声明・読経

How to listen

In dokyō the text sets the pace. When many monks chant together the practice has its own name, fūgin, and the voices move as one body through the words. A wooden fish-drum, the mokugyo, or a temple drum may be struck to keep the rhythm. The mokugyo is a hollow block with a ridge on the outside; because a fish never sleeps, its sound is taken as a call to wakeful attention. Some temple specimens weigh more than 300 kg.

Shōmyō is a different art. It is built on the yo scale, the same pentatonic scale found in gagaku, and divides into styles traditionally described as "difficult" and "easy to remember." Listening for the line of the melody, rather than for a beat, is the way in.

Pronunciation matters too. Some schools read the Chinese text of a sutra directly in Sino-Japanese sounds, others render it into Japanese, and Tendai and Shingon each keep certain sutras in an older reading. So two temples chanting the same scripture can sound quite unlike each other.

A short history

Chanting was already part of Buddhist ceremony in the Nara period. In 752 a chanting ceremony accompanied the eye-opening of the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji. In the early Heian period the monks Kūkai and Saichō brought chanting styles back from China, and these became the foundations of Shingon and Tendai shōmyō.

For centuries the chant passed from teacher to student by ear. Notation was developed later, with terms that differ from school to school, but it served only as a reminder; mastery still required face-to-face teaching. In 1109 Ryōnin founded Raigō-in at Ōhara near Kyoto, which with Shōrin-in became a training centre for the Ōhara style of Tendai chant. In the early Kamakura period the monk Tanchi set out a systematic musical theory that remains at the core of Tendai shōmyō.

Shōmyō also left a mark outside the temple. Kōshiki, a ceremonial lecture form with Japanese words, needed its own notation and went on to influence later music, including the chanting of Noh.

Start with

Chanting at Shitennō-ji is a good first listen. Drumming and chanting at Zenkō-ji adds the taiko to the voice, and Chanting on Mount Shichimen takes you to a mountain temple. More temple sound is gathered in Temples and shrines of Japan.

Questions

What is shōmyō?

Shōmyō is the melodic Buddhist chant of Japan's Tendai and Shingon schools. Its foundations were brought from China by the monks Saichō and Kūkai in the early Heian period, and it was traditionally taught by ear from teacher to student.

What is the difference between shōmyō and dokyō?

Dokyō is the recitation of sutras aloud, practised by many schools and often kept steady by a wooden fish-drum. Shōmyō is a more melodic, formally taught chant tradition associated mainly with Tendai and Shingon.

What is the wooden drum used in Buddhist chanting?

It is the mokugyo, or wooden fish, a hollow carved block struck to keep rhythm during sutra chanting. The fish is said never to sleep, so its sound stands for wakefulness.