Old Stories, Original Retellings : The Heike-related Tales in the Repertory of the Blind Biwa Players of Kyushu

While higobiwa, the blind biwa players' tradition of Kyushu, is regarded as a historically distinctive genre, its evolution has been influenced by interactions with other storytelling traditions. It is evident that higobiwa borrowed stories from other genres and adapted them to its own distinctive narrative style. The findings of this research focused on the Heike-related tales reveal significant similarities between the tales of Ichi-no-Tani and Ko-Atsumori in the blind biwa players' tradition and Ko-Atsumori in the kojoruri tradition. These parallels suggest a shared narrative lineage between these two performance genres, prompting a reevaluation of our understanding of the transmission and evolution of oral narratives within the blind biwa players' tradition of Kyushu and shedding light on the dynamic nature and the interconnectedness of different performance traditions within Japan.