Nagauta

Nagauta, literally 'long song', is the principal lyric music of kabuki, developed in Edo (Tokyo) during the eighteenth century to accompany dance. A singer delivers long, melodic narratives over shamisen, supported by the hayashi of flute and drums drawn from noh. Its repertoire of standard pieces — dance dramas such as "Echigojishi" and "Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji" — is transmitted by hereditary guilds, above all the Kineya school of shamisen players and singers, and it is also performed independently in concert as a central genre of Japanese classical music, where its refinement of word, melody and dance timing set the template for later shamisen song.