Handbook of Japanese Music in the Modern Era (Handbook of Oriental Studies, 18) 9004524010, 9789004524019

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HdO

Handbook of Japanese Music in the Modern Era

Edited by Henry Johnson

BRILL

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Handbook of Japanese Music in the Modern Era

Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Handbook of Oriental Studies handbuch der orientalistik section five Japan

Edited by R. Kersten

volume 18

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ho5

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Handbook of Japanese Music in the Modern Era Edited by

Henry Johnson

LEIDEN | BOSTON

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Cover illustration: A purple koto and guitar belonging to Sawai Hikaru. Instruments by Combat Guitars: http://www.combat-guitars.com. Photo supplied and used with permission. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Johnson, Henry Mabley, editor. Title: Handbook of Japanese music in the modern era / edited by Henry Johnson. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2024. | Series: The history of oriental studies, 0921-5239 ; volume 18 Identifiers: LCCN 2023045998 (print) | LCCN 2023045999 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004524019 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004687172 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Music--Japan--20th century--History and criticism. | Music--Japan--21st century--History and criticism. | Folk music--Japan--History and criticism. | Popular music--Japan--History and criticism. | Music--Instruction and study--Japan. | Music--Japan--Western influences. Classification: LCC ML340 .H26 2024 (print) | LCC ML340 (ebook) | DDC 780.952--dc23/eng/20231002 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023045998 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023045999

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0921-5239 isbn 978-90-04-52401-9 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-68717-2 (e-book) DOI 10.1163/9789004687172 Copyright 2024 by Henry Johnson. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Brill Wageningen Academic, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau and V&R unipress. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

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Contents Acknowledgements ix List of Illustrations xi Japanese Periods and Eras xv Notes on the Text xvi Notes on Contributors xvii Map of Japan xxv Introduction: Japanese Music in the Modern Era 1 Henry JOHNSON

Part 1 Foundations 1

Sacred or Secular? The Dilemma of Theatrical Kagura 21 Terence LANCASHIRE

2

Buddhism and Modern Music in Japan: From Praise Songs to Popular Music 37 Duncan REEHL

3

Reigakusha Gagaku Ensemble: Mediating between Ancient and Contemporary Practice 54 Naoko TERAUCHI

4

The “Heike Brothers” and the 800-Year Transmission and Reception of Heike Musical Narrative 70 Haruko KOMODA and Alison TOKITA

5

Eisā: Between the Expression of Okinawan Identity and the Appropriation of Okinawan Culture 85 Sumi CHO

6

Ainu Ways of Being in the Contemporary: Music and Dance as Cultural Practice 101 Justin R. HUNTER

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Part 2 Heritage 7

Getting into Min’yо̄ : Online and Offline Access to Japanese Folk Song 119 Felicity GREENLAND

8

Traditional Folk Music in Contemporary Japan: Case Studies of Standardization and Diversification in Tsugaru Shamisen and Folk Song 137 Gakuto CHIBA and Patrick E. SAVAGE

9

Naniwa-bushi: A Musical Narrative Born in Modern Japan 156 Alison TOKITA

10

An Innovative Conservative: Satsuma-biwa Practice and the Legacy of Fumon Yoshinori 173 Hugh DE FERRANTI and Thomas Charles MARSHALL

11

Wondrous Tones: The Transnational Appeal of the Shakuhachi through Time and Space 188 Christopher Yohmei BLASDEL

12

Choreographing Sound: Ensemble Taiko Drumming in Modern Japan 205 Shawn BENDER

13

Studying the Past to Predict the Future: Yamauchi Reach, a Professional Percussionist in the Twenty-First Century 217 Jennifer MILIOTO MATSUE

Part 3 Institutions 14

Learning Musical Instruments in Japanese Schools 237 David G. HEBERT and Kōji MATSUNOBU

15

Yōgaku, Western Music in Japan: Perspectives from Osaka 254 Junko IGUCHI

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16

Violin Playing and Women in Japanese Music 270 Ena KAJINO

17

The Suzuki Method, Yamaha System, and Japanese Traditional Music: A Case Study of Japanese Music Education in the Modern Era 286 Eria KUBO

18 Ryukyuan Uta-sanshin in Modern Japan: The Influence of Government Institutions on Teaching and Performing 301 Matt GILLAN and Mina ENDŌ 19

Koto Modernities in the Twenty-First Century 317 Henry JOHNSON

Part 4 Hybridities 20 Navigating the Past, Embracing the Present: Japanese Compositional Hybridity in Theory and Practice 337 Marty REGAN 21

The Innate Hybridity of the Shamisen within Contemporary Music: The Physical, Musical, and Socio-Cultural 356 Colleen C. SCHMUCKAL

22

Rethinking the Evolution of Japanese Music: Kunimoto Takeharu and Katō Kinji’s Electric Shamisen 372 Keisuke YAMADA

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Japanese Popular Songs in the Twentieth Century: Adaptation, Hybridity, and Creativity 386 Minako WASEDA

24 Misora Hibari in Kōhaku Utagassen: From Modernity to Immortality 405 Shelley BRUNT and Amane KASAI 25

Japanese Rap: A History of Style 423 Noriko MANABE Index 439

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Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep appreciation to all those who have contributed to the creation of this book: performers, scholars, and enthusiasts. I am particularly grateful to Inge Klompmakers for initiating the idea behind the volume and for her invaluable guidance and support throughout the project. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the thirty contributors who have dedicated their time, expertise, and insights to covering the twenty-five chapters in this book. Their contributions have made this work comprehensive, insightful, and truly multidisciplinary. The contributors have offered particularly relevant glimpses into the vast world of Japanese music in the modern era within the suggested framework for the volume. They have interpreted the outline in illuminating ways, providing insight into the array of Japanese music in many styles and across time and place, but always emphasizing its contribution to a modern, moving tradition. My heartfelt thanks are extended to the team at Brill for their support throughout the publication process, particularly Patricia Radder, Irene Jager, and Uri Tadmor. Their professionalism, attention to detail, and expertise have been instrumental in bringing this book to fruition. I am deeply grateful to Brill for their unwavering commitment to academic excellence and for making the publication journey a smooth and rewarding experience. I would also like to express my gratitude to the peer reviewers for their constructive feedback and to my colleagues and students for their encouragement and inspiration and to Lisa Marr, who provided exceptional research assistance, compiling the index and expertly navigating a wide range of source materials and offering critical insights and suggestions. To the University of Otago, which has made this project possible and supported the dissemination of new knowledge in the field, I am especially thankful. Two of the chapters in the volume have appeared in print in part or in entirety. Part of Chiba’s contribution in Chapter 8 formed a component of his master’s thesis, and Manabe’s essay (Chapter 25) is a development of a text in the 2023 exhibition book for a hip hop art show at the Baltimore Art Museum. Permission to include these materials in this volume is gratefully acknowledged. A number of illustrations have been included throughout the book as a way of helping to visually contextualize the musical theme, and we acknowledge all who have made this possible. The map of Japan in the front matter was sourced from iStock with the kind assistance of Glen Ross and Anton Lambaart.

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I am particularly grateful to Sawai Hikaru and Tanaka Takafumi for their assistance in sourcing the book’s cover image. Finally, I am deeply grateful to my family for their unwavering support, encouragement, and inspiration throughout this journey. Their love and commitment have sustained me through the many long hours of research and writing, and I dedicate this book to them with all my heart.

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Illustrations Map 0.1

Map of Japan xxv

Figures 1.1 Susanoo no Mikoto slays the great snake 23 1.2 Standard Iwami kagura musical accompaniment 24 1.3 Iwami kagura in the British Library 27 1.4 Emperor Chūai and Takamaro attack two demons representing “Jinrin” 28 1.5 Unmasked “Kenmai” dance 34 2.1 The praise song “Shinshū Shūka” 39 2.2 Tariki Echo perform at the Nico Video Super Convention 42 2.3 Rev. Asakura Gyōsen during a performance of the Techno Hōyō at Shōonji 48 2.4 Rev. Tatsumi Akinobu gives a talk on Buddhism and music 49 3.1 Reigakusha 55 3.2 Shiba Sukeyasu playing ryūteki 58 3.3 Tōgi Hideki with his son, Tōgi Norichika 59 4.1 Biwa-hōshi  71 4.2 Portrait of Ogino Kengyō  73 4.3 The “Heike Brothers” 78 4.4 Heike mabushi  80 5.1 Female teodori dancers from Eguchi Youth Group 86 5.2 Chondara (a clown-like figure) from Sonda eisā 87 5.3 Drum dancers from Eguchi Youth Group 89 5.4 Ryūkyū Kajimayā 95 6.1 “Ikamukka Sanke” 107 6.2 “Ku Rimse” 107 6.3 Mukkuri 108 6.4 “Easy” mukkuri 109 6.5 Tonkori made by Fukumoto Shōji  111 7.1 MinCru performance NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert 124 7.2 Terada Sōichi (Omodaka) 126 7.3 Shimizu Satsuki performs “Sentō Ondo” 131 7.4 Ilán Terrell in a shamisen lesson with Naruse Shōhei 132 8.1 Estimated numbers of Tsugaru shamisen and folk song performers in 1982 and 2022 138 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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8.2 Chiba Gakuto playing the Tsugaru shamisen 140 8.3 Chiba Gakuto (age four) performing a folk song at the 2002 Kōzan-kai Recital 142 8.4 “Bunkafu” shamisen score of “Tsugaru Jongara-bushi” 143 8.5 Patrick Savage with his trophy for 1st place in the “foreigner” category of the 2019 National Championship 149 8.6 Screenshots of live performances during the 2020 MUTEK Tokyo keynote lecture/concert 152 9.1 The naniwa-bushi stage in the Meiji era 157 9.2 The contemporary naniwa-bushi stage at Mokubatei 158 9.3 Tōchūken Kumoemon 162 9.4 Poster for a special summer performance at Mokubatei 170 10.1 Fumon playing the biwa in his studio in Tokyo 180 10.2 Notation by Ijūin Kakujō 181 10.3 Notation by Fumon  182 11.1 Komusō playing in front of Arai Sekisho 192 11.2 Ōkurauro 195 11.3 Christopher Blasdel having a shakuhachi lesson with Yamaguchi Gorō 199 11.4 Participants in the final concert of the 1998 World Shakuhachi Festival 201 12.1 Taiko ensembles arrange large and small taiko drums in a variety of positions 206 12.2 Bench at a bus stop on the Taiko Road 212 12.3 The group Genki Spark formed in Boston with a mission to promote the empowerment of Asian American women through taiko performance 214 13.1 Yamauchi Reach solo concert poster 218 13.2 Yamauchi Reach shamisen recital poster 222 13.3 Matsuri-shū performing “Shimen-soka”  225 13.4 Wa San Bon and Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu performing in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand  229 14.1 Hōgaku Club posters, memorabilia, and a photocopy from the comic book Kono Oto Tomare 239 14.2 Tateshina High School Jazz Club 245 14.3 Tateshina High School Jazz Club performing at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington 246 15.1 Nagai Kōji and his reed organ 259 15.2 Awsay Strok and Efrem Zimbalist 262 15.3 Amateur and professional orchestral musicians collaborate with performers of gamelan, sitar, and traditional Japanese instruments 267

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  Illustrations 16.1 Kanbe Ayako, Andō Kō, Shibata Tamaki, and Kōda Nobuko 276 16.2 Tanomogi Koma with her grandchildren 277 16.3 Kitamura Hatsuko 280 16.4 Shikama Ranko and her two sisters, Seiko and Kunie 281 17.1 The 29th TERI All Japan Koto and Violin Performance from the 1983 event programme 295 17.2 Programme cover of the 14th Suzuki Shin’ichi Student Study Session of 21 March 1943 296 18.1 Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts 305 18.2 Arakaki Toshimichi teaching an uta-sanshin class at Kengei 308 18.3 Arakaki Megumi performing as part of the all-female unit Shihora 312 19.1 Jūshichigen and koto 319 19.2 Koto and nijūgogen 320 19.3 Sawai Hikaru playing a koto 321 19.4 Ibukuro Kiyoshi with a nijūgogen 329 20.1 Yōshū Chikanobu, “Ōshū kangengaku gassō no zu” 341 20.2 Miyagi Michio’s “Haru no Umi” 343 20.3 The miyako-bushi scale or hirajōshi tuning 344 20.4 Satoh Sōmei’s Birds in Warped Time II 347 20.5 Kuwabara Yu’s Garden of Onomatopoeias 351 21.1 Score for “Yojigen Zahyō” 360 21.2 “Kakuregasa Kijo no Omokage”  363 21.3 A Hanawa-bayashi float and the Asazume parade 365 21.4 The three phrases of “Gion” in bunkafu notation 368 22.1 A concert space in Shamisen Katō 373 22.2 The Mugen 21’s output jack hole 378 22.3 The back of the Mugen 21 379 23.1 Transcription of “Koryasa no Ondo” 395 23.2 Sleeve cover of “Nakanaide” 396 23.3 Sleeve cover of Essential Best by the Tigers 398 23.4 Enka singer Kawanaka Miyuki 400 23.5 Sleeve cover of “Onna no Tameiki” 401 24.1 Misora Hibari’s black “Phoenix” dress 411 24.2 AI Hibari at the 70th Kōhaku rehearsals 417 25.1 Rhymester, “B-Boyizm” hook 428 25.2 Rhymester, “B-Boyizm” 429

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Tables 3.1 The 5th Gagaku Ensōkai 63 3.2 The 12th Gagaku Ensōkai 63 3.3 The 13th Gagaku Ensōkai 63 3.4 Gagaku Konsāto No. 6 64 3.5 Gagaku Konsāto No. 11 64 3.6 Gagaku Konsāto No. 18 64 3.7 Concert No. 5: Gagaku no Kangakki ni yoru Gendai Sakuhin o Atsumete 64 3.8 Concert No. 12: Gendai Sakuhin o Atsumete II 64 3.9 Concert No. 14: Shō: Tachinoboru Oto 65 3.10 Concert No. 19: Biwa Arekore 65 3.11 Concert No. 22: Works of Shiba Sukeyasu 65 19.1 Blends: Content of episodes 322 24.1 Misora Hibari’s chronological song performances in Kōhaku 408 24.2 Misora Hibari songs posthumously covered in Kōhaku 413

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Japanese Periods and Eras Note: Some dates are approximate. Jomon period (縄文) Yayoi period (弥生) Kofun period (古墳) Asuka period (飛鳥) Nara period (奈良) Heian period (平安) Kamakura period (鎌倉) Muromachi period (室町) Azuchi–Momoyama period (安土桃山) Edo period (江戸) Meiji era (明治) Taishō era (大正) Shōwa era (昭和) Heisei era (平成) Reiwa era (令和)

ca. 14,000 BCE–300 BCE ca. 300 BCE–300 CE ca. 300–592 ca. 592–710 710–794 794–1185 1185–1333 1336–1573 1573–1600 1600–1868 1868–1912 1912–1926 1926–1989 1989–2019 2019–present

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Notes on the Text Throughout this book, Japanese characters have been used on first mention of a Japanese term or name. This is to provide the reader with an understanding of the Japanese word in its original form and to avoid any ambiguity that may arise from different systems of romanization. Japanese family names appear before given names in the main body of the text, following the Japanese convention (all contributors’ family names appear after their given names). The system for romanization of Japanese words used in this book follows the modified Hepburn system. This system is widely recognized and used by scholars of Japanese studies and is known for its accuracy and consistency. The modified Hepburn system is preferred over other romanization systems because of its ability to accurately represent the sounds of Japanese words in the roman alphabet. Macrons have been used for long vowels in relevant Japanese words to indicate correct pronunciation. This is in line with the standard practice of Japanese romanization and is used to distinguish between words that may otherwise be spelled similarly but pronounced differently. However, some Japanese names have maintained the individual’s personal preference in spelling.

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Notes on Contributors Shawn BENDER is an associate professor of East Asian studies at Dickinson College, US. His research areas include cultural anthropology, Asian studies, and science and technology studies. He has conducted field research in Japan, Denmark, and Germany. His book on taiko drumming, Taiko Boom, was published in 2012 (University of California Press). His latest book manuscript examines how Japanese robots are used in the care of older adults and people with disabilities. Christopher Yohmei BLASDEL is a shakuhachi player and ethnomusicologist. A long-time resident of Japan and graduate of the Tokyo University of Arts Graduate School, he received his teaching licence from legendary shakuhachi master Yamaguchi Gorō and now records, performs, and teaches around the world. He is presently based in Honolulu and on the faculty at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. Along with numerous recordings, he is the author of The Shakuhachi: A Manual for Learning and The Single Tone: A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music (both Printed Matter Press, 2008) and Songs of the Floating World: Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations to be published by Routledge, early 2024 (www.yohmei.com). Shelley BRUNT is a senior lecturer in music and media at RMIT University, Australia. As a popular music ethnomusicologist, she focuses on ethnographic approaches to understanding music cultures in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Shelley is the co-editor of Perfect Beat journal (Equinox), and her books include Popular Music and Parenting (Routledge, 2022) and the co-edited Made in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand: Studies in Popular Music (Routledge, 2018). She publishes regularly on Japan’s annual NHK Kōhaku Utagassen (Red and White Song Contest), including a forthcoming monograph with Bloomsbury. Gakuto CHIBA 千葉楽斗 is a PhD student in the CompMusic Lab in the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University, Japan. His articles include “Sequence Alignment of Folk Song Melodies Reveals Cross-cultural Regularities of Musical Evolution” (Current Biology, 2022) and “Sight vs. Sound Judgments of Music Performance Depend on Relative Performer Quality: Cross-cultural

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Evidence from Classical Piano and Tsugaru Shamisen Competitions” (Collabra: Psychology, 2023). He has won numerous 1st-place awards as a performer in national Tsugaru shamisen competitions, including the Grand Prix in Tokyo (2014), “A-class” tournament title in Aomori (2014), and junior tournament title in Aomori (2011). Sumi CHO 조수미 is a cultural anthropologist and an associate professor at Bangmok College of General Education, Myongji University, South Korea. Her research focuses on ethnicity and race, queer studies, and cultural activism in Japan and Korea. She conducted research on Okinawan music and dance practice in Osaka and is currently conducting research on Pride movements in Korea and Japan. Her publications include articles in Senri Ethnological Studies (2015), the Journal of Intercultural Studies (2020), and Korean Anthropology Review (2022) (in English), and co-authored books The Rainbow Wants More Colors: Overcoming LGBT Hate for the Expansion of Human Rights (2019) and Asian Women Persist: Anthropologists Answer Feminist Questions (2021) (in Korean). Hugh DE FERRANTI is on the faculty of the Institute for Liberal Arts at Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research on Japanese music culture began in 1985 when he learned the Satsuma-biwa with the late Fumon Yoshinori. At the start of the 1990s, he undertook extensive fieldwork with elderly blind singers in Kyushu. He has published widely on biwa traditions, Takemitsu’s compositional practice in works written for the late Tsuruta Kinshi, Osaka regional music history, music among Japanese migrant communities in prewar Australia, and ethnic minorities’ music in twenty-first century Japan. Mina ENDŌ 遠藤美奈 received a master’s and PhD in musicology at Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, Japan, where she became an associate professor in the Music Cultures programme of the Music Department in 2020. Her research has focused on the role of the performing arts in the Okinawan diaspora around the world as well as on the role of diasporic communities within Okinawa. She has studied and worked with local communities in promoting the preservation and maintenance of traditional performing arts in Okinawa Prefecture and organizes concerts and cultural events featuring traditional music in Okinawa.

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Matt GILLAN received MMus and PhD degrees from SOAS University of London, UK. Following a postdoctoral position at the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, Japan, he has taught musicology at International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, since 2007. His research has focused on the music of Okinawa in the modern period, in particular the various uta-sanshin traditions of the Ryukyu islands and Okinawan theories of the singing voice. He has also published in English and Japanese on the shakuhachi and the relationship between Buddhism and music in modern Japan. Matt is a performer and teacher of uta-sanshin in the Tokyo area. Felicity GREENLAND is an associate professor at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Japan. She holds degrees in geography (Manchester), Japanese studies (Essex), and fine art (Chelsea). Formerly on the staff of the English Folk Song & Dance Society and a singer in London folk clubs, she has studied wadaiko and established an utagoe song club in Kyoto. Her research spans community music, modern folklore, and local identity. Her publications include various papers on the whaling-related folk songs of Japan (Shima, 2017; Asia-Pacific Perspectives, 2013; Bukkyō Daigaku Bungakubu Ronshū, 2010, 2011) and “Ningen: The Generation of Media-lore Concerning a Giant, Sub-Antarctic, Aquatic Humanoid and Its Relation to Japanese Whaling Activity” (co-authored, Shima, 2020). David G. HEBERT is a professor of music at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. His research interests are in ethnomusicology, music education, and comparative philosophy of education. He has held academic posts on each inhabited continent, and his books (as author or co-editor) include Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools (Springer, 2011), Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology (Lexington Books, 2014), Music Glocalization: Heritage and Innovation in a Digital Age (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), Teaching World Music in Higher Education (Routledge, 2021), and Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy (Lexington Books, 2022). Justin R. HUNTER is a faculty member at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, US. He teaches courses on ethnomusicology, world music, and globalization. His research interests centre on complicating the idea of “tradition” in cultural contexts based on insider knowledge rather than outsider labels. Working in

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Indigenous studies in Japan as well as folk music studies in the US, his work examines multi-generational understanding of music practices and the transmission of tradition. Junko IGUCHI 井口淳子 is a professor of musicology at Osaka College of Music, Japan. A specialist in Chinese narrative music traditions and the reception of Western music in prewar Shanghai and Osaka, she has published many books in Japanese and Chinese. She recently launched a website about the impresario Awsay Strok: https://ongakugaku2.wixsite.com/strok. Her books include Bōmeisha tachi no Shanhai gakudan: Sokai no ongaku to barē (Ongaku no Tomosha, 2019). Henry JOHNSON is a professor of music at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research interests are in ethnomusicology, Asian studies, and island studies, and he has carried out field research in Asia, Europe, and Australasia. His books include The Koto (Hotei, 2004), Asia in the Making of New Zealand (co-edited, Auckland University Press, 2006), Performing Japan (co-edited, Global Oriental, 2008), The Shamisen (Brill, 2010), and The Shakuhachi (Brill, 2014). Ena KAJINO 梶野絵奈 is a professional violinist and a part-time lecturer in music at the University of Tokyo and Musashino University, Japan. She holds a Master of Music degree in violin performance from the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, Austria. Following her studies, she established her career as a concert violinist and violin instructor in Japan, Europe, and Canada. She gained a PhD degree in comparative literature and culture from the University of Tokyo, Japan. She is the author of Nippon no vaiorin-shi (Seikyūsha, 2022), and her second monograph, which won the University of Tokyo’s Jiritsu Award for Early Career Academics, will be published in 2024. Amane KASAI 葛西周 is a lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts, Japan. Her research addresses topics related to historical musicology, sound studies, Japanese studies, and cultural exchanges from cross-genre viewpoints. She has recently contributed chapters to Oto to mimi kara kangaeru: Rekishi, shintai, tekunorojī (Artes Publishing, 2021) and Idōsuru media to puropaganda: Nitchū sensōki kara sengo ni kakete no taishū geijutsu (Bensei Publishing, 2020). Her current research reviews tourist sites, particularly hot spring resorts, as auditory spaces where people with different music preferences and backgrounds gather.

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Haruko KOMODA 薦田治子 is a Specially Appointed Professor of Music at Musashino College of Music, Tokyo, Japan. She is the foremost researcher of Heike-biwa and Heike narrative and researches the wider history of biwa music and of blind musicians in Japan. Her publications include the prize-winning monograph Heike no ongaku: Tōdō no dentō (Daiichi Shobō, 2003). She has documented blind performance traditions, including the CD/DVD set Biwa-hōshi no sekai: Heike monogatari (Ebisu, 2009), awarded First Prize in the annual Arts Festival (Record Division). She has served as a member of Japan’s Agency of Cultural Affairs Cultural Council. In 2018, she was awarded the Koizumi Fumio Music Prize. Eria KUBO 久保絵里麻 is an independent scholar. Her research focuses on the history of Western music in Japan, especially on Suzuki Shin’ichi as a musician and pedagogue. She earned her PhD from Meiji Gakuin University with her doctoral dissertation “Suzuki Shin’ichi to Sainō Kyōiku: Sono Keisei-shi to Honshitsu no Kaimei” (2014) and gave her paper “Shedding New Light on the Suzuki Method: An Examination of the Early Writings of Shin’ichi Suzuki” at the Congress of the International Musicological Society in Tokyo (2017). She gives occasional lectures on the Suzuki Method for the Talent Education Research Institute in Tokyo. Terence LANCASHIRE retired in 2022 but continues to teach Japanese culture and introductions to world music at Osaka Ohtani University and Japanese culture at Kobe University, Japan. He has written articles on various aspects of the Japanese performing arts, primarily kagura, and has published Gods’ Music: The Japanese Folk Theatre of Iwami Kagura (Florian Noetzel, 2006) and An Introduction to Japanese Folk Performing Arts (Ashgate, 2011; Routledge, 2016). Noriko MANABE is a professor of music theory at Indiana University, US. Her research concerns music in social movements and popular music (especially in Japan and the US). Her book The Revolution will not be Televised: Protest Music after Fukushima (Oxford University Press, 2015) won the Hall Prize from the Association for Asian Studies, the Book Award from the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, and honourable mention for the Alan Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology. She is editor of the 33 1/3 Japan book series on Japanese popular music and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Protest Music (with Eric Drott). www.norikomanabe.com.

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Thomas Charles MARSHALL is a Satsuma-biwa performer and teacher based in Ireland. He regularly gives lectures about and demonstrations of the instrument. He is interested in performance practice within the Orthodox School of Satsuma-biwa in the first half of the twentieth century. He is the Director of Music at St Ann’s Church, Dublin, and an organist, choral director, and concert performer. Kōji MATSUNOBU 松信浩二 holds PhDs in music education from Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan, and in secondary and continuing education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US. Prior to joining the Education University of Hong Kong, he held academic positions at the University of Queensland, Australia, and Kumamoto University, Japan. A former Fulbright scholar, he has written widely on spirituality, creativity, mindfulness, well-being, Japanese music, world music pedagogy, place-based education, arts integration, and arts-based research. He developed an award-winning instrument for hybrid music-making, called the recohachi, which is also used for educational purposes (recohachi.com). Jennifer MILIOTO MATSUE is an ethnomusicologist at Union College, US, specializing in modern Japanese music and culture. She has conducted research on the Tokyo hardcore rock scene, nagauta (chamber music featuring the shamisen, three-string lute), taiko (Japanese ensemble drumming), and Vocaloid Hatsune Miku. She is the author of the monographs Making Music in Japan’s Underground: The Tokyo Hardcore Scene (Routledge, 2008) and Focus: Music in Contemporary Japan (Routledge, 2015) as well as several articles on related topics. She is now embarking on new research entitled “The Beat, Body and Brain: Musical Interludes with the Horse,” which explores the wide range of ways that horses intersect with music. Duncan REEHL is currently a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Boston University, US. His dissertation research investigates sound and Buddhism in contemporary Japan through ethnographic case studies of popular music performed by Buddhist priests, the recitation and technological mediation of sutras, Pure Land Buddhist praise songs, and the use of the shakuhachi flute as a religious implement. His work pursues critical and theoretical conversations regarding the intersections of sound, music, religion, and technology. His primary year of

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fieldwork, which he undertook from October 2021 to 2022, was supported by a dissertation research fellowship from the Japan Foundation. Marty REGAN is a professor of music at Texas A&M University, US. He is the composer of over eighty-five works for traditional Japanese instruments. Widely regarded as the authoritative source on the subject, his translation of Miki Minoru’s Composing for Japanese Instruments was published by the University of Rochester Press in 2008. His chamber opera, titled The Memory Stone, was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera as part of the Songs of Houston: East + West initiative and premiered in 2013 at the Asia Society Texas Center. In 2022–23, he was the recipient of a Fulbright US Scholar Award to conduct field research in Japan while teaching at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music. Patrick E. SAVAGE is an associate professor in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, Japan, where he directs the CompMusic Lab for comparative and computational musicology. He holds a MSc in psychology and PhD in ethnomusicology, and his research aims to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches to understanding cross-cultural musical diversity. He has received awards from organizations including the Association for Psychological Science (2022, Rising Star), Japanese Minister for Education, Sports, Science, and Technology (2022, Young Scientists’ Prize), and Japanese Emperor (2017, Ikushi Prize). He has taken lessons in min’yō (Japanese folk song) since 2011 and has won numerous trophies in min’yō competitions, including 1st place in the “Foreigner” section of the 2019 “Nanbu Ushioi Uta” national competition. From October 2023, he will be a Rutherford Discovery Fellow in the University of Auckland’s School of Psychology. Colleen C. SCHMUCKAL is a researcher and composer/performer in Japan, lecturing at Tokyo University of the Arts and others. Her research interests include ethnomusicology and compositional techniques and analysis. Her publications include “Transmission through Beginner Music for Multi-Genre Instruments: An Analysis of Shamisen Beginner Music by Kineya Seihō” (Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Ongaku Gakubu Kiyō, 2019), “Advantages of a Traditional Center for Compelling Modernity: Examining the Roles of Japanese Traditional Instruments in Contemporary Music through the Analysis of Katsusuke Nakajima’s Mizu no En” (Living Music, 2021), and a CD, Shamisen Works by Colleen Christina Schmuckal Performed by Tetsuya Nozawa (Kokoro Records, 2016).

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Naoko TERAUCHI 寺内直子 is a professor in the Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Japan. Her research interests are in ethnomusicology and Japanese studies. She has carried out field research in Asia, the US, and Europe. Her publications include Japanese Traditional Music: Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai 1941 (World Arbiter, 2008–16) and What the Doctor Overheard: Dr. Leopold Müller’s Account of Music in Early Meiji Japan (co-authored, Cornell University, 2017). She was a contributor to Presence through Sound: Music and Place in East Asia (Routledge, 2020). Alison TOKITA is an adjunct researcher at Monash University, Australia, and a guest professor at Kyoto City University of Arts, Japan. Her books include Kiyomoto-bushi: Narrative Music of the Kabuki Theatre (Baerenreiter, 1999) and Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative (Ashgate, 2015). She co-edited The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music (Ashgate, 2008), Music, Modernity and Locality in Prewar Japan: Osaka and Beyond (Ashgate, 2013), and The Art Song in East Asia and Australia, 1900–1950 (Routledge, 2023). In 2023, she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (Gold Rays with Rosette). Minako WASEDA 早稲田みな子 is a professor of music at Kunitachi College of Music, Japan. Her research interests are in musical cultures of the Japanese diaspora, cultural contact and transformations, and Japanese and African American music. Her publications include Amerika Nikkei shakai no ongaku bunka: Ekkyōsha-tachi no hyakunen-shi (Music Culture of Nikkei People in America: A Hundred-year History of Those who Crossed Borders; Kyōwakoku, 2022), “Naniwa-bushi in Hawai‘i: The Rise and Fall of a Japanese Narrative Art in Diaspora” (Yearbook for Traditional Music, 2020), and “Gospel Music in Japan: Transplantation and Localization of African American Religious Singing” (Yearbook for Traditional Music, 2013). Keisuke YAMADA 山田恵輔 is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, US. He is the author of Supercell Featuring Hatsune Miku (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017). His other peer-reviewed work has appeared in Asian Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, Japan Forum, Japanese Studies, Journal of Japanese Studies (forthcoming 2024), Technology and Culture, The Asia-Pacific Journal, and The Oxford Handbook of Economic Ethnomusicology, among others. He has currently been revising his book manuscript entitled Ecologies of Sound for Duke University Press. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Map of Japan

Map 0.1

Map of Japan

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Introduction: Japanese Music in the Modern Era Henry JOHNSON 1

Music in and of Japan

The scholarly study of Japanese music typically places culturally-produced, humanly-organized sound in Japan within frameworks such as old and new traditions (Hughes 2008; Johnson 2004; Keister 2008; Lancashire 2011; Thornbury 1997), heritage (Gillan 2012), Western music in Japan (Galliano 2002; Manabe 2009; Mitsui 2020), modernity (de Ferranti and Tokita 2013; Hughes 2008; Janz 2019; Mehl 2014), and cultural nationalism (Chiba 2002; Herd 1987; Johnson 2011; Yano 1998, 2002), connecting music to particular paradigms as defined by disciplinary practices. Japanese music is typically examined within a domestic setting, produced by and for Japanese, and linked to a notion of cultural identity (Harich-Schneider 1973; Kishibe 1969; Malm 2000 [1959]; Piggott 1909 [1893]; Tanabe 1936). In contemporary scholarship, however, these frames of reference are increasingly critiqued because of increased global cultural flows and diversified musical practices both within and beyond Japan’s national borders (Bender 2012; Bigenho 2012; Manabe 2015; Milioto Matsue 2009). One way of addressing a broader definition of Japanese music is to use more all-embracing notions of musical practices, such as “music of Japan” or “Japanese musics” (Tokita and Hughes 2008a, 1; see also Groemer 2004; Linder 2012, 25–56; Milioto Matsue 2016, 25; Tokita and Hughes 2008b). In this context, this book introduces selected topics that focus on distinct times of musical change in Japan, from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, and a diverse range of musical experiences. Grouped into the often overlapping themes of Foundations, Heritage, Institutions, and Hybridities, the twenty-five chapters offer insights into music(s) in and of Japan in the modern era. The term “Nihon ongaku” 日本音楽 (Japanese music) often refers to music that is rooted in Japanese cultural tradition and predates the widespread Japanese adoption and localization of Western music during the Meiji era (Eppstein 1995). However, some sources, such as the Nihon daihyakka zensho 日本大百科全書 (Encyclopedia Nipponica), acknowledge that the term has a broader meaning that includes Western music in Japan (Kamisangō 1984–94). In this encyclopaedia, musicologist Kamisangō Yūkō 上参郷祐康 suggests three sub-terms, themselves often ambiguous, that add to the complexity of defining Japanese music’s sonic, cultural, and geographic parameters. The first of these sub-terms is “hōgaku” 邦楽 (Japanese [traditional] music), which he notes

© Henry Johnson, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_002

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sometimes excludes court music, folk music, religious music, and theatrical music. The second sub-term, “Nihon dentō ongaku” 日本伝統音楽 (Japanese traditional music), typically excludes music composed since the Meiji era, creating a division between traditional and modern musical forms (Hughes 2008, 4). The last sub-term, “Nihon koten ongaku” 日本古典音楽 (Japanese classical music), excludes folk music. These terms are used sometimes in the titles of major Japanese reference works on Japanese music, such as Nihon ongaku daijiten 日本音楽大事典 (Hirano, Kamisangō, and Gamō 1989) and Hōgaku hyakka jiten 邦楽百科辞典 (Kikkawa 1984), amongst many other publications. While mention of these and related terms helps to show the contested nature of defining music in and of Japan, it is important to note the “difficulty, even futility, of isolating genres … [which] only increases as musics blend and blur” (Milioto Matsue 2016, 25). Several more recent publications on Japanese music have aimed to embrace the nation’s musical traditions within a context of change, particularly in the modern era. For example, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (Provine, Tokumaru, and Witzleben 2002) and The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music (Tokita and Hughes 2008b) provide extensive coverage of Nihon ongaku with a focus on hōgaku, broadly defined. Other scholars of Japanese music, such as Bonnie Wade (2005), have acknowledged that the Japanese term for “music,” “ongaku” 音楽, now includes Western music, while the term “hōgaku” is used for “traditional” Japanese music.1 While Wade’s scholarship centres on traditional musical practices, there has also been much exploration of composing Japanese musical modernity (Takemitsu 1989; Wade 2014), and other publications have examined contemporary expressions of “traditional” musical identity through established Japanese musical instruments and musical genres such as gagaku 雅楽 (court music), koto 箏・琴 (zither), shakuhachi 尺八 (flute), shamisen 三味線 (lute), biwa 琵琶 (lute), min’yō 民謡 (folk song), and taiko 太鼓 (drum) (Abe 2018; Johnson and Jaffe 2008; Milioto Matsue 2016; Yoshikami 2020). Such work represents an ever-changing musical environment that indexes cultural traditions or the national setting, yet the breadth of music in and of Japan goes beyond traditional practices and includes an array of other types of music from rock to reggae, hip hop to hula, Western music to American 1 The Japanized term myūjikku ミュージック (music) is also used in the modern era as an all-embracing concept for music. In popular music, the terms “hōgaku” and “yōgaku” 洋楽 are used to categorize Japanese popular music and Western popular music respectively, with the term “jun-hōgaku” 純邦楽 (“pure” Japanese music) often used to refer to traditional Japanese music.

