Shomyo, a liturgical Buddhist chant, was introduced from China to Japan in 736 AD. It was influential in the development of Japanese music styles. Shomyo became popular in those days due to the fact that Buddhism, chanting and music worked well together in temples. Shomyo was used in Buddhist ceremonies and services, as a ritual of comfort for the souls of the deceased and as a way to create an atmosphere of reference and mystery. It was also performed in praise of Amida Buddha.
Shomyo is used mainly in the Tendai and Shingon sects. There are two Shomyo styles: ryokyoku and rikkyoku.
Both sects maintained their traditions and used their theory books and notation systems as the basis for newer forms of Buddhist chanting. Shomyo‘s nomenclature and performance practices are found in later Japanese music, much in the way ancient Western art music is based on early Roman Catholic music theory.
Shomyo, like Gagaku, employs the Yo scale, a pentatonic scale with ascending intervals of two, three, two, two, and three semitones.
I, Sohrab, moved with my beautiful wife to NY 7/7/2008. Exactly one year before I came, an old young Japanese friend of mine Yamatsuka Eye of THE BOREDOMS got seventy seven NY drummers together to perform at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 7th, 2007. 
Before the show he explained to reporters how the number 7 historically is associated with the Milky Way and a romantic myth about how Japanese ancestors came from a river of stars in heaven. These ancestors called themselves messengers of the sun, or sun goddess Amaterasu, and so the number 7 is associated with the sun. “You are the 78th member! This is because the sound will spiral outwards, from left to right, like DNA, from deep inside of us right out to you. The 77 drum group is one giant instrument, one living creature. The 77 boa-drum will coil like a snake and transform to become a great dragon! “- Yamatsuka EYE.
Boing Boing contributing editor Lisa Katayama reports on the marriage in Japan between a man known as “Sal9000” and Nene Anegasaki, a character in the Nintendo DS dating simulation game “Love Plus.”
More on Boing Boing blog:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/24/…
And an interview with the groom:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/25/…
