks (Bachi)
• Kogakudo


  kabuki theatre that have stages both in front and along the sides
• Mawaro


  the interior of the theatre
• Three main categories of the kabuki play

  • Jidai-mono-historical, or pre-Sengoku period stories
  • Sewa-mono-domestic, or post-Sengoku period stories, family drama, and romance
  • Shosagoto- dance pieces