Download Japan`s Spring Festival

Japan’s Spring Festival
Purpose:
To introduce the children to the sound of Japanese music and the appearance of
Japanese instruments. Allow them to describe the music, especially its unfamiliar
sounds. Tell them about the Japanese Spring Festival, “Hina Matsuri,” with its
traditional origami dolls. Let them make origami dolls while they listen to the last
excerpt of music.
Excerpts:
Kumoi Jishi Featured Instrument: Shakuhachi
Ozatsuma Featured Instrument: Shamisen
Ogi No Mato (The Folding Fan as Target) Featured Instrument: Voice Biwa
Edo Lullaby Featured Instrument: shakuhachi, shamisen, biwa, 2 kotos, bells
Mushi No Aikata (insect interlude) Featured Instrument: Shamisen
Hanami Odori Featured Instrument: Shamisen, Koto and Drum
Materials:
CD and player (you won’t play each song in its entirety – stop when the kids are ready)
Instrument photos (see below)
25 copies of origami (1/2 boy and ½ girl)
Introduction and Music
Japanese music is different from the music you are used to listening to. The scale you are used to
hearing is made up of whole steps and half steps – 12 in all in one octave (white and black keys on the
piano). The Japanese scale used only 5 notes – the same pitches as the black keys only on the piano.
Next time you get a chance to play a piano, try making up a tune using only the black keys. Your tune
will sound Japanese!
In Japan, the instruments are also different. Flutes are made of wood and the stringed instruments are
plucked like a guitar, not bowed like a violin or cello. The singing is really different. Wait and see.
After we listen to several pieces of music and get familiar with the common instruments in Japanese
music, we’ll also talk about a special spring festival called “Hina Matsuri.”
First, let’s listen to the first piece of music. As you listen to each piece of music, try to picture the
instrument you hear, and see if you can guess how they are being played.
PLAY PART OF TRACK 1 OF CD: KUMOI JISHI
FEATURED I NSTRUMENT: SHAKUHACHI
What did you hear? What kind of instrument do you think it was? How is the sound made? What do
you think the instrument is made of? (show picture of shakuhachi).
The instrument is called a shakuhachi. It is a bamboo vertical flute, played with the lower lip partly
inside the open top of the instrument Although it has only five holes and no keys, it is capable (with the
help of half- and quarter-coverings) of sounding many different notes of the Japanese scale as well as an
endless range of slides, tone colors and special effects.
PLAY TRACK 2 OF CD: OZATSUMA FEATURED INSTRUMENT: SHAMISEN
What did you hear? What kind of instrument do you think it was? How is the sound made? What do
you think the instrument is made of? (show picture after guesses of shamisen).
The shamisen is a three stringed instrument whose size and shape will perhaps remind you of a banjo. It
is played with a very large ivory plectrum – or pick. (see photo) held in the right hand. In addition to the
many sounds made by the strings, some musical pieces require the player to use the plectrum to strike
the catskin (!) that covers the body of the instrument, and produce a percussive (striking) effect.
PLAY PART OF TRACK 3 OF CD:
AND VOCALS
OGI NO MATO (THE FOLDING FAN AS TARGET) FEATURED INSTRUMENT : BIWA
What did you hear? What did you think? What kind of instrument was played? How is the sound
made? What do you think the instrument is made of? (show picture after guesses of biwa).
The instrument was a Biwa. A Biwa is a lute with a short neck and is held vertically while you play it (see
pictures). The strings on a Biwa range from three to five. It originally came from China and was often
used for traditional story telling.
This piece of music is very famous in Japan and is based on a legend similar to that of William Tell, in
which a folding fan, instead of the famous Swiss apple serves as the target. Most biwa music is quite
ancient. Voice and instrument work together as a narrative chant.
PLAY TRACK 4 OF CD: EDO LULLABY FEATURED INSTRUMENT: SHAKUHACHI, SHAMISEN, BIWA, 2 KOTOS, BELLS
This piece puts a number of the instruments together and introduced two new sounds (bells and koto).
The koto is a large zither, about 6 feet in length. It has 13 strings, each supported by a movable bridge,
allowing rapid changes of tuning (changes in pitch and notes). It is played primarily with a plectrum
worn on the first three fingers of the right hand. (Show picture of koto)
Spring Festival
Now turn to next page of presentation and listen to final selection while children make origami dolls.
Much of the written material here is taken from Katherine T. Millett’s original script for Japan’s Spring Festival,
with additional excerpts quoted directly or slightly adapted from the program insert for the Explorer Series
Compact Disc Japan: Traditional Vocal and Instrumental Pieces (which is also source for first 4 musical excerpts).
This CD is available at Elmhurst Public Library CD 787.95Nin, along with other Japanese Music.
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Spring Festival and Origami Dolls “Hina Matsuri”
Let’s talk for a minute about the Japanese Spring Festival. It is a very old holiday that started in the 12th
century – that’s in the 1100s, nine-hundred years ago.
When spring comes, the people in Japan want to enjoy the new flowers, cherry blossoms and warm air.
They also want to get rid of any bad health or bad luck they may have had during the winter.
The way children get rid of their bad luck or bad health is by making paper dolls. The bad feelings go
right into the dolls.
?? What do you think they do with the dolls??
Clue: Japan is a group of islands.
They send the dolls out to sea. They don’t just throw the dolls in the waters. They put them in boats.
