History
Gagaku has been transmitted over a history of more than a thousand years, passing through periods
of prosperity and decline. How has gagaku been formed within this long historical flow?
The flow of time
-
Asuka, Hakuhō and Nara Periods (late 6th to early 8th centuries)
-
| 554 |
Four musicians arrived from the Korean kingdom of Paekchè (Jp. Kudara) |
| 612 |
Mimaji (or Mimashi) from Paekchè transmitted the masked dance-drama gigaku (or kuregaku) |
| 630 |
The first Japanese mission to the Chinese Tang court |
| 701 |
The official Utamai-no-tsukasa (or Gagaku-ryō, ‘Bureau of Music’) established, according to the Taihō Code |
| 710 |
The capital is moved to Nara (Heijōkyō) |
| 717 |
Kibi no Makibi traveled to China on a mission to the Tang |
| 728 |
A new body, the Utamai-dokoro (‘Song and Dance Hall’), is established |
| 752 |
The consecration (‘eye-opening’) ceremony of the Great Buddha of the Nara temple Tōdai-ji |
-
Heian Period(9th to 12th centuries)
-
| 794 |
The capital is moved to Kyoto (Heiankyō) |
| 807 |
The body of Inner Palace Guards (Konoefu) is established |
| 833 |
Emperor Ninmyō succeeds to the throne; the beginning of a period of prosperity for gagaku |
| 839 |
The musicians Ōto no Kiyokami dies on the return journey from Tang |
| 948 |
The Gakudokoro (or Gakusho, ‘Court Music Hall’) is established at the Inner Palace |
| 1179 |
Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s collection of imayō songs, Ryōjin hishō (‘Secret selection to make the dust on the rafters dance’), completed |
-
Kamakura, Muromachi, Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo Periods(13th to mid-19th centuries)
-
| 1192 |
Establishment of the Kamakura shogunate with the appointment of Minamoto no Yoritomo as Shogun (Seii Taishōgun, ‘Barbarian-suppressing General’) |
| 1467 |
The Ōnin war begins and continues for a decade |
| 1512 |
The gagaku compendium Taigen-shō completed by Toyohara no Muneaki |
| 1588 |
Toyotomi Hideyoshi entertains Emperor Go-Yōzei with gagaku at his Jurakudai mansion |
| 1603 |
Establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate |
| 1637 |
Gagaku musicians are appointed at the Nikkō shrine Tōshōgū |
| 1642 |
Gagaku musicians are brought to Momijiyama at the Edo palace (present-day Tokyo) |
-
After the Meiji Restoration(1868)
-
| 1868 |
The capital is moved to Tokyo |
| 1870 |
The forerunner of the present-day Music Department of the Imperial Household Agency is established |
| 1876 |
First collection of standardized part scores |
| 1888 |
Second collection of standardized part scores |
The history of gagaku
- The sources of gagaku
-
- Cultural contacts in music and dance
-
- 'Japanization’ and the systematization of gagaku
-
- The rise of the warrior class and the Ōnin war
-
- The ‘music centers of the three directions’ and gagaku’s second peak
-
- Reforms of the Meiji era and the Effect of World War II
-