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country music, and the minority and Indigenous musical practices of Ainu, Koreans, Chinese, and Okinawans (Furmanovsky 2007; Galliano 2002; Hibino, Ralph, and Johnson 2021; Hosokawa 1994; Manabe 2009, 2015; Mitsui 2001; Richards and Tanosaki 2008; Simura 2002). Furthermore, there is increasing interest in cross-cultural exchanges, as evidenced by the study of diverse music-making in Japan, including Andean music (Bigenho 2012), Irish music (Williams 2006), and tango (Asaba 2016; Hosokawa 1995). The term “Nihon ongaku,” therefore, is a pluralistic concept that crosses time and place and is understood more by what musicians do than how the term is defined. The musical soundscape of Japan today, as well as for many decades prior, has been enriched by a wide range of musical practices that are often associated with or related to the nation’s commercial music production and consumption (Atkins 2001; Fujie 1989; Kawabata 1991; Mitsui 2020, 2021). Scholars increasingly highlight the expanse of Japanese popular music, including historical approaches (de Ferranti and Tokita 2013; Nagahara 2017), studies of idol culture and J-pop in all its forms (Bourdaghs 2012; Condry 2006; de Ferranti 2002; Galbraith 2018; Manabe 2013; McClure 1998; Milioto Matsue 2009; Mōri 2009; Stevens 2008), karaoke, mediated music, and song contests (Brunt 2006; Keil 1984; Yano 1996) as well as the use of music in film, gaming, and social media (Imada 2002), each of which continues to broaden comprehension of music in and of Japan. 2

Japan’s Modern Era

The concept of a “modern era” in human history has been defined and discussed in different ways (Pombeni 2016). Although periodization-based interpretations are often contested, a Eurocentric perspective divides the modern era into the “early modern” period from approximately AD 1500 to 1800 and the “late modern” period dating from around 1800 to the present. In contrast, the modern era in Japan is usually defined as beginning with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which marked a major political change and led to the nation’s rapid modernization, industrialization, and westernization (Jansen 2000; Shively 1971). From the Meiji era, these changes had a profound and lasting impact on the Japanese musical landscape, including the recontextualization and transformation of what were soon known as “traditional” genres, and the widespread adoption of Western musical practices, which provided a new or modern musical milieu. From that time until the present day, Japanese music has both consolidated traditional forms and created new traditions while also

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incorporating and adapting musical styles from around the world to create a distinct Japanese sonic environment that includes transcultural musical associations and expressions. Therefore the chapters in this volume focus on selected and representative musical practices from the Meiji era to the twenty-first century, including musical styles that originated in earlier times but have been restyled to reflect modern Japanese and global influences, as well as distinctly localized or Japanized musical forms with non-Japanese roots that have done much to represent the Japanese musical sound world in the modern era. While Japanese traditional music may sometimes give the impression that it is in stasis, scholars have increasingly acknowledged its constant evolution with the invention of new traditions as a result of cultural contact both within Japan and with neighbouring and distant cultures (Matsumiya 1959; Wade 2005). That is, in Japanese music, “transmission techniques and practices allow imperceptible and unintentional change, while nurturing a belief that the tradition is unchanged” (Tokita and Hughes 2008a, 28; see also Yuasa 2003). Japanese music has been described as reflecting a “vibrant assimilative culture” with musical expressions that have “been profoundly affected by interface with others, by both the Asian (continental and island) and European cultural spheres (Europe and the Americas)” (Wade 2005, xiii). This “interface” has spanned centuries: even before 1868, Chinese and Western influences had an impact on local musical culture (Ōtomo 2021). Indeed, mainland Asian influences have been present in Japan for centuries, with gagaku, for example, being the result of borrowing from the Tang dynasty (618–907), and Buddhist music being adopted from the Asian mainland before this time (Harich-Schneider 1973). There was a period of Chinese borrowing during the Edo period, with a style of music in Japan broadly referred to as minshingaku 明清楽 (Malm 1975). However, in the Meiji era, Western influences spread rapidly and made a lasting impact on musical preferences, driving a process of changing musical ideas to this day: In the Japanese historical context, the century or so from about 1860 to about 1970 was a transitional period to the highest degree, the exemplary period of Japan’s “modernization.” Now that “modernization” is an accomplished fact, “tradition” seems already to belong to the distant past, like a museum piece that is occasionally brought out for public display, playful amusement, or even parody and ridicule (as so often in “postmodern” art). Starrs 2011, 8

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Wade’s reference to “others” in the Japanese musical landscape encompasses both internal and external influences on Japanese music (2005, xiii), resulting in localized, recontextualized, and hybridized forms. From gagaku ensembles to gāruzu (girls) bands (ガールズバンド), kagura 神楽 to karaoke, and biwa to Beethoven, music in and of Japan is nowadays highly eclectic, reflecting broader societal trends and diverse cultural identities. Further, since the Meiji era, Japanese music has increasingly been contrasted with Western music, giving rise to a hōgaku/yōgaku (Japanese music/Western music) dichotomy. In this context, while “the concepts of ‘modernity’ and ‘modernization’ take on their full meaning only in conscious contrast to ‘tradition’” (Starrs 2011, 8), Japanese musical practices have been shaped by both westernization and the modernization of traditional music. In different periods in Japanese music history, various labels have been employed to classify different types of music. Several concepts have been used to demonstrate the evolution of traditional music. The term “Meiji shinkyoku” 明治新曲 (new music of the Meiji era) actually emerged after the Meiji era to describe music that had been modernized with Western musical elements (Flavin 2010). Building on Meiji shinkyoku, Miyagi Michio’s 宮城道雄 (1894–1956) innovations in instrument construction and compositional methods in the 1920s, which were heavily influenced by Western musical forms and instrumental ensembles, gave rise to the concept of “shin-Nihon ongaku” 新 日本音楽 (new Japanese music) (Flavin 2013; Johnson 2012; Prescott 1997). In the post-Second World War era, the awareness of new Japanese music for traditional instruments increased, leading to the strengthening of the concepts of “gendai hōgaku” 現代邦楽 (contemporary Japanese [traditional] music) and “gendai Nihon ongaku” 現代日本音楽 (contemporary Japanese music), which sometimes blend Western art music styles with distinctly Japanese musical ideas (Groemer 2004; Herd 1987; Richards and Tanosaki 2008). The concept of “Japanese modernism” has been widely considered in various fields, such as the arts and social sciences (Ishida 2005; Starrs 2011, 2012; Yoshino 1992). However, the relationship between Japanese modernism and national or nationalist culture remains ambiguous. Scholars have debated whether Japanese modernism, which is characterized by significant changes and non-Japanese influences, is an indication of the inauthenticity of Japanese culture, with some arguing that traditional culture is inseparably linked to cultural nationalism (Starrs 2004). Still, it is important to note that Western modernism has its roots in the notion of “Japonisme” or “Japanism,” as it is sometimes called (Wichmann 1981). With Japan’s adoption of Western music—that is, some spheres of Western music-making—Japanese traditional music was often transformed with

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elements such as the invention of new instruments (Johnson 2003), the use of new musical forms (Prescott 1997), and performances that recontextualize sonic practices (Manabe 2009). This is a “hybrid” type of Japanese modernism, a “line of ‘traditionalist modernism’” that covers “a vast and diverse range of artworks in many different media” (Starrs 2011, 146). It is evident, therefore, that Japanese modernism is a complex concept that defies easy categorization. While it may have initially been perceived as a threat to authentic Japanese culture, it has since evolved into a notion that embraces hybridity and combines Japanese and Western influences in unique and innovative ways. This dynamic relationship between tradition and modern is an important aspect of Japanese modernism that continues to fascinate scholars and researchers in various fields (Chiba 2002; de Ferranti and Tokita 2013; Hibino, Ralph, and Johnson 2021; Hughes 2008; Seyama 1998; Shively 1971; Wade 2014). The study of music in modern Japan has often been approached by tracing musical roots to the political, social, and cultural changes that took place during the Meiji era, particularly with the adoption of Western music in compulsory education (Malm 1971; 1977, 204–208). This transformation created new musical traditions, generated different terms for musical styles, and reflected radical changes in Japan more broadly (Galliano 2002). However, it is important to note that Japan’s musical modernism has manifested at various times throughout history. The appropriation of gagaku in the court music of the Nara period is one example of localization that reflected a profound change in Japan’s imperial system (Garfias 1975). Such moments of modernity are diverse and include changes to musical language, innovations in instrument design, the adoption of Western music in compulsory education, and the blending of musical styles in popular music forms. In modern Japan, popular music has emerged as a melange of styles that embodies elements of the global commercial sphere of popular music while also incorporating distinctly Japanese elements, including language, performativity, instruments, and musical components. The contemporary proliferation of diverse popular music styles represents a major sphere of Japanese music-making today, not only in the commercial sphere with the vast production, distribution, and consumption of popular music, but also among amateur musicians who strive for stardom in the J-pop musical domain. Such performers reflect the nation’s ongoing engagement with global popular culture while also highlighting Japan’s unique cultural heritage. Overall, the diversity of music in and of Japan is complex and multifaceted, with various historical and contemporary influences shaping musical transformation. While the adoption of Western music in the Meiji era was without doubt a momentous turning point, it is crucial to recognize other diverse moments of modernity that preceded and succeeded this example of localization. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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7

Locating Japanese Music

In the modern era, Japanese music is practised and experienced in many locations around the world. Just as numerous global musical styles are found in Japan as part of contemporary cultural consumption (djembe, gamelan, hula, jazz, wind bands, orchestras, etc.; Bigenho 2012; Hebert 2012; Hosokawa 1995; Sterling 2010), so too Japanese music is found beyond the nation’s political borders, as disseminated through social, cultural, and new media flows. In recent decades, Japanese music as a global phenomenon has been highlighted through the international dissemination of J-pop, gaming, anime, and world music production, and, just as some non-Japanese musicians have taken up Japanese instruments and mastered them to professional standards (shakuhachi, biwa, koto, shamisen, taiko, etc.), Japanese music ensembles, including folk styles and taiko and gagaku groups, have been formed in various countries within and beyond Japanese diasporic communities (Bender 2012; Blasdel 2005; Gillan, Day, and Huang 2022; Matsunobu 2022). Another sphere of non-Japanese appropriation of Japanese musical instruments is the adoption of the shakuhachi as a spiritual tool or in modern and popular music (Keister 2004, 2005; Seyama 1998). Research on Japanese music has done much to emphasize the national soundscape by foregrounding such music and musical instruments as gagaku, biwa, shakuhachi, shamisen, koto, noh (nō) 能, and kabuki 歌舞伎 (Malm 2000 [1959]), each of which has a place within the nation’s musical heritage from pre-Meiji times and, along with other styles, as symbols of the past. Yet this music and these instruments frequently bear the imprint of contemporary cultural currents, coexisting amidst the inherent contradictions between the traditional and the modern (Milioto Matsue 2016). Since the Meiji era, cultural change has spanned political, economic, and cultural spheres throughout Japan (Parisi, Thompson, and Stevens 1995), impacting on Japan’s sonic environment in numerous ways. Forging a transcultural point of reference and labelled yōgaku, amongst other terms, in contradistinction to hōgaku, Western music in Japan ranges from the adoption of Western musical instruments (piano, violin, etc.—Kajino 2013; Tokita 2013) to the formation of wind bands, jazz groups, and orchestras as well as the widespread consumption and localization of diverse styles of popular music. While such forms are a part of the musical lives of many Japanese, in comparison to some traditional styles, they have a relatively recent history in the Japanese setting and embody a sense of recent change or modernity in terms of how Japanese music is conceived. Such extensive localization of music from beyond the national landscape shows transcultural elements of Japanese musicking, especially in the contemporary era of rapid cultural flows that have increased accessibility to global musical styles. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Japanese colonialism too has impacted the national soundscape. The annexation of the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa) in the late nineteenth century expanded the reach of the Japanese nation, just as colonization across the northern regions of Honshu and Hokkaido through Ainu lands marginalized an Indigenous culture while expanding the reach of the nation (Tanimoto 2001). In several periods, Japanese hegemony reached other parts of Asia, but Japan nowadays consumes the music of Okinawa within a type of “domestic exoticism” (Mitsui 1998), and similar patterns of consumption exist with Ainu music in the sphere of heritage tourism (Hunter 2015). Consequently, Okinawan and Ainu musical practices, amongst other styles, often make the world music market as representative sounds of “traditional” Japan (Johnson 2021). Music’s inextricable connection with place, which in Japan is evident in the dichotomy that has been formed between broad notions of Japanese music and Western music, has resulted in a highlighting of musical roots and the signification of place in musical experiences. After all, “the musical event, from collective dances to the act of putting a cassette or CD into a machine, evokes and organises collective memories and present experiences of place with an intensity, power and simplicity unmatched by any other social activity” (Stokes 1994, 3). With music in Japan, there are many sounds that signify the nation from a cultural perspective, which are especially manifest in lyrics, scales, and instruments, but there are also Japanese musical practices that are place-makers primarily because of where they’re experienced (Hill 2019), and these equally signify transcultural traditions. A performance setting can become intertwined with a specific type of music or instrument to such an extent that the significance of the place becomes an integral part of musical meaning. In the Japanese context, this association can be attributed to physical locations, such as Shinto or Buddhist settings, or be linked to factors such as gender, class, or other social groupings. For instance, certain styles of Japanese music and types of musical instruments are nowadays prefixed to indicate a geographic locality, encompassing regional identifiers (Tsugaru shamisen 津楽三味線, Satsuma-biwa 薩摩琵琶), national characteristics (hōgaku, wagakki 和楽器 [Japanese musical instruments]), or historical periods (Taishōgoto 大正琴, Meiji shinkyoku). Gagaku is an “elegant music” closely associated with Japan’s imperial court. Some of its roots lie in Shinto ritual practices, with strong ties to the imperial system and Shinto shrines. The style also has connections with certain forms of Buddhism, thereby extending its reach to different belief systems and social and cultural networks. Gagaku has undergone significant recontextualization over time (Garfias 1960), and in the modern era, some ensembles and individuals (Reigakusha 伶楽舎, Tōgi Hideki 東儀秀樹) contribute to the dissemination

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of its music through performances in secular settings and diverse musical collaborations (Lancashire 2003; Terauchi 2017). This deep connection to place, people, and beliefs has facilitated the creation of potent musical signifiers that carry cultural meaning, often perpetuating knowledge and literature related to Japan’s musical heritage. Musical place includes connectedness to people. In the pre-modern era, some Japanese instruments and ensembles were in the domain of particular social groups, including groups of blind performers (biwa), itinerant performers (shakuhachi), professional males (koto), and female amateurs (shamisen). Such associations have been challenged in the modern era with changes to who is associated with a particular instrument, whether through gender, class, or well-being. Whether historical male gagaku performers or contemporary female shakuhachi performers, the association of an instrument or player with a particular gender, class, or geographic locality continues to transform and recontextualize Japanese music across a more decentred idea of place (Coaldrake 1997; Day 2022; Fujie 2001; Johnson 2018; Milioto 1998; Olsen 2004; Wong 2019). Lastly, the place of Japanese music is intricately interconnected with mediatized space, both within and beyond national boundaries, presenting novel avenues of music production, dissemination, and consumption (Iwabuchi 2002). In this context, it is important to acknowledge that associations may morph over time, particularly in the contemporary era of rapid social and cultural flows where music in and of Japan will continue to exhibit locational transformation in terms of positionality, association, and meaning.

…

The twenty-five chapters in this book are grouped in four separate yet often overlapping parts: Foundations, Heritage, Institutions, and Hybridities. While this selection of parts is intended to highlight distinct spheres of Japanese musical practices, the individual chapters often cross these themes in their discussion of the various ways in which Japanese music is conceived, located, and experienced in the modern era, spanning the latter half of the nineteenth century to the present day. The six chapters in Part 1, Foundations, offer insight into some of the historical underpinnings of Japanese music that have helped shape aspects of national culture over time. Two chapters discuss music with religious roots that has been recontextualized in the present day in secular, entertainment, and popular music settings, showing how a form of Shinto music (Lancashire) and Buddhist music (Reehl) have each found a place in modern Japan at the

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juncture between ritual and mass entertainment. The next chapter (Terauchi) places a new ensemble of gagaku in a modern secular setting, tracing how public and media dissemination has helped popularize this style of formal ancient music. Moving to the genre of Heike 平家 recitation (Komoda and Tokita), the importance of sustaining traditional practices in the modern era is introduced in terms of new modes of cultural transmission, showing change within the social sphere of this style of performance. The last two chapters of Foundations cover the geographical extremes of the nation in the present era: the south (Okinawa prefecture) and north (Ainu people). First, a traditional and ritualistic form of Okinawan dance and music known as eisā エイ サー is examined in relation to its transformation not only within the prefecture (a late nineteenth-century administrative division of the former Ryukyu Kingdom) but also amongst the Okinawan diaspora in other parts of Japan and overseas (Cho). Moving to northern Japan, Ainu music is discussed with regard to some of the ways the Indigenous population has transformed and recontextualized its music in the modern day (Hunter). Part 2 of the book, Heritage, has seven chapters that focus on the preservation and continuation of Japanese traditional music—time-honoured and innovative—in transformative ways, both within Japan and beyond its national borders. These chapters examine how pre-Meiji musical practices as well as traditions with more recent beginnings have been maintained by practitioners and performance groups and transmitted to the present day. In this section, the idea of “heritage” illustrates the importance of maintaining Japan’s distinct musical styles, showcasing the continuity of and reverence for recognized traditional music in a modern cultural milieu. The concept of “musical heritage” is demonstrated with a study of folk song—a musical phenomenon found across the nation with discrete differences in form, content, and practice—in terms of access to the genre through modern online and offline media (Greenland). In a study of a style of shamisen performance rooted in the Tsugaru district of northern Honshu alongside a personal reflection on performing folk music, Chiba and Savage provide autoethnographic insight into standardization and diversification in folk music. Examining specific musical styles, the next two chapters introduce narrative musical genres in the modern era: first Naniwa-bushi 浪花節 (Tokita) and then biwa in connection with the innovations and legacy of an inspirational twentieth-century biwa exponent (de Ferranti and Marshall). Another instrument with a long history in Japan, the shakuhachi, is then explored with respect to its transnational appeal from China to the US (Blasdel). The last two chapters of Part 2 show how the style of ensemble taiko performance has captivated the Japanese musical imagination over the past sixty years and how the genre has been transmitted to

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international ensemble settings and diverse practitioners who connect to Japan across national and cultural borders (Bender; Milioto Matsue). Institutions of various types are the focus of Part 3. Shedding light on select formal structures, organizations, and gender associations that have helped shape Japanese music in the modern era, this section of six chapters explores a broad definition of musical learning across different forms of transmission, from private to public educational structures to state intervention. The subject areas cover high schools (Hebert and Matsunobu), where after-school music clubs flourish with activities such as jazz bands, wind bands, and hōgaku associations; colleges (Iguchi; Kajino), which have developed professional training in yōgaku; companies, such as Yamaha and Suzuki schools (Kubo); government institutions, including a university and national theatre (Gillan and Endō); and performance schools and state media, such as modern versions of traditional koto organizations, TV shows made for non-Japanese, and the use of traditional instruments in popular music (Johnson). These chapters include an array of musical instruments, styles, and practices: from brass to jazz, traditional music to Western music, state schools to businesses, and ancient forms of instruments to new types of koto. By examining the role of these institutions and musical forms, this part of the book reveals examples of distinct organizational frameworks that have supported and fostered styles of Japanese music, including traditional forms, Western practices, and crossover styles. The last part of the book, Hybridities, has six chapters that address the dynamic nature of Japanese music and change that has not only transformed traditional styles but also introduced and localized popular music practices from a transcultural perspective. These chapters explore such themes as the blending of traditional and Western musical elements as well as the integration of Japanese and global sounds and genres into a well-established part of the Japanese soundscape. In addition to showcasing how musicians in the modern era have embraced and transformed Japanese musical traditions, resulting in innovative musical expressions that defy categorization, this part of the book emphasizes the importance of the interplay between tradition and innovation, highlighting the fluid boundaries and interconnectedness of different musical styles. The chapters in Part 4 range in their subject matter from new forms of hōgaku (Regan; Schmuckal; Yamada), covering themes from contemporary music to innovative shamisen performance styles and instruments, to popular music, including the rise of unique styles of Japanese popular song (Waseda), Japan’s pre-eminent national song contest in a mediatized setting (Brunt and Kasai), and the development and uniqueness of rap style in Japan, particularly in terms of new techniques and social commentary (Manabe). While the separate chapters and parts in this book on Japanese music in the modern era highlight distinct cultural elements in the interpretation of a sonic Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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emporium of musical practices and cultural associations across time and place, they also showcase the intricate and inextricable, overlapping nature of these themes and subjects. By examining historical foundations, the preservation of heritage, the role of institutions and organizations, and the dynamic process of creating hybridities, we gain insight into the place of “Japanese” music as a multifaceted and changing range of musical practices. After all, Japanese musics today coexist within creative and contested spheres of music-making, not only within local, national, and cultural boundaries, but also across time and place. Each setting serves as a signifier of a musicking world that laces together sound and meaning and creates culture and musical place through practice and association. The contributors to this volume offer representative topics that are pertinent to the study of Japanese music in the modern era, from hybridized Buddhist music to AI singers. This book will hopefully inspire further study along these lines. References Abe, Marié. 2018. Resonances of Chindon-ya: Sounding Space and Sociality in Contemporary Japan. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Asaba, Yuiko. 2016. “Tango in Japan: Digesting and Disciplining a Distant Music.” PhD diss., University of London. Atkins, E. Taylor. 2001. Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Bender, Shawn. 2012. Taiko Boom: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bigenho, Michelle. 2012. Intimate Distance: Andean Music in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Blasdel, Christopher Yohmei. 2005. The Single Tone: A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music. Tokyo: Printed Matter Press. Bourdaghs, Michael K. 2012. Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical History of J-Pop. New York: Columbia University Press. Brunt, Shelley. 2006. “Performing Community: Japan’s 50th Kōhaku Song Contest.” PhD diss., University of Adelaide. Chiba, Yūko. 2002. “Nationalism, Westernization, and Modernism in Japan.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea, edited by Robert C. Provine, Yosihiko Tokumaru, and J. Lawrence Witzleben, 777–779. New York: Routledge. Coaldrake, A. Kimi. 1997. Women’s Gidayū and the Japanese Theatre Tradition. New York: Routledge.

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Condry, Ian. 2006. Hip-hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Day, Kiku. 2022. “Folk is Cool: The Dissemination of Min’yō Shakuhachi Outside Japan.” In Folk and Songs in Japan and Beyond: Ethnomusicological Essays in Honour of David W. Hughes, edited by Matt Gillan, Kiku Day, and Patrick Huang, 168–192. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. de Ferranti, Hugh. 2002. “Japanese Music can be Popular.” Popular Music 21 (2): 195–208. de Ferranti, Hugh, and Alison Tokita, eds. 2013. Music, Modernity and Locality in Prewar Japan: Osaka and Beyond. Farnham: Ashgate. Eppstein, Ury. 1995. The Beginnings of Western Music in Meiji Era Japan. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. Flavin, Philip. 2010. “Meiji Shinkyoku: The Beginnings of Modern Music for the Koto.” Japan Review 22: 103–123. Flavin, Philip. 2013. “Tateyama Noboru: Osaka, Modernity and Bourgeois Musical Realism for the Koto.” In Music, Modernity and Locality in Prewar Japan: Osaka and Beyond, edited by Hugh de Ferranti and Alison Tokita, 135–155. Farnham: Ashgate. Fujie, Linda. 1989. “Popular Music.” In The Handbook of Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Richard Gid Powers and Hidetoshi Kato, 197–220. New York: Greenwood Press. Fujie, Linda. 2001. “Japanese Taiko Drumming in International Performance: Converging Musical Ideas in the Search for Success on Stage.” The World of Music 43 (2/3): 193–201. Furmanovsky, Michael. 2007. “American Country Music in Japan: Lost Piece in the Popular Music History Puzzle.” Popular Music and Society 31 (3): 357–372. Galbraith, Patrick W. 2018. “AKB Business: Idols and Affective Economics in Contemporary Japan.” In Introducing Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Alisa Freedman and Toby Slade, 158–167. New York: Routledge. Galliano, Luciana. 2002. Yōgaku: Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century. Translated by Martin Mayes. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow. Garfias, Robert. 1960. “Gradual Modifications of the Gagaku Tradition.” Ethnomusicology 4 (1): 16–19. Garfias, Robert. 1975. Music of a Thousand Autumns: The Tōgaku Style of Japanese Court Music. Berkeley: University of California Press. Gillan, Matt. 2012. Songs from the Edge of Japan: Music-making in Yaeyama and Okinawa. New York: Routledge. Gillan, Matt, Kiku Day, and Patrick Huang, eds. 2022. Folk and Songs in Japan and Beyond: Ethnomusicological Essays in Honour of David W. Hughes. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Groemer, Gerald. 2004. “The Rise of ‘Japanese Music’.” The World of Music 52 (1): 29–53. Harich-Schneider, Eta. 1973. A History of Japanese Music. London: Oxford University Press.

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Hebert, David G. 2012. Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools. Heidelberg: Springer. Herd, Judith Ann. 1987. “Change and Continuity in Contemporary Japanese Music: A Search for a National Identity.” PhD diss., Brown University. Hibino, Kei, Barnaby Ralph, and Henry Johnson, eds. 2021. Music in the Making of Modern Japan: Essays on Reception, Transformation and Cultural Flows. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Hill, Megan. 2019. “Asakusa-Tsugaru-jamisen: Musical Place Making and Conceptual Blending in Twenty-First-Century Tokyo.” Asian Music 50: 58–89. Hirano, Kenji 平野健次, Kamisangō Yūkō 上参郷祐康, and Gamō Satoaki 蒲生郷昭, eds. 1989. Nihon ongaku daijiten 日本音楽大事典. Tokyo: Heibonsha 平凡社. Hosokawa, Shuhei. 1994. “East of Honolulu: Hawaiian Music in Japan from the 1920s to the 1940s.” Perfect Beat 2 (1): 51–67. Hosokawa, Shūhei. 1995. “Le tango au Japon avant 1945: Formation, deformation, transformation.” In Tango nomade: Études sur le tango transculturel, edited by Ramón Pelinski, 289–323. Montréal: Triptyque. Hughes, David W. 2008. Traditional Folk Song in Modern Japan: Sources, Sentiment and Society. Folkestone: Global Oriental. Hunter, Justin R. 2015. “Vitalizing Traditions: Ainu Music and Dance and the Discourse of Indigeneity.” PhD diss., University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Imada, Kentarō. 2002. “Film and Animation Music in Japan.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea, edited by Robert C. Provine, Yosihiko Tokumaru, and J. Lawrence Witzleben, 749–751. New York: Routledge. Ishida, Kazushi 石田一志. 2005. Modanizumu hensōkyoku: Higashi Ajia no kingendai ongakushi モダニズム変奏曲:東アジアの近現代音楽史. Tokyo: Sakuhokusha 朔北社. Iwabuchi, Koichi. 2002. Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Jansen, Marius B. 2000. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Janz, Tobias. 2019. “Multiple Musical Modernities? Dahlhaus, Eisenstadt, and the Case of Japan.” In Decentering Musical Modernity: Perspectives on East Asian and European Music History, edited by Tobias Janz and Chien-Chang Yang, 279–312. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Johnson, Henry. 2003. “Traditions Old and New: Continuity, Change, and Innovation in Japanese Koto-related Zithers.” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 29: 181–229. Johnson, Henry. 2004. The Koto: A Traditional Instrument in Contemporary Japan. Amsterdam: Hotei.

