Biwa hōshi
Biwa hōshi (琵琶法師), also known as "lute priests", were travelling performers in the era of Japanese history preceding the Meiji period.
Religion in Japan at the time incorporated many native animistic (Shinto) beliefs into its Buddhist theological framework, leading many court nobles and religious leaders to worry about angry Taira spirits disrupting the peace.
[5] Ranks were assigned to biwa hōshi on the basis of skill, the highest being kengyō (検校), followed by kōtō (勾当), bettō (別当) and zatō (座頭).
[10] In addition, the rise in popularity of the shamisen, which accompanied contemporary songs and narratives, made the ancient tales of the Heike appear antiquated.
[13] These traditions enjoyed widespread appreciation during the early 20th century due to the "nationalist, militarist sentiments of late-Meiji imperialist ideology".
[13] As such, "most Japanese come to think of the biwa as a battered old string instrument played by a decrepit blind man who looks like a Buddhist priest and wanders about chanting old tales about war and ghosts".
[13] According to Ferranti, "outside of the realms of scholarship and the few who are involved in learning and performing", few Japanese civilians are familiar with the aural qualities of the biwa and cannot recognize its tones with references to ancient war-tales.
[16] According to De Ferranti, the act of playing lutes for alms by blind musicians finds its roots in Indian Buddhist culture during the 1st millennium CE.
[17] A 7th-century text from China and Japan's early 12th-century Konjaku Monogatarishū recount this story, while other "scattered accounts" of blind lute-laying priests can be found in Tang-period volumes from the Chinese mainland.
[18] Under Mao Zedong, blind itinerants called shuoshude (Chinese: 说书的) played a three-string lute in "household ritual contexts" using their narrative "as a potent force for social reform" by the Communist Party.
[19] Prior to the spread of Buddhism during the 6th to 9th centuries, it was "generally acknowledged that in Japanese ritual life blind men and women [were] respected as shamanic celebrants who bore numinous power because of their separation from the world experienced by others".
[21] For music, plucking or striking string instruments also have ritual meanings, and were tasks probably given to blind individuals to perform in belief of their shamanistic abilities.
The role of early biwa hōshi in delivery the vocal performance of battle tales "to allay the fury of slain warriors' ghosts" further implies a shamanistic qualification of the blind.
[20] Historical references suggest biwa hōshi were involved in both divination and also in this fundamental role of placating aggravated spirits, especially those killed in battle.
[24] However, according to Hugh de Ferranti, not all blind biwa players of antiquity "were completely lacking the sense of vision and knowledge of music".
[17] Also, many blind individuals gain the ailment gradually, resulting from aging, illness, or accident, meaning literacy may have been acquired earlier in life.
[25] Japanese iconography indicates two female lute-playing deities: the aforementioned Benzaiten and Myōonten; their identities are often fused together, but both have their roots in the continental Asian tradition, and can be traced from Sarasvati through various forms.
Lake Biwa is famous for Chikubu-shima, where Taira no Tsunemasa performs at the Benzaiten shrine, whose deity appears in the form of a white dragon.
[27] Especially in Kyushu, there are biwa hills, valleys, ponds, and bridges throughout Japan, where performers supposedly buried or offered instruments to the local waters.
[32] In the Edo period, singers called goze often accompanied themselves on the shamisen or koto, the latter of which was played by "affluent blind women who taught it to the wives of samurai and merchants".
[34] In other words, commoner townsmen (chōnin) and warrior–rank blind people "were allowed to engage in the professions available to all of similar rank, within the constraints of their visual impairment", while those in agrarian households were expected to contribute to the payment of land taxes via any means of labor possible.
[34] However, folk beliefs in the visits of kami during such harvest festivals to rid villagers of impurity upon receiving gifts from householders may have provided a socio-cultural basis for the willingness to offer food and money to itinerant performers; further, kadozuke was seen as an act of merit.
[35] According to Hugh de Ferranti, iconographic and literary sources generally portray biwa hōshi as solitary and pitiable figures, though wealthy and powerful individuals also exist in such representations.
[35] Sometimes they are depicted as mysterious, frightening, and potentially dangerous individuals while in other sources, they are "ridiculous" characters "to be made fun of, at times with unbridled cruelty".
[35] Folklore links biwa hōshi to ghosts through their placation of wronged spirits and the chinkon ritual performance, accounts for their fearful quality.
[36] However, kyōgen plays called zatō-mono feature deliberate tricking of a blind zatō so that he becomes lost and disoriented, or suffers losses and misunderstanding.
[37][38] In these images, people "look out from their houses at the biwa players and appear to be laughing or jeering at them", while children run away from and dogs bark at them.
[38] The present trend of scholarly analysis is to consider the heike's origin as having arisen first as a biwa recitation for the purpose of spreading Buddhism.
It is in this way that Yukinaga legendarily wrote the script of the Tale of the Heike, and taught it to a mōsō-biwa from eastern Japan named Shōbutsu, renowned for his impressive narrative delivery and extensive knowledge of warriors, bows, and horses.
[40] According to George Gish, there were five essential ingredients for the development of the heike:[41] Heikyoku musically is influenced by Buddhist chant, and the kōshiki and shōmyō traditions of the biwa from the 11th and 12th centuries.
