Gionshōja (Japanese Traditional Music - Biwa 4 )

.
Japanese Traditional Music - Gionshōja
1 Haru No Utage 7:30
2 Chikuzen Shokyoku 8:00
3 Kawanakajima 15:28
4 Arsumori 18:43
5 Gionshoja 5:29
6 Gionshoja 7:44
_____________________________________________
Release Date January 5, 1994
Duration 01:02:54
_____________________________________________
.
"The liner notes (in Japanese and English) are by Hugh de Ferranti,
the author of a well-researched book on the "last" blind biwa player from the western island of Kyushu.
This album has six excerpts from two Kyushu schools of biwa performance that he identifies as Satsuma and Chikuzen,
by composers Tsuruta Kinshi (b. 1911), Uehara Mari (b. 1947), Enomoto Shisui (d. 1978), and Tateyama Kougo (d. 1989)."
.
"This CD offers a collection of traditional Japanese pieces for the Biwa, the Japanese lute, which came to Japan from China at the end of the first millennium.
The Biwa and its playing remained pretty much the same as it was 800 to 1,000 years ago, while the Chinese Pi-pa, its ancestor, has changed quite considerably, becoming a more virtuosic instrument.
The instrument is unfortunately losing popularity in Japan among youngsters mainly because of the influence of Western music, as is the case in many Asian countries.
There are solo pieces (the first two pieces) as well as old epic stories and songs accompanied by the Biwa (the four others).
Three different schools of playing the Biwa are presented: the Satsuma-Biwa, the Chikuzen-Biwa, and Heike-Biwa.
The Biwa was originally played by blind monks, and the Heike-Biwa is the most popular."
Review by Bruno Deschênes
.
_____________________________________________
All rights reserved ©

[@ViajanteDoOriente]

Damn.. i just cry seeing my culture..

[@sae136]

この音楽はとってもよいです

[@lonelygirl4504]

@@sae136 Yeah, it's really sad that there are only a handful of aging players left. Biwa is too expensive and difficult for new players to get into.

[@ahbabraufahmed3058]

call yourself lucky

[@sae136]

@@lonelygirl4504 悲しいな

[@uweklement9692]

You mean your culture or us culture?

[@infernowolf1850]

The biwa sounds so sad yet beautiful and mysterious...such a beautiful instrument

[@natural_law]

Solemn

[@shrub2476]

i just hear an instrument idk what u guys are hearing

[@anime.tvescene9160]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJCrdZ9_rp6kmbc

[@nazim1970]

Pppp.pp

[@rodcooper763]

@@shrub2476 ty

[@LeaksHater]

This makes me feels like creating an infinite fortress and massacaring the summoned lower moons inside it.

[@LeaksHater]

Wait, this got hearth'ed.

[@Yellow.Lantern]

Lol I know what you’re talking about

[@xvx_cooldude69_xvx43]

Bruh

[@xerosora]

Got that reference xD

[@makaiwise4609]

Just make it out of here somehow! Now that I've gotten this far away...

[@sundaydriver206]

Lo Fi Biwa beats to chill and summon the lower 6 kizuki to (24 hr radio)

[@S.a.k.u.r.a_S.u.z.u.k.i]

DEMON SLAYER REFERENCE???????????

[@christopherkelley1230]

@fukinsei First Song 0:00. Second Song 7:32. Third Song 15:33. Fourth Song 31:02. Fifth Song 49:47. Sixth Song 55:17.

[@burymycampaignatwoundedkne3395]

I love the biwa’s sound so much

[@anime.tvescene9160]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJCrdZ9_rp6kmbc

[@burymycampaignatwoundedkne3395]

@@anime.tvescene9160 I wasn't a super big fan myself, but thanks for sharing it!

[@khiidk_3263]

idk what this dude is saying but this is a banger, i listening to this while reading demon slayer

[@andymcclurg9916]

Pingu is the best show

[@yoshikagekira9973]

listened to this while reading golden kamui, honestly it helps me focus

[@notlia253]

omg i did this too! listening to this while reading the demon slayer manga, amazing

[@redsamurai192]

Started listening to Biwa songs ever since I watched The Heike Story. Something intriguing and mysterious about it.

