Soburen (a musical piece of gagaku [ancient Japanese court dance and music]) (想夫恋 (雅楽))
Soburen is a piece of music for gagaku.
It is classified as Hyojo (one of the six tones of gagaku) in Togaku music. Although it is played by kangen (gagaku music played with wind instruments and percussion instruments) today, it is said to have been accompanied by dancing in ancient times. Soburen may be written as either 相府蓮 or 想夫憐 in Chinese characters.
It is believed to originate from a song about lotus in the official residence of Jian WANG, the prime minister of the Jin Dynasty,
It was originally written as 相府蓮 in Chinese characters, which meant 'lotus in Joshofu' (lotus in the official residence of a minister), but since the characters '相府' and '想夫,' which literally means longing for a man or husband, shared the same pronunciation, it later came to be a singing piece about a woman longing for a man.
In Japan, it is well known as a pathetic tale of Kogo in the volume six of Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike). It is also featured in the lyrics of Chikuzen-imayo (a modern survivor of the Etenraku-imayo [Imperial music of Japan]) in Kuroda-bushi (Song of Kuroda).
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