Smithsonian Global Sound

I don't know why I get these wild hairs about insane projects, but I thought it would be cool to learn a song in Japanese in case I end up at a bardic as Saionji. Just one, a short one so people don't start screaming and running away. So I start looking for information on the web about saibara and roei, two vocal forms that are actually period. Of course, I can find verbal descriptions, but no sound samples, no recordings. Nothing I could work from, at least not in English. So, I sigh and turn to the Smithsonian's Global Sound project, figuring I may have to suck up and succumb to the sin of "traditional is almost as good as period for SCA purposes." And y'all KNOW how much I hate that. I just downloaded Music of the Shigin: Chanting to Chinese Poetry, recorded in 1975, including a 14 page long PDF of the original liner notes. The song lyrics are written in Japanese (sadly not romaji, which would've helped me), with English translations. Shigin are Chinese classical poems. Chanted or sung with Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters, shigin is associated with the popular revival of Confucianism during the Edo period. As songs, they're mostly 19th century. However, the subjects of several of the cuts on this album deal with events and themes from the feudal period. This may be as good as it gets, at least for now. So, the question is, can I learn one of these things phonetically? Can I sing from my hara instead of my chest? Can I even figure out how Japanese vocal ornamentation works? Have I bit off more than I can chew? Again?