Description
In a tradition extending from the medieval era to the early twentieth century, visually disabled Japanese women known as goze toured the countryside as professional singers. An integral part of rural musical culture, the goze sang unique narratives of their own making and a significant repertory of popular ballads and short songs. Goze activities peaked in the nineteenth century, and some women continued to tour well into the middle of the twentieth. The last active goze lived until 2005.In Goze: Women, Musical Performance, and Visual Disability in Traditional Japan, Gerald Groemer examines the way of life, institutions, and songs of these itinerant performers. Groemer shows that the solidarity and success goze achieved with the rural public through narrative and music was based on the convergence of the goze's desire for a degree of social and economic autonomy with the audience's wish to mitigate the cultural deprivation it so often experienced. Goze recognized audiences as a stimulus for developing repertories and careers; the public in turn recognized goze as masterful artisans who acted as powerful agents of widespread cultural development.As the first full-length scholarly work on goze in English, this book is an invaluable resource to scholars and students of Japanese culture, Japanese music, ethnomusicology, and disability studies worldwide.
Table of Contents
ContentsMaps, ConventionsPrefaceIntroduction: Approaching the GozeChapter 1 The Production of Visual DisabilityChapter 2 The Development of Echigo Goze AssociationsChapter 3 Learning the Goze Art and Way of LifeChapter 4 Touring and Performing in Echigo: Goze and their AudiencesChapter 5 Endings: Coerced LiberationChapter 6 After the End: Goze Songs in the Postwar EraAppendix: Document 1 "Origins of the Goze," "Commands of the Retired Emperor," and the "Goze Code" Document 2 The 1884 "Regulations of the Takada Goze Association" Document 3 The 1901 "Revised Regulations of the Takada Goze" Document 4 The 1898 "Regulations of the Nagaoka Goze Association" References
