Samisen

“ Soft samisen measures accompany melancholy moonlit scenes, and the striking of a wooden gong used in Buddhist worship suggests the appearance of something frightful. Light taps of the big drums make known a sinister motive, and the big drum beaten quickly announces impending evil, while the clatter of the geta, or wooden clogs, on the hanamichi, to the thumping of the samisen and the light tattoo of the small drums, conveys an impression of light-heartedness. ”

“ Our Japanese mind, I believe, through the hereditary sense of hearing which is suddenly awakened by the shrill of a ghost in tune of this samisen, the three-stringed instrument, not wild to us, but suggestive, not primitive but quite complex, will soon become impassioned into imagination; I dare say that we shall feel even a physical pain from love that the tune inspires, the love intensified into a feeling of sensuality. It is at such a moment when we forget the world and life, and pray to enshrine ourselves in love ”

“ One of the greatest defects of the samisen music is that it is divided into so many schools, each guarding jealously its traditions. When some new expression of the people’s will is necessary these separate elements may be concentrated to form a new musical force, just as Takemoto Gidayu recognised the value of the Joruri of his day and, combining them, established the balladry of the Doll-theatre on a firm foundation. ”

“ She had now spent the last penny of the money that Chisato had given her to speed her flight. Nothing remained for her but the wretched resource of begging for alms from door to door with staff in hand and to the music of a samisen, well-nigh worn-out, singing the "Morning-glory Song." ”

“ Some time, perhaps, while wandering through Japanese streets at night, you hear sounds of music, a tinkling of samisen floating through the great gateway of a Buddhist temple together with shrill voices of singing-girls; which may seem to you a strange happening. And the deep court is thronged with people looking and listening. Then, making your way through the press to the temple steps, you see two geisha seated upon the matting within, playing and singing, and a third dancing before a little table. Upon the table is an ihai, or mortuary tablet ”

“ I am only the wretched, hard-tried bonsan of this temple and I play to drive away evil spirits. Does my music sound at all uncanny to you?« This voice sounded strangely familiar to the ronin, and his heart was heavy in his bosom. »Does not this samisen sound extremely well?« continued the priest persuasively. »Could a specter venture into the magic circle of sweet sounds? ”

“ This is because samisen music depends almost completely on rhythm, rather than melody, to interpret emotion. Sound is inexhaustible, and by groupings of sounds in changing rhythms the samisen musicians gain the effects they desire. Western ears are so accustomed to harmony, that a departure from its stereotyped combinations causes bewilderment and irritation. Any other use of sound and rhythm than that to which their ears have grown familiar fails to affect them. The music of shibai presents a whole world of uncharted music material. ”

“ Isawa, the second, fourth, and sixth in the classical music of Japan are identical with the same intervals of the modern European scale, but the third (major third) is sharper, and the seventh flatter. The popular or samisen scale is different. Like the scale of mediæval Europe we still quote Mr. Isawa it has for its chief peculiarity a semitone above the tonic, which is one among various reasons for believing the samisen, together with its scale, to have found its way here from the Spaniards at Manila, and not from Luchu according to the current Japanese opinion. ”

“ There was no more of a response in us when Tsuro-matsu asked us to tell a story than there had been when Hori had asked us to extemporize poetry in the valley of the Kiso. We scored a failure as always but a moment later chance gave us a second opportunity for the vindication of Occidental accomplishments.
O-Owre-san had picked up a samisen and was searching for some harmonies in the long strings. In the mystery of the night, coming out of the darkness, the music of Japan has a certain functioning charm harmonizing with the rhythm of the wings of insects beating their way through the shadows ”

“ She returned with her samisen. [16] With a [102] display of greater vim than was called for, she shoved open the sliding screens at the low, wide window. Placing herself over the sill, she began to play upon the samisen some measures of the Katobushi. [17] Her voice of plaintive richness, of which well she may have been proud, floated out to fill the room with its melodious tremors, even arresting the steps of some wayfarers below on the street. “Can you not hear these words of song? Oh! ”

