Analysis of Pauses Toward Transmitting Traditional Skills

This paper tries to clarify various pauses, which are called "Ma" in Japanese, in performances in order to employ them in transmitting traditional skills from the current generation to the next one. Various pauses are tried to be identified from speeches, music pieces, and actions. A tea ceremony, the knitting of wire netting and the Mie of Kabuki performance are treated as actions. Pauses are classified to several groups from the viewpoints of the presence of sound, that of movement, that of a pose, the time duration, and the aim of a pause. It is also pointed out that there is a negative pause. From the point of view of time duration, there are three types of pause: short, normal, and long pauses. It is shown that short pauses should precisely be analyzed, and be effectively used in transmitting traditional skills because they often appear in the movements of traditional works.