Education
The Edo-period Japan (1603–1868) saw the emergence of an art music genre called Jiuta-sōkyoku. Some of the song texts were taken from classical literature, some were descriptions of nature, some celebratory, and some were songs about the emotions and thoughts of less fortunate women. Especially those in the last category were written for the specific purpose of being song texts, but how can we relate to these songs? In this presentation I give a number of examples and discuss the socio-cultural context in which they came about, and how we could relate to them in the different social context of the present day. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 25 October 2017.