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Johnson, Henry. 2011. “‘Sounding Japan’: Traditional Musical Instruments, Cultural Nationalism and Educational Reform.” Perfect Beat 12 (1): 11–32. Johnson, Henry. 2012. “A Modernist Traditionalist: Miyagi Michio, Transculturalism, and the Making of a Music Tradition.” In Rethinking Japanese Modernism, edited by Roy Starrs, 246–269. Leiden: Brill. Johnson, Henry. 2018. “Japan in New Zealand: Taiko, Authenticity, and Identity in Transcultural Context.” In Japanese Studies Down Under: History, Politics, Literature and Art, Peer-Reviewed Proceedings of the Overseas Symposium 2016 in Otago, edited by Nanyan Guo and Takashi Shogimen, 203–210. Kyoto: International Research Center for Japanese Studies. Johnson, Henry. 2021. Nenes’ Koza Dabasa: Okinawa in the World Music Market. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Johnson, Henry, and Jerry Jaffe, eds. 2008. Performing Japan: Contemporary Expressions of Cultural Identity. Folkestone: Global Oriental. Kajino, Ena. 2013. “A Lost Opportunity for Tradition: The Violin in Early TwentiethCentury Japanese Traditional Music.” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 10 (2): 293–321. Kamisangō, Yūkō 上参郷祐康. 1984–94. “Nihon ongaku” 日本音楽. In Nihon dai hyakkazensho 日本大百科全書. Accessed 4 April 2023. https://rb.gy/pbve. Kawabata, Shigeru. 1991. “The Japanese Record Industry.” Popular Music 10 (3): 327–345. Keil, Charles. 1984. “Music Mediated and Live in Japan.” Ethnomusicology 28 (1): 91–96. Keister, Jay. 2004. “The Shakuhachi as Spiritual Tool: A Japanese Buddhist Instrument in the West.” Asian Music 35 (2): 99–131. Keister, Jay. 2005. “Seeking Authentic Experience: Spirituality in the Western Appropriation of Asian Music.” The World of Music 47 (3): 35–53. Keister, Jay D. 2008. “Okeikoba: Lesson Places as Sites for Negotiating Tradition in Japanese Music.” Ethnomusicology 52 (2): 239–269. Kikkawa, Eishi 吉川英史, ed. 1984. Hōgaku hyakka jiten: Gagaku kara min’yō made 邦楽百科辞典:雅楽から民謡まで. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Kishibe, Shigeo. 1969. The Traditional Music of Japan. Tokyo: Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai. Lancashire, Terence. 2003. “World Music or Japanese: The Gagaku of Tôgi Hideki.” Popular Music 22 (1): 21–39. Lancashire, Terence. 2011. An Introduction to Japanese Folk Performing Arts. Farnham: Ashgate. Linder, Gunnar Jinmei. 2012. Deconstructing Tradition in Japanese Music: A Study of Shakuhachi, Historical Authenticity and Transmission of Tradition. Stockholm: Department of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University. Malm, William P. 1971. “The Modern Music of Meiji Japan.” In Studies in the Modernization of Japan, edited by Donald H. Shively, 257–300. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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Malm, William P. 1975. “Chinese Music in the Edo and Meiji Periods in Japan.” Asian Music 6 (1/2): 147–172. Malm, William P. 1977. Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, and Asia. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Malm, William, P. 2000 [1959]. Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. New ed. Tokyo: Kodansha International. Originally published as Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. Manabe, Noriko. 2009. “Western Music in Japan: The Evolution of Styles in Children’s Songs, Hip-hop, and Other Genres.” PhD diss., The City University of New York. Manabe, Noriko. 2013. “Representing Japan: ‘National’ Style among Japanese Hip-Hop DJ s.” Popular Music 32 (1): 35–50. Manabe, Noriko. 2015. The Revolution will not be Televised: Protest Music after Fukushima. New York: Oxford University Press. Matsumiya, Suiho. 1959. “Traditional Music in Japan To-Day: Its Stability and Evolution.” Journal of the International Folk Music Council 11: 65–66. Matsunobu, Koji. 2022. “A Gap in Cultural Policy: Non-Japanese Experiences of Learning Japanese Music.” In Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy, edited by David G. Hebert and Jonathan McCollum, 157–180. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. McClure, Steven. 1998. Nippon Pop. Tokyo: Tuttle. Mehl, Margaret. 2014. Not by Love Alone: The Violin in Japan, 1850–2010. Copenhagen: The Sound Book Press. Milioto, Jennifer. 1998. “Women in Japanese Popular Music: Setting the Subcultural Scene.” In Popular Music: Intercultural Interpretations, edited by Mitsui Tōru, 485–498. Kanazawa: Kanazawa University. Milioto Matsue, Jennifer. 2009. Making Music in Japan’s Underground: The Tokyo Hardcore Scene. New York: Routledge. Milioto Matsue, Jennifer. 2016. Focus: Music in Contemporary Japan. New York: Routledge. Mitsui, Tōru. 1998. “Domestic Exoticism: A Recent Trend in Japanese Popular Music.” Perfect Beat 3 (4): 1–12. Mitsui, Tōru. 2001. “Far Western in the Far East: The History of Country & Western in Post-war Japan.” Hybridity 1 (2): 64–84. Mitsui, Tōru, ed. 2014. Made in Japan: Studies in Popular Music. New York: Routledge. Mitsui, Tōru. 2020. Popular Music in Japan: Transformation Inspired by the West. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Mōri, Yoshitaka. 2009. “J‐pop: From the Ideology of Creativity to DiY Music Culture.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10 (4): 474–488. Nagahara, Hiromu. 2017. Tokyo Boogie-Woogie: Japan’s Pop Era and Its Discontents. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Olsen, Dale A. 2004. The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Part 1 Foundations

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Chapter 1

Sacred or Secular? The Dilemma of Theatrical Kagura Terence LANCASHIRE 1 Introduction I will tell a secret. To begin with one needs to know where the boundary of yin and yang is achieved. The midday is the spirit of yang [brightness], and so a [performance] of noh that calms should be performed. This will be the yin. [Conversely,] in the yin [dark] of the night, one should have a performance of cheerful noh; this will be yang. Zeami and Takemoto 2009, 88

I translate here the words of Zeami 世阿弥 (1363?–1443?), who, along with his father Kan’ami 観阿弥 (1333–84), was instrumental in the development of noh (nō) 能 drama. This elucidation of a successful performance is given in Zeami’s treatise, Fūshikaden 風姿花伝, a detailed account of the history and workings of noh. The intentional duality of yin 陰 and yang 陽 (Japanese: in/yō) once permeated the early mindset of Japanese society. An unintentional duality, however, has arguably emerged in what Zeami postulated to be the origins of his art—kagura 神楽 (2009, 136). Kagura, music and dance performed in Shinto shrines to summon, communicate with, and entertain deities (kami 神), has adapted to volatile political and social disruptions. In recent history, the disruptions of the Meiji Restoration in 1868 saw attempts to impose unified rituals onto Shinto shrines. The west of Japan, from Okayama prefecture to Kyushu, where theatrical kagura, the dramatic exposition of Japanese myths and historical events, mostly from the ancient texts Kojiki 古事記 (712) and Nihon shoki 日本書紀 (720), prevails, saw the imposition of bans on kagura performances by shrine priests. Ordinary people took on the mantle of performance in what is sometimes termed “civilian kagura” (Minkan kagura 民間神楽). Theatrical kagura is one type of kagura conventionally referred to as Izumo-ryū kagura 出雲流神楽 (Izumo-type kagura), a misleading term established by Honda Yasuji (1960).1 The three 1 Izumo is the ancient province name for the eastern half of Shimane prefecture. Honda believed that the diagnostic form of this kagura, the dramatic shinnō 神能 (sacred noh), © Terence LANCASHIRE, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_003

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remaining types are Miko kagura 巫女神楽 (the dance of miko or female shrine attendants), Yudate kagura 湯立神楽, also denoted by the misleading Ise-ryū kagura 伊勢流神楽 (kagura with cauldrons of boiling water which, when sprinkled, becomes an act of purification), and shishi-mai 獅子舞 (lion dances).2 In some examples of theatrical kagura, an increased separation from the original ritual context has, however, created a schism, an alternative, confused duality between the sacred and the secular. This duality was most apparent in a performance of one type of theatrical kagura, Iwami kagura 石見神楽, from the western half of Shimane prefecture, witnessed in Osaka, in an area known as Shinsekai 新世界 (New World), which travel guidebooks describe as a place frequented by “truly down and out characters” (Milner et al. 2022, 375). 2

Iwami Kagura in Osaka

On 16 September 2019, the Asahi Gekijō 朝日劇場 (Asahi Theatre) staged a collaborative performance between an exponent of Iwami kagura, the Ōtsu Kagura Dan 大都神楽団, and the Hasegawa Gekidan 長谷川劇団, a familybased theatrical troupe led by a certain Hasegawa Takeya 長谷川武弥—a troupe performing drama in period costume and, as such, is a self-acknowledged representative of the genre taishū engeki 大衆演劇 (theatre for the masses).3 The Ōtsu Kagura Dan had travelled over 400 km from Gotsu city, Shimane prefecture, to participate in the performance; the Hasegawa Gekidan, even further, from the northern reaches of Kyushu. Hasegawa and his entourage opened the show with a comic drama in Edo-period costumes, which was followed by male and female members of the troupe posing in extravagant elaborations of traditional Japanese dress and heavily applied makeup. Tamaki Kōji’s 玉置浩二 J-pop single “Merodī” メロデ ィー (1996) accompanied the posturing, much to the delight of the audience came from the Sada Shrine 佐太神社 to the north of Matsue city. Honda’s earliest explanations of his classification are in Honda (1960, 7–8). Lancashire (2013) has a discussion on Honda’s terminology. 2 The act of purification is the textbook explanation. A student of mine, who became a fulltime miko, did not know this explanation and stated that the yudate ritual served as a prayer for an abundant harvest and good health. The discrepancy may point to problems of communication within the shrine community. Honda is credited with devising the terminology in his classification of kagura. However, research by Suzuki Kōta shows that the terms Izumo-ryū kagura and Ise-ryū kagura were already being used in the 1930s (Suzuki 2017, 47). The originality of Honda’s terminology perhaps requires investigation. 3 A discussion on taishū engeki can be found in Takeuchi (2019). See also the official home page for taishū engeki, which gives dates and places of performances for theatrical groups specializing in period costume drama (http://0481.jp/). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 1.1 Susanoo no Mikoto slays the great snake Photo by author, 13 August 2022

who augmented the excitement with shouts of encouragement. The theme, if there was one, was binan 美男 (beautiful boy) and bijō 美女 (beautiful girl). But the finale was the highlight as the Hasegawa Gekidan collaborated with the Ōtsu Kagura Dan in their interpretation of Iwami kagura’s renowned slaying of the mythical great snake, Ōrochi 大蛇, by the deity Susanoo no Mikoto 須佐 之男命 (fig. 1.1), the younger brother of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Ōmikami 天照大御神.4 Susanoo no Mikoto has been ousted from the land of the gods because of his misdeeds. He lands in Izumo, in the west of Japan, and slays a great snake in order to have the hand in marriage of the last surviving daughter, Kushinada-hime 櫛名田比売. In the collaborative effort, the role of Susanoo no Mikoto was played by Hasegawa Takeya’s wife, known by her stage name, Ai Kyōka 愛京花. The standard kagura instrumental accompaniment (fig. 1.2) of ōdaiko 大太鼓 (large drum), kodaiko 小太鼓 (small drum), and fue 笛 (flute, in reality a transverse recorder) was dispensed with, and the battle scenes between the snake and Susanoo no Mikoto were enhanced by flashing stage lights and the theme music for the regional ruler, Date Masamune 伊達政宗 (1567–1636), as used in the PlayStation 3 computer game Sengoku 戦国 Basara 3 (2010).5 At the end of the performance, the spokesperson for the Ōtsu Kagura Dan, Egi Yūya 4 須佐之男命 are the Chinese characters used in Kojiki. Nihon shoki uses 素戔嗚尊. 5 Date Masamune was a powerful daimyo 大名 in the northeast of Japan who fought on the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 at the decisive battle of Sekigahara in 1600. The Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 1.2 Standard Iwami kagura musical accompaniment Photo by author, 13 August 2022

惠木勇也, gave a brief talk, hoping that those in the audience now had a better

understanding of kagura. I, however, was left to ponder how an understanding of a supposed shrine ritual entertainment by a kagura group could have been enhanced with a computer game musical accompaniment, particularly in the environs of Osaka’s Shinsekai. But I have witnessed extravagant kagura performances in the past. Nor was this close association between the ritual and the secular a novelty. In 1994, I heard the recognizable drums of Iwami kagura from the window of my apartment in Ikeda city, Osaka. Following the direction of the sound, I arrived at a performance of the piece “Ōrochi” being given to advertise the opening of a new pachinko parlour.

battle would allow Tokugawa Ieyasu to seize power and establish the Tokugawa Shogunate of the Edo period.

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Ōtsu Kagura Dan

The day after the Asahi Gekijō performance, I was lucky to question Egi Yūya about his performance and about his group, for the Ōtsu Kagura Dan and I had been invited by the Japan Foundation to present lectures and performances in the National Museum Cardiff, Wales, and the British Library in London. The event was the Japan-UK Season of Culture 2019–2020, with a clichéd aim “to deepen an understanding of Japan.” The Ōtsu Kagura Dan is a recent performance group, formed by Egi Yūya and Sugii Kunihito 杉井公人 in 1999.6 At that time, Egi and Sugii would have been youngsters of fourteen and sixteen years, respectively. Relying on the instruction of Sasaki Yūji 佐々木有次, a senior kagura performer and leader of the Kado Kagura Shachū 嘉戸神楽社中 in Gōtsu city, the Ōtsu Kagura Dan undeniably achieved a high standard of performance practice. Yet that high standard of performance did not result in financial aid from regional or central government bodies. Egi explained that the group lacked the historical pedigree necessary to attract the attention of folklore authorities who advise government bodies on which folk performing art is deserving of financial assistance. In order to maintain their costumes and instruments, the Ōtsu Kagura Dan needs to perform regularly to obtain sufficient revenue. Members of the group are semi-professional, having alternative occupations. Egi has his own business making Iwami kagura masks, and Sugii runs a shop where he makes and sells Iwami kagura costumes. 4

Iwami Kagura: Contextual Background

Iwami kagura is arguably the success story of the Japanese folk performing arts with around 160 performance groups in the cities that make up the Iwami area of Shimane prefecture (Fujimura 2012, 68–70).7 Other groups are based in the northern reaches of Hiroshima prefecture and in the eastern part of Yamaguchi prefecture. There is, therefore, no shortage of potential customers demanding the services of Egi and Sugii. Yet the income from their individual enterprises is personal, and finance is necessary for the kagura group itself. 6 Sugii Kunihito’s surname changed from Ōhata 大畑. This can happen when a man marries into a family with no son and the man takes on his wife’s surname. 7 Fujimura (2012) produces a complete list of groups, amateur and semi-professional, that perform Iwami kagura. Tourist associations in Shimane prefecture give a similar figure of over 130 groups (see http://Iwamikagura.jp/japan-heritage/).

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The performance in the Asahi Gekijō and the performances organized by the Japan Foundation in the UK would be welcome sources of revenue. Egi revealed his considerable knowledge about the historical background to kagura in general, various interpretations concerning kagura itself, and the theatrical pieces his group performs. He was proud to inform me that on 2 November 2019, his group would take part in the Ōmoto kagura 大元神楽 at the shrine to which his group is affiliated, the Mimata Hachimangū Shrine 三俣 八幡宮 in Kawamoto village 川本町, Ōchi county 邑智郡.8 Ōchi county is home to the nationally recognized Ōmoto kagura, designated in 1979 as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Ōmoto kagura is particularly noted for the surviving ritual of kamigakari 神懸かり, the ritual of spirit possession where, if it occurs, the possessed conveys messages from the Ōmoto kami.9 At the Mimata Hachimangū Shrine, Ōmoto kagura is realized once every six years. By contrast, every autumn Hōnō kagura 奉納神楽 is dedicated to the kami. In a documentary video on Hōnō kagura enacted by the Ōtsu Kagura Dan at the annual Autumn Festival at Mimata Hachimangū, the co-leader of the group, Sugii Kunihito, seemingly confirms a religious dimension. He explains that, despite the overwhelming exhaustion that comes from dancing vigorously in costumes weighing up to 30 kg, “We mustn’t show tired faces or tired gestures to the customers. We cannot show that to the kami” (Athome 2016). 5

Iwami Kagura in the UK

Despite the absence of flashing stage lights and rock music accompaniment, the performances in Cardiff and London, as with the Asahi Gekijō, were again pure entertainment. Snakes writhing into a crowd of primary school children in the National Museum Cardiff were greeted with squeals of both delight and terror. In the British Library, London, the reaction to the same performance of “Ōrochi” was more subdued (fig. 1.3). Yet from conversations with the group during dinner in a fish-and-chip restaurant in London, it was obvious that they were satisfied with their performances. A young Shinto priest from a shrine in Gōtsu city, a friend of Egi Yūya, had come to play the role of a somewhat tall, last surviving daughter in “Ōrochi.” Although not a member of the Ōtsu Kagura Dan, it was clear that he was not 8 Ōmoto 大元 is a local deity in Iwami with a long tradition (Yamaji 2014, 56). It is not related to the religion Ōmoto-kyō 大本教, which emerged in 1892. 9 A detailed history of Iwami kagura and the Ōmoto belief is given in Yamaji (2014).

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Figure 1.3 Iwami kagura in the British Library Courtesy of the Japan Foundation, 2019

going to miss the chance of a trip to London. His conversation drifted from the influence of the Meiji Restoration on shrine ritual practice to the music of Jimi Hendrix—he and Egi Yūya have a rock band in which Yūya is the lead singer. It was therefore unsurprising to learn that early the following day, the Shinto priest and interested members of the kagura group had taken a taxi to Abbey Road to have their photograph taken as they walked across the zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles. Extravagant performances in the Asahi Gekijō, performances in Cardiff and London to “deepen an understanding of Japan,” and Hōnō kagura and Ōmoto kagura at the Mimata Hachimangū Shrine highlight the ambiguous position that theatrical kagura, in particular Iwami kagura, occupies within the broader genre of kagura. By contrast, Miko kagura (the solemn dance of female shrine attendants) and Yudate kagura (purification with boiling water) fulfil the expectation of ritual.

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6 Theatrical Kagura Ambiguities The ambiguity of the status of theatrical kagura is similarly matched by flexible interpretations of pieces that make up the Iwami kagura repertoire. In addition to “Ōrochi,” the piece “Jinrin” 塵輪 was performed in Cardiff. “Jinrin” depicts a great demon with wings, riding on a black cloud, accompanying tens of thousands of soldiers from a different country who are attacking Japan. To defend is the 14th Emperor (Emperor Chūai 仲哀天皇) and the figure of Takamaro 高麻呂 (fig. 1.4). Textual explanations for Kōtei Iwami kagura daihon 校訂石見神楽台本, the script used for performances, identify the source of the “Jinrin” story and elaborate that the different country is one of the three ancient Korean kingdoms—Shiragi 新羅 (in Korean, Silla) (Shinohara 1972, 49). Yet, despite Shinohara’s annotated clarification, the ambiguity of a “different country” in the spoken text allows for variable interpretations. The Korean connection could have been used to justify historical attacks on the Korean Peninsula. This was certainly the case for the myth/history realized in the piece “Sankan” 三韓 (Three Koreas), recently revived in the repertoire of the Iwami kagura’s eastern neighbour, Izumo kagura. The story relates the attack on and subjugation of the

Figure 1.4 Emperor Chūai and Takamaro attack two demons representing “Jinrin” Photo by author, 13 August 2022

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three Korean kingdoms by Emperor Chūai’s consort, Jingū Kōgō 神功皇后. It would be exploited by Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉 (1536/7–98) to justify an invasion of the Korean Peninsula at the end of the sixteenth century. It would resurface in 1873 during the Seikanron 征韓論 debate, though this attack on Korea was never realized.10 In the case of “Jinrin” and in a different era, the demon and accompanying army of soldiers were American B-29 bombers flying threateningly overhead during the Second World War.11 Today, “Jinrin” becomes a harmful but less controversial typhoon, ravaging the landscape.12 7

Institutional Interventions, Ritual, and/or Tourist Resource?

Ambiguities and flexibilities define the nature of theatrical kagura as it negotiates between the ritual and the secular and responds to the stipulations and expectations of government bodies. In 1950, the Bunkazai Hogo-hō 文化財保 護法 (Cultural Properties Protection Law) marked the beginning of centralized concerns about the survival of tangible and intangible cultural properties. This law was revised in 1975, and the first Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties (重要無形民俗文化財) were designated in 1976. Included in this first list was the Sada shinnō 佐太神能 (sacred noh of the Sada Shrine 佐太神社), the given diagnostic form of Izumo kagura, in eastern Shimane prefecture. Designation translated into financial assistance for the preservation and continuation of the shinnō. In 2020, the Sada Shinnō Preservation Society (佐陀 神能保存会) received the sum of 1,650,000 yen from the Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) to continue its activities.13 In 2011, the same preservation society gained kudos when it was added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Further, in 2020, the Matsue city government recognized the ten-year anniversary of this designation and allocated 3,475,000 yen to the society (Matsue-shi Gikai Jimukyoku 2020, 3).

10

The revival of “Sankan” and its possible propaganda function is discussed in Lancashire (2017). 11 Egi Yūya related this interpretation. 12 This is the explanation presented in the video documentary on the Ōtsu Kagura Dan noted above. Prior to a performance of “Jinrin” given by the Arifuku Kagura Hojisha-kai 有福神楽保持者会 on 13 August 2022, the description of the piece came close to Shinohara’s explanation, sticking to the spoken text of an invading army from a different country, ikoku 異国. 13 See https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/joseishien/hojo/r03_kofu/pdf/93505101 _20.pdf.

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These designating bodies, whether national or international, focus on the performing aspects of the ritual; in the case of Sada, on the shinnō. Although various examples of theatrical kagura and lion dance kagura are named on the list of all Japanese Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties for 2021, ritual Miko-mai kagura and Yudate kagura do not appear explicitly.14 This separation of the performative dimension from the ritual, though arguably tenuous, releases the Agency for Cultural Affairs from any semblance of state interference in religious activity as stipulated in article 20 of the Constitution. For those directly concerned, however, this separation is a source of consternation. A survey conducted by Fujimura Kazuhiro (2012), a business analyst at Kagawa University, specifically addresses this issue. Examining kagura from a marketing standpoint, Fujimura looked at how the performance practice of the Sada shinnō is influenced by the designations given by UNESCO and the government affiliated Agency for Cultural Affairs. With the spotlight on the shinnō, Matsue city local government in conjunction with the Matsue Tourist Association (観光協会) began to organize performance events in addition to the Autumn Festival at the Sada Shrine. Performance opportunities increased, but conscious of how elaborate and flamboyant Iwami kagura had become, there were fears that the Sada shinnō would be seen as mere entertainment, detracting from its ritual significance.15 Miyagawa Hideyasu 宮川康秀 is the head of the Sada Shinnō Preservation Society and a descendant of the shinnō’s progenitor, Miyagawa Hyōbu no shō Hideyuki 宮川 兵部少輔秀行. In an interview, Hideyasu stated, As kagura is a dance of dedication in a festival rite, if it becomes separated from that festival rite, it becomes a mere traditional entertainment. Matsue City Hall and the Tourist Agency say that “It is OK to see [kagura] as merely a traditional entertainment in an event,” but seen from the side of undertaking [the kagura], [people] must be aware that it is an extension of a festival rite.16 Fujimura 2012, 60

14 The list of folk performing arts can be checked at https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys /index. Some designations include yudate as part of a wider body of ritual performance, the Hana Matsuri festival in Aichi prefecture being a notable example. 15 Local historians have long said that Iwami kagura sprung from the Sada shinnō and Izumo kagura, hence the connection between Iwami kagura and Izumo kagura (Yatomi 1941, 791). 16 Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.

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A separate survey conducted by folklorist Kawano Yūichirō elicited a similar cautionary response from the shrine priest at the Sada Shrine. He said, Although the designation should have been as a result of the ritual nature [of the shinnō], it is not good if the performers are only conscious of showing [their performance] to people. If you are conscious of the audience, the ritual disappears, and [the shinnō] becomes an entertainment. In that case, it would be better to give the designation back [to UNESCO]. I wanted not only the shinnō to be dedicated but also the festival rite, namely the changing of the goza 御座 (mat) at the Sada Shrine.17 Naturally, I think there is a problem of the separation of religion from the state. But the shichi-za 七座 (preceding seven unmasked dances) are sacred ritual, a festival rite for the deities. Kawano 2014, 130

Despite these concerns, there is conversely an appreciation that the Sada shinnō has been made known to a wider audience. And here, the involvement of tourist associations, following the implementation of the Festival Law (O-matsuri hō お祭り法) in 1992, has been instrumental, namely, in organizing performances of events divorced from ritual contexts.18 It is not surprising to note that in 2020 the expenditure of 3,475,000 yen from Matsue city government to the Shinnō Preservation Society is recorded under “tourist culture” (観光文化) (Matsue-shi Gikai Jimukyoku 2020, 3). Negotiations between the ritual and the secular remain as performing groups decide how best to utilize funds received from government bodies. Compared to the extravagant, gold embroidered costumes of Iwami kagura, those of the Sada shinnō in particular and Izumo kagura in general are “plain” ( jimi 地味). Having received funds, opinions wavered. Fujimura Kazuhiro reports that there were those who thought that the costumes should be “a little more showy and that it would be better to enhance the performance quality 17 18

The changing of the goza at Sada every year on 24 and 25 September has been likened to the shiki nen sengū 式年遷宮, the rebuilding of Grand Shrines, which (for example, at Ise Jingū 伊勢神宮) occurs every twenty years. See http://sadajinjya.jp/?m=wp&WID=4200. The full title of the law is “Law for the promotion of tourism and specific regional commerce and industry through the implementation of events utilizing regional traditional performing arts, etc.” Chiiki dentō geinō tō o katsuyō shita gyōji no jisshi ni yoru kankō oyobi tokutei chiiki shōkō gyō no shinkō ni kansuru hō 地域伝統芸能等を活用した行事 の実施による観光及び特定地域商工業の振興に関する法律. Theatres, hotels, and department stores are regular venues for performances of Iwami kagura.

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as in Iwami kagura” (2012, 61). Others believed the older format should be preserved. In reality, as the national designation of Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property comes from the government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, there are constraints on the permissible degree of change. Fujimura records that specialists gathered and held a committee meeting in which guidance was given to maintain the “old style” 古風 “plain” costumes (60). 8 Theatrical Kagura Status Retention of the traditional at the expense of change is the overriding mission of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs as it continues to provide financial support through the designation system. This and long running debates on the status of kagura, the secular versus the ritual, clearly demonstrate that kagura, and theatrical kagura in particular, has a confused role. As Ishizuka Takatoshi’s research has shown, the modern appropriation of the term “kagura” for theatrical performances has raised questions about the original status of the theatrical pieces (Ishizuka 1979, 407, 443; 2005, 11–13, 41–42). Performances by the Ōtsu Kagura Dan in the Asahi Gekijō and continued collaborations with the theatrical group Hasekawa Gekidan clearly illustrate that in these contexts, kagura has nothing to do with ritual. The use of PlayStation’s Basara 3 music as an accompaniment to fight scenes has arguably reduced their kagura to a three-dimensional version of a computer game. It is pure entertainment and nothing more. In 1870, a sea change occurred in how performances were realized as performances enacted by shrine priests shifted to civilian groups following the ban on priests’ kagura performances. Despite priests and central authorities protesting the secularization of performance practice of what, according to Ishizuka Takatoshi came to be called kagura as a result of media intervention, kagura was, pre-ban, a valuable source of shrine revenue.19 Audiences would be attracted to shrines in the Autumn and in so doing replenish shrine coffers through donations. Today, donations are proclaimed during breaks in performances or are often on written display for all to see.

19 Kagura’s secular role has long been realized. In the early eighteenth century, a priest-led kagura performance group from a town south of Masuda city, western Shimane prefecture, was invited to perform for three weeks before crowds of three to four hundred people in Kyoto (Kakechō Yakuba 1961, 705–706; Lancashire 2006, 248–251).

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9 Conclusion “Iwami kagura is not worth studying.” These words, by an unnamed academic, were related to me by a colleague when I first embarked on my research on this style of kagura in the early 1990s. The secularization and “jazzing up” of performances had, in the eyes of some, divorced Iwami kagura from that body of music and drama that operates under the rubric of Japanese traditional performing arts.20 Unlike the centrally designated Sada shinnō, whose presentations are constrained by the dictates of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the undesignated proponents of Iwami kagura have greater freedom to extemporize and recreate, adjusting performances to their place of enactment. Even in the specifics of rendering music, transcriptions of Iwami kagura flute parts show a considerable degree of variability and individuality in renditions of what is the same tune (Lancashire 2006, 140–148). That variability can be contrasted with, for example, the standardization and fixed versions of “Esashi Oiwake” 江差追分, a folk song that exemplifies another genre of Japanese folk performing arts (Hughes 1992, 35–56). Despite the prejudices of certain scholars in the past, Iwami kagura has attracted serious academic attention from established folklorists (Fujihara 2021; Yamaji 2014). Fujihara analysed and compared the text and content of the Iwami kagura piece “Tenjin” 天神, the portrayal of Sugawara Michizane’s 菅原 道真 (845–903) revenge against the fabricated accusations of Fujiwara Tokihira 藤原時平 (871–909), reminding us that many pieces have come from noh drama. The noh elements in the Sada shinnō and neighbouring examples of Izumo kagura are proof of a continuum between urban drama and rural ritual counterparts. Yet the secularization of Iwami kagura has arguably allowed it to enjoy a popularity that exponents of other Japanese traditional performing arts can only envy. It would be wrong, however, to see Iwami kagura as purely entertainment. The Hōnō kagura and Ōmoto kagura realized by the Ōtsu Kagura Dan at the Mimata Hachimangū Shrine begin with performances of ritual, unmasked dances. These unmasked dances include “Kenmai” 剣舞 (fig. 1.5), purification of the stage for the coming of kami, and “Kanmukae” 神迎え, the welcoming of the kami, and correspond to the ritual female miko-mai. In the context of

20 A collaboration between the Tsuda Kagura Shachū 津田神楽社中 in Masuda city 益田市 and a jazz group was captured on VHS video in the early 1990s and presented to the author.

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Figure 1.5 Unmasked “Kenmai” dance Photo by author, 11 October 2014

the Autumn Festival, the ensuing theatre often finishes in the early hours of the following morning, as dawn breaks. And finally, particularly in the case of Ōmoto kagura, there is the concluding ritual of sending the kami away. The Chinese characters for kagura 神楽 can mean “kami music.” Alternatively, they could be interpreted as “kami o tanoshimaseru” 神を楽しませる (to make the kami happy). As Sugii Kunihito stated, “We mustn’t show tired faces or tired gestures to the customers. We cannot show that to the gods” (Athome 2016). The audience is dual: kami and people. So is the function of the kagura: a schizophrenic duality between the ritual and the secular. References Athome. 2016. “Iwami kagura: Ōtsu Kagura Dan” 石見神楽大都神楽団. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.athome-tobira.jp/story/077-otsukaguradan.html. Fujihara, Hiroo 藤原宏夫. 2021. “Kagura nō ‘Tenjin’ kō” 神楽能「天神」考. Minzoku Geinō Kenkyū 民俗芸能学会 71: 28–49.

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Fujimura, Kazuhiro 藤村和宏. 2012. “Chiiki dentō geinō no keishō to henyō ga shijō kōzō ni oyobosu eikyō ni kansuru kōsatsu: Shimane-ken no 3 chiiki ni okeru kagura o kēsu to shite” 地域伝統芸能の継承と変容が市場創造に及ぼす影響に関する考 察:島根県の３地域における神楽をケースとして. Kagawa Daigaku Keizai Nonsō 香川 大学経済論叢 84 (4): 41–127. Honda, Yasuji 本田安次. 1960. Zuroku Nihon no minzoku geinō 圖録日本の民俗藝能. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha 朝日新聞社. Hughes, David W. 1992. “‘Esashi Oiwake’ and the Beginnings of Modern Japanese Folk.” World of Music 34 (1): 35–56. Ishizuka, Takatoshi 石塚尊俊. 1979. Nishi Nihon sho kagura no kenkyū 西日本諸神楽の 研究. Tokyo: Keiyūsha 慶友社. Ishizuka, Takatoshi 石塚尊俊. 2005. Sato kagura no seiritsu ni kansuru kenkyū 里神楽の 成立に関する研究. Tokyo: Iwata Shoin 岩田書院. Kakechō, Yakuba 加計町役場. 1961. Kakechō-shi 加計町史. Yamagata: Kakechō Yakuba 加計町役場. Kawano, Yūichirō 川野裕一朗. 2014. Chiiki no matsuri to minzoku geinō no shigenka ni kansuru kenkyū: Chūgoku chihō no kagura no jirei kara 地域の祭りと民俗芸能 の資源化に関する研究:中国地方の神楽の事例から. Tokyo: Keiō Gijuku Daigaku Daigakuin Shakaigaku Kenkyū-ka 慶應義塾大学大学院社会学研究科. https:// dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/9425851. Lancashire, Terence. 2006. Gods’ Music: The Japanese Folk Theatre of Iwami Kagura. Wilhelmshaven: Florian Noetzel. Lancashire, Terence. 2013. “What’s in a Word? Classifications and Conundrums in Japanese Folk Performing Arts.” Asian Music 44 (1): 33–70. Lancashire, Terence. 2017. “Izumo Kagura, Iwami Kagura, and National Intersections: Ritual, Propaganda, Tourist Attraction.” Asian Ethnology 76 (2): 319–342. Matsue-shi Gikai Jimukyoku 松江市議会事務局. 2020. “Gikai yōran” 議会要覧. Accessed 17 February 2022. https://www1.city.matsue.shimane.jp/gikai/shiryou /index.data/gikaiyouran_r3.pdf. Milner, Rebecca, Ray Bartlett, Andrew Bender, Samantha Forge, Craig McLachlan, Kate Morgan, Thomas O’Malley, Simon Richmond, Phillip Tang, Benedict Walker, and Stephanie d’Arc Taylor. 2022. Lonely Planet Japan 17. Melbourne: Lonely Planet. Shinohara, Minoru 篠原實. 1972. Kōtei Iwami kagura daihon 校訂石見神楽台本. Hamada: Kusaka Yoshiaki Shōten 日下義明商店. Suzuki, Kōta 鈴木昂太. 2017. “Hiroshima-ken no kagura ga keiken shita kindai: Seiji, minzokugaku, kokka shintō” 広島県の神楽が経験した近代:政治・民俗学・国家神 道. Minzoku Geinō Kenkyū 民俗芸能研究 63: 26–55. Takeuchi, Takahiro 竹内孝宏. 2019. “Nihon no hōrō gei ni okeru taishū engki no ichi” 「日本の放浪芸」における大衆演劇の位置. Aoyama Sōgō Bunka Seisakugaku 青山総 合文化政策学 10 (1): 1–16.

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Yamaji, Kōzō 山路興造. 2014. “Iwami kagura no tanjō” 石見神楽の誕生. Minzoku Geinō Kenkyū 民俗芸能研究 56: 49–71. Yatomi, Kumaichirō 矢富熊一郎. 1941. Yasuda-mura hatten shi, jō 安田村発展史、上. Yasuda: Yasuda Toshokan 安田村図書館. Zeami 世阿弥, and Takemoto Mikio 竹本幹夫. 2009. Fūshikaden, Sandō: Gendaigoyaku tsuki 風姿花伝・三道:現代語訳付き. Tokyo: Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan 角川 学芸出版.

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Chapter 2

Buddhism and Modern Music in Japan: From Praise Songs to Popular Music Duncan REEHL 1 Introduction Modern Buddhist music came into being in Japan around the mid-Meiji era. Meiji-era reformations greatly affected Japanese Buddhism.1 Buddhism was forcibly separated from Shinto, with which it shared over a thousand years of dynamic interrelationship. Opened to the international world by American gunboat diplomacy in 1853, Japan was re-exposed to Christianity after it was outlawed and violently suppressed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1614. The concept of “religion” (translated as shūkyō 宗教) was introduced for governmental and legal purposes (Josephson 2006, 2012). Meanwhile, “Western” music, and the universalistic European concept of “music” itself (translated as ongaku 音楽) (Hosokawa 2012, 9–20; 2020, 1–25), rapidly became widespread for the first time in Japanese history through systems such as modern national education, where chorale children’s songs constituted a core part of the curriculum (Wade 2014, 15–32). One of these songs, a nationalistic tune called “Aikoku Gohō no Uta” 愛国護法の歌 (Song of Buddhist Defenders of the Country), was published by Yamamoto Tomekichi in 1887 and became the first example of the modern tradition of Buddhist chorale music (Yamaguchi 2015, 58). Since 1887, certain Buddhist institutions and public figures turned to European music as a technology for modernizing Buddhism in the image of a 1 I have been in contact with music-making Buddhist ecclesiastics since 2018. From October 2021 to 2022, I lived in Japan, carrying out a multi-sited research project that was primarily based in a Shin temple in rural Yatsushiro, Kumamoto, supported by one of the priests in residence, Rev. Tatsumi Akinobu. Tatsumi has gained media notoriety as a DJ priest. I have acted as a participant-observer in researching how Tatsumi mixes musical and religious activities in his daily life. In addition, I have conducted semi-structured interviews in person and remotely with over fourteen music-making priests to date. I conducted my interviews in Japanese, and quoted materials are my own translations. I have also communicated with over two dozen other priests regarding contemporary Buddhism and the activities of music-making ecclesiastics and have had many anecdotal conversations with everyday people who mostly do not identify as religious. This chapter draws on these qualitative ethnographic experiences as well as scholarship in Japanese music and religious studies.

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modern religion, in sync with the rapid social, cultural, governmental, and technological changes catalysed by the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Several genres of Buddhist music were developed during the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa eras. By the dawn of the Shōwa era, Buddhist chorale praise songs (fig. 2.1) (which today are commonly known as bukkyō sanka 仏教讃歌), built on Protestant hymnody (Benítez 2000, 1–2), came to constitute the core, emotionally affective part of Buddhist liturgy within New Western Pure Land Buddhism (hereafter “Shin”) (Asuka 1999), Japan’s most populous Buddhist denomination. They continue to resonate in the hearts of Shin Buddhist parishioners to this day, in Japan as well as the US (Wells 2002, 2003). Hardly any scholarship in English considers this repertoire (the research of Joaquin Benítez and Keiko Wells being exceptions), however, reflecting a long-standing tendency to overlook Shin Buddhism in Euro-American scholarship (Amstutz 1997; Porcu 2008, 1–18). Orchestral pieces using Buddhist content are a notable part of modern Buddhist music since the mid-1950s, as shōmyō 声明 (chant), among other styles, became a resource for Japanese lay composers such as Kiyose Yasuji 清 瀬保二 (1900–84) and Mayuzumi Toshirō 黛敏郎 (1929–97) (Yamaguchi 2015, 63–65). These works are sometimes supported by temple Buddhist institutions as well as Buddhist organizations such as the Association for the Promotion of Buddhism (Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai 仏教伝導協会). Besides works based in Western art music idioms, there are few prominent examples of aesthetically innovative musical modernization by Buddhist ecclesiastics themselves or their institutions since the praise songs of the early Shōwa era. Since around 2010, this has changed. In a vacuum created by the withdrawal of institutional innovation in contemporary music trends—and in the contemporary technological environment of social media—dozens of priests of various denominations of Temple Buddhism began using popular music styles—including rock, folk, hip hop, techno, and reggae, often imbued with signifiers of Buddhism—as a way to popularize Buddhist teachings and revitalize Buddhist institutions.2 This chapter focuses on contemporary fusions of Buddhism and popular music by Temple Buddhist ecclesiastics, contextualized with reference to praise songs. It suggests that priests’ idiosyncratic musical performances, while still institutionally marginal, are forming new sonic sensibilities by which people may attune to Buddhism in Japan and transnationally. Attending to these priest-musicians’ activities through ethnographic interviews, contextualized with respect to the prior example of the modernization of Buddhist music in 2 According to one rough estimate from Rev. Higanda Bon of the NAMUZU (THE 南無ズ), there may be as many as a hundred priests doing musical activities (pers. comm., 9 August 2022).

