What is traditional Japanese culture?

I have been a member of Shamisen group for about 5 years. The Shamisen is a traditional Japanese instrument.

Today, I want to explain about such a traditional Japanese cultural organization.

Do you know the Iemoto system? Iemoto stands for the head of such a traditional organization or sometimes it means the system itself.

There are Iemoto systems in not only the Shamisen world, but also in the Japanese art of flower arrangement, Koto, Shakuhachi, Nihon buyo(traditional Japanese dance) , Japanese tea ceremony and other traditional Japanese cultural activities.

The members of each group need to use the same family name as it’s leader.

There are clear hierarchical structure in such groups, so we generally start out at the bottom class of the group.

Some years later after joining the group, our teacher will recommend us to move into the second class level.

At that time, we are allowed to use the same family name as the leader of our group and we also get a stage name.

I got my stage name about a year ago. However I payed about 300,000 yen to the headquarters of my Shamisen group to proceed to the next class level. It included a fee to my teacher’s teacher.

To tell the truth, I had refused my teacher’s recommendation to proceed to the next class level, because I felt it was a waste to pay such money just to get the family name.

I like traditional culture, however I dislike such a traditional system, not only because of the issue of having to pay big money, but also because there are some strange rules in our group.

Therefore I had originally refused my teacher’s recommendation.

However I finally accepted it, because the next pupil in line was waiting for her turn.

It’s natural to proceed to the next class level in turn, and I was the first pupil under my teacher.

I want to explain about such a hierarchical system again.

The order that we became pupils is very important in our society.

We need to call our senior members “Ne-san” which is polite and which expresses our respect.

However my teacher is a very friendly and kind person, so I couldn’t  learn about such a strict system very thoroughly.

We have yearly joint concert with my teacher’s teacher’s group.

My teacher’s teacher is quite important in the Shamisen world, because he was one of the pupils of the head of our Shamisen organization.

So his views are very conservative and I didn’t like his views or his group.

Last weekend, our group had a joint practice, and my teacher’s teacher was invited as an instructor.

At that time, I was shocked.

His technique was marvelous and his way of teaching was also great.

He taught us not only about the way of handling a Shamisen but also the reasons why we should handle a Shamisen in such a way.

I was very surprised, because I didn’t know such reasons.

Also on that day, there was negative shock for me.

I met some new members on that day, and some members lacked courtesy.

The thing I was most shocked by was a woman who seemed to be the same age as me, stepped over my instrument, and talked to other members too casually.

She also said that she didn’t bring the fee for our teacher and also didn’t prepare money for dinner.

Why?

The fact that most members didn’t put their fee into an envelope also shocked me. It was disrespectful.

Now I’m re-thinking about what traditional Japanese culture is.

When we are learning such traditional cultural activities, we also need to learn about etiquette.

Although I was not a good pupil, I need to know the spirit of traditional culture more deeply.