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Horagai ( 法 螺 貝 ) (or jinkai 陣 貝 ) are large conch shells, usually from Charonia tritonis , that have been used as trumpets in Japan for many centuries. The instrument, which has served a number of purposes throughout Japanese history, has been given a number of Japanese names depending on its function. Special schools still teach students to play the traditional music associated with the conch.
Unlike most shell trumpets from other parts of the world which produce only one pitch, the Japanese hora or horagai can produce three or five different notes. The different pitches are achieved using a bronze or wooden mouthpiece attached to the apex of the shell's spire. At freezing temperatures (often encountered in the mountainous regions of Japan) the lips may freeze to the metal surface, so wooden or bamboo mouthpieces are used.
The conch is used by Buddhist monks for religious purposes. Its use goes back at least[ citation needed ] 1,000 years, and it is still used today for some rituals, such as the omizutori (water drawing) portion of the Shuni-e rites at the Tōdai-ji in Nara. Each Shugendō school has his own conch shell melodies.
The hora is especially associated with the Yamabushi , ascetic monks of the Shugendō tradition. The yamabushi used the trumpet to signal their presence (or movements) to one another across mountains and to accompany the chanting of sutras.
In war, the shell, called jinkai, or "war shell", was one of several signal devices used by Japanese feudal warriors known as samurai. [1] A large conch would be used and fitted with a bronze (or wooden) mouthpiece. It would be held in an openwork basket and blown with a different combination of "notes" to signal troops to attack, withdraw, or change strategies, in the same way a bugle or flugelhorn was used in the west. The trumpeter was called a kai yaku (貝 役).
The jinkai served a similar function to drums and bells in signaling troop formations, setting a rhythm for marching, providing something of a heroic accompaniment to encourage the troops and confusing the enemy by inferring that the troop numbers were large enough to require such trumpeters. Many daimyōs (feudal lords) enlisted yamabushi to serve as kai yaku, due to their experience with the instrument.
The sound of jinkai is often used in motion pictures and television dramas as a symbolic sound effect indicating an impending battle, e.g., The Last Samurai or the 2007 Taiga drama Fūrinkazan , but both of these screen renditions use deep, resonating monotones, not the melodic tones that yamabushi used for relaying messages.
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The Japanese war fan, or tessen, is a Japanese hand fan used as a weapon or for signalling. Several types of war fans were used by the samurai class of feudal Japan and each had a different look and purpose.
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The nagak is a wind-instrument made from a large seashell and played as a horn in Korean traditional music. It produces only a single tone and is used primarily in the military procession music called daechwita. The mouthpiece of the nagak is made by making a hole in the pointed end of the conch, into which a mouthpiece is fitted. This instrument is first recorded as being used in Goryeo.
Traditional Japanese musical instruments, known as wagakki (和楽器) in Japanese, are musical instruments used in the traditional folk music of Japan. They comprise a range of string, wind, and percussion instruments.
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Stephen Richard Turnbull is a British historian concentrating on Japanese military history, especially the samurai period, and has published numerous books. He has worked as a historical consultant for the film 47 Ronin, as well multiple television documentaries, and the Shogun: Total War series of video games.
The chromatic trumpet of Western tradition is a fairly recent invention, but primitive trumpets of one form or another have been in existence for millennia; some of the predecessors of the modern instrument are now known to date back to the Neolithic era. The earliest of these primordial trumpets were adapted from animal horns and sea shells, and were common throughout Europe, Africa, India and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East. Primitive trumpets eventually found their way to most parts of the globe, though even today indigenous varieties are quite rare in the Americas, the Far East and South-East Asia. Some species of primitive trumpets can still be found in remote places, where they have remained largely untouched by the passage of time.
Kōshō Tateishi (立石光正) is a yamabushi (ascetic) in Japan. He trained at the Kimpusen-ji and is an authority on the horagai.
The pūtātara is a type of trumpet used by the Māori people of New Zealand. It is customarily made with a carved wooden mouthpiece and a bell made from New Zealand's small native conch shells or triton shell. Larger pūtātara were particularly prized as the triton shell was rarely found and only sometimes washed up on the beaches in the Far North. It is often blown in guest welcoming ceremonies.
Conch, or conque, also known as a "seashell horn" or "shell trumpet", is a wind instrument that is made from a conch, the shell of several different kinds of sea snails. Their natural conical bore is used to produce a musical tone. Conch shell trumpets have been played in many Pacific Island countries, as well as South America and Southern Asia.
Kura (鞍) is the generic name for the Japanese saddle. The word "kura" is most commonly associated with the saddle used by the samurai class of feudal Japan. Over time the Japanese added elements of their own until the Japanese saddle became an identifiable style, also known as the samurai saddle.