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Figure 2.1 The praise song “Shinshū Shūka” 真宗宗歌 printed in the Honganji Shin Buddhist Compilation of Regular Sacred Writings and Ritual Proceedings (浄土 真宗本願寺派日常勤行聖典). Jōdo Shinshū Honganji ha Nichijō Gongyōseiten Hensan Iinkai (1998, 140)

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praise songs, this chapter shows ways that Buddhist priests are utilizing modern musical aesthetics in order to make the sounds of Buddhism more “agreeable” (ukeireru 受け入れる) and engage people who feel that Buddhism is alien and out-of-touch with society. Through a focus on musical practice, it contributes to the understanding of active developments, tensions, and controversies within Temple Buddhist denominations. 2

Making Popular Music as Buddhist Priests

Since 2010, Buddhist priests working individually or, in a few cases, as bands started making popular music infused with signifiers of Buddhism and releasing their works in the media. Individual priests were not generally in communication about their turn to music but may have noticed others doing so in the media. According to my interlocutors, a confluence of at least three major factors contributed to this period becoming a watershed moment. First, as pioneering groups such as the VOWZ Band (坊主バンド) were formed and gained traction in the media in 2010, other priests felt empowered to go public with their own musical affinities as Buddhist priests (Tatsumi Akinobu, pers. comm., 24 March 2021; Tomomitsu Gashin, pers. comm., 2 July 2022). A younger generation of priests who inherited their roles according to the traditional family-based system of temple stewardship came of age during the Heisei era, were enculturated through various genres of popular music, and found themselves in positions of authority in their temples around this time. While it is not cited as a cause by people I have spoken with, 2010 coincidentally was when a musical version of the Heart Sutra, performed by the virtual idol Hatsune Miku, became a viral Internet meme—a prototypical example of a sutra arranged as popular music reaching a mass audience—on the social media platform NicoNicoDōga (lit. Smile Video, hereafter Nico Video) (Schultz 2021). Second, the 3.11 triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown) in Fukushima affected attitudes to Buddhism in Japan among both the clergy and the general public (McLaughlin 2011, 2021). Revs. Asakura Gyōsen (pers. comm., 2 June 2022), Higanda Bon (of the NAMUZU and the VOWZ; pers. comm., 9 August 2022), Tomomitsu Gashin (pers. comm., 2 July 2022), and Tatsuyama Ippei (of the group Tariki Echo 他力エコー; pers. comm., 8 June 2022) all point to this moment as a turning point for Buddhism and suggest that it is a major reason for the increase in musical activities among priests. This event raised public concern regarding the spiritual guidance of priests and created a sense of urgency among Buddhist clergy to reach out and present themselves

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as relatable, relevant, and responsive to problems affecting society—especially in a moment of uncertainty about matters of life and death. Rev. Asakura communicated his sense of the uncertainty: After the great Eastern Japan earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown  … because of that, people started to think gravely and seriously. How will things go from here on out? I think that that sort of uncertainty and anxiety greatly increased. Everyone felt uneasy. Pers. comm., 2 June 2022

Rev. Tomomitsu, a first-generation Tendai priest who was ordained in 2009 and became a father in 2011 shortly before the disaster, told me: “The job of priests is to help people, I thought. After the earthquake, people were extremely uneasy. … As a priest, I thought that it would be unacceptable to do nothing” (pers. comm., 2 July 2022). Part of Tomomitsu’s response was to start an annual outreach event called Kohgen (Kōgen) 向源, which aims to connect young people with Japanese religious and cultural traditions, including Buddhism. The third major factor is new communications media technologies and the increase in SNS (social networking service) usage. Apple Inc. released the iPhone in 2007, and smartphone usage rapidly increased throughout the 2010s. Internet technologies have made it possible for individual musicians to post their work online. As a result, priests began using platforms such as Nico Video, YouTube, Twitter, LINE, Facebook, Instagram, and, more recently, TikTok and the Metaverse to promote their works. As Rev. Higanda told me, “Really, absolutely everyone uses SNS. Therefore, it’s important for transmitting Buddhism. It’s an easy way to do so—I like using SNS and learning all sorts of things about what other priests are doing” (pers. comm., 9 August 2022). One significant event regarding priests’ activities on social media websites has been Techno Hōyō x Kohgen (テクノ法要 x 向源), first organized by Revs. Asakura and Tomomitsu in 2018, as part of the Internet culture convention NicoNicoChōKaigi ニコニコ超会議 (hereafter Nico Video Super Convention). In 2022, the convention re-convened in Funabashi, Chiba prefecture, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, featuring live performances over two days by major names in contemporary Buddhist music, such as Revs. Akasaka Yōgetsu 赤坂陽月, Asakura Gyōsen 朝倉行宣, Yakushiji Kanhō 薬師寺寛邦, and Tariki Echo, as well as performances of the traditional repertoire and other activities for attendees. The convention was livestreamed, and viewers online could participate by posting comments that appeared on the screen behind the performers in real-time (fig. 2.2).

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Figure 2.2 Tariki Echo perform at the Nico Video Super Convention on 29 April 2022. Comments from the audience watching the live stream remotely were projected onto the screen, showing their participation in the event. One user makes a pun, “NamanDUB” なまん DUB, a portmanteau of the nenbutsu (which is often condensed in recitation to ‘namanda’) and the genre ‘dub,’ a stylistic influence on Tariki Echo Photo by author

Further, Tomomitsu organized a concert of shōmyō that featured the distinctive stylings of Tendai, Shingon, and Nichiren denominations. Asakura presented a version of his Techno Hōyō that featured gagaku 雅楽 (court music) musicians, who came from the major Shin temples of Nishi Honganji 西本願寺 in Kyoto and Tsukiji Honganji 築地本願寺 in Tokyo. An additional factor that must be mentioned is the COVID-19 pandemic. With more time spent at home and people unable to attend temple functions in person from Spring 2020 to the winter months of 2021 and 2022 and continued reductions in frequency through 2023, Buddhist priests looked for ways to reach out and connect with people. Believing that Buddhist chant and music have powers to heal while spreading joy and reducing suffering, priests, including Revs. Akasaka, Yakushiji, Asakura, Tomomitsu, the NAMUZU, Tatsumi, and Chiba Kenjo, released music and, in some cases, Buddhist talks via social media platforms. Overall, the activities of these priests can be interpreted using anthropologist Jonathan Nelson’s analytic of “experimental Buddhism” (2013), which

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refers to the creative, usually individually directed labour undertaken by Buddhist priests in response to social, cultural, economic, and ecological changes in contemporary Japan. Other, more common examples of experimental Buddhism include casual dining and drinking establishments, such as priest bars and cafes. The musicians I spoke with continue to work largely individually, although more collaborations have emerged in recent years, such as Techno Hōyō x Kohgen and a collaboration between Revs. Asakura and Yakushiji called Re:Buddha. As discussed later, priests feel that if they do not take on “experimental” practices to reform and revitalize ossified systems of Temple Buddhism, then its institutions will decline in decades to come. 3

Modernizing Buddhism with Popular Music

There are two major tendencies among these music-making priests, in cases where they are making Buddhism-signifying music. (While many do, not every priest consistently creates or performs works with signifiers of Buddhism.) These are (1)  re-arranging sutras and other Buddhist chants and Buddhist praise songs in musical contexts to make them more agreeable (ukeireru), and (2) composing original tunes with Buddhist themes to spread Buddhist teachings in the manner of praise songs. The following sections compare these two ways that modern music is used to modernize Buddhism. 3.1 Musical Arrangements of Chants The most popular examples of newly modernized Japanese Buddhist music are re-arrangements of sutras and other chants, such as the Heart Sutra (Han’nya Shingyō 般若心経), Amida Sutra (Amida Kyō 阿弥陀経), Shōshinge 正信偈, and Nenbutsu Wasan 念仏和讃. In terms of views on social media, re-arrangements of the Heart Sutra are by far the most popular, with the arrangements by Revs. Yakushiji and Akasaka having several million views at the time of writing. As Fujioka Yoshinobu (a.k.a. Zennen), a solo performer and founder of the VOWZ Band, explained to me, “sutras are full of musical aspects. If I took those aspects and arranged them into more modern (gendai-teki) music, I could spread [the sutra and Dharma] to more people. So, I combined the two” (pers. comm., 25 June 2021). One distinctive component of arrangements of chants is that they take a sacred text used in a ritual manner and preserve core elements of its traditional recitation and, in some cases, traditional ritual implements, such as bells and woodblocks, while incorporating other musical elements such as rock music (VOWZ Band), looped vocal drones and hand-pan (Akasaka), acoustic

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guitar and chorale harmonies (Yakushiji), techno beats (Asakura), reggae and dancehall beats (Tariki Echo), or other styles. Rev. Tatsuyama’s (Tariki Echo) approach resonates with that of other priests: Since I began, I’ve added on musical accompaniment without changing any of the tune or the tempo of the sutra. I consciously make it such that, if that accompaniment went away, it would be simply the same as reading a sutra normally at a ceremony. Pers. comm., 8 June 2022

While preserving elements of the chant that have been passed down for hundreds of years, arranging them in new musical contexts can help people relate to it in new ways. Rev. Akasaka told me that he believes that his musical version of the Heart Sutra can change people’s impressions of sutras in general. While sutras are mostly received with gloomy and sad affects because of their strong indexical association with Buddhist funerals, when people hear the sutra in a musical context their impression switches from “dark” to “relaxing” (pers. comm., 28 March 2022). The enjoyable musical sound can generate interest in learning more about the meaning of an unfamiliar text and may help certain people memorize it in its entirety. Rev. Tatsuyama remarks that “more so than commuting to a temple and listening to sutras, musical performances probably stay stuck in people’s heads better; they’re easier to remember, I think” (pers. comm., 8 June 2022). Many comments online on musical arrangements of sutras attest to this. For example, one representative commenter on the viral “Heart Sutra Pop” video writes that “I got into the Heart Sutra thanks to this song” (Onyū 2010, Nico Video, 0:35, comment #67716). 3.2 Praise Songs and Original Compositions Sutra recitation is a core practice of Japanese Temple Buddhism. In every denomination, sutras and other chants are recited on ceremonial occasions, including holidays and funerary rituals. Priests are often called on to pray at family altars (butsudan 仏壇), where ancestors are enshrined. Sutras, recorded in transliterated classical Chinese, are mostly inscrutable to Japanese speakers. Modern Buddhist music in comprehensible, everyday Japanese, such as the praise songs of Shin Buddhism, makes the meanings of these other texts and their sonic aesthetics easier to discern and relate to. The participatory and musically familiar elements of chorale singing enhance people’s sense of attunement to dharma teachings. Rev. Higanda Bon reflected on the importance of praise songs in our conversation. He remarked to me that

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When people hear sutras, they probably wonder what they’re hearing. Then, after hearing the sutras, they place incense for the deceased. “The person you lost can smell the incense. Really, they’re up there in the sky.” Everyone sings very easy to understand lyrics [that state these things]—and at that point, [understanding the meaning,] they cry. Pers. comm., 9 August 2022

Revs. Konno and Inoguchi of the Shin Buddhist pop band Namanderz (ナマンダ ーズ) concurred that certain praise songs resonate in the hearts of many parishioners more than sutra-like texts—some songs, such as “On Dokusan” 恩徳讃, rarely fail to bring tears to worshippers’ eyes (pers. comm., 28 August 2022). Although both are included in ritual proceedings in Shin Buddhism, praise songs differ from sutras and other chants in terms of liturgical function, linguistic legibility, and musicality. When I asked Rev. Asakura about this, he said that he considers praise songs and his Techno Hōyō to be not “comparable, but rather mutually reinforcing” musical practices (pers. comm., 2 June 2022). He has set “Shinshū Shūka” 真宗宗歌 (fig. 2.1) to his techno stylings and hopes to create new praise songs in the future. In terms of function, the techno Amida Sutra and techno “Shinshū Shūka” are no more comparable than the non-techno, traditional forms: they serve different but, indeed, mutually supportive purposes in liturgy and ceremony. Yet when I asked the members of Namanderz if their “nenbutsu music” 念仏音楽 is comparable to praise songs, Rev. Konno responded that she thinks that they are indeed very similar because they communicate Buddhist messages in simple Japanese (pers. comm., 28 August 2022). It is important to emphasize that out of all of the examples of modern Buddhist music that this chapter considers, traditional Buddhist praise songs are exceptional because they have been canonized as part of the institutional ritual proceedings of Pure Land Buddhism and are known and recited by many more people than any of these contemporary musical works. For comparison’s sake, the most popular videos of the Heart Sutra currently have between three and five million views on YouTube from around the world, including repeat views. This number is just a fraction of the estimated twenty-two million Pure Land Buddhists in Japan today (Bunkachō 2020), who would presumably have had repeated contact with praise songs. Ultimately, while Buddhist praise songs are canonized ways of attuning the masses to dharma teachings, more contemporary idiosyncratic musical compositions are institutionally marginal and still controversial ways of making Buddhism seem more palatable and relatable to younger generations.

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Institutional Tensions: Respecting Tradition, Modernizing Expressions

Why are Buddhist priests making popular music? As Rev. Asakura exclaimed, capturing the sentiments of every other music-making priest that I spoke with, “if Buddhism stays like this, it’ll be no good” (pers. comm., 2 June 2022). Like other “experimental” priests, he is intervening in Buddhism’s “public image” problem in Japan (Nelson 2013, 43–48). Priests are commonly perceived negatively: as moralizing, caught up in tradition, and disaffectedly performing expensive funeral services. They are felt to be unrelatable and uninterested in public outreach or institutional reform. Rev. Tatsuyama summarized this situation: [Since the Edo period], temples have been supported by their parishioners [danka], so they generally didn’t have to worry about finances. … The number of priests who didn’t properly study the teachings and became rich and complacent with extravagant lifestyles greatly increased.  … If things continued in this way, there is no question that the old system couldn’t survive more than thirty, fifty years at most. … I think that my generation was probably the first to think things like, “Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” Buddhism can’t possibly continue this way. Pers. comm., 8 June 2022

Intervening in this state of affairs within Temple Buddhist institutions, priests must strike a balance between preservation and innovation. Each music-making priest goes about this somewhat differently, but as noted in the previous section, one of the most common ways is by preserving the traditional expression of sacred practices while adding on exciting new aesthetics that make it resonate in new ways among more recent generations. It is ironic that Buddhism in Japan became ossified in formalism, despite its conceptual emphasis on the impermanence and non-essentialism of phenomena and its history of musical innovation to attract audiences (as well as to please deities) (Ōuchi 2021, 209–211). Revs. Asakura and Tatsuyama point out that the melody for the Shōshinge and the Nenbutsu Wasan composed and promulgated by Shinran 親鸞 (1173–1263 CE)—the great reformer of Shin Buddhism—is based on the popular tunes of the Kamakura period. Asakura remarks, “It is based on the tunes that were trendy at the time … it’s the ‘pop music’ [poppu myūjikku ポップミュージック] of 1,000 years ago” (pers. comm., 2 June 2022). Tatsuyama concurs, “I think that everyone knew and sung the

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melody that Shinran took [for the Nenbutsu Wasan]. He made Buddhism new for these people. … I think that I’m doing basically the same thing” (pers. comm., 8 June 2022). Because of emphatic conservatism, what was once new “unintentionally became something old” (Asakura Gyosen, pers. comm., 2 June 2022). Even though an “update” was the original impetus for these chants, they’ve become stuck. Rev. Tatsuyama elaborates, Japan is a country that considers tradition to be very important. To put it differently, it is conservative. People don’t want to destroy old traditions; they think that it’s better to not do progressive, reformist things. At temples, parishioners are especially older folks who are largely conservative. Or, rather, the idea of doing new things doesn’t even come to their mind. Therefore, I think that it’s a difficult atmosphere to make new music in. “If I do this, won’t people get mad at me? Won’t I be criticized?” People probably think that a lot. However, once we try to do so in real life, even older folks have accepted it, think it’s interesting—some are even grateful. It’s just that they were drinking from an exclusively conservative atmosphere … but in reality, it’s okay to do new things. Pers. comm., 8 June 2022

Rev. Asakura’s first Techno Hōyō took place in 2016, with roughly sixty-five people attending at his home temple of Shōonji 照恩寺 in Fukui prefecture (fig. 2.3). The audience consisted of the temple’s usual parishioners as well as Rev. Asakura’s ecclesiastic and non-ecclesiastic friends. His story of the reception of this initial performance resonates with Rev. Tatsuyama’s realization that even elderly parishioners will accept these innovations. Rev. Asakura told me: When the Techno Hōyō ended, everyone—especially the older folks— intoned namandabutsu, namandabutsu, namandabutsu [i.e., the nembutsu] as per usual after a ceremony. Seeing that is what made me by far the happiest. Seeing this, I thought, “I want to do this again.” At first, I just wanted to see how [my idea] would go. But seeing the support of the older parishioners, I thought to myself, “I didn’t make a mistake, after all.” Pers. comm., 2 June 2022

For Rev. Tatsumi, work as a Buddhist priest and musical activities have “always been together,” even though he did not begin to represent himself as

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Figure 2.3 Rev. Asakura Gyōsen during a performance of the Techno Hōyō at Shōonji Photo by Asakura, 2016 (used with permission)

a “DJ Priest” until around 2010. In a scene in the 2011 documentary KanZeOn, Rev. Tatsumi gives a talk on music history, from noh (nō) 能 theatre to modern hip hop, in the main hall of his temple to a group of parishioners in their sixties to eighties before performing a DJ set with turntable scratching (Cantwell and Grabham 2011) (fig. 2.4). Tatsumi grew up as a priest in a rural temple, and he explained to me how he used music as a way to bridge the age gap between elderly parishioners and their grandchildren. He said, When I was fifteen [in 1994], I was ordained as a priest; at the same time, I began my musical activities. When I went to parishioners’ houses to pray at their altars, I would talk with their grandchildren who were about my age about music, youth culture, as well as Buddhism. Pers. comm., 30 August 2022

He went on to tell me that because of his media activities, such as in newspapers and on local TV programmes, people have come to visit his temple and hear talks, to his delight. Some of the parishioners of his temple have saved Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 2.4 Rev. Tatsumi Akinobu gives a talk on Buddhism and music to a group of parishioners at Shōsanji. Here, he identifies noh (nō) theatre with the medieval period, and the modern era with hip hop From KanZeOn (Cantwell and Grabham 2011; used with permission)

copies of all of the newspaper articles about or written by him. Parents and grandparents might see that there is a priest who makes music and tell their children, and they decide to check out the temple. For Tatsumi, music functions as a tool for relating Buddhist teachings to people across generational gaps by staying attuned to the sensibilities of changing times. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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While many priests have been delighted by the warm response to their musical activities—even among conservative older generations—representations that combine Buddhism and popular music culture are far from being universally accepted. Rev. Akasaka told me that he has received condemnation as well as approbation from other priests for his Heart Sutra beatboxing videos (pers. comm., 28 March 2022). Zennen has ruffled feathers by writing songs that criticize parts of Temple Buddhism such as the funeral industry. He—somewhat proudly, I thought—told me that he received a lot of hate mail regarding this song (pers. comm., 25 June 2021). Another priest, who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity, described how, after he gained significant international notoriety on YouTube for his musical activities, a group of authorities in his denomination severely condemned him to the extent of threatening excommunication and forced him to remove his content from circulation (pers. comm., 5 July 2022). Rev. Asakura told me that while high-ranking priests from Nishi Honganji (the head temple of Western Shin Buddhism) praised him and told him to spread Techno Hōyō, there are some dissenting opinions; the ecclesiastic order is rife with debate about tradition and innovation. Overall, most people I spoke with stated that they generally receive more praise than criticism. Yet because they are employing iconoclastic and idiosyncratic techniques to intervene where conservative norms are powerfully set, this criticism is to be expected. As Rev. Tatsuyama told me, “If there weren’t people criticizing us, that wouldn’t be a good sign” (pers. comm., 8 June 2022). 5 Conclusion One of the core teachings of Buddhism—one that is often emphasized by the music-making priests who I have spoken to—is that everything changes (e.g., Tatsumi, repeated pers. comms., 2018–22; Asakura, pers. comm., 2 June 2022). It is taught that every phenomenon in the universe lacks an unchangeable essence or substance—a concept called shohō muga 諸法無我 in Japanese. Such concepts along with Mahayana Buddhism’s history of using “expedient means” (hōben 方便) (i.e., techniques outside of doctrinal orthodoxy) to draw laypeople into contact with core dharma teachings justify the innovative efforts of these priests that draw on contemporary musical sensibilities. While priests playing popular music styles is a relatively recent and perhaps surprising phenomenon, it may be thought of as a new development in a history of modernizing Buddhist music in Japan that stretches back to the 1890s and rhymes with practices of popularization that reach much further back in time.

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With occasional resistance, new musical practices are becoming normalized. However, they are far from being institutionalized. Numerically speaking, they are marginal, but through the amplifying potential of media, they are becoming a more visible and audible part of the field of representations of Temple Buddhism. They do not replace age-old traditions but rather supplement the rites and ceremonies that continue to take place in situ in temples, funeral halls, and other places of ritual performance. While most works primarily circulate as recorded media, some works like the Techno Hōyō ritual event serve a complete liturgical function and are performed in person on certain holidays, such as Hōonkō 報恩講, at Rev. Asakura’s home temple of Shōonji. Through various musical affects, ranging from the ambient and entrancing to the raucous or humorous, these arrangements and compositions snap into place new sensibilities of Buddhism that work against negative affective associations with it that many people hold. Overall, it appears that the field of practices that can be distinguished as “modern Buddhist music” in Japan is becoming more granular and diverse, while individuals are increasingly networked through social media platforms. For now, old musical repertoires such as gagaku and shōmyō are continued by younger generations of priests, performing in traditional ceremonial capacities as well as at new, experimental events such as the Nico Video Super Convention. Hundreds of different musical interpretations of the Heart Sutra by priests and lay people alike are available online for people to come into contact with and who might even memorize Buddhist scripture for the first time. Priests conduct conventional ceremonies by day and reach new audiences by night, performing in rock venues and DJ clubs, or go on international concert tours to places such as Europe (Rev. Akasaka), China (Rev. Yakushiji), and the UK (Rev. Tatsumi). According to many of my interlocutors and the ethnographic work of anthropologists and religious studies scholars such as John Nelson (2013), the future of Temple Buddhism in Japan is not bright; as the population ages, the number of parishioners (and their financial support) dwindles, and few young people take sincere interest in the religion. Many temples will probably close. Still, the same technological and economic trends and media ecosystems that divert interest from Buddhism are making a creative renaissance among priests possible and creating new techniques for religious outreach. There are reasonable doubts about the capacity of popular music activities to affect enduring change on a mass scale at the institutional level in the coming decades. Doubtless, music-making will increase among priests for the time being, and the mediated field of representations of Temple Buddhism will continue to transform and adapt to the currents of cultural transformation.

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References Amstutz, Galen Dean. 1997. Interpreting Amida: History and Orientalism in the Study of Pure Land Buddhism. New York: State University of New York Press. Asuka, Kanritsu 飛鳥寛栗. 1999. Sore wa Bukkyō shōka kara hajimatta それは仏教唱歌 から始まった. Tokyo: Honganji Shuppansha 本願寺出版社. Benítez, Joaquim M. 2000. “Meiji 40 nen shuppan ‘Sanbutsuka’ ni okeru sanbika no shakuyō” 明治四十年出版『讃佛歌』における讃美歌の借用. Tōyō Ongaku Kenkyū 東洋音楽研究 66: 1–15. English summary: (1)–(2). Bunkachō 文化庁, ed. 2020. Shūkyō nenkan 宗教年鑑. Tokyo: Bunkachō 文化庁. Cantwell, Neil, and Tim Grabham, dirs. 2011. KanZeOn. Berkley, CA: Festival Media. DVD. Hosokawa, Shūhei 細川周平. 2012. “音楽 Ongaku, Onkyō/Music, Sound.” Review of Japanese Culture and Society 25: 9–20. Hosokawa, Shūhei 細川周平. 2020. Kindai Nihon no ongaku hyakunen: Dai ichi maki. Yōgaku no shōgeki 近代日本の音楽百年:第一巻・洋楽の衝撃. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten 岩波書店. Jōdo Shinshū Honganji ha Nichijō Gongyōseiten Hensan Iinkai 浄土真宗本願寺派日 常勤行聖典編纂委員会, ed. 1998. Jōdo Shinshū Honganji ha nichijō gongyōseiten 浄土真宗本願寺派日常勤行聖典. Kyoto: Honganji Shuppansha 本願寺出版社. Josephson[-Storm], Jason Ānanda. 2006. “When Buddhism Became a ‘Religion’: Religion and Superstition in the Writings of Inoue Enryō.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 33 (1): 143–168. Josephson[-Storm], Jason Ānanda. 2012. The Invention of Religion in Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McLaughlin, Levi. 2011. “In the Wake of the Tsunami: Religious Responses to the Great East Japan Earthquake.” CrossCurrents 61 (3): 290–297. McLaughlin, Levi. 2021. “Disasters.” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions, edited by Erica Baffelli and Fabio Rambelli, 27–34. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Nelson, John K. 2013. Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Onyū おにゅう. 2010. “Hatsune Miku han’nya shingyō poppu PV tsuki” 初音ミク般若 心経ポップ（PV つき）. Accessed 23 June 2021. https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch /sm11982230. Ōuchi, Fumi. 2021. “Sound.” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions, edited by Erica Baffelli and Fabio Rambelli, 209–216. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Porcu, Elisabetta. 2008. Pure Land Buddhism in Modern Japanese Culture. Leiden: Brill. Shultz, John. 2021. “‘Heart Sutra Pop’: Religious Textual Democratization by a Sexy Vocal Android.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 33 (1): 29–47.

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Wade, Bonnie C. 2014. Composing Japanese Musical Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Wells, Keiko. 2002. “Shin Buddhist Song Lyrics Sung in the United States: Their History and Expressed Buddhist Images (1) 1898–1939.” Amerika Taiheiyō Kenkyū アメリカ太 平洋研究 2: 75–99. Wells, Keiko. 2003. “Shin Buddhist Song Lyrics Sung in the United States: Their History and Expressed Buddhist Images (2) 1936–2001.” Amerika Taiheiyō Kenkyū アメリカ太 平洋研究 3: 41–64. Yamaguchi, Junyū 山口淳有. 2015. “Gaikan: Kingendai Bukkyō ongaku—Bukkyō ongaku no shomondai” 概観・近現代仏教音楽:仏教音楽の諸問題. Tōkai Indogaku Bukkyō Gakkai 東海印度學佛教學研究 60 (3): 57–71.

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Chapter 3

Reigakusha Gagaku Ensemble: Mediating between Ancient and Contemporary Practice Naoko TERAUCHI 1

Introduction

This chapter explores the diversification of gagaku 雅楽 (court music) in contemporary Japan in terms of social context and musical style. Gagaku is less popular than other traditional musical genres in Japan, such as shamisen 三味 線 (three-string lute), koto 箏 (thirteen-string zither), and shakuhachi 尺八 (vertical flute), and the number of gagaku practitioners is quite small.1 Moreover, there is an everyday assumption that gagaku is hard to approach, which may relate historically to its close connection with the imperial system and the genre’s performance settings in court rituals, Buddhist temples, and Shinto shrines. Its music has been enjoyed within exclusive circles of aristocrats, including imperial families, for more than a thousand years. Still today, various traditional annual events utilize gagaku as an indispensable element of ritual and in an elaborate manner. However, after the 1960s, while maintaining this context of ritual music, gagaku stepped beyond the traditional rituals to claim a presence more focused on and appreciated as “art music.” Furthermore, after the 1980s, with the development of audio-visual technology, many recordings of gagaku were released on CD s, thereby making the style more readily available to a broader consumer market. In the late 1980s and 1990s, public cultural programmes organized by mainstream newspaper companies or local governments began to provide gagaku courses for the general public.2 Private ga­� gaku groups too have vitalized their activities by recruiting more members and holding regular public concerts. 1 The annual report of Sankyoku Kyōkai 三曲協会 (The Japan Sankyoku Association), an association for koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi practitioners, noted that it had 4,687 members as of March 2021 (see https://www.sankyoku.jp/upload/report/1647055285_1.pdf). There is no similar association for gagaku, although it can be noted that Kunaichō Gakubu 宮内 庁楽部 (Music Section of the Imperial Household Agency) has twenty-five musicians, and Reigakusha 伶楽舎, another professional gagaku group, has thirty musicians. 2 For example, Asahi Culture Centre (owned by Asahi Shinbunsha 朝日新聞社) currently provides gagaku courses for three wind instruments and in dance and song.

© Naoko TERAUCHI, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_005

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Figure 3.1 Reigakusha Courtesy of Shiba Sukehito 芝祐仁

This chapter will firstly survey the history of gagaku over the past six decades, observing its musical content, appearance in media, and the rise of professional performers; the discussion then focuses on the activities of a professional gagaku ensemble, Reigakusha 伶楽舎 (fig. 3.1), established in 1985 by a former imperial musician, Shiba Sukeyasu 芝祐靖 (1935–2019). Reigakusha has gained an international reputation for its performances of new gagaku compositions as well as the traditional repertoire. Lastly, the chapter discusses the significance of Reigakusha’s activities in mediating between the ancient and contemporary spheres of gagaku by examining their policy statement and actual concert programmes. 2

Beyond the Court

In the twenty-first century, gagaku has established a status as “art music” and can be enjoyed in public performances, recordings, and online. Further, it can be learned at shrines and culture centres and in courses run by private ga­� gaku groups. Before the 1960s, gagaku was not easily accessible for most people. In the 1960s, Kunaichō Gakubu 宮内庁楽部 (Music Section of the Imperial Household Agency) was the only professional gagaku ensemble, and it rarely gave public concerts. However, it soon began to increase its dissemination of gagaku in two ways: the release of recordings; and public concerts outside the

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Imperial Palace. For example, in 1961, it released a large-scale gagaku anthology recording, Gagaku taikei 雅楽大系 (Gagaku Shigen-kai 1961/2002); and in 1964, the group gave public concerts at Toranmon Hall in Tokyo twice each day from 21 to 23 October as an event in celebration of the Tokyo Olympic Games (Orinpikku Tokyo Taikai Soshiki Iinkai 1966, 299). In 1966, the National Theatre of Japan (hereafter NTJ) opened in the heart of Tokyo just beside the Imperial Palace and was intended to promote traditional Japanese performing arts (Japan Arts Council 2002). Gagaku was one such art, and Kunaichō Gakubu positively cooperated to give performances there. In the first few years, the Theatre introduced the traditional repertoire used in court ritual. However, when confronted by a decrease in audience numbers, the Theatre experimented by adopting a different approach to the style by introducing modern compositions by composers writing in a Western idiom and reviving lost pieces.3 New compositions such as “Shōwa Tenpyō Raku” 昭和天平楽 (Tenpyō-era Music in the Shōwa Era; 1970) by Mayuzumi Toshirō and “Shūteiga” 秋庭歌 (In an Autumn Garden; 1973/1979) by Takemitsu Tōru were premiered,4 and lost pieces such as “Banshiki Sangun” 盤渉参軍 (1979) and “Sōrōkodatsu” 曹娘褌脱 (1981) (both reconstructed by Shiba Sukeyasu) were rediscovered (Terauchi 2008).5 The NTJ’s promotion of new compositions and reconstructed pieces added variety to the gagaku tradition. More broadly, the 1960s and 1970s were a time when hōgaku 邦楽 (Japanese [traditional] music) began to seek new forms of representation. These included the large ensemble Nihon Ongaku Shūdan 日本音楽集団 (Pro Musica Nipponia), established in 1964 (Nihon Ongaku Shūdan 2002), and Sawai Tadao’s 沢井忠夫 (1937–97) koto (zither) school, Sawai Sōkyokuin 沢井箏曲院 (Sawai Sōkyokuin, n.d.), established in 1979. This movement was especially promoted by the broadcasting company NHK (Shiba 2002b, 4–5) and some record companies, who commissioned composers to write new works that 3 From 1970 to 1994, the NTJ commissioned more than fifty new gagaku compositions, including works by Takemitsu Tōru 武満徹, Mayuzumi Toshirō 黛敏郎, Ichiyanagi Toshi 一柳慧, Ishii Maki 石井真木, Takahashi Yūji 高橋悠治, Kondō Jō 近藤譲, Kanno Yoshihiro 菅野 由弘, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and J.-C. Elois (Terauchi 2008). In the Nara and Heian periods, more than double the present number of gagaku pieces existed. Lost pieces were reconstructed from ancient manuscripts such as Tenpyō biwa-fu 天平琵琶譜 (eighth century), Shinsen gakufu 新撰楽譜 (tenth century, also known as Hakuga no fuefu 博雅笛譜), and Jinchi yōroku 仁智要録 (twelfth century). 4 In 1973, the first and main “Shūteiga” was composed, and five further sections were added to complete a suite “Shūteiga ichigu” in 1979. 5 “Banshiki Sangun” was revived from the ryūteki (flute) score, Shinsen gakufu. “Sōrōkodatsu” was reconstructed from a ninth-century biwa (lute) score found in Dunhuang cave in west China.

