Voice as talisman: Theorising sound in medieval Japanese treatises on the musical art of sutra chanting

This article aims to situate medieval Japanese musical treatises and handbooks as sound reproduction technologies, understanding these sources as theorising the complex intermixing of voice, text, and body. I focus on the chanting of Buddhist sacred text in medieval Japan in order to excavate Buddhist theories of sound—particularly human-produced sound—as a material force. After sketching a brief history of sutra chanting and key terminology, the article explores the talismanic materiality of the human voice in East Asian thought and music theory, paying particular attention to the Gyosan taigaishū (魚山蠆芥集), a key text in the Shingon Buddhist recitation tradition that has been used to train Buddhist monastic reciters for centuries.