The dharma of music: Gagaku and buddhist salvation in medieval Japan

Abstract

This article is a contribution to the rediscovery of the gagaku soundscape in medieval Japan with a special focus on instrumental music as part of the repertoire of gagaku and bugaku, a subject that is mostly absent from research on the history of Japanese religions. The article outlines some of the ways in which professional musicians and music virtuosos among the aristocracy conceptualized gagaku and bugaku instrumental music in Buddhist terms between the eleventh and the sixteenth centuries. In addition to providing doctrinal justifications for artistic endeavors, they also contributed to the development of new ritual forms, such as bugaku hōyō and kangen kōshiki. This article explores influential Buddhist canonical ideas about music and shows how they were developed by musicians in medieval Japan.