Rokudan-Jonkara Bushi relationship.

General
#1

Hi folks!.

Since I heared some japanese cd versions that start Jonkara Bushi with Rokudan´s Ichidan, I asked Kyle about the relationship between Rokudan and Jonkara Bushi.

He answered me that all the forms of Jonkara are based upon the first part of Rokudan.

Somebody has some information about the history and “standardization” about this relationship?.

And why Rokudan is not between the “Godai Tsugaru” if JRokudan Ichidan is the base of Jonkara??.

Thank you guys!

Best Regards!
Bruno

P.D: I hope you enjoyed my shakespearean English… :slight_smile:

#2

Hi Bruno,
I see it’s your first post, so welcome to Bachido. I think what Kyle meant by that is that Rokudan contains many of the important riffs and techniques of Jonkara, that you can then play around with to create your own version of the piece. It was created, from what I’ve heard and read, relatively recently, so that players from different schools could play something together. It is also basic enough specifically so that almost anyone can learn it.
Here is an old post about where Jonkara comes from, with a YouTube clip:

#3

The steps of Rokudan are also very similar, so it would be quite boring to listen to Rokudan at the tournaments as it would all sound very repetative.

#4

My understanding is in line with Gerry’s (and he’s the authority on the subject, not me). Rokudan serves the dual purpose of being an instructional piece to teach students the structures and techniques of Jonkara so that they can begin improvising within them, as well as providing a standardized Jonkara form for Tsugaru ensembles.

#5

Bruno,
Welcome to Bachido. One way you can think of it is to imagine if playing an improvised and free flowing Jongara bushi is similar to riding a bicycle then practicing Roku Dan is sort of like riding with training wheels on.

I’ve heard many players start their Jongara performance with the first few phrases of Roku Dan but I’ve heard comparatively many many more players start with different introductions. They say if you can play Roku Dan well then you are ready to begin on the journey of creating your own Jongara bushi by learning ,Listening to and observing all the variations you will find in recordings, concerts or video examples.

As you can surely tell we have a wonderful source of historical knowledge here In our Bachido group whose name is Gerry McGoldrick! Gerry’s information is always well researched . From my own perspective I have always simply tried to embrace the understanding that Tsugaru Shamisen is kind of its own tradition. Instead of trying to make sense out of it in comparison to western musical traditions it might help to simply look at the development of Jongara through Roku Dan as something unique to the musical culture of northern Japan.

#6

Whew! I’m glad you came here, Bruno! My answer was certainly overly-simplified. :wink: Yeah, Gerry’s the man to talk to about this. After writing his masters (Phd now?) in the history of tsugaru shamisen, you could say it’s his thing. :wink:

#7

Sorry for the delay in my answer!

Thank you very much to all of you guys!!!

Was an awesome information!!

And give us a really clear perspective about this pieces!

We just started to self-study tsugaru with Kyle´s book and other japanese books.

Soon we will start to study Rokudan and Jonkara Bushi, so this information help us to have a good historical background and at the same time will help us to choose wich variations/versions we will play!.

We really learn a lot with this community!!!

Best!
Bruno

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