[@岩倉玲音-z4g]

Kawanakajima is my favorite track. It's about a prolonged campaign of battles between two clans during the Sengoku Jidai. I found this while looking for Shogun 2 music, and recognized the names of Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin.

[@JoJo-si4dj]

Oh, I see you are man of culture as well

[@irinaroslyak0va]

i have a old old biwa that my ancestors made in the nara period

[@JesusGarcia-ec7jo]

That is a teasure!

[@JesusGarcia-ec7jo]

That is a teasure!

[@moribnd]

Long before Bathory, black metal and death-doom metal existed… Biwa, taiko drums and the dungchen used in Tibet are timeless folk instruments that accomplish much of what metal has sought to achieve for years. But each of these instruments are quite expensive in the world of traditional music. You also cannot accomplish what the biwa does with any guitar as we know and build guitars. Maybe a pitch bender pedal, but the plectrum also is impossible to replicate.

[@Yeldineyintun]

Most of these could be easily translated into modern heavy metal songs. This is crazy cool music

[@justafrog9262]

Ever hear of Ningen Isu? They do this with a lot of old Japanese stuff.

[@acidsamurai3876]

Watch inu oh,you'll love it

[@taofanarchy96-renzomaracas14]

The Biwa is not only beautiful, is a key to the heavens. Listening to a Biwa piece calms and focuses the mind, cleans the soul and brings joy to the heart. The sound make us separate from reality and enter in a mystical dimension. The beauty of the Japanese tongue tells of Gods and Heroes, keeping them alive. The player becomes a _shinza_ to them, and the Biwa a _shintai_ with them fully enshrined , and we - the listeners - by listening we honour them as immortal spirits, and we enter in communion with them. We become humble in front of the eight millions of spirits, the everything that is sacred. We don’t deserve Japan.

[@sclery_ackerman_]

Me, making the mythology part in my japan-themed assignment for the exams, listening to this: coincidence? I don't think so

[@anime.tvescene9160]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJCrdZ9_rp6kmbc

[@ringostarrsbicycle1999]

@@anime.tvescene9160 Modern japan in middle aged japan videos? Get the fuck out!

[@yumeiikokoro]

Wait wait wait chill calm down there Its just an instrument, I mean yes its beautiful but thats wayyy too deep ;-;' *THATS WHAT SHE SA-*

[@TD-ug4mg]

Jesus you're probably that one fat nerd in high school who thought that the samurai spirit made katana's cut better. F*cking weeb

[@SavlAdd-on]

The way the biwa is played reminds me of like a heart beat. It's always not continuous strumming but instead intervals and builds up, really unique sound with an even more unique style of play

[@XIAO-j9o]

It's like I'm in the infinity castle summoning the Upper moons.

[@Whacky_WooHoo_Pizza_Enthusiast]

Lower moons except Rui.

[@malenkiypallas]

How nice. Want some tea?

[@XIAO-j9o]

@@malenkiypallas Yes please

[@malenkiypallas]

@@XIAO-j9o Great. Give me a minute to clean up the mess. Lord Muzan just killed Lower Ranks but he didn't care about my carpet

[@supanworth]

5:29 5:35

[@1COMIXMAN]

I first heard this instrument in the 90s while immersing myself in classic japanese cinema. Kwaidan was the movie I watched and its based on a collection of old ghost stories and such. It's got an almost psychedelic tone to one story called the woman of the snow. But the biwa is music is part and parcel with honcho the earless. Hes a blind biwa player living at a temple when some samurai show up one night when he's alone and asks him to play for his master. Yes led to a shrine where he plays the song the tale of the heiki. It's about the samurai battle of dan-no-ura. Where the emperor who's a child his army and his attendants all die. His attendants jump in the water and they all drown writhe the boy. Turns out the samurai and the people listening to hoichi play are their ghosts. That song the tales of the Heidi got me hooked to the biwa.