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were frequently aired or featured at the Geijutsusai 芸術祭 (National Arts Festival) hosted by Bunkachō 文化庁 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).6 Gagaku was an important part of the festival.7 In the 1980s, the development of digital technology further helped the promotion of gagaku. CD s became popular in Japan around 1982, and recordings of classical gagaku began to be released from 1986: Gagaku (1986), Gagaku no sekai 雅楽の世界 (The World of Gagaku; 1990), Tenjōbito no hikyoku 殿上人の 秘曲 (The Secret Music of Aristocrats; 1991), and Nihon kodai kayō no sekai 日本 古代歌謡の世界 (The World of Ancient Vocal Music; 1994) were all recorded by Tōkyō Gakuso 東京楽所.8 Further, a virtuoso of ryūteki (a type of gagaku flute; fig. 3.2), Shiba Sukeyasu, published Tonkō kara Shōsōin e no michi 敦煌か ら正倉院への道 (Road from Dunhuang to the Shōsōin) in 1987, followed by the release of his recordings, arrangements, or compositions of various categories of gagaku, including classical, revival, and newly composed pieces. Shiba also founded a new professional gagaku group, Reigakusha, which released recordings from 1994, starting with Heian no kyōen 平安の響宴 (Sounds of Heian Times).9 An internationally successful shō (mouth organ) player and a member of Reigakusha, Miyata Mayumi 宮田まゆみ (b. 1954) released her first album, Hoshi no wa 星の輪 (A Circle of Stars), in 1986 (Miyata 1986), and she has continued to release recordings that exhibit new musical expressions for the shō.10 In the 1990s, gagaku became accessible also in DVD format, which added a new way for the general public to access gagaku performances without having to be at the Imperial Palace or the NTJ in Tokyo.

6 On the Geijutsusai, which started in 1946, see https://www.bunka.go.jp/english/policy /arts_culture/art_festival/. 7 For example, “Bugakufū Kumikyoku” 舞楽風組曲 (a piece for gagaku instruments, koto, and jūshichigen), composed by Shiba Sukeyasu and commissioned by NHK, won the Geijutsusai shōreishō (Encouragement Prize in the National Arts Festival) in 1963. The lists of recipients of prizes in the National Arts Festival are available at Bunkachō (n.d.). 8 Founded in 1961 as Gagaku Shigen-kai 雅楽紫絃会 and consisting of Kunaichō Gakubu musicians. When the anthology Gagaku taikei was recorded (1961), the ensemble used this name as an artist name for the first time to indicate that the recording was not Kunaichō’s official work. They changed this name to Tōkyō Gakuso in 1978. Currently, Tōkyō Gakuso consists of Kunaichō musicians and a few non-Kunaichō musicians. 9 For Shiba’s and Reigakusha’s discography, see Blue Sheet (2017a, 2017b). 10 For example, in 2004 she collaborated with Hosokawa Toshio 細川俊夫 and explored further possibilities for the shō (Hosokawa 2004).

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Figure 3.2 Shiba Sukeyasu playing ryūteki Courtesy of Shiba Sukehito

A phenomenon that accelerated media exposure of gagaku was the emergence of gagaku-popster Tōgi Hideki 東儀秀樹 (b. 1959) (Bürkner 2003; Lancashire 2003; Terauchi 2010).11 Tōgi’s music is a type of easy listening instrumental Western pop music (fig. 3.3), but includes traditional instruments, such as those from gagaku and China, or violin and accordion, which distinguishes his music from other types of pop music.12 As well as the sonic aspect to his music, he places importance on visual presentation, such as wearing a stylish brand of shirt and pants, which creates an image of a refined, urban, handsome male. Besides his activities as a musician, he sometimes appears in TV dramas or movies.13 Tōgi’s style of pop music using gagaku instruments has gained both public favour and criticism; the former mostly comes from those who know little about gagaku, and the latter from connoisseurs of gagaku. 11

After ten years as a court musician, Tōgi became a solo artist, releasing his debut album in 1996. See https://www.togihideki.net. 12 Around 2005, Tōgi recruited six young artists of traditional Chinese instruments and formed a unit Togi + Bao (with a hiatus in 2008). 13 See https://www.togihideki.net/profile/. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 3.3 Tōgi Hideki with his son, Tōgi Norichika 東儀典親. Screenshot of video on Tōgi Hideki’s YouTube channel (Tōgi 2020) Courtesy of Tōgi Hideki

Despite the criticism, however, his pop-with-gagaku music should never be underestimated because he has succeeded in bringing his music and gagaku to the attention of many new admirers. In Japanese popular culture, there are other examples of gagaku being featured and increasing its dissemination. For example, the acclaimed movie Onmyōji 陰陽師 (Sorcerer; 2002), which was based on a novel by Yumemakura Baku 夢枕獏 (b. 1951), was a Heian-period drama, and a supporting character was modelled on the well-known noble gagaku musician Minamoto no Hiromasa 源博雅 (918–980). Owing to the movie, Hiromasa and gagaku became more familiar to the public. In the same year, a CD titled Onmyōji no sengaku 陰陽師の占楽 (Music for the Divination of Onmyōji; supervised by Shiba and performed by Reigakusha) was released (Shiba 2002d). Preceding it, a double CD of new gagaku music was released, Music for Onmyōji (Eno 2000), which included music by Reigakusha (CD1) and by Brian Eno (CD2).14 In contrast to such activities by professional gagaku performers, nonprofessional gagaku players in the twenty-first century are found in many amateur gagaku groups all around Japan. For example, Nanto Gakuso 南都楽所 in Nara and Tennōji Gakuso Garyō-kai 天王寺楽所雅亮会 in Osaka are relatively long-established amateur groups that have maintained gagaku traditions associated with ritual events in local shrines and temples since the Meiji 14 The cover art was produced by a manga artist, Okano Reiko 岡野玲子, who published a cartoon work Onmyōji based on Yumemakura’s novel. Okano created beautiful illustrations on the package of the CD, and Brian Eno and Reigakusha provided the music. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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era. In addition, there are a number of old and new gagaku groups of various sizes throughout Japan. These groups have become especially active in the twenty-first century. The newsletter Gagaku dayori 雅楽だより, which has been published three times a year since 2005, has done much to promote gagaku concerts organized by such groups, in Tokyo and beyond. The information about various concerts in this newsletter suggests that the number of gagaku performers has increased nationwide, and their skills and enthusiasm are great enough for their concerts to be promoted accordingly. Amateur gagaku groups often work closely with local government, newspapers, shrines, or temples as a way of helping to promote the local economy or culture. For example, the ensemble Tado Gagaku-kai 多度雅楽会 in Kuwana (Mie prefecture) collaborates with the municipal government and receives subsidies from Bunkachō and other foundations. It holds regular concerts at a local scenic spot, Rokkaen 六華苑, and is registered as a National Important Cultural Asset (Tado Gagaku-kai 2020). Another example is found at Masumida Shrine (真清田神社) in Owari Ichinomiya city (Aichi prefecture), which created an annual event, Bugaku Shinji (Sacred Bugaku), in 2007 that features gagaku played by a local group, Masumi Reijin-kai 真清伶人会, which is based at the shrine (Masumida jinja 2013). Such local practices involving gagaku undoubtedly lead to new explorations and deeper understandings of the gagaku tradition. The above discussion has outlined gagaku of the past six decades, focusing on musical activities and practitioners. Gagaku includes not only the so-called classical repertoire that Kunaichō musicians keep, but also reconstructed, newly composed, and, in the broadest case, pop-style pieces that feature some gagaku instruments.15 While Kunaichō Gakubu is still an authoritative gagaku group, it is not the only professional group. There is also Reigakusha, and many local amateur ensembles exist. The next section focuses on Reigakusha and particularly on the activities of its founder. 3

Shiba’s Legacy: Reigakusha and the Contemporary Gagaku Scene

Reigakusha’s founder, Shiba Sukeyasu, was born into a family of gagaku musicians whose ancestry in gagaku can be traced back to the thirteenth century and possibly further.16 He started to learn gagaku in childhood and eventually 15

Of course, recognition of whether it is gagaku or not differs depending on an individual’s background, policy, and intimacy with gagaku culture. 16 The family name, Shiba, was established as one of the branches of the Koma family, which is believed to have roots in the Korean Peninsula. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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became a court musician in 1958. Long before retirement age, however, he left Kunaichō in 1984 to become a freelance musician with a desire to disseminate gagaku to a larger public realm. He has contributed to the development of gagaku throughout his life, and, in recognition of his achievements, he was admitted to the Japan Art Academy as a member in 2003 (Terauchi 2017, 230–231). It would not be appropriate to describe Shiba simply as a gagaku player. He has demonstrated multiple talents in such fields as musicology, with his analyses of ancient gagaku manuscripts, the revival and performance of historical pieces, and the composition of new pieces for gagaku and other Japanese traditional and Western instruments, as well as in fostering a younger generation of gagaku artists.17 His group’s name, Reigakusha, is a compound word consisting of reigaku and sha. The former term is an abbreviation of “R̲ e̲ir̲ in-g̲a̲k̲u̲yū” 伶倫楽遊, and the latter means “house” or “company.” “Reirin” (Chinese: Ling Lun) refers to the name of a legendary Chinese musician who reportedly served the mythical Emperor Huang-di 黄帝 (Yellow Emperor). According to a legend found in Lüshi Chunqiu 呂氏春秋 (Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals), Ling Lun, listening to the song of the phoenix, formulated twelve pitches, six based on the male’s song and six on the female’s (Lam 1998, 82). “Gakuyū” means “to enjoy” or “to indulge” in music. Nonetheless, even though the group’s name is Reigakusha, it always uses the term “R̲ e̲ir̲ in-g̲ a̲k̲u̲yū” as an iconic logo on its concert flyers and programme notes. Reigakusha was formed by a small number of people in 1985: Shiba Sukeyasu, Miyata Mayumi, and Yaotani Satoru 八百谷啓 (b. 1948) (Shiba 2002a).18 The group became especially active around 1994, when it began to organize annual concerts (discussed later). Also at this time, their performance of Takemitsu’s composition “Shūteiga” helped promote the group. Reigakusha played the composition in 1994 at the Yatsugatake Kōgen Music Festival (八ヶ岳高原音 楽祭), which was directed by Takemitsu and held at a mountainous summer retreat.19 The following year, the ensemble played the piece again at Meiji jingū 明治神宮 (shrine) in Tokyo. In the summer of 1996, Reigakusha visited 17 Shiba’s compositions include “Bugakufū Kumikyoku” (1963), “Shōtorashion” 招杜羅紫苑 (1980), “Kokan’ya Zen’u” 呼韓邪単于 (1999), “Chimon Shōtōraku” 雉門松濤楽 (2016) for large gagaku ensemble, “Ichigyō no Fu” 一行の賦 (1979) for ryūteki solo, “Gūwa I” 寓話 I (1966) for shakuhachi and harp, and “Ikyoku Seiryōraku” 夷曲西綾楽 (1985) for hōgaku ensemble. See Terauchi (2017, 232–245) and Blue Sheet (2017a). 18 Miyata is a leading shō player and well known as a soloist. When Shiba passed away in 2019, Miyata became director of the ensemble. 19 The Yatsugatake Kōgen Music Festival was held annually from 1988 to 1999 (see https:// www.yatsugatake.co.jp/concert/history/). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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the US and performed “Shūteiga” at the Tanglewood Music Festival, although Takemitsu had passed away earlier that year. Reigakusha showcased the piece on NHK’s TV programme Geijutsu Gekijō 芸術劇場 (Art Theatre) in 1998 and released a CD Shūteiga Ichigu (Shūteiga Suite) in 2002 (Shiba 2002c). The recording received an Excellence Award (in the recorded music section) at the Geijutsusai (the National Arts Festival hosted by Bunkachō) in 2002.20 Reigakusha’s performances of “Shūteiga” brought wider recognition of modern gagaku compositions and of Reigakusha in performing them. The group performs the traditional gagaku repertoire while also supporting the performance of new gagaku compositions, a combination that was consolidated around 1994.21 The group is still active, performing traditional and modern gagaku, and has gained a formidable reputation both inside and outside Japan.22 4

Reigakusha’s Programme Structure

Since 1994, Reigakusha has held self-promoted regular concerts two or three times a year. The concerts are categorized as either large-scale (Gagaku Ensōkai 雅楽演奏会) or small-scale (Gagaku Konsāto 雅楽コンサート).23 The large-scale concerts are held in larger concert halls, such as Kioi Hall, Suntory Hall, or Tokyo Opera City, and are collaborative productions with the relevant venues. The small-scale concerts are solely Reigakusha productions and mostly held at municipal halls in Tokyo. As of May 2023, the group has held sixteen Gagaku Ensōkai and forty Gagaku Konsāto.24 Reigakusha’s policy for performing gagaku is clearly stated on their website: “Reigakusha was established in 1985 as a group of professional gagaku 20 See Bunkachō (n.d.). 21 Various works by modern composers have been performed by Reigakusha, including pieces by Takemitsu Tōru, Ichiyanagi Toshi, Ishii Maki, John Cage, Kondō Jō, Kanno Yoshihiro, Miyake Haruna 三宅榛名, Saruya Toshirō 猿谷紀郎, Hosokawa Toshio, Nishimura Akira 西村朗, Ikebe Shin’ichirō 池辺晋一郎, Yuasa Jōji 湯浅穣二, and Isaji Sunao 伊佐治直. Reigakusha’s performance of modern compositions is particularly significant because the NTJ ceased to stage modern gagaku works around 2000. 22 For its performance of “Rodai Ranbu” (composed by Shiba) and “Shūteiga Ichigu” at Suntory Hall on 30 November 2016, Reigakusha received the prestigious Saji Keizō Prize from the Suntory Foundation for the Arts. The ensemble was invited to New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Cologne, Berlin, Lisbon, Brussels, Oslo, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Fez, Seoul, and other cities. See Reigakusha (n.d.). 23 Gagaku Konsāto was first titled “Mini Concert” ミニコンサ－ト until 1999, which suggests that Reigakusha intended to make the concerts in this category small with a homely atmosphere. 24 A list of Reigakusha concerts up to 2017 is given in Terauchi (2017, 246–250). For more recent data, see Reigakusha (n.d.) and https://reigakusha.com/home/concerts. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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instrumentalists dedicated to the study and performance of the classical gagaku repertoire and the creation of new music for the ancient instruments” (Reigakusha, n.d.). What should be paid attention here is their stress on “the creation of new music for the ancient instruments” and “study and performance.” The former is especially achieved in the Gagaku Ensōkai, which usually combine new or revived works with the classical repertoire and sometimes consist only of new compositions (e.g., Tables 3.1–3.3). Table 3.1

Classical: New:

The 5th Gagaku Ensōkai. 25 January 2003, Kioi Hall

“Sokō” 蘇合香 (1st section of jo, and kyū 序一帖、急) “Yoake no Niwa” 夜明けの庭 (by Hosokawa Toshio)

Table 3.2 The 12th Gagaku Ensōkai. 21 December 2015, Kioi Hall

Revived: Classical:

“Toraden” 団乱旋 (by Shiba Sukeyasu) “Goshōraku Ichigu” 五常楽一具 (bugaku)

Table 3.3 The 13th Gagaku Ensōkai. 30 November 2016, Suntory Hall

New:

“Rodai Ranbu” 露台乱舞 (by Shiba Sukeyasu), “Shūteiga Ichigu” 秋庭 歌一具 (with dance by Saburō Teshigawara 勅使河原三郎 and Satō Rihoko 佐東利穂子) (by Takemitsu Tōru)

The smaller Gagaku Konsāto programmes usually have an element of education in them. In the concerts’ homely atmosphere, audiences are provided with a short explanation of the works being played, and these works can be roughly classified into four types: 1. Classical pieces. The concerts of the classical repertoire display music that sheds light on musical aspects such as modes or rhythmic patterns. While shorter pieces are usually performed, long suites, such as “Ryōō Ranjo” (all sections) or “Sokō Ichigu” (all sections), are sometimes included (Tables 3.4–3.6).25

25

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Table 3.4 Gagaku Konsāto No. 6. 14 March 1999, Sennichidani Hall

Kangen:

“Etenraku” 越殿楽 (hyōjō 平調, ōshikichō 黄鐘調, and bashikichō 盤渉 調 modes), “Katen no Kyū” 賀殿急, “Butokuraku” 武徳楽 (ichikotsuchō 壱越調 and sōjō 双調 modes)

Table 3.5 Gagaku Konsāto No. 11. 15 June 2003, Yotsuya Kumin Hall

Kangen:

“Taishikichō Netori” 太食調音取, “Chōkoshi” 朝小子, “Senyūga” 仙遊 霞, “Gakkaen” 合歓塩, “Batō” 抜頭

Table 3.6 Gagaku Konsāto No. 18. 26 December 2007, Yotsuya Kumin Hall

Kangen:

2.

“Banshikichō Chōshi” 盤渉調調子, “Sokō Ichigu” 蘇合香一具

New compositions. Some concerts consist only of new pieces, which are sometimes composed by Reigakusha members themselves (Tables 3.7–3.8).

Table 3.7 Concert No. 5: Gagaku no Kangakki ni yoru Gendai Sakuhin o Atsumete 雅楽の 管楽器による現代作品を集めて (Collection of Modern Pieces Using Gagaku Wind Instruments). 11 January 1998, Sennichidani Hall

“Kaiju no Michi” 槐樹の道 (by Kikkawa Kazuo 吉川和夫), “Furekusa” フレクサ (by Nakagawa Toshio 中川俊郎), “Waki” 和気 (by Shiba Sukeyasu*), “Sōkai” 滄海 (by Miyata Mayumi*), “Hiten Seidō” 飛天生動 (by Ishii Maki) * Reigakusha member. Table 3.8 Concert No. 12: Gendai Sakuhin o Atsumete II 現代作品を集めて (Collection of Modern Pieces II). 1 December 2003, Yotsuya Kumin Hall

“Seinaru Tsuki” 聖なる月 (by Ishikawa Kō* 石川高), “Koe Tachi” 声たち (by Tanaka Satoshi 田中聡), “Kiyūraku” 嬉遊楽 (by Masumoto Kikuko 増本伎供子), “Hoshikago” 星筺 (by Tōno Tamami* 東野珠実), “Higan no Jikan” 彼岸の時間 (by Gondai Atsuhiko 権代敦彦) * Reigakusha member. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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3.

Any musical instruments. In the case of featuring a particular instrument, such as koto (zither), shō (mouth organ), fue (flute), hichiriki (reed pipe), or biwa (lute), pieces are selected from various categories: classical, revived, or newly created (Tables 3.9–3.10).

Table 3.9 Concert No. 14: Shō: Tachinoboru Oto 笙 たちのぼる音 (Shō: Rising Sounds). 2 July 2005, Yotsuya Kumin Hall

Classical: New:

“Ichikotsuchō Chōshi” 壱越調調子, “Karyōbin no Kyū” 迦陵頻急, “Hyōjō Chōshi” 平調調子, “Keitoku” 鶏徳, “Bairo” 陪臚 “Toki no Seijaku” 時の静寂 (by Satō Sōmei 佐藤聡明), “Mabayui Hizashi o Aogimite” まばゆい陽射し仰ぎ見て (by Tōno Tamami)

Table 3.10 Concert No. 19: Biwa Arekore 琵琶あれこれ (Biwa, This and That). 9 May 2008, Yotsuya Kumin Hall

Classical: Revived:

New:

4.

“Taishikichō Netori” 太食調音取, “Gakkaen” 合歓塩, “Batō” 抜頭 “Bankasō” 番假崇 (from Tenpyō biwa-fu), “Keibairaku” 傾盃楽, “Chōsa Join” 長沙女引, “Kyūkyokushi” 急曲子 (from Tonkō biwa-fu 敦煌琵 琶譜), “Ryūsen” 流泉 (from Sango yōroku 三五要録) “Seisei” 生成 (by Tōno Tamami)

Shiba’s works. Concerts sometimes focus exclusively on the works of Shiba Sukeyasu (Table 3.11).

Table 3.11 Concert No. 22: Works of Shiba Sukeyasu. 6 May 2010, Yotsuya Kumin Hall

“Ichikyō no Fu” 一行の賦 (ryūteki solo), “Agemaki no Uta” 総角 の歌 (songs), “Maifūjin” 舞風神, “Shōtorashion” 招杜羅紫苑 (for large ensemble)

The examples of programmes given above indicate a distinct sense in planning or producing concerts, offering particular themes or concepts that are attractive in terms of not only artistic presentation but also academic significance.26

26

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This producing ability may partly come from the fact that some members of Reigakusha trained in musicology or music theory at academic institutions.27 Reigakusha knows where it exists in the history of gagaku and its distinct role. It recognizes that it has a responsibility to introduce new gagaku works onstage as well as the traditional repertoire. As Shiba said to me many times when I was his student, “A new work cannot be heard without performance. The more difficult works are, the more excellent performers are needed.” He realized this during his long career, in which he encountered many new compositions, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, and thus he established his own ensemble to explore the diverse possibilities of gagaku. This recognition has been handed down to the musicians of Reigakusha. 5

Educational Gagaku Programmes for Children

Shiba and Reigakusha created educational gagaku programmes for children. In 2005, Bunkachō launched the Kodomo, Yume, Āto, Akademi 子供・夢・アー ト・アカデミー (Children, Dream, Art, Academy) programme, in which members of the Japan Art Academy meet children and give workshops in various fields of the arts. Shiba was involved in the programme in the first two years and gave workshops in elementary schools close to his home.28 It seems this experience impressed on him the importance of making children experience gagaku at an early age. For this reason, in 2006, Reigakusha began to hold a special concert, Kodomo no tame no Gagaku (Gagaku for Children), every summer in Tokyo. Since 2007, the group has also conducted nationwide tours to provide workshops for children, Jisedai o Ninau Kodomo no Bunka Geijutsu Taiken Jigyō 次代を担う子どもの文化芸術体験事業 (Experiencing Culture and Arts Programme for Children of the Next Generation), which have been subsidized by the Bunkachō programme.29 This programme supports various artists who give concerts or workshops all across Japan. Shiba’s enthusiasm to demonstrate how gagaku attractively and delightfully sounds partially resulted in creating “gagaku drama” for children. He composed two pieces for children: “Ponta to Kaminari-sama” (Ponta and the 27

For example, Tokyo University of the Arts or Kunitachi College of Music, which have good track records for researching manuscripts and analysing ancient scores. 28 Past programmes are available at https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/geijutsubunka/shin shin/kodomo/yume_art/kakoshiryou.html. 29 The Bunkachō programme started in 2002. A review report of it is available at https:// www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/geijutsubunka/shinshin/kodomo/ikuseijigyo_kensho/pdf /h24_hokokusho.pdf.

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Thunder God; 2004) and “Karabō Kaze ni Noru” (Karabō Rides Upon the Wind; 2011), both of which are adventure stories of small boys, Ponta and Karabō. The format is a story-telling by a narrator with the accompaniment of gagaku instruments. The instruments are sometimes used to create sound effects, for example, to depict the roar of thunder or the sound of something falling from the sky, while in other cases musical phrases are borrowed from traditional gagaku melodies and inserted in the pieces.30 Therefore, the pieces are enjoyable for children (and adults perhaps) who are not familiar with gagaku, but they also sound resourceful or playful to those who have already acquired a certain knowledge of gagaku and could identify the original pieces from which the borrowed phrases are taken. 6

Conclusion

Shiba and his ensemble, Reigakusha, have led the contemporary gagaku scene for several decades. They sincerely try to excel in performing this ancient musical genre while also exploring contemporary gagaku expressions. While seeking artistic distinction and maturity in the performance of both classical and experimental works, the group is keenly aware of the necessity of developing more enjoyable pieces and removing gagaku’s seemingly unapproachable aura and attracting more enthusiasts, particularly from younger generations. As a result of Reigakusha’s activities, more people can enjoy various styles of gagaku—that is the ideal situation that Shiba and Reigakusha wanted to create, and it seems to be symbolically summarized in the term gakuyū, from which the ensemble’s name is derived. References Blue Sheet. 2017a. “Sukeyasu Shiba: Works.” Accessed 28 September 2022. https:// sukeyasushiba.b-sheet.jp/works/. Blue Sheet. 2017b. “Sukeyasu Shiba: Discography.” Accessed 28 September 2022. https://sukeyasushiba.b-sheet.jp/works_category/discography/. Bunkachō 文化庁. n.d. “Bunkachō geijutsusaishō jushō ichiran” 文化庁芸術祭賞 受賞一覧. Accessed 28 September 2022. https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/geijut subunka/jutenshien/geijutsusai/jusho_ichiran.html.

30 “Ponta to Kaminari-sama” can be heard on CD (see https://reigakusha.com/home/sellcd).

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Bürkner, Yukie. 2003. Togism: Die Musik Togi Hidekis: Im Zeichen der Japanischen Postmoderne. Wilhelmshaven: Florian Noetzel. Eno, Brian; Reigakusha. 2000. Music for Onmyōji 陰陽師. Victor, VICP-60980–1 (CD). Gagaku Shigen-kai 雅楽紫絃会. 1961. Gagaku taikei 雅楽大系. Victor (LP). (Reproduced on CD. 2002. Bikutā Dentō Bunka Shinkō Zaidan ビクター伝統文化振興財団.) Hosokawa, Toshio 細川俊夫. 2004. Deep Silence: Hosokawa/gagaku. Wergo, WER6801-2 (CD). Japan Arts Council. 2002. “Our History.” Accessed 28 September 2022. https://www .ntj.jac.go.jp/en/about_us/history.html. Lam, Joseph Sui Ching. 1998. State Sacrifices and Music in Ming China: Orthodoxy, Creativity, and Expressiveness. New York: State University of New York Press. Lancashire, Terence. 2003. “World Music or Japanese: The Gagaku of Tōgi Hideki.” Popular Music 22 (1): 21–39. Masumida jinja 真清田神社. 2013. “Bugaku shinji” 舞楽神事. Accessed 28 September 2022. http://www.masumida.or.jp/shinji/buraku/. Miyata, Mayumi 宮田まゆみ. 1986. Hoshi no wa 星の輪. CBS Sony, 32DG-60 (CD). Nihon Ongaku Shūdan 日本音楽集団 (Pro Musica Nipponia). 2002. “Profile.” Accessed 28 September 2022. http://www.promusica.or.jp/english/index.html. Orinpikku Tokyo Taikai Soshiki Iinkai オリンピック東京大会組織委員会. 1966. Dai jūhachikai Orinpikku Kyōgi Taikai kōshiki hōkokusho 第18回オリンピック競技大会公 式報告書. Tokyo: Orinpikku Tokyo Taikai Soshiki Iinkai オリンピック東京大会組織 委員会. Reigakusha 伶楽舎. 1994. Heian no kyōen 平安の響宴. Nippon Columbia, COCF-11836 (CD). Reigakusha 伶楽舎. n.d. “About Reigakusha.” Accessed 28 September 2022. https:// reigakusha.com/home/about. Sawai Sōkyokuin 沢井箏曲院. n.d. “Tadao Sawai Memorial Hall.” Accessed 28 September 2022. http://sawai-tadao.jp/profile/index.html. Shiba, Sukeyasu 芝祐靖. 1987. Tonkō kara Shōsōin e no michi 敦煌から正倉院への道. Denon, 30CF-2023 (CD). Shiba, Sukeyasu 芝祐靖. 2002a. “‘Shūteiga’ ni miserarete” 「秋庭歌」に魅せられて. In liner notes of Shūteiga ichigu 秋庭歌一具, 3–4. Sony Records International, SICC-85 (CD). Shiba, Sukeyasu 芝祐靖. 2002b. “Gagaku Shigen-kai tenmatsuki” 雅楽紫絃会顛末記. In liner notes of Gagaku taikei 雅楽大系, 4–9. Bikutā Dentō Bunka Shinkō Zaidan ビクター伝統文化振興財団, VZCG-8125–28 (CD). Shiba, Sukeyasu 芝祐靖. 2002c. Gagaku taikei 雅楽大系. Bikutā Dentō Bunka Shinkō Zaidan ビクター伝統文化振興財団, VZCG-8125–28 (CD). Shiba, Sukeyasu 芝祐靖. 2002d. Onmyōji no sengaku 陰陽師之占楽. Columbia Music Entertainment, COCQ-83617 (CD).

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Tado Gagaku-kai 多度雅楽会. 2020. “Tado Gagaku-kai” 多度雅楽会. Accessed 28 September 2022. http://www.tadogagaku.com/. Terauchi, Naoko. 2008. “Beyond the Court: A Challenge to the Gagaku Tradition in the ‘Reconstruction Project’ of the National Theatre.” In Performing Japan: Contemporary Expressions of Cultural Identity, edited by Henry Johnson and Jerry C. Jaffe, 93–125. Folkestone: Global Oriental. Terauchi, Naoko 寺内直子. 2010. Gagaku no kindai to gendai: Keishō, fukyū, sōzō no kiseki 雅楽の〈近代〉と〈現代〉:継承・普及・創造の軌跡. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten 岩波書店. Terauchi, Naoko 寺内直子. 2017. Reirin gakuyū: Shiba Sukeyasu to gagaku no gendai 伶倫楽遊:芝祐靖と雅楽の現代. Tokyo: Artes Publishing. Tōgi, Hideki. 2020. “Gurenge ‘Kimetsu no Yaiba Demon Slayer’ o gagaku de kabā” 紅蓮 華「鬼滅の刃 Demon Slayer 」を雅楽でカバー. Accessed 8 January 2022. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFQNwq1kdO8. Tōkyō Gakuso 東京楽所. 1986. Gagaku no sekai 雅楽の世界. Denon, 30CF-1318 (CD). Tōkyō Gakuso 東京楽所. 1990. Gagaku no sekai I, II 雅楽の世界（上、下）. Nippon Columbia, COCF-6194-5, 6196-7 (CD s). Tōkyō Gakuso 東京楽所. 1991. Tenjōbito no hikyoku 殿上人の秘曲. Nippon Columbia, COCF-10467 (CD). Tōkyō Gakuso 東京楽所. 1994. Nihon kodai kayō no sekai 日本古代歌謡の世界. Nippon Columbia, COCF-121114 (CD).

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Chapter 4

The “Heike Brothers” and the 800-Year Transmission and Reception of Heike Musical Narrative Haruko KOMODA and Alison TOKITA 1

Introduction

There is a widespread sense of anxiety about the future of the traditional performing arts in Japan, with the numbers of performers and audiences continuing to decline across the board. Perhaps the Nagoya blind tradition of Heike 平家 musical narrative is in the most parlous state of any genre, with only one remaining exponent.1 The 800-year transmission of Heike performed narrative has undergone various transformations from medieval times to the present (Komoda 2008; Tokita 2015). The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari 平家物語) was once regarded as history and in the modern period became a major work in Japan’s literary canon. In its multiple textual recensions, it is a complex mixture of chronicle, religious tract, romance, and bardic singing. This chapter introduces Heike narrative as a performance genre, outlining its historical development. It focuses on the recent state of transmission and examines a project that aims to achieve a non-traditional method of transmission of the genre to sighted performers. We evaluate the need for such a radical departure, given that a sighted transmission lineage already exists, and assess the relative authenticity of the two competing lineages. This narrative art form has been thoroughly documented and preserved through texts, treatises, musical notations, and recordings. However, its future as an orally transmitted performance tradition is uncertain.

1 This chapter refers to the sung recitation tradition of The Tale of the Heike as Heike or Heike narrative, in preference to the term Heikyoku 平曲 (Heike music). Heike is the term traditionally used by the carriers of the tradition.

© Haruko KOMODA and Alison TOKITA, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_006 Henry Johnson

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The Historical Development of Heike Narrative

The Tale of the Heike is one of a number of Japanese war tales (gunki 軍記) (Varley 1994), and it chronicles the power struggle between two warrior clans in the late twelfth century, ushering in the era of military rule that lasted until 1868. The Tale incorporated accounts written by priests and courtiers as well as tales that were recited and circulated by itinerant priests and nuns and came into the hands of the blind “lute priests,” the biwa-hōshi 琵琶法師 (see fig. 4.1). As an entity, The Tale of the Heike had come into being by the thirteenth century. It is not only a textual tradition, but it is also a performed narrative sung to the accompaniment of the biwa 琵琶 (lute). In this, it has affinities with oral bardic poetry or oral epic, such as the medieval European Song of Roland/Orlando Furioso or the South Slavic epics (Lord 2000 [1960]). The Tale

Figure 4.1 Right: Biwa-hōshi. Fifteenth-century scroll, Shichijūichiban shokunin utaawase 七十一番職人 歌合せ This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Biwa-Hoshi -71-Shokunin-Uta-Awase-Picture-Scroll.png

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of the Heike does not have “an author,” and its relationship with the literate society of medieval Japan is complex. Both textuality and orality are evident in the existence of several dozen textual recensions that vary widely in length and focus. The most widely read and translated version is the Kakuichi-bon 覚 一本 that was authorized by the head of the blind men’s guild, Akashi Kakuichi 明石覚一 (1299–1371), and is closely connected with the blind men’s guild, the Tōdō 当道. The Kakuichi text has a religious dimension that reflects the elegiac fate of the defeated Taira 平 (Heike) clan. Other texts are much longer, including many more episodes, and their heavily Sinicized vocabulary suggests they were intended for the intellectual elites; they also contain many more episodes concerning Yoritomo 頼朝, reflecting the victory of the Minamoto 源 (Genji 源氏) clan, thus functioning as a founding narrative of the new political order, the Kamakura Shogunate. Komoda (1998, 266–267) outlines four stages of Heike’s musical development from few to many melodies and from oral to written text to musically notated texts. The sixteenth century saw much elaboration of the musical material. The shamisen 三味線 (lute) was introduced to Japan at that time, and the blind Heike musicians seized on it, modifying it to make it more like the biwa. They used it to accompany popular songs, and this was the beginning of jiuta 地歌. At the same time, they were appropriating and secularizing the koto 箏 (zither), for which they developed a new instrumental repertoire. Together with the bowed lute (kokyū 胡弓), shamisen and koto music became the art music genre of jiuta-sōkyoku 地歌箏曲, perhaps the most representative genre of Japanese traditional music. It is significant for the preservation of Heike narrative that during the Edo period it was transmitted and maintained in tandem with the development of jiuta-sōkyoku, as the same blind performers of Heike performed both. Such multi-skilling must have contributed to the musical elaboration and refinement of Heike as well as ensuring its preservation through expanding the economic viability of music for the blind. Despite a decline in Heike’s popularity in the Edo period, it continued to be performed as ceremonial and ritual music; for example, in shogunal funeral services and in the annual observances of the Tōdō guild itself. Shogunal patronage gave privileges and social status and security to the guild members. Furthermore, Heike became popular as a pastime for sighted amateurs, leading to the development of several kinds of musically annotated performance texts. The Heike mabushi 平家正節 text-score, edited under the supervision of Ogino Kengyō 荻野検校 (1731–1801) in Nagoya in 1776 (fig. 4.2), systematized the musical setting of the narrative, creating an orthodox or correct musical realization. Although this clinched the loss of orality from Heike performance, its

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Figure 4.2 Portrait of Ogino Kengyō 荻野検校, compiler of Heike mabushi 平家正節 Courtesy of Ozaki Masatada 尾崎正忠

formulaic expression in text and music shows clear residual orality (Ong 1982). The Heike mabushi is very close to the Kakuichi-bon, but instead of ordering the chapters chronologically, they are arranged in the order they were to be learnt. The episodes early in the book show greater musical variation and formal structuring in comparison with the later ones, suggesting that they were more popular and therefore frequently performed as independent pieces (Komoda 2003, 187 ff.). With the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the abolition of the samurai class and of the Tōdō guild in 1872, the blind musicians lost their patronage and official status and consequently their financial support (Katō 1974, 465–473), leaving only scattered remnants of Heike performance. A few blind performance

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lineages continued into the modern period in Kyushu, Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, and elsewhere, but eventually Heike performance was dropped in favour of jiuta-sōkyoku. In Tokyo, there were some performances of Heike in the early Meiji era, but then they petered out altogether. 3

The Nagoya Transmission

There are two surviving traditions of Heike recitation: the Nagoya lineage (名古 屋系) and the Tsugaru lineage (津軽系). Only in Nagoya, where traditional cultures seem to have been valued more than in other urban centres, did Heike continue to be transmitted by professional jiuta-sōkyoku musicians. An association called the Kokufū Ongaku-kai 国風音楽会 sustained the tradition. The teaching of Heike to amateurs and performances dedicated to Benzaiten 弁財天, the goddess of music, continued up to the Second World War. In the postwar period, rituals and ceremonies redolent of the Tōdō were maintained, on which occasions Heike was performed. Heike was also often included in concerts of jiuta-sōkyoku. The previous generation of blind carriers of the Nagoya tradition were Inogawa Kōji (井野川幸次; 1905–85), Doizaki Masatomi (土居崎正富; 1920–2000), and Mishina Masayasu (三品正保; 1894–1989). All were of Kengyō 検校 rank.2 Their repertoire had shrunk to only eight of the two hundred chapters of the Kakuichi text. With such attrition of the repertoire, those pieces do not fully convey the “grand narrative” of Taira defeat and Genji ascendancy, but they indicate the most popular pieces for standalone performance. The eight Nagoya pieces are “Susuki” 鱸, “Sotoba Nagashi” 卒都婆流, “Kōyō” 紅葉, “Chikubu-shima Mōde” 竹生島詣, “Ikezuki” 生食, “Ujigawa” 宇治川, “Yokobue” 横笛, and “Nasu no Yoichi” 那須与一. Today, there is only one active blind Heike practitioner (also of Kengyō rank), Imai Tsutomu 今井勉 (b. 1958), who inherited the tradition from Doizaki and Mishina. Imai’s lineage is thus continuous with the medieval blind biwa-hōshi, whose performance was orally transmitted without the need for written texts, in the context of their professional guild, the Tōdō. In collaboration with Komoda in 1990, Imai created a revived partial version of a piece (“Kaidō Kudari” 街道下り) and later a partial revival of “Gion Shōja” 祇園精舎, based on the Heike mabushi (Imai 2009).

