光明院／声明

Shoumyou also referred to as "bonbai" (chanting of Buddhist hymns in Sanskrit or Chinese), was introduced into Japan from India through China about the same time as Buddhism. It is a classical music of chanting mantras (sacred verbal formulas) or sutra passages to a certain tune in Buddhist liturgy. The Shoumyou introduced by Kuukai developed into Shingon-shu Nanzan-Shin-ryu(Shingon Sect Nanzan-Shin School), and the one introduced by Ennin into Tendai-shu Ohara-Gyozan Shoumyou(Tendai Sect Ohara-Gyozan Shoumyou.) A lot of Shoumyou chants introduced by Ennin were spread and transmitted by his successors who split into various schools, which were then reunified by Ryounin, thus finding roots in Ohara in northern Kyoto.

Notes on the persons

※Kuukai

774-835. Also known as Koubou Daishi. Founder of Shingon Sect of Buddhism.

※Ennin

794-864. Studied with Saichou the founder of Tendai Sect of Buddhism, and built up the foundation of esoteric Buddhist teachings of Tendai Sect.

※Ryounin

1072-1132. Founder of Yuzu Nenbutsu-shu(Yuzu Nenbutsu Sect), who built Raigouin Temple in Ohara in northern Kyoto where he, a master of Shoumyou chanting himself, revived the Tendai heritage of Shoumyou Hence regarded as the father of Tendai Shoumyou restoration.

Shoumyou is composed with go-in (five notes), sichi-sei (seven tones), and jyuuni-ritsu (12 chromatic semitones) in san-shu (three tunes).
The five notes are a pentatonic scale consisting of five notes called kyuu,syou,kaku, chi, and u, which are equivalent to the Western musical scale of do, re, mi, and so on. The seven tones are the five notes plus ei and hen, each one semitone above and below the pentatonic scale. The three tunes are ryo, ritsu, and chuu Ryo is a succession of the five notes plus two semitones, hen-kyu and hen-chi, ritsu a succession of the five notes only, and chuu a succession of the five notes plus two semitones, ei-shou and ei-u. The 12 chromatic semitones are an octave with 12 tone levels fixed at about half-tone intervals. They are named ichikotsu, tangin, hyoujyou and so on, and, when arranged with some of the five notes, also represent the names of rhythms. Each of the five notes has its own musical characteristics. While Japanese ancient court music known as gagaku has only two tunes, ryo and ritsu, Shoumyou is composed in free combinations of the three tunes as described in the above, with additional coloring of some appropriate extra tones. Thus Shoumyou is rich in expression in an ingenious way and is considered as the source of native Japanese music including heikyoku (also known as Heike-biwa, chanting of "Heike Monogatari" or "The Tale of the Taira Clan" to the accompaniment of a biwa, a type of short flute), jyoururi (narrative ballads chanted to shamisen accompaniment), gidayou (the narrative style of vocal music in Bunraku and Kabuki ), nagauta (long epic songs), and ondo (traditional folk songs).