Five tones - Gosei

A term in musical scale theory. It originated in China and spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. It is also called Go-on (Five Tones) and means a five-tone scale. Each tone is called Kyu, Shang, Kaku, Chi, and Yu, and the two tones, Hensho and Henkyo, half a tone below Hensho and Kyu, are called the Seven Tones. It is mainly used in gagaku and Shomyo.

The five tones that form the basis of the Chinese musical scale are obtained by starting from the Gong and alternating between a fifth above and a fourth below using the three-part loss and gain method. When these are arranged in order of pitch, they become Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, and Yu, which correspond to Do, Re, Mi, So, and La in the Western musical scale. It is unclear when the five tones were first used, but the aforementioned calculation method was recorded in the Guanzi, Lüshi Chunqiu, and Huainanzi from the end of the Zhou dynasty to the Western Han dynasty. Furthermore, during the Han dynasty, it was deeply linked to direction and the theory of the five elements.

The Chinese five tones were introduced to Japan during the Nara period, but in the Heian period, the Japanese-style five tones were born. This is a scale in which the fifth degree (zheng) of the Chinese five tones is read as a palace, and corresponds to the Western scale of do, re, fa, so, and la. The former was distinguished as ryo and the latter as ritsu. Later, new tones were added to the five tones of ritsu, but it became customary to call the Chinese five tones ro and the Japanese-style five tones ritsu.

[Osamu Yamaguchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

音階理論用語。中国に始まり、朝鮮、日本、ベトナムに伝わった。五音(ごおん／ごいん)ともいい、五音音階を意味する。各音は宮(きゅう)・商(しょう)・角(かく)・徴(ち)・羽(う)とよばれ、徴と宮の半音下に変徴・変宮の2音を加えたものを七声という。おもに雅楽や声明(しょうみょう)で用いられる。

　中国音階の基調をなす五声は、宮を出発点とし、三分損益法(さんぶんそんえきほう)で5度上、4度下と音を交互にとることによって得られる。これを音高順に配列すると宮・商・角・徴・羽となり、西洋音階のド・レ・ミ・ソ・ラに相当する。五声がいつごろから用いられたのかは不明であるが、周末から前漢にかけて、前述の算法が『管子(かんし)』『呂氏春秋(りょししゅんじゅう)』『淮南子(えなんじ)』に記されている。さらに、漢代には方位や五行説と深く結び付いた。

　日本へは奈良時代にこの中国の五声が移入されたが、平安時代になると日本式の五声が生まれた。それは、中国の五声の第五度（徴）を宮に読み替えた音階で、西洋音階のド・レ・ファ・ソ・ラに相当するものである。前者を呂(りょ)、後者を律(りつ)と区別した。その後、律の五声に新たなものも加わったが、中国の五声を呂、日本式の五声を律とよぶのが習わしとなった。

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