This study starts from the question of what kind of dance had been appreciated by Japanese envoys. The scope of time period for this research is the Joseon Dynasty. The research objective is Joseon-wangjo-sillok (朝鮮王朝實錄), Akhakgwebeom (樂學軌範), all of source materials from official record and many literary works. First, Japanese envoys were enjoying the dance on the way to Seoul. In the Gyeongsangdo, Chungcheongdo, Gyeonggido, the banquets were held for Japanese envoys. Particularly, most performances took place in Gyeongsangdo. Thus the hosting for the Japanese envoys has contributed to the development of dance culture Gyeongsang region. Unfortunately the dance repertories are not known . After Imjin War, the feast and dance performances for Japanese envoys have existed only in Dongrae. Dancing performances performed in Japan House in Dongrae is seen in Dongrae-busa-jeobwae-sado (東萊府使接倭使圖). Secondly, the dances which were enjoyed by Japanese envoys in the court are Munmu, Mumu, Mongkeumcheok, Oyangseon, Dongdong, Mugo, Jeongdaeeop, Botaepyeong, and Bonglaeui. And those are called as court dance, jeongjae(呈才). Depending on the time, gisaeng and boy dancer were dancing performances for the Japanese envoy. The dance was not created for the Japanese envoys. In this regard, it can be seen that significantly less than the Chinese envoys. Third, Japanese envoy was also dancing in the royal feast. As the nationalities of audience and performers were different, the dances performed for Japanese envoys in Joseon Dynasty were kinds of international exchange.

This study investigated the family names of gakkge (musician families) and the status of appointment of each family name as recorded in the Appointment to the Chamber of Music (Gakuso Boin) in order to investigate important elements of Gagaku (Japanese Court Music). In addition, this study retraced the line of each family name. The Appointment to the Chamber of Music is a document that records the gakunin (musicians) who were appointed to the Chamber during a 153-year period between the late ancient era and the early Middle Ages. A total of 25 musician family names appear in this book. Of these families, five were most often appointed to gakuso (the Chamber of Music): Koma, Ono, Ogami, Toyohara, and Abe. In particular, the Koma line represents almost 30% of the people appointed, indicating that they were the most prestigious gakkge. In addition, of the 25 family names in the Appointment to the Chamber of Music, 22 were also recorded in the Newly Compiled Record of Clan Names (Shinsenshoujiroku). Of these 22 names, four are classified as originating from the Korean Peninsula line: Toyohara, Koma, Kudara, and Miyake. In turn, these names were further subdivided into 11 related family names: Toyohara was divided into Toyoharatsurane; Koma was divided into Komanoobito, Komanomiyasuko, Komasomebe, and Komahito; Kudara was divided into Kudaraason, Kudarako, Kudarao, Kudaraki, and Kudarauji; and Miyake was divided into Miyaketsurane. In a similar way, the Japanese Aak world has experienced repeated succession and severance of member families as a result of various social and political changes. The institutionalization of so-called Sanpogakuso defended gagaku during the ups and downs of succession and severance, and a large number of Sanpogakunin in Sanpogakuso were musicians with a Korean Peninsula line family name. In the modern era, since 1873, as gagaku was opened to people other than gakkge, and the system of transmission was no longer based on hereditary succession, musicians appeared who did not hail from a musician family, such as Horikawa Hisatami. As a result, gakunin who do not descend from gakkge have represented approximately half of the 26 gakunin in the Board of the Ceremonies of the Imperial Household Agency. Nonetheless, gakunin, including Ue Sanemichi, whose origins are in the Korean Peninsula, have remained active in the Japanese Aak world to the present day.

When I first looked through the records of Korean immigrants on the foreigner register in Mexico in 1989, a photo attracted my attention of a flapper-haired, smiling, beautiful woman who stood out among the others. She was Sai Shoki, a famed dancer who performed in Mexico City in October, 1940. When I met Judy Van Zile, professor of University of Hawaii in Puerto España in the summer of 2000, the professor told me that her study on Korean dance was nearly completed. Her study looked into the performance tour in America by Choi Seung-hee(Shoki’s Korean name)and included articles on her Bogota performance. That led me to the presentation of this study in which I was to give details about Shoki’s dance career, records on her Mexico performance, and her political position on her nation’s independence movement, which drove her to move to North Korea and continue her career there. The appendix contains related photos.

This study aims at considering on Japanese postmodern dance, by researching Hijikata Tatsumi’s Ankoku Butoh, Dance of Darkness, which is known for most famous avant-garde dance of 1950s in Japan. Hijikata’s Butoh, started with Kinjiki in 1959, was an entirely new dance form having different qualities of expression from the other dances such as classic ballet and modern dance at that time of Japan. Mostly showing the experimental attempt on the stage by ordinary movement from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, Hijikata changed his performing style from his work in 1968, Hijikata Tatsumi and Japanese – Rebellion of Body. That means that Hijikata tried to make his own movement method. This study focuses on ‘Butoh notation’ as the principal reason of changing movement style of Butoh. By analyzing the existence of Butoh notations and contents of them, the research would figure out the actual relation between notation and creation of a new style.