Shomyo

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Shomyo

Shomyo is a style of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese Buddhist chant

Buddhist chant

A Buddhist chant is a form of musical verse or incantation, in some ways analogous to Hindu or Christian religious recitations. They exist in just about every part of the Buddhist world, from the Wats in Thailand to the Tibetan Buddhism temples of India ....
, used mainly in the Tendai

Tendai

is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the China Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.David W. Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:...
and Shingon sects. There are two styles: ryokyoku and rikkyoku, described as difficult and easy to remember, respectively.

Shomyo, like gagaku

Gagaku

Gagaku is a type of Music of Japan that has been performed at the Imperial court for several centuries. It consists of three primary bodies:...
, employs the Yo scale

Yo scale

The Yo scale is a pentatonic scale used in Japan gagaku imperial court music and Buddhism shomyo chants.It is defined by ascending Interval s of two, three, two, two, and three semitones....
, a pentatonic scale

Pentatonic scale

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitch per octave in contrast to an heptatonic scale scale such as the major scale. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world, including but not limited to Celtic music, Hungarian folk music, West African music, African-American spiritual , Jazz, American blues music a...
with ascending intervals of two, three, two, two, and three semitones.

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