Kioi Hall's large hall will be used for a concert of classical Japanese music April 6, for the first time since its opening in 1995.

While concerts featuring Japanese instruments in modern contexts have been presented there, this is the first time that a purely classical hogaku concert has had the honor. "Oto-kakehashi (Sound Bridge)," complete with English-language program notes and a special Japan Times reader discount, promises a musical experience beyond any preconceptions of what classical Japanese music is or should be.

Shamisen master Itchu Miyako XII explains that "Oto-kakehashi" comes from the title of one of the pieces featured in the program, "Shakkyo (Stone Bridge)." It suggests a bridge from this world into the Pure Land Heaven, a bridge between East and West, a bridge connecting the spirits of individuals. The aim of this concert is to create these bridges from works in the classical repertoire.

As with the first concert in this series two years ago, "Oto-asobi (Sound Play)," the main goal is to enable anyone to experience, understand and enjoy the depth and the beauty of Japanese music. To this end, Itchu XII has selected a program and musicians that promise the very highest level of two different genres of joruri (narrative shamisen music), Itchu-bushi and Tokiwazu-bushi.

In two special ways, this concert is also a bridge of the spirit. First, one of the featured pieces in the program is "Shakkyo," the tale of the travels of the Buddhist monk Jakusho to distant China, to the mystical natural Stone Bridge over which one can cross into the spiritual heaven of the Buddhist Pure Land. A complete English translation of the lyrics will accompany the program notes.

This story reflects the spirituality which is inherent in many aspects of Japanese culture, and in the traditions of Itchu-bushi in particular, for the founder of this genre was originally a priest of the Pure Land sect of Buddhism: Miyako-tayu Itchu I, founder of the Miyako style of Itchu-bushi shamisen narrative music.

This story starts over three centuries ago in Kyoto, in the year 1650, when this central figure in the evolution of the shamisen and its music was born as the second son of the third abbot of Kyoto's Myofuku-ji Temple of Pure Land Buddhism. The shamisen had arrived on the Japanese mainland about one hundred years earlier, and its popularity was starting to take off. The instrument would dominate the Japanese music scene for the next 250 years.

The boy, Keishun, was brought up in the temple, but besides his Buddhist studies he took an interest in music, and studied under one of the famous shamisen narrators in Kyoto at the time. He progressed rapidly and showed great talent, but on the untimely death of his elder brother, the fourth abbot, Keishun succeeded as the fifth abbot of Myofuku-ji under the religious name Shuka at the young age of 20.

He soon found, however, that he could not put aside his music, and abdicated his position as abbot to his younger brother after only 100 days in office.

Expression in religion and art often seem to be aimed toward the same thing: a spiritual sense that defies definition by words alone. Keishun chose to rejoin the laity and pursue music as his means of expressing the mystical beauty of the Pure Land described in the sutras of his sect.

As a musician doing the vocal narration that has become one of the standard forms of shamisen music, Keishun was widely popular, and, under the name Miyako-tayu Itchu, established the Itchu style of narration, the oldest narrative shamisen style still in existence and ancestor to a majority of the styles that followed.

One of Itchu I's students was Miyakoji Bungonojo, whose artistic descendants were the originators of (among other styles) Shinnai, Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto, the three main narrative shamisen styles to survive from the Edo Period.

Today there are actually no professionals who specialize exclusively in Itchu-bushi, but top artists from other genres, including Nagauta, Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto as well as several Japanese dancers, also perform Itchu-bushi. Itchu XII himself, successor to one of Japan's oldest musical lineages, is in fact also a leading Tokiwazu performer under the name Mojizo.

Itchu XII has performed both styles extensively for audiences both in Japan and around the world, and it has been his experience that audience participation is a guaranteed path to understanding and enjoyment. For "Oto-kakehashi," he will actually instruct and then lead the whole audience in a group performance of the "laughter" section from the Tokiwazu-bushi piece in the program, "Noriai-bune Eho Manzai (New Year's Treasure Ship of Humor and Good Luck)."

Narration has traditionally been the forte of this genre, but the two most recent heads, Itchu XI and the present Itchu XII are shamisen specialists. For this reason the title tayu (traditionally given to top singers) is not part of their names.

This program also features Living National Treasure fue (transverse flute) player Sanzaemon Takara, and promises the audience top-level performances in both the Itchu and Tokiwazu styles.