Sekkyō-bushiNobuko Ishii
MN 44:3 (1989) pp. 283–307
The tales collectively known as sekkyo-bushi 説教節 were an important element in the popular culture of Japan during the medieval and early Edo periods. They formed the basis of a performing art in which they were chanted, latterly with increasingly elaborate instrumental accompaniment. This reached its peak in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when professional chanters performed before paying audiences to the accompaniment of the shamisen. Puppets were also used in the dramatization of tales, and shows were staged in theatres built or adapted for the purpose.
A valuable eyewitness account of the genre at its height of popularity appears in Dokugo 独語, written by the Confucian scholar Dazai Shundai 太宰春台, 1680-1747. He describes the genre as tragic in character, with a distinctive style of chanting: ‘The voice is so profoundly sorrowful that it moves women to copious tears.’
