Pictorial evidence for <i>sankyoku gasso</i> before the Jokyo era (1684-88)

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  • 絵画資料に見る貞享以前の「三曲合奏」
  • カイガ シリョウ ミル ジョウキョウ イゼン ノ サンキョク ガッソウ

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This paper draws on visual materials to push back the date of the earliest instance of sankyoku gasso, the ensemble of koto, shamisen, voice and a third instrument—shakuhachi or kokyu.<br>A Prostitutes' Critique (yujo hyobanki) called Naniwa monogatari, published in 1655, contains an illustration in which a shamisen, a koto and a hitoyogiri (a predecessor of the shakuhachi) are placed together on the floor. This is the earliest clearly dated record of a combination of three instruments including koto.<br>However, an earlier source in a screen believed to have been painted “between 1615 and approximately 1630” depicts ensemble performances of shamisen and kokyu, and of shamisen, koto and kokyu. This is the Kaka yuraku-zu byobu (Scene of amusements beneath the blossoms), now held by the Shokokuji Temple in Kyoto.<br>Furthermore, another source, believed to originate from approximately the same period, can be seen in the Seikyoku Ruisan (volume one, part one; first published in 1847). It is a pair of illustrations titled ‘From an old six-panel painted screen dating from the Kan'ei or Shoho eras (1624-48)’ (Kan'ei Shoho no koro no koga rokumai byobu no uchi shuku-zu). One of these illustrations is a scene of entertainments in the licensed quarter. This illustration is only a sketched copy, and the old six-panel painted screen no longer exists. However, a copy of the original screen was introduced by KIKKAWA Eishi as the “Otobe byobu”. As the structure and arrangement of the figures are different in each version, it can be assumed that the Otobe screen is more faithful to the original.<br>Towards the centre of the Otobe screen, eleven figures form a group. This scene from the entertainment quarter shows a figure dancing in time to a song accompanied by instrumental ensemble of shamisen, kokyu and hitoyogiri. Guests are drinking and eating as they watch the performance. If we ignore the dance, this performance is none other than what later came to be the sankyoku ensemble comprising three instruments.<br>Ensemble performances of instruments such as the above were occurring from around the Kan'ei era (1624-44), before the formation of sankyoku as we know it today. After this time, many other pictures depict these instruments in various combinations being performed or positioned together. So we can surmise that similar kinds of ensemble performances occurred long before the formation of sankyoku as we know it today.

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