일본 카구라 현지연구: 큐우슈우 시이바 카구라에 기하여

Abstract

Kagura is the ancient Japanese ritual of shinto and is, at the same time, Japan's most ancient performing art form to worship the god with song, music, and dance. Kagura is similar to Korean shaman ritual, called gut, for it ushers, worships, and entertains the gods with song and dance. Both in Japanese kagura and Korean gut, the whole event serves as prayer for the prolongation or revitalization of human's life. There is a major division between mikagura, the kagura performed in the Imperial palace and the shrines related to it, and sato kagura, the folk kagura performed in the countryside. Sato kagura is divided into types that are more or less defined by locality. I had a chance to observe a sato kagura held on December 7 and 8, 2002 in Shiiba village, Miyazaki Province in Kyushu. The kagura is called Shiiba kagura which is designated as the Important Folk Asset by the government due to its antiquity. Unlike Korea gut which is presided by a shaman who is a religious priest and trained artist, Japanese kagura is a communal ritual held by village people. Thus, the music and dance performed in Japanese kagura is rather simpler than those in Korean gut. In Shiiba kagura, the song and dance are accompanied only by a large drum, called taiko. The taiko rhythm is a continuous repetition of a simple duple-meter rhythm. The dance is normally performed by two or four villagers. There are some masked dances that are related to other Japanese performing arts, e.g., noh. This study needs a further comparison of Korean gut and Japanese kagura in order to find the traits of ritual performing arts in two cultures.