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声明
Shōmyō is Buddhist vocal music shaped by melody and inflection. Monks chant according to a tradition, a piece and a ritual sequence; the words, sounds and accompanying actions form part of a service.
Extended tones, turns and connected phrases give a text melodic form. A chant may accompany worship, offerings or a transition within a service. Not all recitation belongs to one uniform style, and the presence or absence of instrumental sound alone is not enough to identify it.
Pieces use Sanskrit-derived, Chinese or Japanese texts. In Tendai’s Sanskrit Shichisan, Chinese characters represent Sanskrit sounds; the Chinese Shichisan has a different realization. Similar-looking characters on the page do not mean that two pieces have identical words or melodies.
Tendai’s account describes standing and processional forms of the Sanskrit Shichisan, while the Chinese version is also called the seated praise. Sange has its own sections and actions. These examples concern particular pieces; they do not make walking or sitting with joined hands compulsory for every chant.
Traditional shōmyō notation, called hakase or bokufu, places lines beside the text to indicate melody. Meyasu-bakase traces melodic movement and ornaments; goin-bakase uses line angles to indicate basic tones. Scores work alongside teaching within a lineage, where vocal and ritual details are learned for particular pieces.
Tendai describes Sanrai as taking refuge in and paying homage to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, often at the start of a sutra-recitation service. Sange accompanies inviting the sacred assembly and offering incense and flowers; it has three sections. Their published scores place notation beside the words, while the school’s explanation supplies their ritual functions and actions.
The Japan Arts Council’s teaching material groups yuri into pitch movement upward or downward, interruptions at one pitch, and combinations of the two. An extended tone need not remain unchanged. Its account of a basic Tendai yuri describes a slow descent of about a semitone, a gradual rise and a gentle upward finish. The katayu of the Shingon Chizan and Buzan branches instead prolongs the starting tone before raising the ending.
The same word therefore covers different vocal shapes across traditions. A singer learns the established shape within a particular piece, rather than adding arbitrary shaking to every long note.
Tendai identifies Shoten Kango San as a measured piece in four beats, divided into three sections, with nyō and hachi percussion at the end of each. Measured chants connect text with specified beats; other pieces organize prolonged tones and ornaments differently.
These scenes illustrate the initiating and responding roles in the Sange described here. The number of figures, held objects and standing pose are not general ritual prescriptions.
Sange is the second piece in shika hōyō or nika hōyō. The sangeshi leads by singing out first, and the other monks follow into the chant: one voice initiates it and the assembly takes it up. The singing also accompanies scattering flowers and processional movement.
Tendai describes Sange as inviting the sacred assembly and accompanying offerings of incense and scattered flowers. It has upper, middle and lower sections, with the middle text varying according to the principal deity of the service. The school describes an earlier full procedure in which singers stand for the upper section and make a circuit while singing the middle and lower sections. It also notes the more recent practice of singing only the upper section while processing.
Piece, section and bodily action are linked, and the practice itself changes. Sanskrit Shichisan may be sung standing or in procession; Chinese Shichisan is also called the seated praise. Each posture belongs with its identified piece.
Meyasu-bakase is not a literal waveform to copy with the voice. The teaching material explains that a shuttonzu (出音図) establishes the starting tone of each character; lines then indicate ascent, descent and ornaments such as yuri, with tone and ornament names added nearby. Goin-bakase uses line angles for basic tones such as kyū, shō, kaku, chi and u, linking them to trace movement.
Where those angles do not communicate enough detail, Shingon traditions can add meyasu-style auxiliary notation. Written cues and oral teaching work together: the page preserves reminders, while the specific vocal shapes are learned within transmission.
Buddhist teaching and vocal practice entered different linguistic settings as they travelled. Chinese fanbai reached Japan through exchanges involving China and the Korean peninsula. The National Theatre’s history uses the 752 dedication of Tōdaiji’s Great Buddha as a major ancient example, not as the origin of every chanting practice.
The Buddhist practices brought back from Tang China by Saichō and Kūkai relate to the development of Tendai and Shingon chanting. Tendai transmission particularly emphasizes Ennin’s systematic study of chants and ritual.
The Japan Arts Council’s account explains that differences arose as chants were passed on. Ryōnin worked to correct and unify those differences and established Raigōin at Ōhara in Kyoto as a place for learning shōmyō. The change involved both organizing divergent singing practices and providing a teaching centre. Later, the Sanmon branch transmitted the Ōhara lineage, while the Jimon branch developed distinct melodies.
Important Pure Land practices include Ōjō raisange, organized around six periods of the day, and nenbutsu. Zen bonbai is also connected with daily morning and evening services and monastic rules. Different uses shape the repertories and combinations passed down in each community.
Shingon branching also involved displacement and new centres. The Japan Arts Council describes monks expelled from Negoroyama after Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s attack establishing the Chizan branch around Chishakuin in Kyoto and the Buzan branch around Hasedera in Nara. Their chanting derived from Kōyasan’s Nanzan Shinryū but developed distinct melodies, differing from that parent lineage and from one another. Continued singing after these centres separated gradually produced differences between the lineages.
The Ōbaku tradition introduced in the early Edo period retained rituals and bonbai transmitted from China, adding another distinct practice.
Shōmyō was performed for the National Theatre’s opening in 1966, followed by overseas performances in the 1970s. Recordings, printed notation and teaching also affected transmission. Concerts give listeners outside temples access to the music, while a selected programme remains different from the ritual sequence of a complete Buddhist service.
Tennenji’s history of its own Zōjōji Enzan lineage describes decline amid the Meiji political transition and anti-Buddhist disruption, followed by study and practice around Hōnen’s 700th memorial in 1911. Guidance by 千葉満定 and others connected ritual duties with teaching. The temple also lists publications by the Tokyo Hoshikikai, including a 1924 chant score using Western notation.
This is a named lineage’s account of its transmission. Ritual occasions, teachers and teaching materials affected which pieces could continue in practice.
In the Shōwa period, Nakayama Gen’yū devised kaisenfu for Tendai chanting. It retained features of traditional notation but ran from left to right like Western staff notation, reversing the direction of traditional hakase. It offered a different set of reading cues rather than simply reprinting an older score.
Producer Kido Bun’emon’s recollections also describe disagreements over theatrical presentation: some opposed the early programmes, and some monks were uncomfortable performing for an audience. In November 1984, the National Theatre premiered its commission Kaeru no shōmyō by Ishii Maki, a new composition alongside the inherited repertory. Concerts can select and combine pieces or commission works; temple services have their own objects of worship, actions and ritual sequence.
It can alter pitch, interrupt a tone or combine both, with established shapes differing among lineages.
It is measured in four beats, with percussion marking three section endings; not all chanting lacks a beat.
The full procedure has a standing upper section and processional middle and lower sections; the school describes a recent tendency to sing only the upper section while processing.
A starting-tone diagram fixes entries; lines and added names cue movement and ornament.
Angles identify basic tones; auxiliary meyasu-style cues add details the angles alone do not convey.
Guided study and practice by 千葉満定 and others, the memorial occasion and subsequent teaching publications.
Traditional hakase runs right to left, while kaisenfu runs left to right.
It is a theatre commission: concerts can select, combine or create works, whereas services follow their own worship and ritual purposes.
The sangeshi sings out first and the other monks follow, joining the offering and associated ritual actions.
Ryōnin organized differences and established a teaching centre; Chizan and Buzan developed distinct melodies after displaced communities established separate centres.