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Horagai
''Horagai'' () (or ''jinkai'' ) are large conch shells, usually from ''Charonia tritonis'', that have been used as trumpets in Japan for many centuries. The instrument, which has served a number of purposes throughout Japanese history, has been given a number of Japanese names depending on its function. Special schools still teach students to play the traditional music associated with the conch. Instrument Unlike most shell trumpets from other parts of the world which produce only one pitch, the Japanese ''hora'' or ''horagai'' can produce three or five different notes. The different pitches are achieved using a bronze or wooden mouthpiece attached to the apex of the shell's spire. At freezing temperatures (often encountered in the mountainous regions of Japan) the lips may freeze to the metal surface, so wooden or bamboo mouthpieces are used. Historical usage Religion The conch is used by Buddhist monks for religious purposes. Its use goes back at least 1,000 years, and it i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Musical Instruments
Traditional Japanese musical instruments, known as in Japanese, are musical instruments used in the traditional folk music of Japan. They comprise a range of string, wind, and percussion instruments. Percussion instruments *; also spelled – clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord * – Hand cymbals * – wooden or bamboo clappers * – pellet drum, used as a children's toy * – small, ornately decorated hourglass-shaped drum * – hand-held bell tree with three tiers of pellet bells * – small drum used in * – small flat gong * – a pair of sticks which are beaten together slowly and rhythmically * (also called ) – clapper made from a pair of flat wooden sticks * – woodblock carved in the shape of a fish, struck with a wooden stick; often used in Buddhist chanting * – hand drum * or () – singing bowls used by Buddhist monks in religious practice or rituals * – hourglass-shaped double-headed drum; struck only on one side * – clapper made f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Communication In Feudal Japan
A variety of procedures were used to communicate across the battlefield in feudal Japan, much like in any other culture. These methods included visual signals like flags and banners and audible signals using drums and horns. Messengers on horseback used ciphers and other methods to prevent their messages from falling into the wrong hands. By the beginning of the Sengoku Period, battlefield communications had become fairly complicated affairs, with larger armies than ever before, and a multitude of flags and banners covered in a myriad of colors and designs. Flags and banners Since the beginnings of what we would today recognize as Japanese culture, and probably earlier, various symbols, crests, banners, or markings on armor were used to help identify and distinguish warriors on the battlefield. The '' mon'', or symbol, of a clan or a ''daimyō'' was particularly common, identifying which side a warrior fought on; some samurai used their own names or ''mon'' rather than that of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yamabushi
are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. They are generally part of the syncretic religion, which includes Tantric Buddhism and Shinto. Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some (saints or holy persons) of the eighth and ninth centuries. According to American writer Frederik L. Schodt: Clothing and items The Yamabushi usually wear and bring the following clothes and items with them: * Yuigesa (), a harness or sash adorned with pom-poms * Kyahan (), sandals made from straw * Tokin () which is a small hat-like adornment worn at the front of the head * Shakujō (), a metal rod, held in their hands * Oi (), backpack * Horagai (), a conch shell, which they blow like a horn to bind evil spirits See also * Cunning folk * Mount Ōfuna * Rishi * Shaolin Monastery Shaolin Monastery ( zh, labels=no, c=少林寺, p=shàolínsì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the crad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nagak
The ''nagak'' (; also called ''na'', ''sora'', or ''godong'') is a wind-instrument made from a large seashell and played as a horn in Korean traditional music. It produces only a single tone and is used primarily in the military procession music called ''daechwita''. The mouthpiece of the ''nagak'' is made by making a hole in the pointed end of the conch, into which a mouthpiece is fitted. This instrument is first recorded as being used in Goryeo. As the instrument is from organic animals, it can vary in size. The shells were sometimes decorated with cloth or paint. See also *Conch (musical instrument) * Horagai, a similar shell horn used in Japan * Traditional music of Korea *Shankha A Turbinella pyrum, shankha () has religious ritual importance in Hinduism. In Hinduism, the shankha called panchajanya is a sacred emblem of the Hindu preserver deity Vishnu. It is still used as a trumpet in Hindu ritual, and in the past was us ... * Traditional Korean musical instruments Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yamabushi
are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. They are generally part of the syncretic religion, which includes Tantric Buddhism and Shinto. Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some (saints or holy persons) of the eighth and ninth centuries. According to American writer Frederik L. Schodt: Clothing and items The Yamabushi usually wear and bring the following clothes and items with them: * Yuigesa (), a harness or sash adorned with pom-poms * Kyahan (), sandals made from straw * Tokin () which is a small hat-like adornment worn at the front of the head * Shakujō (), a metal rod, held in their hands * Oi (), backpack * Horagai (), a conch shell, which they blow like a horn to bind evil spirits See also * Cunning folk * Mount Ōfuna * Rishi * Shaolin Monastery Shaolin Monastery ( zh, labels=no, c=少林寺, p=shàolínsì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the crad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taiko