“ Men begin to sing old samurai songs, old Chinese poems. One or two even dance. A geisha tucks her robe well up to her knees; and the samisen strike up the quick melody, 'Kompira fund-fund.' As the music plays, she begins to run lightly and swiftly in a figure of 8, and a young man, carrying a sake bottle and cup, also runs in the same figure of 8. If the two meet on a line, the one through whose error the meeting happens must drink a cup of sake. The music becomes quicker and quicker and the runners run faster and faster, for they must keep time to the melody ”

“ So necessary was rhythm as an accompaniment to these ballads that the early minstrels shook a bundle of sticks, or waved a metal rod like a baton.
With the greatly improved rhythms of the samisen at their command, minstrels sprang up in all directions, the new style of music being called Joruri, since the first ballad to be composed to the strains of the samisen concerned the love adventures of Joruri-hime, or Princess Joruri. Abundant materials were at hand, and the minstrels competed with each other in depicting the life of the time. ”

“ The chanters are artists of high standing, in fact somewhere in the seventeenth century they had already established a unique form of elocution. The reading is generally accompanied by the strains of the samisen, a three-stringed instrument, played by an artist who sits on the platform next to the chanter. Sometimes besides the principal Gidayu there are others who chant as a sort of chorus. In some performances there are as many as thirty-three Gidayus, twenty-nine samisen players, some forty manipulators and several cleaners of lamps and stage hands. ”

“ No fighting, no rowdyism, no rough words accompany the spring saturnalia; and the laughter is so infectious, the antics and figures so comical, that even sober people seem to have tasted of the insane cup. At night lanterns swing from all the rows of tea-houses, booths, and fairy branches, and interminable Japanese dinners are eaten, with beautiful maiko and geisha posing and gliding, twanging the samisen and [75] tsuzumi drums, their kimonos embroidered with cherry blossoms, hair-pins, and coronals of blossoms set in the butterfly loops of blue-black hair. ”

“ Another of the Fujiwara nobles (Yasutada) made a habit of carrying hot rice-dumplings in the bosom of his garment, for the sake of their warmth, and throwing them away when they cooled, for the sake of displaying his opulence. To play the samisen [14] was the accomplishment of a legislator; to turn a couplet the proof of a statesman's capacity. It is impossible to recognise the Japanese of later eras in some of the hysterical creatures with whom history peoples the Heian Court. ”

“ He is a gallant who rideth on a white horse.”
The singing of these songs was continued even after the removal of the Yoshiwara, but was dropped after the era of Kwansei (1789–1800) . It also appears that the songs varied according to the house, but that gradually matters became simplified until the songs ceased and the samisen was merely tinkled by the private geisha of each brothel, as a pure formality. Even the playing of samisen ceased prior to the advent of the Meiji era (1869–) . ”

“ It can be noted that Japanese thought and expression are not very different from that of the West. An idea perhaps can be obtained from this gidayu as to why the native waxes enthusiastic over the pose and vivid gestures of the geisha, who is the one to interpret these dramatic recitations. To her falls the "kotoba." The descriptive lines are recited by a chorus to the harsh and effective twang of the samisen. The samisen may not afford music, but it can give expression to the emotional in feeling. The gidayu recitation is a favourite art with the Go Inkyō Sama. ”

“ Yuki plays the samisen, which may be regarded as the national female instrument, and Haru goes to a teacher daily for lessons on the same.
The art of arranging flowers is taught in manuals, the study of which forms part of a girl's education, and there is scarcely a day in which my room is not newly decorated. It is an education to me; I am beginning to appreciate the extreme beauty of solitude in decoration. ”

“ When death is about to enter through the torn paper-covered windows of her room, there is no light in the chamber, and all is dark as pitch. In the upper portion of the house singing girls are probably playing merrily upon their samisen (banjo) , while dancing-girls are dancing and frisking to the music. ”

