TEAM RESEARCH REPORTS AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS

What kinds of narrative tales and melodies were popular in modern Japan? Naniwabushi (rōkyoku) is a form of narrative singing that holds the key to this question. At the end of the 19th century these narrative ballads rapidly caught on, eventually gaining enormous popularity at the beginning of the twentieth century. Looking at the period from the Meiji era to today, this essay collection views the history of naniwabushi as a chronicle of a dynamic that repeats its formative process. This book is also a product of team research efforts tied to Nichibunken’s “Rōkyoku (Naniwabushi) Digital Archive.”