Iroha secret shamisen code

General
#1

I recently read Junichiro Tanizaki’s short story “A Blind Man’s Tale”, from the book Seven Japanese Tales. It’s a story about a blind shamisen player from the early 1600s, when the shamisen was still a new instrument in Japan. There are a few interesting passages related to this, but I like this one in particular, about a secret shamisen player’s code related to the iroha alphabet and the pitches of the samisen.

The iroha alphabet is a poem from the Heian period that uses every Japanese syllable just once. The order is the key thing, so the first syllable of the poem would probably be the open first string, the second syllable would be position 1 on the first string, and so on for 48 pitches.
The poem goes like this:
Iro ha nihoheto
Chirinuru wo
Wa ka yo tare so
Tsune naramu
Uwi no okuyama
Kefu koete
Asaki yume mishi
Wehi mo sesu

It could make be an interesting technique for composing melodies, or a secret shamisen ninja code for those so inclined.

#2

Very interesting!

#3

Wow, so interesting. I think I read one or two Tanizaki’s stories before but didn’t know it.
Thanks, Gerry.

#4

Nice find Gerry! Seriously interesting. Someone has to make a ninja shamisen code :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

who knows this may already have happened :slight_smile:

#6

Thanks for sharing, Gerry! I’d be down to help people tinker out the/an actual code, or track it down if any documentation exists aside from this story.

#7

totally fascinating

#8

I have seen notation using that system. I never thought about the secret code possibilities–very interesting!

#9

Yay Bachido – on what other forum would people get excited about this!
John, I thought you might have come across this before. I’ve never seen it myself, though I remember someone mentioning it in a thread here somewhere in the last year.
Adrian, I’m guessing it looks like the diagram below. I just made this up, so it might be wrong, but with 16 positions on each string, from the open string to what is 16 in the notation we use around here, my guess is that position 8 would have been skipped, as it rarely if ever appears in traditional music.

By the way, I found this translation of the original poem on the wikipedia page for iroha:

Although its scent still lingers on
the form of a flower has scattered away
For whom will the glory
of this world remain unchanged?
Arriving today at the yonder side
of the deep mountains of evanescent existence
We shall never allow ourselves to drift away
intoxicated, in the world of shallow dreams.

#10

It is so amazing and what an attractive and misterious culture!!!
Thanks for sharing for all knowledge!

#11

Oh man, thanks for posting the diagram. Now to work out some coded licks~

#12

Yes, who will be the first to accept the challenge of translating heard music on the fly?

#13

No wonder people laugh when I played in Tokyo. I must have coded out some hilarious jokes! :stuck_out_tongue:

That is fascinating, Gerry. Knowing how blind musician’s ears are more perceptive than others, I totally believe that they devised a code on the positions.

I wonder, could we work this into an article, perhaps? I’d hate for it to get lost amongst the threads in a weeks time. :-S

#14

Asking Google-san about this was not much help even in Japanese. Possibly considered a trade secret, but more likely, the people familiar with this are not likely to be active on the interwebs. Anyway, I know at least one person who knows this. As I recall, he said open string 1, open string 2 and open string 3 are I RO HA, and it continues like that. I will try to confirm.

#15

Oh wow ^^ this definitely peaked my interest

#16

There is another syllabary that is used, although I must admit, I haven’t taken the time to learn and understand it all. I believe it is used to note the length of the notes, and the syllables change with each string. You can see these syllables written over notes in modern tabs. Check this out:

http://imgur.com/a7ldE86

It’d be cool to have a chart of THIS to learn from… :smiley:

#17

I don’t know how I missed this post back in April, but now I suddenly want to trascribe as many songs as I can to see if they make any ridiculous phrases.

#18

I learned the iroha method when I was taking lessons under the Kineya school of shamisen. I can’t believe I missed this post! I had been looking for another teacher to continue learning it, but found Kine-ie instead… They were the first to develop and copyright the bunkafu method apparently.

#19

Hi, Joe Cortez! The notation in your photo has ‘kuchi jamisen’ or something like ‘verbal shamisen.’ It is a kind of solfege (in western music, the Italian system uses ‘do re mI…’ to denote the notes of a scale). However, the Japanese system does not indicate pitch, only the string and the way of sounding the string. For string one: open downstroke is ‘don’ upstroke or hajiki is ‘lon.’ First string stopped: downstroke is ‘tsu’ or ‘tsun,’ upstroke or hakiji is ‘lu’ or ‘lun’. Second string: open downstroke ‘don’ or ‘ton.’ Upstroke or hajiki is ‘lon.’ Second string stopped: downstroke is again ‘tsun’ while upstroke or hajiki is ‘lun.’ Third string: open downstroke is ‘ten’, upstroke or hajiki is ‘ren.’ Third string stopped: downstroke is ‘chi’ or ‘chin’ and upstroke or hajiki is ‘ri’ or ‘rin’. Playing two strings is ‘shan’ for downstroke and ‘ryan’ for hajiki/upstroke. The general term for this is ‘kuchi shoga’ 口唱歌 --it is widely used in various kinds of traditional Japanese music. In the case of shamisen, the notational systems were only developed in the 19th century–there was no written notation before that, so teachers would use kuchi shoga to indicate how to play the piece. I have found that if I ask a shamisen player about a phrase, and I try to sing the phrase using ‘la la la’ or ‘dum de dum’ or whatever, the player usually doesn’t understand. You have to say ‘don tsu ten’ to be understood. With such a limited number of syllables, you can’t make many words, I’m afraid.

#20

On the right is the Iroha method of Kineya School for the piece, Matsu No Midori, and on the left is the bunkafu translation done by the founder of the Kine-Ie school. She was a student of the Kineya school until she developed the bunkafu. She wanted to spread shamisen to everyone so she developed the easier way to read the music.

http://imgur.com/np7FkB9

Each string follows iro ha. The first string is written in old syllabic kanji, the second is in katakana, and the third is in hiragana. But they all are iroha so, third string is いろは、second is イロハ、and first is also iroha in kanji that I don’t remember. It’s been about 2 years since I learned this system let alone taken a look at my Kineya book. My mom is still learning from my Kineya teacher though.

The numbers are for the singer to follow.

Oh and I almost forgot Iroha was a very very old way of counting or at least keeping track of numbers or something. My mom once told me how it was used… should probably pay more attention to what she tells me. I should ask again.

© 2020 Kyle Abbott