2 Kengyō was the top rank of blind professionals, deriving from Buddhist ecclesiastic rank titles, the others being in descending order Bettō 別当, Kōtō 勾当, and Zatō 座頭.

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The Tsugaru Transmission

The Tsugaru transmission stems from Heike recitation as an amateur pastime for self-cultivation (tashinami 嗜み or kyōyō 教養) of bushi 武士 (warrior) dilettantes in the Tsugaru domain in the late Edo period. After the abolition of the Tōdō in 1872, sighted amateurs from the Tsugaru domain took Heike seriously and created a new lineage. They built on the Edo period practice of sighted amateurs learning Heike from blind professionals and used the musically annotated Heike mabushi. A Tsugaru domain retainer, Kusumi Taiso (楠美太素; 1817–82), who had studied Heike from a blind musician, stipulated in his will that Heike should continue to be transmitted (Komoda 2003, 7). His son Tateyama Zennoshin (館山漸之進; 1845–1916), author of Heike Ongakushi 平家音楽史 (1910), a comprehensive history of the tradition, and grandson Tateyama Kōgo (館山甲午; 1894–1989) continued this tradition through conducting historical research, performing, recording, and teaching, creating what is sometimes referred to as the Sendai School 仙台派, after their place of residence. Zennoshin assisted the Institute of Japanese Music (Hōgaku Chōsa Gakari 邦楽調査掛, established in 1907) with the transcription of Heike into Western staff notation and its recording on wax cylinders. He taught the art to his fourth son, Kōgo, who studied violin at the Tokyo Music School (東京音楽学校) and taught (Western) music at various colleges. The key exponent in the twentieth century, Tateyama Kōgo attracted a number of followers, who in turn taught Heike to another generation. The Tsugaru lineage gained considerable credence when it was embraced by historical linguist Kindaichi Haruhiko 金田一春彦 (1913–2004), who championed it as a valid transmission of Heike-biwa. Kindaichi himself learned Heike from Tateyama Kōgo and taught others. He campaigned to have Heike nominated as an intangible cultural property (mukei bunkazai 無形文化財) in 1969. This Tsugaru tradition flowered into a viable practice with performers such as Tokyo-based Hashimoto Toshie 橋本敏江 (1938–2016). Being sighted, the practitioners of this lineage can in principle recite any of the two hundred chapters of Heike monogatari based on the Heike mabushi text. It is debatable, however, whether they are true carriers of the tradition. The Tsugaru transmission has made great efforts to carry on a performance tradition in the absence of the traditional blind performers. The performers strove to continue the tradition as they knew it. However, having no contact with blind professional practitioners, they strayed radically from the traditional form. Much of the oral teaching not found in the text-score was lost; they had difficulty interpreting aspects of the score. This led to inconsistency

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in the melodic realization of the music. Since Tateyama Kōgō had a limited vocal range, he changed the melodies at the upper and lower extremes to suit his voice. Furthermore, there was an attempt to return to Heike of medieval times, including special pronunciations, a change of biwa tuning, and some changes in the scale. Kindaichi and Hashimoto were critical of these efforts, and each of them separately attempted to rationalize the interpretation of the score. People were confused as to what was correct and tended to make their own decisions about how to perform, leading to considerable differences in tuning, pronunciation, how to best achieve the sawari (buzzing quality of some strings) effect, and melodic realization. Such problems have occurred because direct contact with professional guidance from blind carriers of the Tōdō tradition had ceased long ago. In addition to the many changes that occurred, none of the exponents could properly be called a professional musician in the sense of the Nagoya lineage whose musicality was formed by jiuta-sōkyoku. In comparison, the Nagoya lineage is closer to the Tōdō tradition that in the Edo period co-existed with jiuta-sōkyoku. The sole remaining blind proponent of Heike-biwa in Nagoya, Imai Tsutomu, is still active and in his prime. He has taught Heike to sighted students in the past, but in recent years he has declined to take further students. For this reason, Komoda has developed a project that aims to ensure the future of the Nagoya transmission, even without Imai’s direct input. Of course, the transmission of an art should take place directly from teacher to student. However, in this case the Tōdō tradition is in danger of dying out if nothing is done. What are the prospects for its success, and what is its significance? 5

Ensuring the Continuation of the Nagoya Blind Lineage: The Heike Transmission Project

Komoda is today the foremost researcher in Japan of biwa, particularly of the Heike-biwa recitation of the Nagoya lineage. Furthermore, although not a stage performer herself, she studied Heike narrative and biwa with Imai Tsutomu for fifteen years, receiving instruction in his whole repertoire, so has in fact received the Nagoya transmission. She worked with Imai for many years on reviving lost repertoire and took him on a number of overseas performance trips. The first stage of her project was the formation in 2001 of a group called the Tōdō Ongaku Hozonkai (当道音楽保存会; Tōdō Music Preservation Society), comprising a number of prominent musicologists including Yokomichi Mario

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横道万里雄, Gamō Satoaki 蒲生郷昭, and Kubota Satoko 久保田敏子. Under the Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō 文化庁) Internship System, two promising young performers of jiuta-sōkyoku were recruited to study Heike-biwa and narrative with Imai Tsutomu in Nagoya between 2001 and 2005. One was Kikuo Yūji 菊央雄司 (b. 1977) from the Kiku-suji lineage in Osaka, and the other was Okuda Satoshi 奥田智之 (b. 1974; now Utanoichi 雅楽之一) of the Seiha Hōgaku-kai 正派邦楽会. As part of the project, a new biwa was made for Imai to use in teaching the trainees, thanks to the Pola Foundation for the Promotion of Traditional Japanese Culture. The lessons were less productive than hoped (sometimes only lasting five minutes, perhaps reflecting how Imai himself had learned Heike from Mishina Kengyō), but even so, Kikuo acquired directly from Imai three complete pieces and part of another of the eight transmitted pieces. At the same time, Komoda oversaw the documentation of the current Nagoya tradition through the recording of Imai’s entire repertoire, including a transmitted fragment called “Sakura no Chūon” 桜の中音 and the reconstructed “Gion Shōja.” They were published with substantial explanatory notes in Japanese and English and musically annotated texts (Imai 2009). In 2011, Komoda initiated another attempt to achieve the transmission of the Nagoya tradition with the Heike Gatari Kenkyūkai (平家語り研究会; Study Group for Heike Narrative). This training programme included both theory and performance and was directed at young satsuma-biwa performers, Shiotaka Kazuyuki 塩高和之 and Mizushima Yuiko 水島結子. It was hypothesized that, as cognate arts, Satsuma-biwa players would be able to adapt easily to Heike-biwa and narrative singing. However, this experiment was cut short by the disastrous earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident of March 2011. Although brief, the training programme enabled Komoda to develop a method of teaching using audio-visual materials. It also made clear that even though the young performers played biwa, their modern musical style and particularly their vocal technique were not suited to learning Heike-biwa narrative. Around this time, Imai became even less interested in teaching Heike, increasing the urgency to act. In 2015, the project resumed, and this time it was directed at three young jiuta-sōkyoku musicians (fig. 4.3). Bearing in mind that in the Edo period performers of jiuta-sōkyoku also performed Heike (and in fact Heike performers had originally developed jiuta-sōkyoku), Komoda hypothesized that this would be the most effective strategy to maintain transmission (albeit indirectly) of the Nagoya lineage. This new programme built on Kikuo’s lessons with Imai, together with two more young professional musicians of jiuta-sōkyoku, Tanaka Naoichi 田中奈央一 (b. 1974) and Hiyoshi Shōgo 日吉 章吾 (b. 1987). Kikuo was to be an instructor in this process. These three had

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Figure 4.3 The “Heike Brothers.” Left to right: Hiyoshi Shōgo, Kikuo Yūji, and Tanaka Naoichi. 9 September 2022, Kioi Hall, Tokyo © Tōdō Ongaku Hozonkai

already acquired excellent jiuta vocal style. Tanaka belonged to the Yamada performance tradition (山田流) of koto, which has many narrative pieces, which was expected to assist in understanding Heike. Hiyoshi, who belongs to the Miyagi school (宮城会), had just received a major prize and showed outstanding musicality. The aims of the project in this third stage were twofold. First, the three trainees were to acquire full mastery of the eight pieces transmitted in the Nagoya lineage. Second, they were to acquire the ability to read and interpret the 1776 Heike mabushi, the musically annotated text-score authorized by Ogino Kengyō of the Nagoya lineage, as the basis for expanding their repertoire. 5.1 Training Method In the project, the method of training is quite different from the traditional pattern of learning orally and aurally in a one-on-one lesson with a teacher. However, Komoda’s deep knowledge of Heike-biwa narrative makes her wellpositioned to teach with the aid of recordings and written materials. As Heike is close to an oral musical narrative, the role of recordings was crucial. Although “primary orality” was not possible (Ong 1982, 6, 11), full use was Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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made of the “secondary orality” of audio and video recordings. Training activity was based on aural imitation of the model of Imai’s renditions, in a quasi-oral transmission, supplemented by written texts and scores. The teaching method approximated as closely as possible the traditional one of imitating the teacher phrase-by-phrase. Kikuo’s and Komoda’s experience supplemented the use of recordings. The various recordings of Heike in modern times, especially those of the three previous practitioners, were vital to the process, centrally those of Imai’s performance (Imai 2009). Use was also made of Imai’s video recordings (Tōyama 2009). As the three trainees are sighted and are quite comfortable using Western staff notation for contemporary compositions, it made sense to use written resources in combination with the recordings. Invaluable were the transcriptions of the eight Nagoya pieces made in the 1960s by musicologist Fujii Seishin (1966). Looking at the notation while listening to the recording helped the trainees to grasp the correspondence between notation and rendition, and at the same time it revealed the limitations of Western notation. Such limitations were overcome by writing in individual markings to aid memory of nuances that cannot be notated fully. Fujii’s transcriptions were used as a vital primary resource together with the eighteenth-century Heike mabushi. A copy of the traditional score for each piece was given to the trainees at every lesson, and they were taught how to read and interpret it. Both these scores were carefully scrutinized and annotated and compared with Imai’s performance. Close inspection revealed that not only has change occurred since the time of the Heike mabushi, but even the 1966 transcriptions diverge in small details from Imai’s performance. The matter of accurately interpreting the Heike mabushi score itself has entailed painstaking work, and some questions still remain to be answered. In studying the biwa part, DVD s were useful in enabling trainees to appreciate such points as how to hold the instrument, correct posture, and the position of fingers of the left hand on the frets. As the Western staff notation combines both voice and biwa parts, the biwa could be learned together with the sung narrative. However, the notation does not indicate even the basic playing techniques (e.g., normal downstroke versus upward stroke or left-hand pizzicato), left-hand fingering techniques, the exact position on the string or fret, or the manipulation of the after-sound or decay. Nevertheless, these techniques could be effectively observed in the DVD s (Tōyama 2009). The Mabushi traditional score is actually a part score (fig. 4.4). It is based on the narrated text, with musical annotations for the vocal delivery of two kinds: the names of the kyokusetsu (melodic patterns) and bokufu (neumes), indicating melodic movement and ornamentation. The biwa melodic patterns (te) are not indicated in the main vocal text-score, because they are always the Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 4.4 Heike mabushi 平家正節 (1776). Opening section of “Gion Shōja” 祇園精舎 Courtesy of Ozaki Masatada 尾崎正忠

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same. Instead, a separate section is dedicated to the biwa melodies. This biwa notation is informative about technique, indicating the fingering position and oral notation syllables (kuchi shōga 口唱歌) for each stroke, although not all aspects of pitch are clear and rhythm is indicated only vaguely. As the three performers were all adept shamisen players, it was not difficult for them to master the biwa, both instruments being plucked lutes. There are of course significant differences between the two instruments, so careful practice was required. The shamisen has no frets, whereas the frets on the biwa are fixed; there are four strings on the biwa, whereas the shamisen has only three, so techniques and general touch are different. Tokita observed a lesson of the Heike Gatari Kenkyūkai in Tokyo on 4 October 2016. It was the fourteenth lesson or study group (kenkyūkai 研究会), and the piece being practised was the second half of “Sotoba Nagashi.” Duplicating Imai’s method of teaching, an assistant operated the CD player, pausing after each phrase of Imai’s singing. Komoda and the three apprentices then sang that phrase following the Mabushi text-score, referring to the staff notation as needed. Komoda commented from time to time, made corrections, gave explanations, and discussed unclear or problem points. The three trainees had obviously prepared thoroughly in advance, as they seemed to be quite confident, showing no hesitation. They sometimes asked questions. Study groups were initially held monthly, and it took the three performers just a couple of years to learn the eight pieces of the Nagoya repertoire and in that process to acquire a good understanding of Heike musical form. After initially practising the sung narrative using Western notation and for biwa combining Western notation with observation of the DVD and the information from the traditional score, the trainees eventually learned to use the traditional score. After the eight pieces were learned, the traditional score became the basic text for training and for use in performance. Learning to interpret the traditional notation provided a foundation to perform other pieces that have not remained in the Nagoya performance tradition. 5.2 Outcomes Public performances, initially in academic contexts then in commercial public venues, have provided valuable public recognition. Within four months of the beginning of the project, the three gave their first public performance of Heike (“Susuki” and part of the revived piece “Gion Shōja”) in June 2015 at the Public Lecture-Concert of the Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music, Kyoto City University of Arts. They were well received and were given the moniker “Heike Brothers,” after the Yoshida Kyōdai 吉田兄弟 of Tsugaru shamisen 津軽三味線 fame. In April 2017, a formal debut concert in the Kioi Hall in Tokyo marked the acquisition by the three trainees of the whole eight Nagoya pieces. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Many other appearances have followed, including at the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique on 31 March 2018 as part of a comparative research project on musical narratives with the Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music. All performances are listed on the project website.3 5.3 Expanding the Repertoire by Reconstructing Pieces While the project’s participants enjoy ongoing performance opportunities and continue formal study groups, the aim of the project was to revive more pieces based on research of the Mabushi, starting with straightforward pieces consisting predominantly of the most basic and simple kudoki melody type.4 Other pieces chosen for musical realization are those with well-known stories. This has been a joint effort in the monthly study sessions, and, so far, seven pieces have been developed and performed in public: “Atsumori no Saigo” 敦盛最期, “Kiso no Saigo” 木曽最後, “Sakaro” 逆櫓, “Sentei no Gojusui” 先帝御 入水, “Naishidokoro no Miyakoiri” 内侍所都入, “Notodono no Saigo” 能登殿 最期, and “Giō” 祇王. In 2023, Komoda has halted further reconstruction in favour of consolidating those pieces already completed. In public performance, pieces are divided between the three trainees, so each performer does not have full mastery of the whole. Showing an abundance of caution, the core transmitted eight pieces are also maintained by performing them in the February meeting every year. This approach contrasts with the Tsugaru lineage, where performance of the entire Heike monogatari is sometimes carried out; for example, Suzuki Takatsune 鈴木孝庸 (b. 1947) completed such a marathon between November 2015 and March 2019. 5.4 Limitations of the Project The trainees are circumspect about claiming validity as transmitters; they state in their profiles that they are members of the Heike Gatari Kenkyūkai training project rather than Heike performers. However, they perform in public when opportunities arise, aside from performances organized by the project. They are aware of the historical importance of Heike as foundational for jiuta-sōkyoku and attest that it has enriched their performance. This suggests that they identify with Heike as a tradition that they can participate in authentically, knowing it was normal practice for jiuta-sōkyoku blind musicians to perform Heike in the Edo period; it was their basic genre, to which shamisen and koto were added. 3 Heike Gatari Kenkyūkai, https://heike-katari.com/. 4 Kudoki is the simplest and most frequently used of Heike’s thirteen melody patterns, moving back and forth between two tones one fourth apart with passing notes and melismatic cadences. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Komoda is somewhat hesitant to affirm that they have “mastered” the eight Nagoya pieces. Before performing in public, they always have a training session with her. However, when they are invited independently to perform, she does not specifically coach them. In the Japanese music world, it is customary to obtain the permission of one’s teacher first. In this case, Komoda does not see herself as their teacher in the traditional sense, and they need not ask Imai for permission either. Creating a Definitive Score for Future Use in Teaching and Transmission In order for wider transmission to occur beyond this hand-picked trio, further work is required to create a definitive score based on careful examination of the various written sources, that is, variant notations. The traditional notation was created nearly 250 years ago, and there are many discrepancies with current performance, making it crucial to create a score that takes both into account. There is no doubt that Fujii’s notations of the previous generation of three performers are most useful for understanding the detailed nuances of the traditional markings. However, even this resource has its limitations. There were differences between the three, and Fujii’s transcriptions tried to combine three performers, Inogawa, Doizaki, and Mishina, into one version. An ideal score will take into account both Fujii’s score and Imai’s performance, to provide a reliable written means of transmission for the future. For studying and reviving repertoire beyond the eight pieces, Kikuo, Tanaka, and Hiyoshi have to varying degrees become comfortable with decoding the Heike mabushi and performing from it. However, for wider transmission, a more effective and accessible score needs to be developed. 5.5

6

Conclusion

The authenticity of this new method for sustaining musical traditions may be doubted, especially since the last authentic traditional carrier is still active. It remains to be seen to what degree the three trainees will identify as carriers of the tradition. Obtaining funding from the Agency for Cultural Affairs has been significant, not just for material help in covering travel, instrument repair, strings, and room hire, but more importantly for the recognition it gives to the project. Another Nagoya group, the Ogino Kengyō Kenshō-kai 荻野検校顕彰会, working directly with Imai, also had Bunkachō funding to put on a series of public performances of all Imai’s repertoire and produce commercial DVD s of the performances. This group centres on a descendant of Ogino Kengyō, who authorized Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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the Heike mabushi. It is very committed at a local level in Nagoya to the future of the lineage and hopes that eventually Imai will teach Heike to his successors, but so far they too have been unsuccessful. The ultimate success of the project depends on whether the Heike as transmitted by the three trainees is recognized by the music community in general and by Imai in particular. Already, the project is being positively evaluated by cultural gatekeepers, and it is to be hoped that this achievement will move Imai to want to be involved in the transmission process and the continuation of the Nagoya Heike narrative tradition. References Fujii, Seishin 藤井制心. 1966. Heikyoku saifubon 平曲採譜本. Nagoya: Nagoya-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 名古屋市教育委員会. Imai, Tsutomu 今井勉. 2009. Heike monogatari: Biwa-hōshi no sekai 平家物語:琵琶法師 の世界. Commentary: Komoda Haruko 薦田治子. Kojima Recordings, Ebisu 13–19. Katō, Yasuaki 加藤康昭. 1974. Nihon mōjin shakaishi kenkyū 日本盲人社会史研究. Tokyo: Miraisha 未来社. Komoda, Haruko 薦田治子. 1998. “Heikyoku no ongaku shiteki kenkyū ni mukete” 平曲の音楽史的研究にむけて. In Heike monogatari: Hihyō to bunkashi 平家物 語:批評と文化史, edited by Yamashita Hiroaki 山下宏明, 256–276. Tokyo: Kyūko Shoin 汲古書院. Komoda, Haruko 薦田治子. 2003. Heike no ongaku: Tōdō no dentō 平家の音楽:当道の 伝統. Tokyo: Daiichi Shobō 第一書房. Komoda, Haruko. 2008. “The Musical Narrative of The Tale of the Heike.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison Tokita and David Hughes, 77–104. Aldershot: Ashgate. Lord, Albert B. 2000 [1960]. The Singer of Tales. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ong, Walter. 1982. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen. Tokita, Alison. 2015. Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative. Farnham: Ashgate. Tōyama, Ichirō 遠山一郎, ed. 2009. “Heike mabushi” mōjin denshō hakku: Raibu eizō to kensaku 「平家正節」盲人伝承八句:ライブ映像と検索. Nagoya: Aichi Kenritsu Daigaku Bungakubu 愛知県立大学文学部. Varley, Paul. 1994. Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

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Chapter 5

Eisā: Between the Expression of Okinawan Identity and the Appropriation of Okinawan Culture Sumi CHO 1

Introduction

Okinawa, located in the southernmost stretch of islands between Kyushu and Taiwan, has long been obliged to navigate political, social, and cultural marginalization under the conflicting influences of the dominant powers of China, Japan, and the US (Hein and Seldon 2003; Hook and Siddle 2003). This tumultuous history has been the source of conflicting memories and identities for Okinawans as well as the cultural distinctiveness that sets Okinawa apart from the rest of Japan.1 Studies of Okinawan music and performing arts have illustrated the ways in which the artistic and creative expressions of Okinawans reflect their lived experiences and emotions and provide a means of negotiating their identities and building communities in Okinawa (Gillan 2012; Johnson 2008; Nelson 2008; Roberson 2001, 2009, 2011) and in diasporas (Cho 2014; de Ferranti 2009; Olsen 2004; Terada 2011). Eisā エイサー is a popular traditional and contemporary Okinawan art form, beloved of Okinawans and non-Okinawans alike.2 It is a collective drum dance characterized by synchronized drumbeats and dynamic dance moves and performed to Okinawan min’yō 民謡 (folk song) melodies played and sung by jikata 地謡 accompanists on the sanshin 三線 (Okinawan three-string lute). The dancers comprise either exclusively young males or young males and females. Male dancers typically don elaborate costumes reminiscent of Ryukyuan warriors’ garb, while female dancers don short, unassuming commoner-style 1 Okinawa prefecture is a part of the Japanese administrative division, and Okinawans are legally Japanese. However, the residents of Okinawa and their descendants in diasporas draw on their distinctive historical experience and culture for the basis of their identities separate from mainland Japan. When I use the “Okinawan”/“Japanese” distinction, I refer to the socio-cultural distinction drawn by Okinawans as well as the mainland Japanese. 2 Most of the terms I introduce in this chapter are Okinawan terms and follow Okinawan pronunciation, although some are Japanized (e.g., teodori 手踊り). I have tried to show kanji when available (e.g., chondara 京太郎) and followed conventional use of katakana (e.g., eisā エイサー, kachāshī カチャーシー) for some terms for which there are no kanji equivalents.

© Sumi CHO, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_007

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Figure 5.1 Female teodori dancers from Eguchi Youth Group (栄口青年会) perform in their village during the Bon 盆 festival in 2018 Photo courtesy of Goya Junko 呉屋淳子

gowns. The dances may be broadly categorized into two types: teodori 手踊り (hand dance; fig. 5.1) and taiko-odori 太鼓踊り (drum dance). Drum dancers, typically male, play the drums while dancing and shouting in unison, with choreographed movements that are almost acrobatic. Male hand dancers exhibit masculine movements reminiscent of the traditional Okinawan martial art karate, while females dance empty-handed or sometimes holding a small fan, pinwheel, or small castanets (sanba サンバ or yotsutake 四つ竹), with movements intended to highlight their femininity and grace. In addition to the dancers and jikata, the eisā group may include chondara 京太郎 (fig. 5.2), clown-like figures who provide comic relief. The deafening sound of drumbeats, coordinated shouts, and the spectacle of the young dancers’ majestic and graceful movements, all accompanied by seasoned jikata musicians, exert an intense aural and visual impact that captivates the audience and immerses them in the dance. The excitement reaches its climax during the final kachāshī カチャー シー dance, as performers and audience commingle in an impromptu, festive mêlée. Fittingly, the expression “chimu dondon” ちむどんどん (it makes your heart throb) is an Okinawan expression that is frequently invoked in descriptions of eisā. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 5.2 Chondara (a clown-like figure) from Sonda eisā 園田エイサー at the Okinawa Island-Wide Eisā Festival (沖縄全島エイサー祭り) in 2018 Photo courtesy of Goya Junko

While eisā was formerly traditionally performed in rural villages in a religious context, it has been significantly transformed in multiple aspects since the turn of the twentieth century, as stylistic modifications accompanied the recontextualization and reinterpretation of eisā in new geographical and socio­ cultural contexts. Two key elements of the art form have remained salient: eisā as a means of articulating participants’ identities and empowering them, and eisā as a commodity for consumption in tourism and popular culture, particularly under the exoticizing power of the dominant culture. These two aspects reflect eisā’s cultural significance in the complex relationship between Okinawa and Japan. 2

Traditional Eisā: The Dance for the Ancestral Spirits

Eisā originated in the northern and central regions of Okinawa Island during the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429–1879). Although it was subordinate to the premodern Chinese world order, the kingdom flourished as a result of maritime trade with Southeast and East Asia. However, in the wake of Satsuma’s invasion Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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in 1609, the kingdom fell and became doubly subordinate under China and Japan, though it maintained nominal independence until its annexation by Japan in 1879.3 Eisā was characterized by distinct regional styles. Teodori eisā developed in the north of Okinawa Island, while taiko-centred eisā developed in the island’s central region. Taiko-odori eisā may be further subdivided according to the type of drum used: eisā using the pārankū パーランクー (small-frame drum) is typical of the Katsuren Peninsula, more austere and sombre and thought to emulate Buddhist chanting. Meanwhile, eisā using the shime-daiko 締め太鼓 (medium-sized laced drum) is characteristic of the island’s central region, near Okinawa city, and is more dynamic and elaborate (Kobayashi 1998, 36–40). Traditional eisā was performed in two main contexts: the religious context of Buddhist chanting for the dead and Confucianist customs of ancestral memorialization, and the context of village community (fig. 5.3). The Bon (盆) festival, also called shichigwachi 七月 (seventh month) in Okinawa, occurs between the fifteenth and seventeenth days of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, during which time the souls of ancestors are believed to visit their descendants. As indicated by earlier names for eisā—ninbuchā ニンブチャー (Buddhist chanting), nenbutsu odori 念仏踊り (chanting dance), or nise nenbutsu にせ念仏 (false chanting)—the genre initially developed as an aspect of Buddhist ancestral ritual before evolving into a form of entertainment and artistic expression in which the entire village community could participate as performers and spectators (Ikemiya 1998, 24–33). Okinawa’s rural villages were long characterized by their tight-knit communities and functioned as basic units of social life by virtue of the villages’ traditional endogamy and self-sufficiency. Therefore, ancestors were not tied to their offspring merely through descent but were connected in a more complex manner by means of their shared land, history, and genealogy. As a collective ancestral ritual and form of village entertainment, eisā served as an affirmation of community identity renewed by the annual repetition of aural, visual, and sensory stimuli. It further symbolized the generational continuity whereby village youngsters performed eisā for audiences that included older generations—the performers of the past—and children—the performers of the future (Cho 2014).

3 The Satsuma domain was ruled by the Shimazu clan. Its territory covered the entire area of what is currently Kagoshima prefecture and part of Miyazaki prefecture.

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Figure 5.3 Drum dancers from Eguchi Youth Group perform in their village during the Bon festival in 2018 Photo courtesy of Goya Junko

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Modern Eisā in Okinawa

Okinawa experienced drastic and often devastating changes during the twentieth century, as reflected in contextual and stylistic changes to eisā. The drum dance continued to be practised following Japan’s annexation of Okinawa, but its significance, aesthetics, and contexts began to change. Okinawa was subjected to a heavy assimilation campaign by the Japanese state, and its language, customs, and culture were deemed “backward” and not properly Japanese (Christy 1997; Tomiyama 1997). During the late Meiji and early Shōwa eras, customs such as mōashibi 毛遊び (field play) were banned, and seinendan 青年団 (youth groups) were restructured under Japanese rule.4 As young peoples’ opportunities for socializing and entertainment dwindled, eisā assumed 4 Mōashibi were night gatherings of village youth, mingling and entertaining through dancing, singing, and drinking, during which they would often encounter romantic or sexual partners.

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greater significance as a form of entertainment, and its performance was restricted to members of youth groups. In the dancing repertoire, traditional songs that were deemed “vulgar” were replaced with more commercialized min’yō songs. While eisā persisted in the context of village life, these changes established it as the art form that it is recognized as today. However, as Japan’s war efforts intensified in the 1930s, eisā itself was discouraged or banned (Kobayashi 1998). The Pacific War (1941–45) brought to Okinawan villages extensive destruction, loss of life, and displacement and dispossession of inhabitants, thus destabilizing eisā’s very foundations. The Battle of Okinawa (1945) caused the heaviest casualties, with the loss of an estimated 130,000–140,000 civilians—over a quarter of the Okinawan population—in the crossfire between the American and Japanese troops and because of the cruelty wielded by Japanese soldiers, including forced collective suicides (Field 1991). Following Japan’s defeat, Okinawa was subject to US Occupation from 1945 to 1972. Central Okinawa, the birthplace of taikō eisā, experienced severe devastation, as the air raids, naval bombardment, and intense combat were concentrated in this area. Survivors were taken to internment camps established throughout Okinawa Island, and their land, including their ancestors’ graves, was seized by the US military, severing their ties with the time-space continuum of village history. A large swathe of land was occupied by the Kadena Air Base, and its residents came to rely heavily on the military-base economy (Hein and Selden 2003, 12–19). Postwar eisā was not simply confined to village contexts but was extended to anti-base rallies, all-island competitions and festivals, and touristic sites. This recontextualization and transformation of eisā constituted part of Okinawans’ efforts to cope with the losses caused by the war and rebuild their lives. The village eisā’s significance as the dance for the dead expanded and intensified, as eisā was performed in internment camps to mourn those who had perished, danced by both local people and internees (Shirota 2002, 122). Nelson’s (2008) ethnography of Sonda eisā 園田エイサー captures the process by which eisā was transformed in central Okinawa: mining the legacy of the traditional Yakimāji eisā 焼廻エイサー, the new Sonda eisā embraced those who had been displaced by the US military bases and removed the traditional gender barrier, allowing women to participate. Eisā practice and performance allowed those who had been diminished under the base-dependent economy to express themselves as graceful and majestic dancers. The dance honoured their ancestors, including those who had perished in the war, and united the dancers and the spectators, villagers and outsiders. All the participants of eisā continued to create karī カリー, the Okinawan value that is produced from exchange with ancestral spirits and brings health and good fortune.

