Learning Traditional Japanese Instruments: The Puzzle of Notation

Alongside my lessons in traditional Japanese flute, I’ve recently started learning koto and shamisen.

I already have experience with piano, flute, French horn, viola da gamba (early music), and traverso (also early music). For all of those instruments, I never had trouble reading sheet music because the notation system is essentially the same. Of course, I had to learn how to read in different clefs, but the rules were consistent—once you know them, you just follow the system.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for traditional Japanese instruments. Each instrument has its own unique notation system, which means you can’t even read the sheet music of another instrument.

In Western classical music, musicians often refer to a full score to see what the others are playing when we perform together. But in traditional Japanese music, there is no such thing as a full score—the notation is completely different, and musicians use onomatopoeic sounds to communicate and learn. Often, they study multiple instruments to better understand the ensemble.
As a musician trained in European music, this creates a challenge: I can’t visually “see” what everyone is playing. I think having a shared score is a great idea, but when one koto player tried to create a kind of score, they were expelled from their school. And for Kabuki music, there simply is no score at all.

The shamisen is a well-known Japanese instrument, but not many people know that there are several different types—Nagauta shamisen, Jiuta shamisen, Tsugaru shamisen, and others—each tied to a different musical genre and each with its own type of notation.
For example, here’s a music sheet for voice and shamisen from Kabuki music (Nagauta style):

The music sheet for the voice and the shamisen of the Kabuki music called Nagauta

Even for the same type of shamisen, different schools can use completely different notations:

It's the music sheet for the same music in a different system 

Surprisingly, I found that some of these systems are quite logical and easy to read (and the rhythm is often not so complex).

For instance, koto notation uses string numbers from 1 to 10, plus three extra strings: To (斗), I (為), and Kin (巾).

 

I just follow these string numbers to play, and my fingers produce sound (although I might rather say, “my fingers make some notes…” 😅).

On the music sheet often there is another line written in Japanese katakana letters.

The music sheet often has another line written in katakana—these are onomatopoeic syllables called shōga. They are like vocal descriptions of the sounds.

Sometimes, shōga really helps me understand the structure of a phrase, especially when I struggle to memorize parts that don’t make sense in the Western musical logic I’m used to.

This notation is practical for learning, but at the same time, as someone used to Western scores, I easily get lost while playing. Once, I looked down at my instrument while playing, then glanced back at the sheet music—and couldn’t find where I was!
At a glance, it looked more like a Buddhist sutra than a music score.

Maybe it's because the notations are just string numbers and not tied to specific pitches (since you can retune the koto freely), or maybe I just need more time to get used to it.

When it comes to singing, my brain really wants to understand the notes in “ABC” (or do, ré, mi). I admit I’m a very bad student, but I often use a keyboard to learn the pitches. (Yes, I know this is heresy for traditional musicians… 😅)

I just hope I won’t get kicked out of school.

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