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Ceremonial Music Of Japan, Setsuko Sugihara
Ceremonial Music Of Japan, Setsuko Sugihara
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
Ceremonial music in Japan is a type of music used to celebrate special occasions in special places, e.g., to honor the Emperor on his birthday, or for other special celebrations at a shrine.
In Japanese, the character for ceremonial music is written 雅楽 (pronounced Gagaku). The character 雅 (ga) means graceful, noble, or excellent. The character 楽 (gaku) means good or beautiful musical sounds. Appearing together, 雅楽 the two parts of this character mean ceremonial music, which is not performed among ordinary people.
The ceremonial music is used in the Imperial Court and in shrines, although not every shrine is …