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The second crucial change came with the establishment of an all-island eisā competition. Okinawa Zentō Eisā Konkūru 沖縄全島エイサーコンクール (Okinawa Island-Wide Eisā Contest, hereafter OIWEC) was founded in 1956 in Koza (later renamed Okinawa city), coinciding with the city’s foundation. Villages in central Okinawa had had up to 80 percent of their land seized for military bases, and eisā was an important expression of Okinawan resistance in the anti-base rallies (Shirota 2002). Eisā competitions, such as those of the postwar village eisā, helped to reconstruct Okinawan identity and boost community morale. The fact that the first OIWEC attracted 30,000 attendees attests to eisā’s popularity and people’s need for an emotional outlet at the time. For twenty-one years, the annual OIWEC was held around the time of Bon, but the rural, ritual dance became an urban, secular event with the premise of Okinawan tradition (Johnson 2008; Okamoto 1998). Local government, media, and businesses sponsored the contest, using it for advertising. OIWEC shifted the focus of eisā from ancestral ritual to spectacle. Eisā performances were now witnessed by audiences numbering tens of thousands, leading many eisā groups to implement stylistic and aesthetic changes. Several groups adapted their original style and, with a vision for winning, opted for more visually appealing choreography, formations, and/or costumes. They also included popular min’yō songs in their repertoires. The use of barrel drums and lace drums became commonplace, and the taikō eisā of central Okinawa dominated the genre across the island. However, the competition format was criticized with respect to its rules and the adaptation of a folk tradition into a competitive format, and it was subsequently changed to Okinawa Zentō Eisā Matsuri 沖縄全島エイサー祭り (Okinawa Island-Wide Eisā Festival, hereafter OIWEF) in 1977. Stylistic and contextual changes continued. Competition participants were primarily youth groups characterized by technical and physical prowess, elevating their chances of winning. By contrast, the festival format was more inclusive as it now included children and wives. Departure from traditional gender roles became more common; for example, women were now permitted to perform the taiko dance. Another significant innovation during this period was the emergence of a modified form of eisā called sōsaku eisā 創作エイサー (creative eisā), which signalled a further shift away from village ties or the religious context of the Bon festival. Ryūkyūkoku Matsuri Daikō 琉球国祭り太鼓 (Festival Drums of the Ryukyu Nation, hereafter RMD), established in 1982, is the most famous of the ensembles involved in sōsaku eisā. Exempt from village traditions, RMD made significant modifications to eisā, such as the inclusion of karate moves

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and modern musical accompaniment and the increased use of ōdaiko 大太鼓 (large barrel drums), all of which were more visually and aurally appealing. Rather than representing particular localities within Okinawa, RMD represented Okinawan cultural differences in opposition to Japanese counterparts. RMD is inclusive in its membership: unlike village eisā groups, it accepts anyone, irrespective of their hometown, age, or gender. It established local chapters inside and outside Okinawa, in mainland Japan, and overseas, and it standardized its choreography, regularly releasing new choreography recorded in Okinawa and disseminated across its local, national, and international chapters (Okamoto 1998; Siemann 2017, 182). Through such modification, RMD played an important role in disseminating eisā via the overseas Okinawan diaspora, as discussed below. The third context, tourism, is a key external factor in eisā’s recontextualization and transformation, resulting from Okinawa’s continued marginalization in its relationship with the US and Japan following Okinawa’s reversion to Japan in 1972. The US military bases’ persistent presence hindered industrial and commercial development, and Okinawa prefecture was obliged to rely on the tourism industry. Okinawa’s position as “Japan’s other” continued in tourism. The island was marketed to Japanese mainlanders as a major tourist destination, in which cultural and historical distinctiveness and a subtropical climate added to the exoticism. Events and venues that featured Okinawan culture proliferated, removed from their original contexts. The popularity of OIWEC and OIWEF as large-scale entertainment meant that they were a major tourist attraction and an important source of revenue. Larger eisā festivals were held outside the Bon festival, and creative eisā groups like RMD were formed and performed outside the Bon context. Eisā was also regularly performed in major Okinawa theme parks, where Okinawan culture was showcased in crafts, musical instruments (notably the sanshin), food, and historical enactments. Eisā was presented as a symbol of Okinawan culture, exoticized for the Japanese touristic gaze (Johnson 2008, 207). 4

Eisā Travels out of Okinawa: Diasporas and Beyond

Eisā in postwar Okinawa shifted increasingly further from its original contexts of religious ritual and village life to become more spectacular and symbolic of Okinawa’s cultural distinctiveness. During the 1990s, significant changes occurred in the reception of Okinawan music and dance in mainland Japan and abroad, which influenced the ways in which eisā was spread and interpreted.

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The trend known as the “Okinawa Boom” began in music in the 1970s and became a nationwide trend in media and popular culture in the 1990s. This trend was internally affected by Okinawan cultural nationalism, which emerged in response to Okinawan disappointment in the reality of the reversion (Takahashi 2006). Okinawan popular musicians brought diverse elements derived from Okinawa’s exchange with different cultures into play in their expression of cultural distinctiveness vis-à-vis Japan (Kumada 1998; Roberson 2001, 2009). This musical expression of Okinawan difference found a niche in the Japanese market as well as in the international world music market (Johnson 2021). During the 1990s, the overall fascination with Okinawan cultural differences increased. In media texts that depicted Okinawa and Okinawans in a positive light, Okinawa was imagined as iyashi no shima 癒しの島 (the islands of healing). The Okinawa Boom emerged from the interplay between the drive for musical and artistic self-expression and community reconstructions of Okinawans themselves and the Japanese fascination with Okinawan difference, often propelled by the economically motivated exoticization and self-exoticization of Okinawan images as used in tourism and media representations by both Japanese and Okinawans (Cho 2014). This led more Japanese enthusiasts to consume Okinawan popular culture and music and to participate as performers. While this helped to disseminate eisā to wider audiences, it also sparked heated discussions around questions of authenticity (Cho 2020). As eisā was recontextualized and transformed in modern Okinawa, it travelled beyond Okinawa via the diasporic network. Immigration was a defining aspect of Okinawans’ life experience and identity in modern history. The island’s colony-like position in the Japanese state in the early twentieth century, its devastation from the Pacific War, and land seizures by the US military resulted in chronic economic instability that made emigration inevitable for many Okinawans. Overseas emigration was prominent until the 1960s, and domestic migration to mainland Japan peaked during the 1970s and 1980s amid Japan’s rapid economic growth (Nakasone 2002; Siemann 2017). Consequently, more than 400,000 descendants of Okinawan immigrants currently live outside Okinawa. The timing of eisā’s introduction and the characteristics of its transformation differ across diasporas, depending largely on Okinawans’ status and cultural reception in the host society and their relationship with the Japanese population. Even in diasporas, the ethnic hierarchy between Japanese and Okinawans persisted, categorizing Okinawans as the “other Japanese” (Nakasone 2002). The pressures of sociocultural assimilation have long repressed the expression of Okinawan culture and later triggered resistance from Okinawans who

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asserted their cultural and ethnic difference by re-adopting Okinawan cultural traditions as ethnic markers. In mainland Japan, Okinawan immigrants in the early twentieth century were concentrated in the fast-industrializing Hanshin area (Osaka and Hyogo), most notably in Osaka’s Taishō ward (大正区). However, their cultural differences were often interpreted as refusal or failure to become fully Japanese, and they became a target for discrimination. From the 1930s to the 1940s, elite Okinawans in Osaka launched a voluntary assimilation campaign called the Seikatsu Kaizen Undō 生活改善運動 (Lifestyle Betterment Movement) that called for the eradication of unrefined and shameful Okinawan customs and elements, such as dialects, names, clothing, food, and folk music and dance, and for Okinawans to become rippana Nihonjin or Ōsakajin 立派な日 本人・大阪人—“excellent Japanese nationals” or “proper citizens of Osaka” (Tomiyama 1990, 267). With this move, displays of Okinawan cultural differences were limited to private, Okinawan-only occasions. Eisā was first introduced to mainland Japan in the 1970s as a type of Okinawan cultural activism. From 1957 to 1975, 15,000 to 20,000 young—mostly teenaged—Okinawans went to the mainland annually under “collective employment” contracts to supply cheap labour during a period of postwar economic growth, again concentrated in the Hanshin area. They soon faced exploitative working conditions and mistreatment, broken promises regarding education opportunities, exacerbated by prejudices against Okinawans. Many suffered from physical and psychological problems, such as malnutrition, disease, and depression, dubbed the shūdanshūshoku byō 集団就職病 (collective employment disease) (Cho 2014, 58; Terada 2011). The Gajimaru no Kai がじまるの会 (Banyan Tree Club) was formed in Osaka in 1975 to support young Okinawan workers by cultural means in the belief that not only bad working and life conditions but also a lack of ethnic pride and an internalized sense of inferiority made the Okinawan youth vulnerable. Dancing eisā and singing min’yō together helped them overcome isolation and “recover pride as Okinawan youth” (Kakinohana 1981, 79). The Gajimaru no Kai launched the first Eisā Matsuri エイサー祭り (Eisā Festival; fig. 5.4) in 1975 in Osaka’s Taishō ward, which had the largest Okinawan population. Initially, they met with resistance not only from the Japanese but also from an older generation of Okinawans, particularly elites. For those who had sought to assimilate in Japanese society to avoid discrimination, public performance of eisā was tantamount to Okinawa no hajisarashi 沖縄の恥さらし (exposing Okinawa’s shame). However, the festival continued, encouraged by tacit support from other Okinawans. Eisā was also important in reaffirming cultural roots for the descendants of Okinawan immigrants. Taishō Okinawa Kodomo-kai 大正沖縄子ども会 (Taishō Okinawan Children’s Club, hereafter TOCC) was formed in Taishō ward in 1978 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 5.4 Ryūkyū Kajimayā 琉球風車, an eisā group from Okinawa, performs at the 34th Taishō Eisā Matsuri in Osaka, in 2008, hosted by the Gajimaru no Kai Photo by AUTHOR

by two Okinawan school teachers. While supporting children from underprivileged, working-class Okinawan families, the teachers noticed that the children suffered from shame not only associated with their stigmatized Okinawan identity, often linked to poverty, but also from not knowing their roots—that is, Okinawan history, culture, and language, which their parents did not teach them in the belief that they would assimilate better without such knowledge. For these children, learning and performing min’yō and eisā transformed their shame into pride and helped them to reconnect with older generations (Cho 2015). Eisā groups formed in other cities with large Okinawan populations, including Takarazuka, Toyota, Amagasaki, and Tokyo, during the 1980s. Eisā became an important means for young diasporic Okinawans to negotiate and assert their identity. Public performances of eisā challenged the hegemonic ideology of “Japan as a monoethnic nation” (tan’itsuminzoku kokka 単一民族国家) by showcasing ethnic and cultural differences (Cho 2014). Okinawan cultural activism echoed the anti-discrimination movements of other minority groups, such as burakumin (descendants of historical outcasts), Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Ainu (indigenous people), and zainichi Koreans (Korean permanent residents in Japan). One Gajimaru no Kai member recalled the sense of liberation they felt as they practised eisā at Osaka Castle Park, watched by Japanese passers-by. They also symbolically danced in the castle of Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉 (1537–98), the historical figure whose actions they believed had eventually led to Satsuma’s invasion and domination of Ryukyu in 1609; thus, they were resisting Okinawa’s historical subordination (Terada 2011). Stylistic modifications reflected the diasporic identities of the members of Gajimaru no Kai. Although eisā originated on Okinawa’s main island, performers included min’yō songs from different islands in the prefecture to represent the group’s pan-Okinawan identity. They made their costumes from Korean fabric bought from Tsuruhashi (a well-known “Korean town” in Osaka) to signify that their eisā was born out of Osaka. During the Okinawa Boom of the 1990s, Japanese participation in Okinawan dance and music, including eisā, increased dramatically. Okinawan diasporic cultural activists initially welcomed Japanese enthusiasts as a sign of acceptance of Okinawan cultural difference. However, they grew increasingly ambivalent toward the increased Japanese participation, as the Japanese appeared to be interested only in Okinawan music and dance as entertainment and not in learning about Okinawa’s history or harsh reality. Accordingly, some critics saw Japanese cultural appropriation as another form of “domination in the name of love” (Nomura 2005, 155). Discussions regarding authenticity were more pronounced in Osaka, where eisā was a limited resource of ethnic signification (Cho 2014). By contrast, in overseas Okinawan diasporas, eisā was introduced after the Okinawa Boom and “world music” trend. The effort that diasporic Okinawans invested in building transnational networks and communities culminated in various events and networks, such as the Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival (世界のウチナーンチュ大会; 1990), the Worldwide Uchinanchu Business International (1998), and the Worldwide Uchinanchu Business Investment (1999) (Arakaki 2002, 139). RMD was instrumental in the international dissemination of eisā, with 69 chapters and 2,500 members not only in Okinawa and mainland Japan but also in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, and the US as of 2018.5 RMD’s standardized, visually and aurally appealing style made it more accessible for diasporic Okinawans and non-Okinawans who were not necessarily familiar with traditional min’yō songs and Okinawan languages (Siemann 2017, 182). For young Okinawan descendants, RMD provides “a symbolic way to express their identity as Okinawan descendants and maintain a link to Okinawan and to transnational Okinawan networks” (ibid., 5 See http://ryukyukokumatsuridaiko.com/index.html.

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183). Non-Okinawans also participate, attracted by eisā’s dynamic aesthetic or Japanese culture more generally. In the Bolivian context, eisā is interpreted as part of Japanese culture, which is valued in association with Japan’s high socio-economic status. Through its global network and standardized choreography, RMD facilitates a sense of unity and connection for its members as participants in transnational networks. The “Okinawan” identity that was forged through the performance of eisā in Japan and overseas was not strictly based on ancestry. In the TOCC’s case, the proportion of children with Okinawan ancestry as members has declined in recent decades, as younger generations have more fully assimilated and Japanese participation increased after the Okinawa Boom (Cho 2015). However, the club leaders promoted volunteerism, spontaneity, fun, and excitement in their activities, deeming those qualities inherently Okinawan (ibid.). Similarly, with the Bolivian chapter of RMD, established in 2000, the transmission of values regarded as Okinawan and/or Japanese, such as mutual respect, shared joy, and self-discipline, were afforded greater emphasis than the accurate execution of choreography or members’ ethnicity (Siemann 2017, 186–187). In doing so, the “Okinawan” identities that lived on in eisā persisted regardless of the performers’ ethnicities or nationalities. Finally, eisā has been adopted by people who are not Okinawan by genealogy or heritage and has helped them forge new identities and networks. The inhabitants of Okinoerabu Island, currently part of the Amami Islands of Kagoshima prefecture but historically part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, have adopted eisā to express their multi-layered identity and negotiate their place in the context of transregionality. The introduction of eisā to Okinoerabu was initiated by Kina Shōkichi 喜納昌吉 (b. 1948), and RMD has the island’s largest eisā group. Such connections maintain Okinoerabu’s eisā tradition as a medium not only of transregional identity between Amami and Okinawa but also of the transnational identity of a global Okinawan network (Johnson and Kuwahara 2017). Of note in the modern era is Aranūji 新虹 (New Rainbow or Shinjuku’s Rainbow), an eisā group of gay men and allies who are mostly non-Okinawans. Aranūji was first formed in 2005 in celebration of the Tokyo Rainbow Festival (東京レインボー祭り), an LGBTQ Pride event. Eisā practices provide its members with rare opportunities to socialize and forge friendships with other gay men, from which they build a collective identity.6 By performing at Pride events in Japan and in Taiwan, Aranūji members assert their presence and international alliance in the context of LGBTQ activism (Cho 2014; Ryūkyū Shinpo 2019). 6 In Cho (2014), Aranūji appears under the pseudonym “Tingara” てぃんがーら. Also see Sunagawa (2010).

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Conclusion

Dance and music, as bodily expressions, facilitate the communication of diverse meanings. This chapter has explored ways in which eisā has been performed, modified, and debated in contesting and negotiating the expression of Okinawan identity and the appropriation of Okinawan culture and its cultural significance in the complex relationship between Okinawa and Japan and in the worldwide network of diasporic Okinawans and beyond. Eisā, traditionally performed in rural Okinawan villages, has changed in significant ways because of Okinawa’s marginalized position in Japanese society since its annexation in the late nineteenth century. Eisā continued to be performed in Okinawan villages, with an added sense of grief and loss after the Okinawan war and breaking with its original meaning of commemoration of ancestors. In Okinawan diasporas, the dance was performed to assert Okinawan difference and build communality among Okinawans. The transformation and recontextualization of eisā demonstrates the tenacity and creativity of its practitioners, Okinawans and non-Okinawans alike, in their endeavours to affirm their place in regional, national, and global contexts. References Arakaki, Makoto. 2002. “Hawai‘i Uchinanchu and Okinawa: Uchinanchu Spirit and the Formation of a Trasnsnational Identity.” In Okinawan Diaspora, edited by Ronald Y. Nakasone, 130–141. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Cho, Sumi. 2014. “The Politics of Difference and Authenticity in the Practice of Okinawan Dance and Music in Osaka, Japan.” PhD diss., University of Michigan. Cho, Sumi. 2015. “‘Being Okinawan’ Within and Beyond the Ethnic Line: The Process of Identity Formation in an Okinawan Cultural Activist Group in Osaka.” Senri Ethnological Studies 91: 161–178. Cho, Sumi. 2020. “‘Playing Okinawan’: A Search for Authenticity and the Power Asymmetry in Japanese Appropriation of Okinawan Folk Music.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 41 (3): 280–298. Christy, Alan. 1997. “The Making of Imperial Subjects in Okinawa.” In Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia, edited by Tani E. Barlow, 141–170. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. de Ferranti, Hugh. 2009. “Music and Diaspora in the Second Metropolis: The Okinawan and Korean Musicians of Interwar Osaka.” Japanese Studies 29 (2): 235–253. Field, Norma. 1991. In the Realm of a Dying Emperor. New York: Penguin.

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Gillan, Matt. 2012. Songs from the Edge of Japan: Music-making in Yaeyama and Okinawa. New York: Routledge. Hein, Laura, and Mark Seldon. 2003. “Culture, Power and Identity in Contemporary Okinawa.” In Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power, edited by Laura Hein and Mark Seldon, 1–37. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Hook, Glenn D., and Richard Siddle. 2003. “Introduction: Japan? Structure and Subjectivity in Okinawa.” In Japan and Okinawa: Structure and Subjectivity, edited by Glenn D. Hook and Richard Siddle, 1–17. London: Routledge. Ikemiya, Masaharu 池宮正治. 1998. “Eisā no rekishi” エイサーの歴史. In Eisā sanbyakurokujū dō: Rekishi to genzai エイサー360度:歴史と現在, edited by Okinawa Zentō Eisā Matsuri Jikkō Iinkai 沖縄全島エイサーまつり実行委員会, 24–35. Okinawa: Naha Shuppansha 那覇出版社. Johnson, Henry. 2008. “Recontextualizing Eisā: Transformations in Religious, Competition, Festival and Tourism Contexts.” In Performing Japan: Contemporary Expressions of Cultural Identity, edited by Henry Johnson and Jerry C. Jaffe, 196–217. Folkestone: Global Oriental. Johnson, Henry. 2021. Nenes’ Koza Dabasa: Okinawa in the World Music Market. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Johnson, Henry, and Sueo Kuwahara. 2017. “North Meets South: Eisā and the Wrapping of Identity on Okinoerabu Island, Japan.” Shima 11 (2): 38–55. Kakinohana, Yoshimori 垣花義盛. 1981. “Okinawa seinen no hokori o motomete: Kansai Okinawa seishōnen no tsudoi Gajumaru no kai” 沖縄青年の誇りを求め て:関西沖縄青少年の集いがじゅまるの会. Kaihō Kyōiku 開放教育 135: 79–91. Kobayashi, Yukio 小林幸男. 1998. “Eisā no bunrui” エイサーの分類. In Eisā sambyakurokujū dō: Rekishi to genzai エイサー360度:歴史と現在, edited by Okinawa Zentō Eisā Matsuri Jikkō Iinkai 沖縄全島エイサーまつり実行委員会, 36–52. Okinawa: Naha Shuppansha 那覇出版社. Kumada, Susumu 久万田晋. 1998. “Kyūjū nendai Okinawa poppu ni okeru minzokusei hyōgen no shosō” 九十年代沖縄ポップにおける民族性表現の諸相. In Okinawa kara geijutsu o kangaeru 沖縄から芸術を考える, edited by Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku Daigakuin 沖縄県立芸術大学大学院 and Geijutsu Bunkagaku Kenkyūkai 芸術文化学研究会, 134–162. Naha: Marumasa Insatsu 丸山印刷. Nakasone, Ronald Y. 2002. “An Impossible Possibility.” In Okinawan Diaspora, edited by Ronald Y. Nakasone, 3–25. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Nelson, Christopher T. 2008. Dancing with the Dead: Memory, Performance, and Everyday Life in Postwar Okinawa. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Nomura, Koya 野村浩也. 2005. Muishiki no shokuminchishugi: Nihonjin no beigunkichi to Okinawajin 無意識の植民地主義:日本人の米軍基地と沖縄人. Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobō 御茶ノ水書房.

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Okamoto, Junya 岡本純也. 1998. “Sengo Okinawa shakai ni okeru eisā no tenkai” 戦後 沖縄社会におけるエイサーの展開. In Eisā sanbyakurokujū dō: Rekishi to genzai エイ サー360度:歴史と現在, edited by Okinawa Zentō Eisā Matsuri Jikkō Iinkai 沖縄全島 エイサーまつり実行委員会, 53–68. Okinawa: Naha Shuppansha 那覇出版社. Olsen, Dale. 2004. The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Roberson, James E. 2001. “Uchinaa Pop: Place and Identity in Contemporary Okinawan Popular Music.” Critical Asian Studies 33 (2): 211–242. Roberson, James E. 2009. “Memory and Music in Okinawa: The Cultural Politics of War and Peace.” Positions 17 (3): 683–711. Roberson, James E. 2011. “‘Doin’ Our Thing’: Identity and Colonial Modernity in Okinawan Rock Music.” Popular Music and Society 34 (5): 593–620. Ryūkyū Shinpō 琉球新報. 2019. “Gei tōjishara ga eisā ‘aranūji’ Taiwan puraido de jūnenmeno enbū” ゲイ当事者らがエイサー「新虹」台湾プライドで十年目の演舞. 28 November. https://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/entry-1033328.html. Shirota, Chika. 2002. “Eisaa: Identities and Dances of Okinawan Diasporic Experiences.” In Okinawan Diaspora, edited by Ronald Y. Nakasone, 120–129. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Siemann, Yvonne. 2017. “‘Transmitting the message of Okinawa by drums’: Representations of Japanese-ness and Okinawan-ness in Okinawan Dance in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.” Contemporary Japan 29 (2): 177–192. Sunagawa, Hideki 砂川秀樹. 2010. “Esunishiti to sekushuariti o meguru sai to kyōtsūsei no kōsaku: Gei no eisā gurūpu ni okeru fīrudowāku kara” エスニシティとセクシュア リティをめぐる差異と共通性の交錯:ゲイのエイサーグループにおけるフィールドワーク から. Nihon=Sei Kenkyū Kaigi Kaihō 日本=性研究会議会報 22 (1): 12–23. Takahashi, Miki 高橋美樹. 2006. “Okinawa popyurā ongakushi no hensen: Kaku janru no seisei o chūshin toshite” 沖縄ポピュラー音楽史の変遷:各ジャンルの生成を中心 として. Kōchi Daigaku Kyōikugakubu Kenkyū Hōkoku 高知大学教育学部研究報告

66: 161–176. Terada, Yoshitaka. 2011. “Rooted as Banyan Trees: Eisā and the Okinawan Diaspora in Japan.” In Ethnomusicological Encounters with Music and Musicians: Essays in Honor of Robert Garfias, edited by Timothy Rice and Robert Garfias, 233–247. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Tomiyama, Ichirō 冨山一郎. 1990. Kindai Nihon shakai to “Okinawajin”: “Nihonjin” ni naru to iu koto 近代日本社会と「沖縄人」:「日本人」になると言うこと. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Hyōronsha 日本経済評論社. Tomiyama, Ichirō. 1997. “Colonialism and the Sciences of the Tropical Zone: The Academic Analysis of Difference in ‘the Island Peoples’.” In Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia, edited by Tani E. Barlow, 199–222. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

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Chapter 6

Ainu Ways of Being in the Contemporary: Music and Dance as Cultural Practice Justin R. HUNTER 1

Introduction

In a collected edition of essays on music in modern Japan, it would seem obvious to include chapters on regional minorities and Indigenous people native to the Japanese islands.1 Unfortunately, this type of inclusion is still exceedingly rare. Books on Japanese music in particular focus on the cultural elements unique to a purported homogeneous Japanese society. In this chapter on the Indigenous Ainu, I present Ainu history and music to provide context for the lived experiences of Ainu people and to show that their music has changed with time, just like any other society. In this reframing of the Ainu as an already contemporary culture of Japan, readers should understand Ainu music and dance as not only the expressive culture of a people but also modes of protest against assimilation and Japanese cultural dogma. While the Ainu are a contemporary people, they continue to fight assumptions of a culture lost that are based on sentiments similar to those of the twentieth-century missionary John Batchelor (1855–1944): [The Ainu] are decreasing somewhat rapidly, some dying off and others marrying with the Japanese. [The] government is doing what it can for them and seeing that they have their plots of land to cultivate. But nothing can now avert their doom. They must soon be quite of the past. And they will depart without having left any history or having made any perceptible mark in the world. One feels very sorry for them, but the laws of nature are inexorable and must take their course. 1927, 5

1 Terms such as “Indigenous,” “Native,” “Aboriginal,” and “First Nations” are used in this chapter to describe various peoples. “Indigenous” is used intentionally to describe the experience and heritage of those claiming to be First people of a place, the Ainu included. Using the capital “I” in Indigenous follows the precedent in Indigenous Studies, showing respect to those who claim such an identity.

© Justin R. Hunter, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_008

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Since the nineteenth century, the Ainu have been the subject of many ethnographies, histories, and pseudo-scientific studies by Westerners. From Jesuit missionaries to merchant traders, these non-Japanese writers were often perplexed by the origins of the Ainu and always seemed apologetic to the Japanese government. Because of their sympathy for the Japanese, they presented the Ainu as “some thing” of the past and, I suppose, the Japanese as of the future. Unfortunately, the sentiment that the Ainu cannot “avert their doom,” as Batchelor put it in 1927, remains present in Japan today. These narratives set a precedent in understanding the Ainu in contemporary contexts and have resulted in a Japanese society that largely does not acknowledge the Ainu as a living people in the contemporary world. Indeed, on my first trip to Japan in 2012 to begin my research on the Ainu, much of what I assumed to know was based on these narratives of loss. I set out to find what was left of “authentic” practice—described in writings always in the past tense—or to understand if music was left to mere history and lore. I was aware that ethnic tourism practices in the country were whimsical representations of regional nuances, so I planned to avoid such sites related to the Ainu as they were purported—again in writing—to be little more than fake presentations of Ainu culture at worst or manipulated traditions of the Ainu at best. One scholar called Lake Akan Ainu Kotan (阿寒湖アイヌコタン), in eastern Hokkaido, the Ainu tourist village that would end up being my main field site, “essentially an Ainu ‘strip mall’” (Dubrueil 2007). In searching for these “authentic” spaces, I realized that I was continuing the same Japanese-centric view of the Ainu. My view of what it meant to be Ainu was based on stereotypical frames that had seen the Ainu not as living people who change but as historically set artefacts in need of sorting into neatly labelled boxes. In this chapter, I unpack these boxes and show that the Ainu are people who live in the contemporary world and are always changing. In looking at Ainu expressive culture as neither static nor a quantifiable product, readers can see that Ainu performance practices are malleable and vital representations of Ainu culture today despite preconceived notions of what fits. Expressive culture should be defined by the community and not by the scholar, therefore this chapter focuses on Ainu ways of being in the contemporary world and is based on interviews, writings, and accounts of Ainu-run festivals, ethnic tourism sites, and popular music performances. 2

Ainu History

The Ainu are the Indigenous people of what is now northern Japan (namely, Hokkaido and northern Honshu), the Kurile Islands, and the southern half of Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Sakhalin, now Russian territories. What is now considered Ainu culture formed around the thirteenth century CE, establishing trade with surrounding cultural groups, including the Japanese to the south (Siddle 1997). While not a monolithic society, the Ainu developed into regional communities with linguistic dialects and differences in expressive culture and traditions of craftwork and foodways. From that time, the Ainu have shared deep connections to the land, Hokkaido in particular having abundant resources in game, fish, and flora. As hunters and gatherers, the Ainu have a spiritual relationship with the natural world, which they know as ainu mosir (land of humans) and kamuy mosir (land of the gods).2 As an animistic religious group, all elements in nature have spirits or ramat, and the Ainu have an array of ceremonial practices to convey respect for these forces. No ceremony is more important than the iyomante, the ceremony of “sending back” the spirit of a bear to the land of the gods through dance, music, and sacrifice (Munro 1996 [1962]; Siddle 1997; Watanabe 1973). During early encounters, the Japanese saw the Ainu as primitive barbarians and often depicted them as demons lacking civilization, but they recognized the Ainu as protectors of many natural resources. Over time, Japanese trading posts in Ainu territories turned into settlements, and conflict grew between the Ainu and Japanese. Ranging from excessive warring to controlled alliances, the tension between Ainu communities and the Japanese grew stronger as Russian territorial expansion began in the late 1700s. Japan responded by taking more control over Ainu lands and making concerted efforts to exploit Hokkaido for its riches and the Ainu people as labourers. By the end of the Tokugawa period, the Ainu population had plummeted, most Ainu were separated from their homelands through imposed labour migration, and the Japanization of the Ainu was well established. In 1868, with the restoration of the Meiji emperor, Hokkaido was officially annexed as the first expansion of the new Japanese state. During this time, new concepts of race and nationhood developed, deepening the social and political divide between the Ainu and Japanese (Siddle 1997). A series of laws were enacted under the guise of protecting Ainu people, but most of these furthered assimilation practices by the Japanese government aimed at erasing the Ainu identity. The Protection Act of 1899, for instance, granted land plots to turn Ainu into farmers. 2 I use Roman characters to spell Ainu terms. The use of katakana is common in writing, but the Japanized version of Ainu terms skews the pronunciation of Ainu words. For example, mosir is preferred over the katakana reading of モシリ (mo shi ri). There are notable exceptions to this preference for Ainu sounds, including two Ainu instruments that are now commonly romanized with the Japanized pronunciation: mukkuri instead of mukkur and tonkori instead of tonkor. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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The turn of the twentieth century saw the arrival of scholars, doctors, colonial officials, and journalists to document the Ainu. These writers, like John Batchelor, furthered the sentiment that Ainu were indeed “dying out,” which fuelled the government’s policy to assimilate (“help”) the Ainu and subsequently erased the Ainu in the social memory of Japanese people thereby creating the homogenous Japanese monolith. During imperial expansion into the Pacific and East Asia, the Japanese viewed assimilation as a means to sustain this homogenous society, Japanizing or ignoring minority populations. After the collapse of the Japanese empire in 1945, Japan slowly re-built national pride, which seemingly contributed to the erasure of ethnic and cultural minorities from the unified Japanese mindset. As Japan changed, so did the international community. After the Second World War, the United Nations was formed, and it began to examine the causes of the conflict and how it could be corrected. A common thread emerged that “states could not always be relied upon to protect their own citizens” (Niezen 2003, 40). After failed attempts in the 1920s, the new organization worked to strengthen language to protect Indigenous communities in the wake of the dismantling of colonial powers (ibid.). From the 1960s to the 1990s, the UN put into action many steps to foster international Indigenous cooperation, pointing out member nations that were not heeding the call to make change. Beverley Curran notes how Japan responded to the direct language of the United Nations in the 1990s: When the Ainu in Japan, the Aboriginal peoples in Australia, and the Inuit in Canada were each specifically and officially recognized as indigenous by the United Nations in 1994, Japanese expressed surprise that their assimilation policies were comparable to government policies in multicultural Canada and Australia. From their perspective of a single citizenship, the Ainu identity is inextricably bound up with being “Japanese,” but even so, despite assimilative policies, these are Japanese whose identity and historical consciousness continue to be shaped by fundamentally different cultural values. 2007, 453

In 2008, the Japanese government, for the first time, passed a resolution recognizing the Ainu as people “Indigenous to the northern part of the Japanese archipelago, and especially Hokkaido, and who, as an Indigenous people, possess a unique language, religion, and culture” (Hudson, lewallen, and Watson 2014, 21). This resolution was passed after over 140 years of Japanese efforts to colonize and assimilate the Ainu people. One year later, Ainu dance was recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Japan by the Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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United Nations. It seems, at least to me, that the change in governmental policy toward the Ainu had more to do with international recognition—Japan now has twenty-two ICH-recognized traditions—than intentional internal change. Tangible change came in 2018, when the Japanese parliament enacted a law officially acknowledging the Ainu as the Indigenous people of Japan. This new law also saw the creation of a National Ainu Museum and Park. The museum, “Upopoy,” outside of Sapporo, opened in 2020 just in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (held in 2021).3 It aims to show living traditions rather than relics, but this model is not adopted nationwide. While things do seem better for the Ainu today, it remains to be seen whether these changes will disrupt the social knowledge of the Japanese people. Unless you are from Hokkaido or certain parts of Tokyo, most Japanese people will never encounter an Ainu person. Many Ainu conceal their identity as they still fear discrimination. As a result, the total Ainu population is unknown, though it is usually estimated at between 15,000 and 25,000. The number could be much higher. A sense of Ainu pride exists in some communities. Cultural performances, community centres, tourism spaces, and touring musicians bear witness to this pride. This chapter highlights the efforts of some of these individuals, who are working to bring Ainu identity to the forefront in Japanese and international arenas. 3

Ainu Music

To discuss what Ainu music sounds like today, it is helpful to understand the many forms of Ainu music that have been passed down through oral tradition and cultural memory. Unfortunately, Ainu music has more often been written about in the past tense. Prolonging the image of the Ainu as museumized things, scholars such as Batchelor, Bronisław Piłsudski (1912), Neil Gordon Munro (1996 [1962]), and Inez Hilger (1968) present the Ainu in a perpetual state of loss, Ainu music included. While it is true that during the early to mid-twentieth century few Ainu had the resources or local support to continue familiar and communal traditions, practice did not come to a complete halt. These scholars were privy to little as access and permission were restricted, resulting in a perception that the traditions were lost and therefore Ainu music needed protection. As Ainu music scholarship continued, mostly by Japanese scholars, it remained largely in this preservationist frame, documenting the past and in some cases denigrating tourism practices as mere mimicry of traditions, living or dead. 3 See https://ainu-upopoy.jp/. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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The expressive culture described here gave Ainu avenues to cope with assimilation and to express contemporary Ainuness. Most scholars of Ainu music seem fixated on “authentic” representations that call back to images (or sounds) of the past, not the present or future. From tourism displays to creative outlets in popular music forms, Ainu music takes many forms in the twenty-first century. But what makes any of these expressions “Ainu” should be determined by the community, not by outsiders. The term “music” in English (“ongaku” 音楽 in Japanese) is not clearly defined in the Ainu language. Musical qualities are found in many Ainu performance practices, including song, instrumental pieces, prayers, and especially in Ainu epic poetry, known as yukar. This oral literature is a vast collection of stories centred on Ainu gods, known as kamuy, and these are recited as moral tales on heroes, nature, and spaces between the human world and the world of the gods. These epics are included in descriptions of Ainu music; however, these tales are likely the basis for Ainu song rather than “music” in Ainu culture. I use the word “song” over “vocal music” to differentiate yukar from sung practices. Ainu songs are often accompanied by instrumental music, especially in contemporary Ainu music settings. Ainu songs can be divided into ceremonial and functional forms. Ceremonial songs are often associated with dance and express connections to the land, as reflected in both the descriptive lyrics and depictive dances. Functional songs represent music used in daily life (e.g., millet beating songs, lullabies, and songs for childbearing). Songs or upopo provide contextual knowledge in community spaces. Many songs are communal in nature, having a lead singer and a responding second singer or group. Seated songs (rok-upopo) are centred around a shallow wooden lacquerware bowl or lid functioning as a shared “drum.” Striking the bowl with their hands, the singers mark time and drive the rhythmic structure of these songs (Chiba 2008). An interesting feature of many seated songs is a polyphonic texture set up by singing in round, a technique called ukouk. This textural style is relatively uncommon in East Asia and points to further cultural difference between the Japanese people and the Ainu. The ukouk is typically produced by offsetting a melody between one or more beats. My research at Lake Akan Ainu Kotan notes an offset of two beats as shown in fig. 6.1, a transcription excerpt from “Ikamukka Sanke,” a rok-upopo used to showcase and teach the tradition. Ainu researcher Kōchi Rie 甲地利恵 (2010) points out that this form is becoming increasingly rare, but the performers at Lake Akan Ainu Kotan are working to continue the tradition. Standing songs (roski-upopo) and dance songs (rimse-upopo) are most commonly seen in public performance. Both types often use a heterophonic texture called uopk. While I characterize this as heterophony, due to only slight variations between singers’ interpretations, this form has often been described Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 6.1 “Ikamukka Sanke” Transcription by author and first published in Hunter (2015, 60)

Figure 6.2 “Ku Rimse” Transcription by author and first published in Hunter (2015, 62)

as unison or monophonic singing (Tanimoto 2002). Some songs in these forms are responsorial in nature; called iekaye, they are very common (Chiba 2008). Both the heterophonic and the responsorial singing styles use an Ainu technique called rekte or melodic variation. This variation can be seen as a slight ornamentation or abstraction of musical lines. Note the example in fig. 6.2 of the “Ku Rimse” or bow dance, where the two singers respond to each other. See that voice two (V2) sings a simplified version of voice one (V1).