[@geoffreywitte3784]

Me too....same.....salut

[@AffyisAffy]

That soundtrack is killer for Kwaidan and gave me chills. I felt the movie was so-so but probably the best traditional soundtrack I've ever heard in a Japanese movie.

[@TheUnavator]

This makes me want to summon 5 people for a meeting

[@blm2357]

Thanks for this. The Goddess Benzaiten is often depicted carrying one of these instruments. I LOVE it!

[@fomorians]

I just think it's epic how cultures from all around the world have this major thing in common - epic stories about heroes, gods and legends told through music. Listening to this reminds me of bards in old Europe, who preserved stories of heroes and battles and mystical unions in their songs. It proves that there is an invisible thread connecting all of us in the spirit world, through time and space. There is no doubt in my mind that if you were to play this to a Viking or a Crusader or even some Native American warrior from back in the day before contact with Japan, they would still understand the songs without needing language or knowledge of where it came from. But when an ancient tradition like Biwa playing is dying-in real-time, it is as if the gods themselves are going to an eternal sleep, never to be heard from again, leaving us in a world of illusion and doubt.

[@han__nya]

Yeah it's called Propaganda, I would also argue it has something to do with patriarchy, and how these so called heroic figures are almost always male, and women (who are often connected to nature) often play the villain, and when they're not they're reduced to playing the role of the damsel in distress. Also funny how you put Crusader and heroes on the same pedestal. By all accounts, crusaders were responsible for what would be considered now crimes against humanity. Ever heard of the Siege of Acre? And let's not even mention cannibalizing on their foes.

[@fomorians]

@@han__nya Dude. It's chill. I understand what you're saying, but there's no need to be so tense. You can't judge the past based on today's values either. Yeah, it was fucked up, and times were dark, but that was life back then. There are female heroes too, like Joan or Arc or Queen Maeve of Ireland or Tomoe Gozen the female samurai... I hope you get a hug or have a nice cup of tea or something, friend.

[@han__nya]

@@fomorians Ah yes relativism, my favourite. I'm chill. Just was making sure you weren't romanticizing something that shouldn't be. If it was bad then then it can only be worse now. Those women are really outliers more than anything. Also how did Joan of Arc end? Yep burned at the stake. Most women then if they were shown to be powerful or ambitious were shunned and hunted down. Even in myths. You trying to apply relativism to it is just sad.

[@evangel1460]

Hands down one of the most haunting stringed instruments on the planet. Ridiculous how well this thing can change your mood and make things feel so serious, while also making the listener incredibly focused.

[@discounthorde1944]

25:55 in the transcript it says "coosh teach your do you mobile stickers" apparently the caption and transcript are high as hell.

[@fukinsei]

KZbin is always high as fuck

[@discounthorde1944]

@@fukinsei ya dont say.......

[@cathoderay6826]

It sounds so similar to the veena, amazing!

[@antoinebenoit2993]

33:35

[@kiwww3769]

i started listening it, while reading manga of kimetsu no yaiba... im on chapter138 right now. hehehe

[@C0smicSlushie]

I love kny

[@Starpentine]

Awesome I love that manga

[@user-pi3ud1sm4d]

Kimetsu no yaiba is ok but also read "Tales of Moonlight and Rain" or "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa.

[@NoAngeles]

The biwa is such a beautiful instrument

[@user-ze9ze3lg1l]

Thank you for letting me listen !

[@rhenning]

The title in the playlist "Arsumori" ist wrong, it should be Atsumori. The two "Gion shôja" ("Jeta's grove" from the beginning of the Heike-monogatari) titles are played on two different typs of biwa: the first one (track 5) on Chikuzen-biwa (played ba UEDA Mari), the second one (track 6) on Heike-biwa (played by TATEYAMA Kôgo); The titles of the tunes in Japanese: Haru-no utage 春の宴 (Banquet in spring); Chikuzen shôkyoku 筑前小曲 (Small tune from Chikuzen); Kawanakajima 川中島 (a place name where a famous battle was fought); Atsumori 敦盛 (name of a young warrior appearing in the Heike-monogatari; Gion-shôja 祇園精舎

[@_chary990]

Muchas gracias por subiendo este albúm, me encanta encontrando nuevas formas de la música Japonese. Parece que siempre hay mas y mas formas tradicionales a encontrar.

