MINYO (folk songs)
Regional songs expressing local character
Typically depict work or dance practices: rice planting; fishing

Modern development of folk songs:
Folk songs became popular nationwide through radio broadcasts in 1920s.
Audiences exposed to music outside their local traditions.
Singers became stars; toured and played to sold out concert halls.
Folk songs used to generate tourism; govt. encouraged folklore collection.
Hozonkai (preservation society): maintains the “correct” version of a folk song.

Characteristics and Performance Practices:
Tonal system: yo and in scales emphasizing a five-tone (pentatonic) core.
Movement towards and away from tonal centers, a fourth or fifth apart.
Tetrachords: four kinds of tetrachords used to make up scales.
Forms: binary (AB); ternary (ABA); strophic (same music used for all verses);
interjections by chorus; often nonsense phrases (vocables).
Rhythm: though notation in duple, beat may lie between duple and triple;
songs not used for dance or work may be in free meter.
Performance practices:
Can be performed without instrumental accompaniment;
Since Edo era: shamisen, shakuhachi, shinobue (flute) and drums.
 Some virtuosic  folk style shamisen flashy (tsugaru shamisen)
Vocal style: Strident voice, high register, extended melisma w/ornamentation.