Usually the boats are about two feet long, made of wood. They tie the boats together, put their dolls in,
and let the boats float away from the shore. They all watch until the boats are far out to sea.
Then they have a big party. The children and parents dress up, and then they invite friends and family
into their homes for a big, delicious dinner. They talk and laugh and play. Then comes the big moment
for the girl in the family. She gets to display her doll collection. Since she was a baby, her grandmother,
mother and aunts have been giving her dolls that are too beautiful to play with. Sometimes their heads
are made out of very fine china. They wear beautiful clothes, like long, embroidered robes called
kimonos tied at the waist with bests called obis. The girl and her mother will have spent days before the
party arranging these dolls on a tall stand in the family’s living room. All the guests come in to admire
the collections.
?? How do they make paper dolls in Japan?
Origami. They fold a piece of paper into the shape of a doll. The bad health or bad luck is supposed to
go into the doll.
Let’s make some origami dolls. You can make a boy or a girl.
Take out glue and a pen or pencil. We are going to pass out some directions, some paper, and some
sticks. Just follow the directions to make a paper doll.
As the kids work on their dolls, PLAY TRACK 5 OF CD: HANAMI ODORI
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SHAKUHACHI
The shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo. It was used
by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism (blowing meditation). Its soulful sound made
it popular in 1980s pop music in the English-speaking world.
Player blows into a narrow airway as one would blow across the top of an empty bottle. The five
finger holes are tuned to a pentatonic scale with no half-tones, but the player can bend each pitch
as much as a whole tone or more, using techniques called meri and kari, in which the blowing
angle is adjusted to bend the pitch downward and upward, respectively. Pitches may also be
lowered by shading or partially covering finger holes.
Much of the shakuhachi's subtlety (and player's skill) lies in its rich tone colouring, and the
ability for its variation. Shakuhachi are usually made from the root end of a bamboo culm and
are extremely versatile instruments.
Due to the skill required, the time involved, and the range of quality in materials to craft bamboo
shakuhachi, one can expect to pay from USD 300 to USD 5,000 for a new or used flute. Because
each piece of bamboo is unique, shakuhachi cannot be mass-produced, and craftsmen must spend
much time finding the correct bore shape for each individual flute to result in correct pitch over
all notes.
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KOTO
The Japanese koto is a zither about six feet long made of paulownia wood from the Japanese
"kiri" (paulownia) tree. The koto is made to resemble a crouching dragon, king of legendary
animals, and the koto's body parts are named dragon-head, dragon-back, dragon-legs, etc. The
koto's 13 strings are made of silk or nylon and are each of the same thickness. Each string is
tuned by a moveable bridge made of ivory or plastic, shaped like an inverted Y. Two sounding
holes are bored out of the backboard. The koto is played with three plectra or picks made of
ivory or plastic fitted into leather bands which are placed on the right hand's index finger, middle
finger and thumb. The koto's traditional scale is pentatonic (five notes excluding the octave), and
the main traditional Japanese tuning is called "hirajoshi," literally "tranquil tuning," D Eb G A
Bb D. The koto produces the purest musical tone of the traditional Japanese stringed instruments;
however, there are many special techniques of koto which produce added musical effects in
accordance with Japanese taste, such as scraping and hitting the strings with the plectra.
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SHAMISEN
The shamisen is similar in length to a guitar, but its neck is much much slimmer and does not
have any frets. Its drum-like rounded rectangular body, known as the dō, is taut front and back
with skin in the manner of a banjo, and amplifies the sound of the strings. The skin is usually
from a dog or cat, but in the past a special type of paper was used and recently various types of
plastics are being tried. On the skin of some of the best shamisen, the position of the cat's nipples
can still be seen.[1]
The neck of the shamisen is usually constructed such that it is divided into three or four pieces
that fit and lock together. Indeed, some shamisens are made so that they can be easily
disassembled and stowed to save space. The pegs used to wind the strings were traditionally
fashioned out of ivory, but as it has become a rare resource, they have been recently fashioned
out of other materials, such as various kinds of wood and plastic.
The three strings are traditionally made of silk, or, more recently, nylon. The lowest passes over
a small hump at the "nut" end so that it buzzes, creating a characteristic sound known as sawari
(somewhat reminiscent of the "buzzing" of a sitar, which is called jivari). The upper part of the
dō is almost always protected by a cover known as a dō kake, and players often wear a little band
of cloth on their left hand to facilitate sliding up and down the neck. This band is known as a
yubikake. There may also be a cover on the head of the instrument, known as a tenjin.
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Plektrum (for plucking shamisen or biwa)
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Biwa
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Biwa: It originally came from China. A Biwa is a lute with a short neck and is held vertically
while you play it. The strings on a Biwa range from three to five. Instruments that are played
with the Biwa are known as Biwagaku. This particular instrument was used for traditional story
telling. As good as it sounds when played mixed with other instruments, it is also used for solos.
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Girls' Day Origami
Fold an empress and emperor for Hina Matsuri!
Click here to print an empress.
Click here to print an emperor.
For more origami projects, Click Here.
What is Hina Matsuri?
1a. Cut out image along outer solid lines.
b. With printed side facing down, fold up on line A.
2a. Fold diagonally on line B.
b. Repeat diagonal fold on line C.
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c. Fold kimono up as shown.
3a. Turn origami over, with printed side facing up.
b. Fold arms of kimono down as shown.
c. Repeat on other side, and your Girls' Day doll is pau (finished)!
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