Shigin

Shigin (Japanese: 詩吟) is a performance of reciting a Japanese poem or a Chinese poem read in Japanese, each poem (Japanese: 詩 = shi) usually chanted (Japanese: 吟 = gin) by an individual or in a group. Reciting can be done loudly before a large audience, softly to a few friends, or quietly to the reciter himself or herself.

Each reciting is also termed gin. Any forms of Japanese and Chinese poetry are used for reciting.

Kanshi and classical Chinese poems are usually composed of four or more lines of Chinese characters, or kanji (漢字), each line having the same number of characters. Gin with four phrases, each seven characters long (the most common), are classified as shichigon-zekku (七言絶句^?, "seven-word quatrains"). There is strictly only one standard melody, although many poems will be distinguished by minor variations from this theme.

Members of a shigin group will usually gather to train in a washitsu, or Japanese-style room with tatami matting. Participants kneel in the lotus or seiza position, thought to be the optimum posture to allow strong and steady projection during chanting. They are encouraged to focus their energy in their gut (thought in Zen to be the locus of power) and sing by slowly expelling this energy. Conversely, singing from the chest, as would be encouraged in classical Western operatic style, is deemed unauthentic.

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