Shōdan in Okina
Okina Song
The arhythmic text, set in sashinori and sung in the tsuyogin style by Okina and the jiutai, is supported by three kotsuzumi in a strict rhythmic setting and a non-congruent nohkan part that includes two patterns: Sō-no-ryo and Sō-no-roku-no-ge.
Okina’s two Songs are dance-to-text sections that frame his instrumental dance, Okina-no-mai. The choreography of the first Okina Song opens the stage space, preparing for Okina-no-mai, while the choreography of the second Okina Song functions as a cadence and is therefore mainly confined upstage to Square 8.
The texts sung in the two Okina Song sections differ. In the first, Okina acts as a narrator and, referencing both Okina and Sanbasō, raises the question—subsequently amplified by the jiutai—“Who are those old men?” In the second Song, Okina repeats the word manzai-raku, meaning “Ten Thousand Year blessing.”
The first Okina Song opens with a quiet and slower five-measure introduction that supports Okina’s singing. It leads the three kotsuzumi players into a dynamic and faster repetitive pattern emphasizing beats 1, 3, 5, and 7, and occurs as the singing part shifts from Okina to the jiutai. Beats 1, 3, and 5 are preceded by a kakegoe, while beat 7 is anticipated with an anacrusis.
The nohkan’s Sō-no-ryo pattern, performed over Okina’s quiet part, consists of four continuous phrases centered on lower notes. The opening motives of these four phrases—'Ho ro ru ra' (measure 1), 'Fu' (measure 3), 'Hya' (measure 4), and 'Ho-hya' (measure 5)—are all low-register notes on the instrument.
Following the lively singing of the jiutai and percussion, the nohkan player introduces its second pattern, the Sō-no-roku-no-ge pattern, in measure 8. Notably, the first shōga of this section, ‘Hi-u,’ falls in the instrument’s higher register, lending a livelier tone to the second section.
The cadential character of the second Okina Song is enhanced by the fact that the kotsuzumi players perform a single, repetitive pattern—a variation on the previous one—in which the 'iya–ta' on the third beat is replaced by 'ho–po'.
The reduced instrumental density of the second Okina Song, with the nohkan part absent, further underlines its cadential function.