Japan Music Educational Travel

JAPAN

 

Japan’s Music festivals are held during Japan’s school holidays with major events being held from late July to late August.

One of these festivals held every three years in late July is in the City of Shizuoka the capital of Shizuoka prefecture. It is situated on the Pacific Coast of Japan, just one hour from Tokyo by bullet train. It has a lot of sunshine through the year, which favors its rich harvest of fruit, tea and other agricultural products. The festival lasts for nine days and caters for a wide selection of music groups including Orchestral, wind ensembles, choral groups, and traditional music/dance groups and so on.

From September to October are traditional dance and music festivals including folk dance and drum groups which play at local festivals at community halls and shrines. All through autumn has very little international events, but the local festivals are very interesting to see the traditional and historical part of there daily life.

Concert tours/ Joint concerts can be arranged with Japanese Musical groups at music halls and schools 2 –3 times a week.

But if your traveling to Japan why not take some lessons in playing traditional Japanese old musical, using the TAIKO drums, SHAKUHACHI Japanese flue made of Bamboo, KOTO Japanese harp, SAMISEN Japanese Banjo

There are several types of traditional, Japanese music (Hogaku). Some of the most important ones are:

Gagaku: Ancient court music from China and Korea. It is the oldest type of Japanese, traditional music.

Biwagaku: Music played with the instrument Biwa, a kind of guitar with four strings

Nogaku: Music played during No performances. It basically consists of a chorus, the Hayashi flute, the Tsuzumi drum, and other instruments.

Sokyoku: Music played with the instrument Koto. Later also accompanied by Shamisen and Shakuhachi. The koto is a zither with 13 strings.

Shakuhachi: Music played with the instrument Shakuhachi, a about 55cm long flute. The name of the flute is its length expressed in the old Japanese lengh units.

Shamisenongaku: Music played with the instrument Shamisen, a kind of guitar with only three strings. Kabuki and Bunraku performances are accompanied by the shamisen.

Minyo : Japanese folk song