“Viols in Japan in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries”
Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America 37 (2000)
This article proves that Japan shared the European vogue of viols through Portugal in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. An examination of bowed string instruments' terms in archival documents, called Kirishitan monjo, demonstrates that Jesuit missionaries, then active in Japan, employed viols in both religious and secular ceremonies. Christians played a set of viols for polyphonic music. Japanese envoys who visited the Iberian Peninsula and Italy from 1584 to 1586 brought a small viola da braccio to Japan. The following terms are found: viola(s) de arco, violoni, viola da gamba, viola, rabequinha and viola semplice. (from RILM abstract)
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Yukimi Kambe's groundbreaking research examines for the first time the history of the viol in Japan during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods and its connections to European practices.
