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Biwa hōshi were mostly blind, and adopted the shaved heads and robes common to Buddhist monks. The occupation likely had its origin in China and India, where blind Buddhist lay-priest performers were once common. The musical style of the biwa hōshi is referred to as heikyoku (平曲), which literally means "heike music".
The Tale of the Heike ' s origin cannot be reduced to a single creator. Like most epics (the work is an epic chronicle in prose rather than verse), it is the result of the conglomeration of differing versions passed down through an oral tradition by biwa-playing bards known as biwa hōshi.
Set during the Genpei War (1180–1185), a devastating civil conflict that divided Japan, the story is told from the perspective of Biwa, a young girl and traveling biwa minstrel. Following the death of her blind father, Biwa meets Taira no Shigemori, heir to the powerful Taira clan that is fighting for supremacy in the war. Shigemori also has ...
Akashi Kakuichi (明石 覚一, 1299 – 10 August 1371) also known as Akashi Kengyō (明石検校) was a Japanese Buddhist monk of the early Muromachi period of Japanese history, noted as the blind itinerant lute player (biwa hōshi) [1] who gave the epic Heike Monogatari its present form.
The biwa (Japanese: 琵琶) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710–794).
Hōichi-dō (Hōichi's shrine) in Akama Shrine. Hoichi the Earless (耳なし芳一, Mimi-nashi Hōichi) is the name of a well-known figure from Japanese folklore. His story is well known in Japan, and the best-known English translation first appeared in the book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn.
To the same page name with diacritics: This is a redirect from a page name that does not have diacritical marks (accents, umlauts, etc.) to essentially the same page ...
[6]: 35 The biwa hoshi, itinerant blind priests, have a similar history with the instrument. [6]: 32 The chant which opens the kamioroshi ceremony makes several references to the plucked bow. The chant announces that the first pluck of the string calls down the gods of the village, the second calls down the gods of the prefecture, and the third ...