1. Title of the Project:

Preservation and Transmission of Nagahama-Hikiyama Festival

2. Name of the Performing Art Concerned in the Project

Shagiri music performed at the Nagahama-Hikiyama Festival

3. Geographic location of the Community

Nagahama-shi, Shiga-ken

4. Introduction of the Performing Art

The Nagahama-Hikiyama Festival began as a recreation of tachi-watari processions that had been undertaken during the time that Hashiba (later Toyotomi) Hideyoshi was the feudal lord of Nagahama. Hikiyama (floats) were later added to this procession to become a festival of floats as this festival is in its present form. Delighted at the birth of a son, Hideyoshi distributed gold dust to the residents of the local town, who were said to have produced hikiyama floats using this gold dust for use in festivals. The festival was designated an intangible folk-cultural asset of national importance in 1979.

The traditional performing arts performed at the festival consist of kodomo-kyogen plays (kabuki performances) and festival music. The festival music is referred to as shagiri at the festival and consists of the use of flutes, drums, and surigane gongs. Records from 1792 indicate that performances were already being given “to the accompaniment of the shagiri music.”

The festival music was originally played to move objects imbued with divine spirits. The shagiri music attached to a hikiyama float would always be played when moving the hikiyama float. It is believed that shagiri music came to be needed to move a hikiyama float upon its construction.

5. Problems the community faced before the launch of the project, and the factors which caused the decline of and threatened the performing art

The shagiri musicians used to consist of the adult members of yamagumi groups. As shagiri music also came to be performed in neighbouring towns and villages with their own hikiyama floats, the people from the neighbouring areas were invited to participate in the festival. Thus, the northeast part of Shiga Prefecture, which encompasses Nagahama City, is referred to as the Kohoku Shagiri Culture Zone.

Shagiri music suffered from a decline in the number of custodians as the festival was suspended between 1937 and 1948 as the Sino-Japanese War and the Second World War raged on, and young men who were crucial to transmitting shagiri music were sent to the front. In addition, the shagiri musicians from neighbouring areas who had previously participated in the festival also started to avoid participating during 1960s due to aging, a lack of successors, and busy work schedule. At the same time, few people wished to learn shagiri music, perhaps due in part to the fact that it was taught through symbols and oral means. Thus, some had to use tape recorders to provide accompanying music during festival processions.

6. Details of the project for solving problems of the performing art, especially who and how it started, finance, and involvement of younger generation

The Nagahama-Hikiyama Festival Shagiri Preservation Society is engaged in activities with the aims of preserving the shagiri music, surveying original pieces transmitted within each yamagumi group, and cultivating successors. The Society endeavours to apply staff notations using musical notes to shagiri pieces and strives to disseminate shagiri music to the wakashu members in each yamagumi group. The Society also aspires to broadly promote local performing arts to the area in conjunction with the festival.

The movement to preserve and transmit the shagiri music emerged from within the community. Four of the 13 groups in Nagahama city gathered to form the society. At the same time, it was introduced to music classes in local primary and junior high schools as a part of traditional music education. The music teachers then made transcriptions of all the shagiri pieces using musical notes by music experts belonging to yamagumi groups.

The most significant factor is teaching of the shagiri music to children instead of adults. While adults were the primary agents of shagiri transmission in the past, children have now taken over this role. Local boys were first recruited, but more girls later wished to learn the shagiri music, and girls’ participation came to be allowed by decision of some yamagumi groups. Club activities in local schools came to be formed; it allowed the shagiri music to become more accessible to children.

When children were seen performing festival music at a festival outside the prefecture, we realised that children with quick learning ability can solve the problem. As the number of children learning the shagiri music increased, it soon became possible for us to provide support in mountainous areas where the shagiri musicians were still lacking.