中村 かほる（Kahoru Nakamura）楽琵琶・右舞
国立音楽大学在学中、世界最古の琵琶譜、天平琵琶譜「番假崇」（芝祐靖氏復曲）の演奏に出会い雅楽を学ぶ。龍笛を芝祐靖氏、楽琵琶・右舞を山田清彦氏に師事。伶楽舎所属。 90年国立劇場音楽公演を始めとし、国内外での様々な音楽公演等で雅楽奏者として琵琶・舞に携わる。楽琵琶の魅力と可能性を追求し、雅楽古典及び現代作品、さらに廃絶された楽琵琶秘曲や独奏曲の復曲、新たな舞の作舞などにも取組み、活動を展開している。
Kahoru Nakamura (gaku-biwa and umai)
Kahoru Nakamura began her studies of gagaku (Japanese court music) after encountering a performance based on the world’s oldest surviving music notation for the East Asian four-stringed lute (biwa), the Tenpyō biwafu, in Sukeyasu Shiba’s reconstruction, entitled “Bankasō.” She has studied transverse flute (ryūteki) with Shiba himself, and the gagaku lute (gaku-biwa) and Dance of the Right (umai) with Kiyohiko Yamada. She is a member of the gagaku performance group Reigakusha.
She has appeared as a biwa player and dancer in many concerts, both within Japan and abroad, since her debut in a concert at the National Theatre (Tokyo) in 1990. She has a strong interest in exploring the expressive possibilities of the biwa, in the performance of both the traditional repertoire and modern compositions, as well as in the revival of the ancient repertoire of solo and secret pieces now lost from the biwa tradition. She has also been active in choreographing new dances.
1990/3 |
国立音楽大学音楽学部教育音楽学科卒業 |
「楽琵琶」について
平安朝末期から鎌倉初期にかけては、琵琶がとくにもてはやされた時代でした。名手がたくさん現れた時代でもあり、天皇、摂関家もこれを弾かれ、楽人、僧侶など音楽に関係のある多くの人々も競ってこれの習得に励みました。『三五要録』を編纂した藤原師長も琵琶の大家でした。琵琶の起源は、古くイランに発生して、シルクロードを経由し東へと伝えられ、奈良時代頃、藤原貞敏により琵琶譜を唐から持ち帰り、海を渡り日本に伝えられました。後に琵琶をめぐる説話が数多く生まれ、文芸の世界では有名になりました。雅楽の琵琶は「楽琵琶」と呼ばれ、正倉院に収蔵されている四絃琵琶がそのままの姿で現在まで伝えられています。「三五」とは全長三尺五寸にちなんだ楽琵琶の異称です。
また、奈良の正倉院にはその源流を、それぞれ中国（阮咸）、西域（四絃）、インド（五絃）に求めることができる琵琶が残存しています。
古より神仏や幽冥の世界に通じ、人の心を慰め和ませるために楽を奏しておりました。
芸はつたなくとも（名人に憧れつつも）、今も生き続けるその背景に流れる精神を大切に、耳を澄まし琵琶を奏してゆきたいと思っております。
About the gaku-biwa, or biwa (lute) used in gagaku
This instrument was most popular from the end of the Heian period to the beginning of the Kamakura period, that is, from the 12th to early 13th centuries. There were many musicians—emperors, highly ranked courtiers, professional musicians, and Buddhist priests—who strove to master the instrument. The Chancellor Fujiwara no Moronaga (1138–92) was a master biwa player who compiled a 12-scroll collection of notation for the instrument entitled Sango yōroku (‘Essentials for the three-five [instrument];’ ‘three-five’ referring to the traditional length of the instrument, 3-shaku 5-sun, or approximately 106 cm.
The first instrument of this type appeared in West Asia in ancient times. It spread east along the Silk Road, and arrived in Japan by the 8th century. The Japanese musician Fujiwara no Sadatoshi (807–67) studied the instrument in China and returned to Japan with notation for the instrument. Many tales later developed about his exploits and the biwa tradition, and it became well known in cultural circles.
The biwa used in gagaku is called the gaku-biwa. It is a pear-shaped 4-stringed lute with a bent neck. Two other extinct lutes preserved in the 8th-century repository Shōsō-in (in Nara) have different structures and origins: the genkan is a 4-stringed banjo-like instrument with origins in China, while the gogen is a straight-necked 5-stringed instrument with origins in India. These lutes were thought to provide a means of communicating with the deities and the other world, and of pacifying the human spirit.
Although she feels that attaining the level of the masters of the instrument (whom she admires) will always require continued efforts, Kahoru Nakamura hopes to contribute to keeping its spiritual tradition alive, listening carefully to the sounds that she, and her fellow musicians, send into the world.
(Translated by Steven G. Nelson)
