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This is a Sokyoku piece
in the Rosai mono style
from the Ikuta Ryű school
.
This piece was composed for koto by Yatsuhashi Kengyo
.
History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
The title means a 'Rosai-bushi in the tuning of the kumoi-joshi for the koto.' Rosai-bushi are a kind of popular song, possibly named after their creator, Rosai, a Buddhist priest of the early seventeenth century. These somewhat vulgar and melancholy love songs enjoyed their greatest popularity during the first half of the seventeenth century in both Kyoto and Edo (present Tokyo). Around that time, one of the Rosai-bushi was also adapted to the koto repertoire, probably by Yatsuhashi, and has been preserved in a quasi-kumiuta form.
Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Together with the moon
Yare no (1)
I wish I could disappear
Behind the edge of the hill.
The floating clouds drifting apart
Make me think of our parting
On the morrow.
I have fallen in love-
My sleeves of deep purple
Have been dyed a thousand times
By my tears of blood,
Sayuei (1)
By my tears of blood.
I wish I had a stalk
Of 'forgetting grass'-
I would plant it and raise it
So that I could forget you,
Sayuei (1)
So that I could forget you.
(1) Old Japanese exclamations with a tint of vulgarity.
Kumoi Rosai appears on the following albums:
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