Japanese music from early modern Japan

Sun 9 August

Emmanuel College

Removed from the theatre and at the heart of the pleasure quarter of Yoshiwara in the megacity of Edo (nowadays Tokyo), shinnai bushi deploys the string instrument known as shamisen to perform songs full of life: love, passion, gambling, and much more. Anyone could request a song by stopping the performers who would be walking around Yoshiwara.

This form of popular music that fired the imagination of early modern Japan is still alive in Japan.

Join us for the first performance of its kind in the UK and discover the world of shinnai bushi with renowned master Okamoto Miyanosuke and shamisen player Okamoto Toranosuke.

No knowledge of Japanese is required to enjoy the performance. The performance will be punctuated by explanations in Japanese and English by Prof Konoe Noriko (Komazawa University) and Prof Laura Moretti (University of Cambridge).

The performance is part of the Thirteenth edition of the Mitsubishi Corporation Summer School in Early Modern Japanese Palaeography (University of Cambridge, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies).