December singers (sekizoro)

[ . BACK to TOP . ]
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::　

December Singers (sekizoro)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Mid-Winter
***** Category: Humanity

*****************************
Explanation
sekisooro sekisoro sekizooro
December Singers, Twelfth Month Singers,
Year End Singers . sekizoro　節季候
..... sekkizoro せっきぞろ
..... female singers, old ladies, ubara 姥等　うばら
..... hitting the breasts, mune tataki 胸敲　むねたたき


Short for a greeting of the changing season: 節季(せっき)にて候.

Sekizoro refers to a Twelfth Month custom in which strolling singers wandered from town to town, singing festive celebration songs.

They wore large straw hats, decorated with auspicious fern. The faces where covered with white or red towels. Around the hips, they wore red aprons. Some hit their breasts like drums during the performance. Others rattled some small bamboo tools.
They shouted "Congratualtions for New Season!" and got rice or money in return from the townspeoople. They used to walk around Edo and other big cities from December 20 till the end of the year.

Their standard song at each home was like this:

サッサ節季候、毎年毎とし、旦那のお蔵へ金銀お宝飛び込め舞い込め！

T'is the end of the season!
As in every year, in every year,
may the treasures, silver and gold
gather and fly to the storehouse
of this honorable home owner!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



http://www.museum.tokushima-ec.ed.jp/hasegawa/shokunin/i_044.htm

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


*****************************
Worldwide use


*****************************
Things found on the way


*****************************
HAIKU

Some Haiku by Issa
Tr. David Lanoue

sekizoro yo onna sekizoro sore mo miyo
せき候よ女せき候それも御代

the Twelfth Month singers
are female...
our Great Age!

Miyo ("reign") is short for the Emperor of Japan's reign or dynasty. Issa seems to be using it here as an expression of "this modern age we live in" -- wherein even women participate in an activity once reserved exclusively for men.



be happy and happy
let's sing and dance

Haiga and renku by Nakamura Sakuo


..................................


1818 鶺鴒の尻ではやすやせっき候
sekirei no shiri de hayasu ya se[k]kizoro

performing behind a waterfall...
Twelfth Month singers


1818 えどの世は女もす也節き候
edo no yo wa onna mo su nari sekkizoro

Edo's world--
women also are
Twelfth Month singers




せき候の尻の先也角田川
sekizoro no shiri no saki nari sumida-gawa

Twelfth Month singers--
their butts facing
Sumida River

Haiga by Nakamura Sakuo

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

節季候の来れば風雅も師走哉
sekizoro no kureba fuuga mo shiwasu kana

Matsuo Basho

節季候が出てくる頃ともなれば、世間と一風ずれている俳諧師である私たちにも師走が実感されてくるというものだ、というのである。節季候の存在は、社会の貧しさであり、それなりの深刻さを持っていたのであろうが、作者芭蕉には微塵も伺えない。社会性が無いのか、そこまで世を捨てたのか、単に歳時記の役割以外には問題視されていない。
http://www.ese.yamanashi.ac.jp/~itoyo/basho/haikusyu/sekizoro.htm

節季候を雀の笑ふ出立かな

Basho

節季候の出で立ちのおかしさときたら､雀だって吹き出してしまうであろう。雀が笑う次第は次のようなもの。猟師が雀をかすみ網で捕まえるとき､中心にカラスなどを囮に置いておく。これをフクロウやミミヅクにすると､日中目が見えないので､目の見えないフクロウやミミヅクを見て雀がみんなで馬鹿にしに集まってくる。そこをかすみ網に捕らえれてしまうから､やっぱり雀は馬鹿だというのである。　一句では､節季候という乞食たちを目の見えないフクロウやミミヅクに譬えたのか､ただその姿形のおかしさが馬鹿な雀でも笑いたくなるほどこっけいだというのかは定かではない。
http://www.ese.yamanashi.ac.jp/~itoyo/basho/haikusyu/bonen2.htm



http://image.space.rakuten.co.jp/lg01/65/0000124665/68/imgf20c8106kln7u7.jpeg

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


Manzai 漫才. 万歳 / Banzai 萬歳
kigo for the New Year

This performance dates back to the Heian period in the capital of Japan. Two actors come to the local shrine with a message from the deities. The two performed in a comical way, teasing each other or pretending to be dumb and not understand.
During the Edo period, many areas of Japan started their own performances, giving it a lot of local colorit. Today some are still active and practised.






Contribution by Larry Bole


山里は万歳遅し梅の花
yamazato wa manzai ososhi ume no hana
(1691 - mid-First Month, February)

Here are two translations:

mountain village
and the New Year's dancers are late:
plum blossoms
Basho, trans. Barnhill


in the mountain village
Manzai dancers are late--
plum blossoms
Basho, trans. Ueda


Barnhill says:
The itinerant Manzai dancers perform dances for households around New Year's... The dances are said to bring good fortune.


Ueda says:
Manzai dancers are a troupe of itinerant players who go from house to house in the New Year season and perform good-luck dances for a small amount of rice or money.


Most every translation I've seen calls them dancers. Apparently only Hiroaki Sato gets it right:

In this mountain village the comedians are late: plum blossoms
Basho, trans. Sato


So it makes me wonder: are the Manzai performers dancers or comedians (perhaps doing a type of physical comedy routine we call slapstick?), or a little of both? Or were they dancers back in Basho's day, but comedians later on?

STONE MEMORIAL of this HAIKU !


.................................................................


Traditional Manzai in the Edo period are comedian-entertainers and often worked on a stage or in a Shinto shrine. They only start going around after the New Year has started and do it until the kadomatsu, the pine decorations are taken away.

They are called according to the area where this happens, for example
三河万歳 Mikawa Manzai, Yamato Manzai大和万歳, Oowari Manzai 尾張万歳 .
This custom goes back to the Muromachi period.

まんざいらく(万歳楽) Manzai Raku
is an old form of Chinese dance, in Japan known as a Gagaku Court Performance of four or six performers.
Banzai is short for Senzu Manzai 千秋万歳.



Yamato Manzai


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Mikawa Manzai
is believed to have originated in Nishio about 730 years ago. The second resident priest, Otsuzenshi, of Jissoji temple learned and brought this comedic art form back from China and taught it to the local people. Manzai in Kota town dates back to the beginning of the Meiji Period, when it was performed mainly in the Kanto District as a Shinto prayer for peace and security, a bumper crop, and the health and prosperity of the nation and was performed with the character of Saizou playing the comical role and Nishio-no-tayu assuming the main or straight role.

In 1977, the Kota-cho Mikawa Manzai Preservation Association was founded and effort has been made in the preservation and promotion of this traditional form of entertainment. Manzai programs in Kota include "Gomonbiraki no Mai," "Goten Manzai," "Kazoeuta," "Sankyoku Manzai", as well as others.
In December 1995,Mikawa Manzai was designated as a National Significant Intangible Folk Cultural Asset in conjunction with Nishio city and Anjo city.
©　www.sk.aitai.ne.jp

Reference about Mikawa Manzai

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


Owari-Manzai
Manzai goes basically by Tayu who leads the story with an ogi, and Saizo who follows tapping the tsuzumi, while sankyoku manzai is performed by three players with three musical instruments, tsuzumi, shamisen, and kokyu. The sankyoku is one of the characteristics of Owari manzai. Manzai existed basically for blessing people at their own residences, but these Owari manzaists organized touring troupes and had stage performances, which was another one of their characteristics.
©　Kotaro Kitagawa


Reference about Owari Manzai


*****************************
Related words

***** December

***** Rakugo, comic storytelling performances Japan


***** WKD (02) ... World Kigo Database: Fern (shida)

*****************************
Please send your contributions to Gabi Greve
worldkigo .....

Back to the Worldkigo Index
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/