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Traditional Japanese

The melodic system of Miyako-bushi (in-sen) and yonanuki scales carried through gagaku, folk song, and narrative traditions. Its familiar melancholy and lyric cadence became the melodic soul that Kayokyoku would later seat upon Western harmony. "Kachūsha no Uta" (1914) was an early public hinge where that pathos entered modern popular song.

Songs in this genre