“ The player sits before the koto on knees and heels, in the ordinary Japanese attitude, and her motions are very graceful and pretty as she touches the strings, often supplementing the strains of the instrument with her voice. The teaching of this instrument and of the samisen, or Japanese guitar, is almost entirely in the hands of blind men, who in Japan support themselves by the two professions of music and massage,—all the blind, who cannot learn the former, becoming adepts in the latter profession. ”

“ Tokuyémon, in leaving Jirōzayémon's apartment met Takita on his way in. The two samurai had talked for some time together when the chamber-maid appeared and said: "Asagao has just come, sir."
"Asagao!" exclaimed Takita, with a look of wonder. "Who is this Asagao, my friend?"
"The name, I am told," answered Jiroōzayémon "is that of a blind girl who goes about begging in this neighbourhood, and playing on the koto or the samisen. As I feel lonely to-night I have sent for her. I wish to listen to her music——"
"A blind woman—and a beggar!" broke in Takita, with a forbidding expression. ”

“ To hide his act from his men, he pretends to be overcome by uncanny influences, but this excuse does not satisfy the retainers, and when Omori jumps upon his horse, they pull the bridle this way and that, the restive animal rearing and plunging to the strains of the samisen. ”

“ A company of story-tellers travel together under the name of their leader. In the early part of the evening the unskillful members come out in turn, and serve to kill time and practice on the audience. On the platform there is nothing to be seen but a low table and a candle burning on each side of it. A narrator appears from behind the curtain on the back of the platform, and sits at the table on a cushion and makes a profound bow. Then he takes a sip of tea, stops the samisen playing by banging upon the table with two fans wrapped in leather ”

“ Sami listened again. It was really wonderful, how the finch always sounded above the other birds with his emphatic “Trust! trust! trust!” “You must never forget what the finch calls,” continued the grandmother. “See, Sami, perhaps I cannot stay with you much longer, and then you will have no one else, and will have to make your way alone. Then the little bird’s song can oftentimes be a comfort to you. So don’t forget it, and promise me too that you will say your little prayer every day, so that you will be God-fearing; then no matter what happens, it will be well with you.” ”

“ Then he listened again, and again sounded the staccato call, clear and sharp above the singing of all the other birds.
“Do you hear it? Do you hear it?” cried Sami in his delight. “Now he is calling again: ‘Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust!’ And then they all sing together: ‘Only trust the dear Lord!’”
“You are just talking nonsense!” exclaimed Stöffi to the happy Sami. “The bird is more knowing than you are. That is the rain bird; I know him well. ”

“ His heart was so overflowing with joy that he wanted to sing aloud and give praise and thanksgiving evermore like the finch:
“Trust! Trust! Only trust the dear Lord!”
* * * * *
It is now ten years since Sami entered the plane-tree estate. Whoever passes by there on a beautiful Spring day will surely stand still at the high iron gateway and listen for a little, for there is seldom heard such a merry song as sounds from the thick branches of the planetrees. Up in the tree sits the young gardener pruning the branches. ”

“ If Bully didn't see those dishes that had been set out on the window sill! Yes indeed, he saw them! Oh, he had sharp eyes, let me tell you!
"Look here!" he cried to Sammie. "They've put the stuff out for us. Oh, what a lot of it! Nice, sweet batter, and nice maple-sugar frosting. How kind they are."
"Do you s'pose all this is for us?" asked Sammie, who, whenever he cleaned out the baking dishes, had never seen so much as that in them.
"Of course it is," answered Bully. "Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy said she'd put it out for us, and here it is out. Of course, it must be for us." ”

“ But with the thought of his grandmother, there rose in his heart all the memories of his life with her, how they had wandered so peacefully through the meadows, and how beautiful it had been under those trees, how the birds had sung and the brook murmured, and suddenly Sami was mightily overcome, and he exclaimed:
“Away! away! Over there! over there!”
From that moment on a bright light rose in his heart. It was hope in a new life as beautiful as the first had been. Then Sami said his evening prayer gladly and fell asleep. ”