Ishidoomaru appears on the following albums

	Альбом	Исполнитель
	Musical Anthology of the Orient, Unesco Collection Vol 6
CHANTING ACCOMPANIED ON THE BIWA (JAPANESE SHORT LUTE) "ISHIDOMARU" Commentary by Detlef Foljanty The biwa, which has been closely associated with the growth of vocal music in narrative style, such as is found in the Japanese epics, is an instrument of the lute family. It is thought to have originated in the Sassanian kingdom in Persia and reached China, where it is known as p'i-p'a, by way of East Turkestan. It was introduced into Japan from China, during the period of its close contact with the culture of the T'ang dynasty, in the 7th and 8th centuries. The biwa was one of the instruments of the Chinese music which was adopted by the Japanese court in its ceremonial music, known in Japan as Gagaku. In addition to its function in the Gagaku ensemble, the biwa was used by the court nobles as a solo instrument. Later on, in the 10th and 11th centuries, it was taken up by blind wandering Buddhist priests and mendicant monks who used it to accompany ritual formulas intended to bring prosperity, as well as recitations of tales and the news of the day. In the 12th century, an age dominated by bitter struggles for political power, the practice arose of reciting "war-tales" to a biwa accompaniment. Material for these epics was provided by the events of the civil wars which had just come to an end. The most representative work of this kind is the Heike Monogatari, the epic of the decline of the Taira clan. This art of recitation was also the property of blind Buddhist priests who spread it throughout the land, and it survived for four centuries. The 16th century saw the dawn of a new era in Japan which brought a change in taste, the old war-tales being superseded by new themes. The biwa was also ousted from its position as the main instrument for accompanying singing and recitation by a newcomer, the shamisen, a kind of three-stringed lute which is of lighter build and offers the player greater technical opportunities. The shamisen was the focal point of the new musical culture, that of a rich bourgeoisie in search of entertainment, whose outstanding achievement was to become the Kabuki theatre, established in the early 17th century. From then on the biwa was relegated to an insignificant position, and its music altered under the influence of shamisen melodies. The last representatives of the biwa tradition at the present time are two schools which were founded towards the close of the 19th century. Through these the biwa temporarily acquired a new popularity. The schools are known as Satsuma biwa and Chikuzen biwa, and take their names from the provinces from which their influence has spread. THE BIWA Like those of the Far East the lutes of Europe, whose golden age was in the 15th and 16th centuries, go back to the same Persian ancestor. But whereas the bodies of the European lutes are rounded, that of the Japanese biwa is flat and straight. The body tapers down to a short neck, thus giving the instrument a pear-shaped appearance. A resonating chamber is hollowed out of the body which is made from a solid piece of wood, usually mulberry. The sound-board which is glued onto the body is also of mulberry-wood. A strip of leather or lacquer is placed across the sound-board to protect it from the strokes of the plectrum. There are two crescent shaped sound-holes, one on either side of the strings, and a third under the tail-piece. The strings are attached to pegs fitting into the sides of the peg-box which lies back at right angles to the neck. A feature of the biwa is that the strings are stopped between the frets, which produces a distinctive twanging kind of tone. The frets stand quite high so that, even when under maximum pressure, the strings do not contact the finger-board. (The biwa used in Gagaku constitutes an exception, the strings being stopped directly at the frets so that a clearly definable note is produced). By varying the pressure on the strings and also through vibrato it is possible to obtain great variety of tone production. The plectrum used to pluck the strings is unusually large; in outline it resembles an open fan. The instrument recorded here is known as Satsuma biwa. It has four strings and four frets. The number of strings and frets varies on the different instruments, and plectra of different shapes are also found. THE MUSIC OF THE SATSUMA BIWA Traces of earlier biwa traditions are better preserved in the Satsuma biwa style than in the Chikuzen biwa style. Not only are the themes taken from history, but also the style of performance resembles that of the Heike Monogatari. Vocal and instrumental phrases alternate and sometimes overlap, and it is not possible to speak of an accompaniment in the occidental sense of the word. During the singing the instrument is limited to single supporting notes played from time to time. The melodies of the Satsuma biwa school are taken largely from shamisen music and have been adapted to the biwa. On this disc the Satsuma biwa style is represented by the recitation "Ishidomaru". Shisui Enomoto: biwa and singing In its present form "Ishidomaru" dates from about 1910. It is the result of are-working of an earlier version by Kinshin Nagata, one of the best-known masters of the biwa of the last hundred years, who included it in the repertoire of his school. The text, which had previously been recited to a shamisen accompaniment, goes back to earlier sources. The story tells of the fate of the young Ishidomaru who, together with his mother, leaves the southern part of the land to search for his father in the Central Provinces. The father, a former provincial governor, has renounced the world and, in search of liberation, has become a monk. Ishid6maru rediscovers his father who, however, does not reveal his identity, but leads him to a tomb which he declares to be that of his father, that is of Ishidomaru's father. This action springs from the Buddhist conception of the impermanence and senselessness of human life. The mother dies before Ishidomaru reaches her to announce the death of his father. Alone in the world, he returns to the monk who had shown him the grave alleged to be that of his father, and wanders as a pupil with him through the land without ever suspecting his identity.