Katsura-jizo-mae rokusai-nenbutsu:
Its characteristic and transmission
TAl Ryuuichi
Rokusai-nenbutsu in Kyoto City is the musical performance under the influence of Buddhist ritual music and various traditional music.
Katsura-jizo-mae rokusai-nenbutsu in the western area of Kyoto City has not been studied because it has been interrupted several times. It is the aim of this article that the author is to report its contents and to discuss its characteristic and the subject of transmission.
The main occasion of Katsura-jizo-mae rokusai-nenbutsu today is the Bon festival (the Buddhist festival of the dead) and the Jizobon festival (the festival of a guardian deity of children) in August. The construction of the performance is as follows: the taiko-mono (the performance of drums) and the gei-mono (the performance of dance and acrobatics) is the main programme and nenbutsu (a prayer to Buddha) is inserted in the opening and ending. Musical instruments are such as rokusai-daiko (three types [small, middle, and large size] special drums for rokusai-nenbutsu), simedaiko (a drum with frame), tsuzumi (a hand drum), kane (gongs, two types: one gong and two gongs), and fue (a bamboo flute).
The following is the characteristic of Katsura-jizo-mae rokusai-nenbutsu: the first, there are more the gei-mono than other places which transmit Rokusai-nenbutsu in Kyoto City; the second, the existence of unique piece "Aomono-zukushi", which is one of the taiko-mono and contains 137 names of vegetables and fruits; and the third, the repertoire of the taiko-mono is also important and sets up a climax of the high technique of drums.
It is masters of performers and their art that has taken the lead in the transmission of the performance in Katsura-jizo-mae rokusai-nenbutsu. It is interesting that this also led the refinement of the performance and unsteady of transmission. Th form of transmission has changed from masters of performers to the group of conservation following the times. It would be the subject of Katsura-jizo-mae rokusai-nenbutsu in future that it would place the rokusai-nenbutsu in the community and would organise the youth, and would make certain of the transmission of the repertoire, especially that of the gei-mono.
Key words: folk performance, the Bon festival, the Jizobon festival, Kyoto
