The first of two evening concerts during the Festival Music of Japan Academy Week. Event is free and open to the public. Get more information about Academy Week.

Eien Hunter-Ishikawa

ARC Edo Ensemble

Although the word Bayashi has many possible meanings, when associated with festival music it most often refers to processions with floats or carts that have a small stage for musicians, Matsuri means festival Edo Matsuri Bayashi, or Edo Bayashi for short, refers to the 300 year old traditional festival music of historic Tokyo. “Edo” is the name for Tokyo under rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603 -1868), “Matsuri” translates to festival and “Bayashi” refers to a musical ensemble. With its complex interlocking rhythms and festive quality, Edo Bayashi helps to inform much of the cultural and aesthetic foundation behind North American taiko. 

A Japanese Prefecture is similar to a province in Western terms. 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of "prefeitura" to describe the fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese, however, was closer to "municipality" than "province." 

The Friday night concert will include a performance of “Chichibu Yomatsuri” from the Chichibu Prefecture. The Chichibu Festival is one of Japan’s major festivals. It is the only wintertime festival and is mostly observed during nighttime.

Wakayama Shachu (the Wakayama school of performance) is a professional traditional Japanese performing arts company. The performances they give, mostly as outlined below, originate from the Edo Period and have since grown in sophistication, while still preserving a stylish elegance and passion. They are typically performed at shrines during seasonal festivals, but also at theatres, not only in Japan.

***Wakayama Shachu is one of four companies designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan as a significant intangible folk cultural asset for Edo Sato-kagura. They have released several recordings since the 1960s, some of which have won awards.