A Study on Furyu Odoriuta　－Concerning Katarigusa－(Excerpts of Legends and Tales)

The group of songs called furyu odoriuta, which was established in the early Edo period with the influence of the earlier medieval kouta, is a unique and important genre the history of kayo. These are songs sung to accompany quaint folk dances (furyu odori) such as amagoi odori, taiko odori, kami odori, and zanzaka odori. Furyu odoriuta, either oral in tradition or put down in writing, remains most abundantlyin the Kinki area. This thesis has picked out 25 kinds of songs from thegroup of furyu odoriuta inthe vein of katarigusa (songs from excerpts of legends and tales), and examines for each kind of song, the distribution and the relationship between the song and the original legend or tale from which each is derived. For example, in these songs, there appears such characters as Ushiwaka, Sekihara Yoichi, and Kikuomaru, who are characters from legends and tales. In the future, I would like to examine more closely the technique involved in creating kayo, while adding those songs which have not been included in this thesis. The study of furyu odoriuta is as important as that of bon odori kudoki--both genres being comparable to the ballads of Europe