[@davelarricq7947]

great music! I did not understand a word but the message was somehow sent ;)

[@alexandermackay-smith2364]

Gion Shōja no kane no koe, shogyō mujō no hibiki ari Sara sōju no hana no iro, shōja hissui no kotowari wo arawasu Ogoreru hito mo hisashikarazu, tada haru no yo no yume no gotoshi Takeki mono mo tsui ni horobinu, hitoe ni kaze no mae no chiri ni onaji The bell of Gion Temple tolls an echo of the passing of all things The fading flowers of the sala tree tell us that all who thrive must someday fail The prideful ones at last will be brought low, their glory just a dream one night in Spring And eke the bravest meet defeat at last, to scatter thence like dust before the wind. - Kyokureki

[@kamalaksi]

Beautiful!!! Is this what they are singing? I am sorry for my ignorance. Specially the last one, starting around 55:20. Could anybody tell me word by word Japanese into English?

[@reclreclur7203]

おおきに! 美しい音楽は、まるで降り積もる雪みたいやで。

[@shin_kiyo]

instructions unclear, there are now 5 lower ranks dead in my room

[@dmitrylyubosey9842]

This is how I relax

[@agentketchup4635]

I feel like I'm ascending

[@BlindRiott]

This is magnificent! Such restrained power.

[@rylancampbell5279]

i love biwa music i would love to play it but im not in japan

[@oscarmartinsafonsodepaiva3320]

Minimalista, intimista e linda.

[@rubensjunior4222]

huuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmm a boneca tava inspirada, quase pirada.

[@andrewgibson9425]

Outstanding.

[@TheGrmany69]

Terrific!!

[@barefootarts737]

Piercing music. Striking. Like falling rocks. Calling Birds. Tumbling waves. Faceted invisible jewels.

[@yourlocalwifi388]

It’s obvious... Demon Slayer episode 26

[@gaburieru2576]

Ofc

[@gaburieru2576]

@Julius Songling of course

[@BicornioSPA]

...

[@Anginitkapetayo]

@唐三藏 ofc stands for "of course"

[@yrockerboy]

For me it’s Inuyasha

[@greasyflight6609]

Music for a divine mission on a cherry blossom wind

[@SheepChan.]

We summoning the upper moons with this one

[@labellevigne4160]

something about this first track fills me with immense sadness

[@arachnid83]

Biwa music seems hard to find. Thank you. Do you have more of this or any other place where I can listen more of this?

[@pentherapy]

Hoichi the Earless sent me here!

[@Darkgeran7]

I did not come here not because of demon slayer I wanted to add this to my calm music playlist

[@Renishypnotized]

I think I've heard this on the horror roblox game called *mimic*, the biwa lady.

[@signbear999]

Unfortunately, the biwa is essentially dead, with very few players alive. Many other gagaku instruments are also fading away.

[@jozefbania]

When you cut 100 heads and you are chilling drinking sake in onsen.

[@nemo7782]

John Wick chill time.

[@shreyakhanduri]

You have been summoned here by Muzan Kibutsuzi!

[@1340-z6v]

Birrrirrrir. The musical.

[@snakey934Snakeybakey]

Muzan Sama summoned me here, but I stayed for the beautiful Biwa playing.

[@MaDmanex100]

the biwa is a dying instument. enjoy it while you can.

[@ariene100yearsago6]

I lover Haru No Utage Yori.

[@kieranjohnston7550]

Don’t know why but this music makes me think of the great American writer Mark Twaing.

