Recording Live Performances of Heike: the Seventh Session
The Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage has been recording live performances of Heike (or Heike Biwa). Heike faces the crisis of not being inherited by the next generation because of the recent absence of sufficient successors. This series of recordings has been conducted with the cooperation of the Heike Narrative Research Society, led by Prof. KOMODA Haruko, Musashino Academia Musicae, and other members of the society, including Mr. KIKUO Yuji, Mr. TANAKA Naoichi, and Mr. HIYOSHI Shogo since 2018. The seventh recording session of “The Visit to Chikubushima” (the entire piece) and “the Uji River” (the first half of the piece) was held in the Tokyo Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TOBUNKEN) Performing Arts Studio on January 31, 2025.
In “The Visit of Chikubushima,” an episode of a fortunate omen is narrated. Taira no Tsunemasa, adjutant general of the Taira clan and also an excellent poet and singer, visited the Chikubushima (the island of Chikubu) by a small boat on his way heading north along Lake Biwa. In Chikubushima, when he played secret music on the biwa instrument that was handed to him, a white dragon appeared above his sleeve. As Benzaiten (Goddess Saraswati), who is also a deity of performing arts, is enshrined in Chikubushima, this story implies harmony with the biwa instrument. “Uji River” features the fight for the vanguard between Kajiwara Genta Kagesue and Sasaki Shiro Takatsuna of the army of Minamoto no Yoritomo on the way to chase Kiso no Yoshinaka. In the first half, the following two highlights were well expressed: Kagesue and Takatsuna escalated their competitive spirits, triggered by the event in which an excellent horse called Ikezuki was given to Takatsuna, though Kagesue had asked for it. This led to a rising of tensions in the Minamoto army and the Kiso no Yoshinaka army facing each other across the raging Uji River.
We recorded the live performances in which Mr. Kikuo and Mr. Tanaka played “The Visit of Chikubusima” (the entire piece) and Mr. Hiyoshi played “the Uji River” (the first half of the piece).
The Department will continue to archive the traditional and reconstructed pieces of “Heike” live performances by the Heike Narrative Research Society.