are a broad range of Traditional Japanese musical instruments, Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese language, Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming more specifically called . The process of constructing varies between manufacturers, and the preparation of both the drum body and skin can take several years depending on the method. have a mythological origin in Japanese folklore, but historical records suggest that were introduced to Japan through China, Chinese and Korean cultural influence as early as the 6th century CE; pottery from the Haniwa period depicting drums has also been found. Some are similar to instruments originating from India. Archaeological evidence also supports the view that were present in Japan during the 6th century in the Kofun period. Their function has varied throughout history, ranging from com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bugle
The bugle is a simple signaling brass instrument with a wide conical bore. It normally has no valves or other pitch-altering devices, and is thus limited to its natural harmonic notes, and pitch is controlled entirely by varying the air and embouchure. History :''See also Clarion'' and ''Natural trumpet'' The English word ''bugle'' comes from a combination of words. From French, it reaches back to ''cor buglèr'' and ''bugleret'', indicating a signaling horn made from a small cow's horn. Going back further, it touches on Latin, ''buculus,'' meaning bullock. Old English also influences the modern word with ''bugle'', meaning "wild ox." The name indicates an animal's (cow's) horn, which was the way horns were made in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The modern bugle is made from metal tubing, and that technology has roots which date back to the Roman Empire, as well as to the Middle East during the Crusades, where Europeans re-discovered metal-tubed trum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though some are in C. It is a type of valved bugle, developed in Germany in the early 19th century from a traditional English valveless bugle. The first version of a valved bugle was sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax (creator of the saxophone) with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modelled. Etymology The German word ''Flügel'' means ''wing'' or ''flank'' in English. In early 18th century Germany, a ducal hunt leader known as a ''Flügelmeister'' blew the ''Flügelhorn'', a large semicircular brass or silver valveless horn, to direct the wings of the hunt. Military use dates from the Seven Years' War, where this instrument was em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taiga Drama
is the name NHK gives to the annual year-long historical drama television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white ''Hana no Shōgai'', starring kabuki actor Onoe Shoroku II and Awashima Chikage, the network regularly hires different writers, directors, and other creative staff for each taiga drama. The 45-minute show airs on the NHK General TV network every Sunday at 8:00pm, with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 1:05pm. NHK BS, NHK BS Premium 4K and NHK World Premium broadcasts are also available. Taiga dramas are very costly to produce. The usual procedure of a taiga drama production would have one-third of the total number of scripts finished before shooting begins. Afterwards, audience reception is taken into account as the rest of the series is written. Many times, the dramas are adapted from a novel (e.g. ''Fūrin Kazan (TV series), Fūrin Kazan'' is based on ''The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan''). Though taiga dramas have been regarded by Japane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the Emperor of Japan, emperor and the ''kuge'' (an aristocratic class). In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the ''shugo'' of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku period to the daimyo of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of daimyo also varied considerably; while some daimyo clans, notably the Mōri clan, Mōri, Shimazu clan, Shimazu and Hosokawa clan, Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other daimyo were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period. Daimyo often hired samurai to guard their land, and paid them in land or food, as relatively few could afford to pay them i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Samurai
''The Last Samurai'' is a 2003 American epic period action drama film directed and produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz from a story devised by Logan. The film stars Tom Cruise, who also produced, along with Timothy Spall, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly, Tony Goldwyn, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Koyuki Kato in supporting roles. The film's plot was inspired by the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, led by Saigō Takamori, and the Westernization of Japan by foreign powers. Cruise portrays Nathan Algren, an American captain of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, whose personal and emotional conflicts bring him into contact with samurai warriors in the wake of the Meiji Restoration in 19th century Japan. The character of Algren is very loosely based on Eugène Collache and Jules Brunet, both French Imperial Guard officers who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki in the earlier Boshin War. ''The Last Samurai'' grossed a total of $456 m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
