The Wa-Kan Configuration of Music Culture in Heian (794–1185) Japan: The Case of Chinese Music Theory

This article examines Chinese music theory as utilized in Japan during the Heian period; it scrutinizes that system’s intricate configuration of Wa (Japanese) and Kan (Chinese) materials. Previous scholarship has yielded findings with significant implications for both the development and analysis of this Wa-Kan assemblage as it occurred in different aspects of Heian culture, but the assimilation of specifically Chinese music theory has not been investigated from this perspective. The present article describes how, through applying different types of conceptual frameworks in the discourse of the assimilation of Chinese music theory in Japan, Heian music culture exhibited a highly complex integration of Wa and Kan materials, which coexisted in both the theoretical and practical territories.