[@brujamadness5200]

Perfect music for waiting I'm not from Japan or Asia but I find Japanese songs better than English songs 😂 but when he started singing it caught me off guard but I don't have a problem with it I like his singing/song im not familiar with this (not the biwa im familiar with the biwa) probably because i listen to japanese love songs but this is a nice video for relaxing or waiting

[@Kevin4M3]

02 is fire 🔥 10:40

[@ernestairy5842]

"She hit me with the biwu"

[@ltwilliamsjonathanrussell8941]

Biwa is the bomb

[@brotherzlox5115]

k #3 kinda sound like what i think hantengu or gyokko would sound like

[@littlemisseevee2309]

now that I have my lyre, I wanna get a biwa next

[@thiagomaroja1889]

lindo

[@katx5837]

Found interest in the biwa from Demon Slayer, glad I found it.

[@jhayodulio6107]

i like the sound cuz it's good

[@kamalaksi]

Does anybody here understands well what is being sung and can explain to me the meaning word by word for Gion Shoja? It starts at around 58:08 and then there are more versions of it or it is other parts of the poem?

[@idontwantanamesothisisitgo8508]

The infinity fortress would probably collapse if nakime played normally

[@joaomigueldesouza1920]

obrigado.

[@mattyartsy]

Can I use this for a video I'm making? Is it royalty free?

[@fukinsei]

hi! if you want the audio, its ok for me, but im only ask you to mention my channel in your proyect. because all these music and diferents videos are part of my personal art proyect of divulgation. once again thx for ask, subcribe and enjoy!

[@mattyartsy]

@@fukinsei Great thank you I will!!

[@mattyartsy]

@@fukinsei Do you think you could email me the audio file please? [e-mail]

[@mattyartsy]

Never mind I was able to get it I will credit you thank you!!

[@HypeFox]

They played this in Creepypasta Life RP when trying to get the Yokai badge. And let me be honest with you, it isn't that EASY to get it. I'd suffered from that freaking samurai statue moving a lot.

[@wakeupander]

This could be heavy metal lol

[@xogleeztastexd583]

is there a mimic biwaki

[@idk_6564]

I can imagine nakime from demon slayer playing like this

[@Sactown15]

Ghost of Tsushima sent me. I have new Japanese instrument to explore.

[@midashq]

same

[@V27RV]

Ghost of Tsushima brought me here

[@sylvurrlights]

no because i would kill to learn this

[@REN-pu7zs]

Who knows I will be summoned to infinity fortress

[@joaoarthurfragadeoliveira8664]

Terapia

[@rubensjunior4222]

terapia não sei. mas certeza que terá tanque,

[@kenanimsirovic6973]

Pretty good.

[@danailmarinov7299]

Bruh, I came here to listen to some biwa music videos and I see that all of the Demon Slayer fans have taken over the comment sections of every single one. O.o

[@fukinsei]

you can still listen the album. no need to read the comments, you know?

[@pragyapritam7675]

sounds similar to sitar

[@Lukeeyi]

I SEARCHED THIS TO SCARE MY FRIENDS BECAUSE WE WERE PLAYING A HORROR GAME THAT HAS A GIRL PLAYING A BIWA WHEN IT KILLS YOU LOL

[@saltiest3000]

is it the mimic? thats why im here

[@Lukeeyi]

@@saltiest3000 if from roblox yea they were on the 2nd floor of the hotel TwT I was scaring them to think the biwa girl was near lol

[@Lukeeyi]

i was on the 3rd floor

[@chrisigris3946]

who came here because of Demon Slayer, rise up hands ✋

[@varioizanypaketautatanetie7458]

Коммунисты не проблема а пролема семья 贝尔科维

[@varioizanypaketautatanetie7458]

Я спящая красавица.! Я как Рапунцель 40 лет в башне в хрустальном гробу.! 私は眠れる森の美女です 私はクリスタルの棺の中の塔の中で40年間ラプンツェルのようなものです。

[@Djent7779]

what is the cultural function of this music?

[@fukinsei]

Just like other cultural capitals, it intrinsically carries with it the manifestations of a time, an era with it. Seeing it as "functional" trying to make it fit into some category, only accounts for the western cultural setback that this question carries within.

[@Djent7779]

@@fukinsei so this is played in open air performance, and has no other social attribute

[@Vivi_chan-hr7ev]

I'm thinking of kimetsu no yaiba that one demon with the Biwa