The story telling tradition of Heike Monogatari


Heike Monogatari (the story of Heike) is a well-known Japanese epic, which has been performed during the ages in many different versions and styles, however the main characteristic - its reciting - always has been present. The stories are based on the Buddhist idea of cause and effect and human life's impermanence.

According to the essay Tsurezure-gusa ("Gleanings from my Leisure Hours" ca.1330) by the Buddhist monk Kenkô Yoshida, the Heike-Monogatari was created ca.1200 by Shinano Yukinaga Nyûdô after he quit as a gagaku musician and joined the mountain monastery of Hiei-zan; it was recited by a môsô-biwa player, the blind monk Shôbutsu, in Kyoto. The history of this initial performance of the Heike-Monogatari, involving gagaku music, Buddhist Shômyô chanting and môsô-biwa playing, clearly indicates the three origins of the heikyoku-biwa style.

Heike Monogatari describes the short-term prosperity of the Heike clan, from the beginning of the twelfth century till their ruin in 1185, when they lost their war with the Genji clan from Kamakura (just south of nowadays Tokyo). Heike was located in the Kyoto area, but during the war, while attempting to escape, they gradually moved southward, so that most of the famous war stories happened somewhere in the Inland Sea of Seto.

In ancient times, the heikyoku was played by blind monks. Their performance permitted many people to enjoy the historical legends, since most of the audience was illiterate.The narrative content of the accounts as well as the detailed and touching descriptions of the protagonists were widely appreciated. Over the centuries, the Heike-Monogatari was performed in other biwa styles, like that of the satsuma-biwa featured here, each style contributing its own instrumentation and versions of the epic. The masculine atmosphere of striking-effect as well as the sensitive and plaintive sawari-effect atmosphere, produced by the satsuma-biwa, high-lights the heroic and dramatic history of Heike. Nowadays the Heike-Monogatari is included in the repertory of each and every satsuma-biwa player.