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Ceremonial songs and dances tend to be communal and often follow a prescribed melody that is easily replicated. Functional or entertainment songs and dances tend to be more soloistic and allow a broader interpretation of melodic structure and form. These melodic structures tend to be flexible in pitch range and do not often use an absolute pitch for all singers or communities. Oral traditions can be passed down and interpreted differently, but these songs are sung based on vocal abilities. While strong performance practices, such as those at the tourist performances at Lake Akan Ainu Kotan, typically create a “fixed” melodic pitch range, the same song sung with different performers or at a different location may and likely will have a different pitch set. In addition to Ainu song, two instruments remain in common use today. The tonkori, a short-necked lute, and the mukkuri, a jaw harp, are well known and emblematic of the Ainu. The mukkuri (fig. 6.3) is an idiophone made from a single piece of slender bamboo and is similar to jaw harps found throughout Southeast Asia. The mukkuri is typically around 15 cm in length and about 2.5 cm at its widest end. The lamella is cut from a single piece of bamboo that has been shaved down and honed. The traditional Ainu jaw harp includes a looped string that stabilizes

Figure 6.3 Mukkuri Photo by author, 2014

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the mukkuri in the player’s left hand with the loop slipped between the fourth and fifth fingers. The player’s right hand grasps a small stick at the end of the actuating string connected to the base of the lamella. The player tugs the string sharply to activate the lamella, which swings back and forth in the bamboo frame causing vibration. Placed in the mouth, the mukkuri reverberates in the oral cavity, which can be reshaped to create a variety of sounds. Mukkuri are most often used as solo instruments. Ainu lore states that the instruments were used by mates to call to each. Today, mukkuri music includes many programmatic pieces meant to mimic the sounds of nature—babbling water, raindrops, the wind, etc. It is also common today to hear the mukkuri added to songs as an accompanying percussive sound in ensemble performances. Because of tourism markets, the traditional “stringed” mukkuri is common, but an “easy” mukkuri has been created for children and tourists (fig. 6.4). As described to me by Akibe Hideo 秋辺日出男, an Ainu leader at Lake Akan Ainu Kotan, the “easy” jaw harp is based on a similar instrument from the Philippines, and it is easier to produce sounds on this instrument. The two strings are removed, and the lamella is activated by flicking the base with the thumb of the right hand.

Figure 6.4 “Easy” mukkuri Photo by author, 2014

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The tonkori (fig. 6.5) is a fretless short-necked lute originally found only among the Sakhalin Ainu. After a treaty was signed with Russia at the end of the Second World War, Sakhalin Ainu were pushed into Hokkaido, resulting in a growing awareness of the tonkori. While the instrument has gained in popularity in the last two decades, the number of tonkori players is still relatively small because of a lack of teachers and makers. The instrument is most commonly made from spruce or yew, but pine is also available as a source material. Cheaply made, mass-produced tourist versions are found in shops but functionally are not the same as “traditional” instruments. The body of the tonkori is said to be anthropomorphic, with the shape and body parts of a woman. The rounded “head” is often carved with an intricate pattern known as the “eye.” The long, narrow body includes a short “neck” with tuning pegs, known as the “ears.” In the centre of the “belly” is the resonator hole considered as the “navel.” A small object called ramatohu represents the instrument’s soul or spirit; this object—often a hard nut, rock, or glass marble—is dropped inside the instrument through the resonator hole, giving the tonkori life (Hunter 2015). The tonkori typically has five strings and is usually tuned to a pentatonic scale. Before Japanization however, the instrument likely would not have followed set tunings because its construction and use varied. The pentatonic tuning ties back to Tomita Tomoko 富田友子 (b. 1924), the Japanese koto player and master teacher (Uyeda 2012). Tomita learned the tonkori in Hokkaido from Nishihira Ume 西平ウメ (1901–77), a Sakhalin transplant. Most modern tonkori players can trace their training lineage back to Nishihira. Tomita used her experience in Japanese music to understand the tonkori techniques learned from Nishihira, thus resulting in a fixed pentatonic structure. Kanō Oki 加納沖, one of Tomita’s many students, has been credited with bringing the tonkori “mainstream,” using the instrument in traditional ways and in his music based on the sounds of the Ainu, dubstep, and rock.4 The tonkori was traditionally an instrument for accompanying song, but today, thanks to musicians like OKI, it is often used in more soloistic and melodic ways. Other Ainu instruments were used before colonization. There has been a resurgence of some of these instruments, but others remain relatively rare. Drums, rattles, ceremonial belts, and aerophones can be found in museums but are rarely played today. The kaco, a frame drum of willow and stretched animal hide (typically seal skin), is an elliptical drum originally from Sakhalin. Some musicians have worked to reconstruct this tradition, and Kōji Yuki 結城 幸司 of the Ainu Art Project (discussed below) has used the instrument in performance. 4 Kanō is more commonly known as OKI (romanized and uppercase) in music touring circles. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 6.5 Tonkori made by Fukumoto Shōji 福本昌二 Photo by author, 2023

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Expressive Culture as Lived Experience

For centuries, the Ainu have used the musical elements described above. Today, many musicians and community groups utilize these elements in new ways, while some remain close to the oral traditions passed down through generational learning. This section outlines the ways in which the Ainu use these “traditions” in ways that are not always seen as “traditional,” but my interlocuters assert that using Ainu music and sounds in any form is Ainu. I then contend that the word “tradition” has been used to divide and label music rather than to signify the continued efforts of expressive culture. Despite efforts to assimilate the Ainu into Japanese culture, their musical practices remain. It is foolish to think that Ainu music exists in the same ways it did before colonization, but it is equally foolish to believe that Ainu music exists only in confined boxes drawn by non-Ainu researchers. In fact, since the rise of Ainu pride and nationalist movements in the mid-twentieth century, many Ainu have found intentionally fluid ways to express their identities. As Ainu found means to explore and celebrate their Ainu identities, ethnic tourism spaces rose from the 1950s to the present. While some of these markets have been characterized as farce and simile, many have been used as safe spaces to be Ainu, performing and practising Ainu expressive culture. These “staged” arenas act as spaces for participatory performance that facilitate multi-generational learning and multi-ethnic understanding of Ainu culture (Turino 2008). While some might argue that these “staged” settings are built to satisfy outsiders’ expectations, I argue that these stages allow some to demonstrate their culture on their own terms, which works to dismantle preconceived notions of Ainu as a static, unchanging people without creativity. Dressing in Ainu garb and singing Ainu songs are not simply props to pander to audiences. These expressions are conscious decisions to set these Ainu apart from Japaneseness, an intentional self-Othering perhaps. My interlocutors tell me that these endeavours are meant to laud Ainu identity and expression while actively engaging in Ainu ways of being. As these tourism spaces expanded in the mid-twentieth century, Indigenous rights movements rose around the world. Many of the Ainu who work in tourism spaces sent delegations to international meetings of Indigenous peoples and on formal exchanges with the United Nations. Today, many Ainu continue these practices through cultural exchanges with the Māori of New Zealand and First Nations of Canada, among others. These exchanges work to foster relations between Indigenous peoples and to share expressive culture, including music, dance, and ceremony. Ainu music and dance—as well as craftwork, artwork, storytelling, ingenuity, cookery, and conservancy—are on display on a daily basis for voyeur Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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consumption in places like the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum, the Upopoy National Ainu Museum, and Lake Akan Ainu Kotan, among other locales. Ethnic tourism brings these traditions to a variety of audiences. Ainu music and dance is not relegated to only the tourism complex but is a part of the daily routine for many Ainu. So too is the Ainu music that goes beyond set “tradition” and incorporates sonic elements not seen as traditional. While most tourism spaces use the tonkori, mukkuri, and upopo to convey Ainuness to audiences, there is room for innovation and creation too. For example, the Lake Akan Ainu Kotan theatre has created a puppet play using music from ceremony and epic poetry to tell Ainu stories in innovative ways. Famed Ainu artist Sunazawa Bikki 砂澤ビッキ (also Bikky; 1931–89) was known in the “fine art” world for his wood sculptures that weave Ainu style with Japanese and abstract art techniques. Born into a family of Ainu activists, Sunazawa created pieces for galleries and tourism markets alike and spent his life bringing the representation of Ainuness to the art world. His son, Kanō Oki, the tonkori musician mentioned previously, is a musician and possibly the most notable Ainu activist today. Through his tonkori music, Oki, like his father, bends the rules of Ainu expression. Blending tonkori music with dubstep beats, he is an internationally touring songwriter who proudly displays his Ainu identity on stages around the world. Oki and his family have a lineage of using art as activism. Others have followed similar paths to find new ways to experience and share Ainuness. MAREWREW, a female vocal group, has gained popularity not only in Japan but internationally too, performing in the UK and Europe. They have released albums with Oki and as a group under Oki’s label, Chikar Studio. The group is known for their use of upopo and inventive approach to traditional textures within song forms. Dancer Uzawa Kanako 鵜澤加那子 (2020) has taken her music and dance into the academic realm as an Indigenous Ainu scholar. Her reflexive research feeds her dancing and singing in ways that many outsiders could never understand. She has performed around the world, completed her education in Indigenous studies in Europe, and has set up new networks of exchange and communication for those in the Ainu studies world. Kōji Yuki 結城幸司, a musician, artist, and poet based in Sapporo, leads the Ainu Art Project, a cohort of artists performing together to build a community for Ainu people.5 They lead the Mauko Pirka Music Festival (マウコピリカ音 楽祭), which brings Ainu and non-Ainu musicians together with craftspeople to celebrate diversity and inclusion. The Ainu Art Project’s mission remains one of exploration and acceptance for Ainu people. Blending upopo, tonkori, 5 The group typically uses the romanized spelling of their name and katakana rendering when needed, アイヌアートプロジェクト. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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and mukkuri with electric bass, cajon drums (in place of lacquerware), and rock music, the groups connect Ainu communities of different generations through shared participatory experiences. These examples are but a sample of the ways in which Ainu find meaning in their lives as Indigenous people today. Placing the Ainu or any Indigenous people into certain boxes of traditionalism only perpetuates ideas of a group lost. If they cannot (or choose not to) conform to those boxes, do they fulfil the claim that something is lost? I think not. If anything, by reshaping the box themselves, Ainu can and should be able to tell the world what tradition means today. 5

Conclusion

In writing this chapter about Ainu expressive culture in modern Japan, I must admit that I found it difficult. I claim neither a Native identity nor any Indigenous heritage. In fact, like many Americans, I do not know all my family’s background, which is something I had in common with several Ainu informants during my time in Japan. As a white American scholar, I find my voice in Indigenous studies is complicated. There are changes happening in Indigenous studies: the most exciting is that there are more and more scholars of Indigenous descent speaking for their own communities. Many Indigenous ethnomusicology scholars are changing the field, including Dylan Robinson (2020), Heidi Senugnatuk, and Renata Yazzi, who have followed in the intellectual footsteps of others, like Tara Browner, Maria Williams, and Charlotte Heth, among others. In Ainu research on music and other performing arts, there are fewer Indigenous scholars. I have referenced work by Uzawa Kanako (Uzawa 2020; Uzawa and Watson 2020), an amazing scholar who is working to find new ways to present Ainu studies today. As a dancer, singer, and writer, I am inspired by her work and look forward to her continued success. When I met Kōji Yuki many years ago, I asked him what he thought of “new ways” of making Ainu music. He said that when Ainu people sing and dance, they become Ainu again, setting aside their Japaneseness, even if momentarily. When Ainu people engage in their culture, then Ainu culture continues no matter what form it takes. I hope now that Ainu scholars like Uzawa Kanako will use music, dance, and scholarly words to take the lead in representing the Ainu people. I look forward to stepping away from this research to make room for Ainu scholars to rightfully take over the narrative.

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References Batchelor, John. 1927. Ainu Life and Lore: Echoes of a Departing Race. Tokyo: Kyobunkwan. Chiba, Nobuhiko. 2008. “The Music of the Ainu.” Translated by Robin Thompson, David Hughes, and Charles Rowe. In The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes, 323–344. Farnham: Ashgate. Curran, Beverley. 2007. “Invisible Indigeneity: First Nations and Aboriginal Theatre in Japanese Translation and Performance.” Theatre Journal 59 (3): 449–465. Dubrueil, Chisato O. 2007. “The Ainu and Their Culture: A Critical Twenty-First Century Assessment.” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 5 (11). https://apjjf.org/-Chisato -Kitty-Dubreuil/2589/article.html. Hilger, Sister M. Inez. 1968. “The Ainu of Japan.” In National Geographic Society Research Report: 1964 Projects, 91–103. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. Hudson, Mark J., ann-elise lewallen, and Mark K. Watson, eds. 2014. Beyond Ainu Studies: Changing Academic and Public Perspectives. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Hunter, Justin R. 2015. “Vitalizing Traditions: Ainu Music and Dance and the Discourse of Indigeneity.” PhD diss., University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Kōchi, Rie. 2010. “On the Polyphonic Singing Styles in Ainu Traditional Music and Some Recent Changes.” Paper presented at the 5th International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony, Tbilisi, Georgia. Munro, Neil Gordon. 1996 [1962]. Ainu Creed and Cult. Edited by B. Z. Seligman. London: Kegan Paul. Niezen, Ronald. 2003. The Origins of Indigenism: Human Rights and the Politics of Identity. Berkley: University of California Press. Piłsudski, Bronisław. 1912. Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore. Cracow: Imperial Academy of Sciences. Robinson, Dylan. 2020. Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Siddle, Richard M. 1997. Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan. Abingdon: Routledge. Tanimoto, Kazuyuki. 2002. “Music of the Ainu, Nivkhi, and Uilta.” Translated by Tokumaru Yosihiko. In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea, edited by Robert C. Provine, Yosihiko Tokumaru, and J. Lawrence Witzleben, 783–788. New York: Garland. Turino, Thomas. 2008. Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Uyeda, Kumiko. 2012. “Oki Kano’s Dub Ainu Band as Ainu Tonkori Revival?” Paper presented at the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 1–4 November.

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Uzawa, Kanako. 2020. “Charanke.” In Beyond Ainu Studies: Changing Academic and Public Perspectives, edited by Mark J. Hudson, ann-elise lewallen, and Mark K. Watson, 86–91. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Uzawa, Kanako, and Mark K. Watson. 2020. “Urespa (‘Growing Together’): The Making of Ainu-Wajin Relations in Japan through an Innovative Social Venture.” Asian Anthropology 19 (1): 53–71. Watanabe, Hitoshi. 1973. The Ainu Ecosystem: Environment and Group Structure. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

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Part 2 Heritage

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Chapter 7

Getting into Min’yо̄: Online and Offline Access to Japanese Folk Song Felicity GREENLAND 1

Introduction

Min’yо̄ 民謡 is the Japanese word for traditional folk songs. Outside Japan, if you ask people whether they know any Japanese folk songs, they are likely to mention “Sakura” (Cherry Blossom), which they may have heard played on a koto 箏 (thirteen-string plucked zither) or cello (Lloyd Webber 1999), sung by a choir, or even accompanying a video game.1 Depending on their age, they might be familiar with a piece called “Japanese Folk Song” by the jazz pianist Thelonius Monk (1967) through the movie La La Land (Chazelle 2016), or with a dо̄ yо̄ 童謡 (children’s song) such as “Aka Tonbo” 赤とんぼ (Red Dragonfly) learned perhaps as part of a “Japan project” at school.2 If they are connected to the Japanese diaspora or a Japan society, they may have danced to songs such as “Tankо̄ -bushi” 炭坑節 or “Sо̄ ran-bushi” ソーラン節 in one of the many Japanese festivals around the world (see Hughes 2000).3 These examples illustrate the global reach of Japanese “folk songs” today, but not all of these are classed as min’yо̄ . In fact, min’yо̄ is somewhat underexposed as a world music genre, and even in Japan it is a niche interest. Some enthusiasts feel that min’yо̄ is endangered and that international exposure might help; there are signs that things may be about to change. During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns all over the world intensified Internet usage. Live music and musicians’ tours were restricted, so online venues became the norm. In the US, NPR Music’s “Tiny Desk” series, originally set up to showcase small and indie bands in an intimate setting, responded by broadcasting “(Home) Concerts” in which both audience and performers were 1 The Japan stage of Sega Genesis Outrunners is one example. 2 “Japanese Folk Song” was originally the song “Kо̄ jо̄ no Tsuki” 荒城の月 (Moon Over the Ruined Castle) of 1901 by Taki Rentarō 瀧廉太郎 (1879–1903). 3 See the Map of Japanese Summer Bon Festivals & Practices (United States) at https:// www.japanese-city.com/calendar/events/index.php?com=location&c=landmark&d=0.

© Felicity GREENLAND, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_009

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now “at home” rather than on-site at the NPR studio. In January 2021, the series streamed the Japanese band Minyо Crusaders 民謡クルセイダーズ (MinCru, as they are known) all over the world.4 Avid users of social media, MinCru have declared a mission to let the world know about min’yо̄ . The first words of their bilingual documentary, funded by an international campaign on Kickstarter, are read from the stage at WOMAD in Adelaide, Australia, “Min’yо̄ is dead! But we are trying to revive! Here! Now! Bring min’yо̄ back!” (Moriwaki 2022). At around the same time, the min’yо̄ -themed anime Mashiro no Oto ましろのおと (Akagi 2021a), based on the manga of the same name (Ragawa 2009–22), was released to international audiences as Those Snow White Notes in e-book and subtitled video stream formats (Ragawa 2021; Akagi 2021b). It features the virtuoso Yoshida Brothers 吉田 兄弟 on the Tsugaru shamisen 津軽三味線 (three-string plucked lute) as well as min’yо̄ singing. Significantly, the premise of the story is that an old man tells his grandson to give up playing min’yо̄ if he is only going to copy elders rather than develop his own way (Anime XD 2021; Ragawa 2010, 17). Noticing min’yо̄ for the first time—through MinCru or the anime, for example—one might ask, What is min’yо̄ ? Why are there “crusaders”? And how can we access min’yо̄ ? This chapter attempts to answer those questions. It begins with an overview of min’yо̄ , its origins and developments, including some of its challenges and issues. The central part presents vignettes of min’yо̄ through two case studies, illustrating international, national, and local access to min’yō on the Web and face-to-face, that is, online and offline. The final section considers the pros and cons of technology in min’yō, proposes a framework for visualizing the relationships between various elements of min’yō, and points to further research. Throughout, the reader is encouraged to reflect on the concept of sustainability in traditional song cultures—is it feasible, desirable, necessary?—and to consider potential solutions to min’yо̄ ’s particular challenges in modern Japan. 2

Overview of Min’yо̄

Comprising two kanji characters (min 民 [folk] and yо̄ 謡 [song, chant]), the word min’yо̄ gained ground in the late nineteenth century. It referred to old local songs of unknown authorship and came to denote a “quintessentially Japanese” genre—work, celebration, ceremonial, and children’s songs, 4 The live recording remained available on demand (NPR Music 2021).

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narratives and lullabies—that is mostly rural and not influenced by Western music. There have been subsequent developments, but this is the root and core of min’yо̄ .5 Japan’s topography gives rise to much regional distinction, and there is a corresponding regional variety of min’yо̄ . Common features include pentatonic scales (Hynes-Tawa 2020), lines of five and seven syllables (Embree 1944, 5), melismatic ornamentation (kobushi 小節), responses (hayashi kotoba 囃子詞), encouraging vocables (kakegoe 掛け声), and degrees of free rhythm (Hughes 2008, 26). Like some Japanese poetry, min’yо̄ lyrics may consist of a succession of ideas or images with minimal narrative “glue.”6 Recording devices did not appear until around 1900, so there is no certain knowledge of how min’yо̄ sounded prior to that. Oral transmission and written or painted accounts, however, suggest that many min’yо̄ were originally sung unaccompanied (hands being busy with work) or with minimal accompaniment, such as handclapping, percussion, or shamisen 三味線 (three-string plucked lute), and many are associated with dances (Hughes 2008, 26). The word “min’yо̄ ” can also be applied to the melodies or dances, but this chapter focuses on songs and song contexts. As in other traditions, there have been many changes to min’yо̄ over time. For example, accompaniment with shamisen, shakuhachi 尺八 (end-blown bamboo flute), and wadaiko 和太鼓 (traditional Japanese drums) or other percussion is now the norm. Min’yо̄ has been influenced by popular songs (hayariuta 流行歌) associated with urbanization and carried back to the countryside by young people working in the towns. Shin-min’yо̄ 新民謡 (new folk songs) have been written, whose authors are known, leading to a “New Min’yо̄ Movement” 新民謡運動 (Lehtonen 2018). Recently, the terms “neo-min’yо̄ ” ネオ民謡 (neo-folk song) and “neo-baraddo” ネオバラッド (neo-ballad) have been coined for contemporary re-works of min’yо̄ , and fusions with other music have a long history—Latin and jazz at first, then pop, rock, and techno. Professional performers, mass media, and the Japanese diaspora have contributed to min’yо̄ ’s national and international reach. These routes along with new contexts, such as amusement arcades and video games, illustrate a continuous process of evolution and re-interpretation of min’yо̄ . In parallel with these musical processes is social change. From the late nineteenth century, many min’yо̄ lost their original context when archaic industries and practices ceased or were modernized. The movement of population, in the 5 For a more detailed etymology, see Hughes (2008, 8–13). 6 Hence, I have included the word “chant” in the translation of the term min’yо̄ .

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twentieth and twenty-first centuries in particular, has caused rural areas to suffer progressive depletion: numbers of inhabitants are falling, and the remaining population is aging (Statistics Bureau of Japan 2022). This means that at a grassroots level, min’yо̄ ’s older forms and their contextual activities are in decline. Two regions that seem to have avoided this musical fate are Okinawa prefecture in the south of Japan and the Tsugaru district (now with city status) in the north. Their musical styles are quite distinct and appealing to modern tastes (Potter 2001). Because of concerns about the loss of songs or styles throughout Japan, efforts to document, preserve, and promote min’yо̄ have led to the establishment of dedicated institutions. There are two main national bodies, both based in Tokyo: Nihon Min’yо̄ Kyо̄ kai 日本民謡協会 (founded in 1950) and Nihon Kyо̄ do Min’yо̄ Kyо̄ kai 日本郷土民謡協会 (founded in 1961).7 Under their auspices operate a hierarchy of other societies, branches, accredited teachers, and hozonkai 保存会 (preservation societies) or shinkōkai 振興会 (promotion societies), which preside over a range of local events, festivals, classes, and contests. These days, very few official min’yо̄ activities take place in Japan that are not connected to one or other of these national bodies in some way.8 Major efforts to compile the national repertoire (in print and audio) were made in the form of two surveys, both published in the twentieth century: Nihon min’yо̄ taikan 日本民謡大観 (Japan Folk Song Anthology; Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 1944–93) was researched over the course of fifty years and published as a set of volumes, whereas Nihon min’yо̄ kinkyū chо̄ sa 日本民謡緊急調査 (Japan Emergency Folk Song Survey) took ten years (1979–89) and was published as prefectural reports at various dates (e.g., Aomori-ken Kyōiku Iinkai 1988). Digitization of these resources is ongoing, but for the time being, remote access via the Internet remains piecemeal.9 The surveys are not without flaws

7 See https://nichimin.or.jp and https://kyomin.jp. 8 Three min’yо̄ were designated as items of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009. An application for thirty-seven traditional arts (minzoku geinō 民族芸能), including their songs, to be similarly recognised was successful in 2022. 9 At the time of writing, online access includes the following: the National Museum of Japanese History website (https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/english/index.html), which hosts an overview of the Japanese Folk Song Database (https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/doc/gaiyou/miny .html) (the database proper is currently accessible on-site only, by prior application); the National Diet Library online catalogue (https://ndlonline.ndl.go.jp/#!/search?searchCode =SIMPLE&lang=jp&keyword=民謡); and Apple Music, which hosts CD s of Nihon min’yо̄ taikan 日本民謡大観 (https://www.apple.com/jp/search/日本民謡大観?src=serp).

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and omissions (Groemer 1994), and an additional old song is occasionally discovered.10 Entwined with the obvious good intentions of the above institutions and surveys are issues of conservatism considered to run contrary to natural “folk processes.” Songs that were once truly the voice of the people and apt to evolve with the times are now prescribed, judged, and ossified (Shiobara 2018). In addition, artists such as Itō Takio 伊藤多喜雄 (b. 1950), who pioneered min’yо̄ in rock and other modern musical forms, have been heavily criticized (Fisher 2006, 38:50–). Some songs survived when they were repurposed in symbolic forms in festivals with representative dances, such as acting out fishing (Greenland 2017, 172–173), but even these next-generation min’yо̄ contexts have declined. Various “booms” have been reported—in the early Shōwa era (RAB Aomori Hōsō 2022), 1970s (Kingu Rekōdo Min’yō Kōshiki YouTube Channeru 2021), and 1980s (Chibi Cc 2020)—however, ultimately, these booms in popularity and their accompanying “live-house” bars (min’yо̄ sakaba 民謡酒場) do not compensate for the loss of their elder rural min’yо̄ customs. Official contests and preservation societies became a next generation min’yо̄ community, but they too are experiencing depletion. However, numbers are not everything. There are still many ways to access and experience min’yо̄ . Informants have suggested that if global audiences could be introduced to min’yо̄ —by concerts, festivals, games, live, or online—they might be moved to find out more about it and fuel renewed interest back in Japan. The following two case studies from research projects provide insights into access to min’yо̄ in the present. Any research is a snapshot, and the zeitgeist of the following is that it captures min’yо̄ during and after the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. 3

Case 1: “Hо̄ hai-bushi”

This case study traces a min’yо̄ song from a 2021 encounter on the world music scene to several older incarnations accessible by virtue of their online presence. The song is traced back as far as currently possible on the Web and then proceeds to hard copy sources and face-to-face contests.

10

For example, the “whale songs from Ejima [Enoshima] in Sakido-cho  … [had] been unknown among whale folk art researchers, and came to light when local people presented a report several years ago” (Nakazono 2003).

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Figure 7.1 MinCru performance NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert Screenshot from YouTube (NPR Music 2021)

MinCru’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert was broadcast in January 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic (fig. 7.1). It commenced with “Hо̄ hai-bushi” ホーハ イ節, a min’yо̄ song from the Tsugaru region in Aomori prefecture in the north of Japan. “Hо̄ hai-bushi” is easily recognizable because of its yodel-like refrain (or hayashi kotoba), which is unusual among min’yо̄ .11 MinCru’s treatment of it is a rhythmic fusion, described on their first album as “Afro beats” (Minyo Crusaders 2017). As previously mentioned, Tsugaru music is enduringly popular for its spirited and strident character, and this song has been given a variety of musical treatments over the years. Thanks to the archival nature of the Web, we can work our way backwards to some old (quasi-)field recordings. The following appears in many versions, often as the first stanza: 愛宕山ホーハイホーハイホーハイ / 高いでやな / 吉田町名がいい

Atago yama Hōhai! Hōhai! Hōhai / Takai de yana / Yoshida machi na ga ii

11

It is difficult to provide an alternative English name for “Hо̄ hai-bushi” as the meaning of “Hо̄ hai” is unknown. Work chants and military rousing cries have been suggested (https://kotobank.jp/word/ホーハイ節-628410).

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Mount Atago Hohai! Hohai! Hohai / Very high, isn’t it? / Yoshida town’s name is better. Aomori-ken Kyōiku Iinkai 1988, 13212

Earlier in the 2000s, the hо̄ hai yodel was introduced to techno music by Terada Sо̄ ichi 寺田創一 (b. 1965) via the Omodaka project. Using computer sounds or “chip tunes,” he released the song on the Plum Song EP (Omodaka 2009), and he further sampled the song as the deep house track “Hо̄ hai Beats” in 2015 (Terada 2015). A computer scientist by training and a composer for animation and video games, Terada’s stage performances of min’yо̄ are hi-tech, highly visual multimedia happenings (fig. 7.2). Dressed in a Shinto priest’s red hakama pants and a blank white mask, he used a Nintendo DS console and Korg Kaossilator synth in front of everchanging video backdrops. Originally live concerts, such as at the Tokyo Boiler Room and abroad, these performances were recorded, and they became available online during the COVID-19 pandemic (fareastrecording 2020; see also fareastrecording 2006). Terada’s collaborator, with vocal dexterity unheard of in the techno world, was the min’yо̄ celebrity Kanazawa Akiko 金沢明子 (b. 1954), from Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture. She had trained in the conservative min’yо̄ system but had always been progressive—wearing denim jeans rather than a Japanese kimono in “traditional” contexts,13 and including in her repertoire “Yellow Submarine Ondo” (イエロー・サブマリン音頭), a Japanese-style version of the Beatles’ classic.14 Her singing is reputedly influenced by the Tsugaru style of her father. Around two decades earlier, Senba Kiyohiko 仙波清彦 (b. 1954), another child of min’yо̄ , had arranged “Hо̄ hai-bushi” for the Haniwa All Stars はにわ オールスターズ. The name of this avant-garde ensemble points to the fusion of ancient and modern Japan—haniwa 埴輪 being terracotta figures, discovered in the third century, that have come to represent the deepest essence of Japaneseness. Although Senba was reared in his family’s Senba School of Japanese Traditional Music, his vision for min’yо̄ transcended convention. His spectacular orchestration of “Hо̄ hai-bushi” staged in Osaka in 1991 combined traditional Japanese instruments with rock and brass; the singer a young Kitsu Shigeri 木津茂理 (b. 1965) (Japan Foundation 2010) and the Haniwa All Stars 12 13

A variant is sung by Minyo Crusaders (2017, sleeve notes; NPR Music 2021). She is pictured wearing denim jeans on the cover of the 1979 record Tsugaru Jongara Bushi 津軽じょんがら節 (see Molody80 Summer 2019). 14 “Yellow Submarine Ondo” was released on the Victor label in 1982, with Japanese lyrics by Matsumoto Takashi 松本隆 (see Joke Daisuki 2016). It was remixed by Terada Sо̄ ichi in 1995 (see Kanazawa 2019).

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Figure 7.2 Terada Sōichi (Omodaka) being interviewed by Zen Albatross Image credit: Dean Putney, https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=g1eQVvMEKnY, 27 May 2012; https://upload.wikimedia .org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Soichi_Terada_as_Omodaka_2012 .png?20210613044354 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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were dressed in nurse uniforms and spotted pyjamas. Although it is over thirty years old, this concert stands the test of time and can now be accessed online (Carlx6 2013; Senba and Haniwa All Stars 1991). In the COVID-19 period, the long internationally minded Kodо̄ drummers of Sado island reached out to the locked-down world, making their own version of “Hо̄ hai-bushi” accessible online (KodoHeartbeat 2020). With English subtitles and rōmaji (roman alphabet) captions for the Japanese lyrics, it was clearly targeted at international audiences. The lyrics were modified/re-written, and the song was played with Kodо̄ ’s signature syncopation. Their version incorporates elements of Japanese festival music, in the form of wadaiko and yokobue 横笛 (horizontal bamboo flute). However, far closer to the roots of this particular song, in both time and space, are the earlier recordings of Narita Unchiku 成田雲竹 (1889–1974) of Aomori prefecture, known as the father of Tsugaru min’yо̄ .15 His singing appears at once complex and effortless, with and without instrumentation. One open-access recording features shakuhachi accompaniment (Aomorikenongaku 2013), which was one of Narita’s initiatives to make min’yо̄ more appealing to modern ears. An unaccompanied version was recorded for Nihon min’yо̄ taikan in 1941, which can be accessed online (NHK n.d.; Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 1944–93). At the time of writing, the 1941 Narita recording seemed as far back as we can go online, but of course archival materials are being added to the Web all the time. Other documentary recordings of “Hо̄ hai-bushi” have reportedly been made. In the Japan Emergency Folk Song Survey for Aomori prefecture (surveyed 1986–87), two distinct versions were identified, and several tape recordings listed: one version was described as a drinking song, and the other as a Bon dance (bon odori 盆踊り) song (formerly a work song) also sung whilst weeding rice paddies (Aomori-ken Kyōiku Iinkai 1988, 15, 194). Tapes were reportedly held locally, and copies submitted at the national level. Selections from this survey have been compiled into the Japanese Folk Song Database. After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, real-life community activity resumed in Japan in 2022, and festivals and min’yо̄ contests began to reconvene. At the Zen Ōsaka Min’yо̄ Taishо̄ 全大阪民謡大賞 (All Osaka Min’yо̄ Grand Prize), one of the contestants sang “Hо̄ hai-bushi” and won an award, taking the song to the final of the lavish 57th Sankei Min’yо̄ Taishо̄ 産経民謡 大賞 (Sankei Newspaper Min’yо̄ Grand Prize) two weeks later. Such multi-song 15

In a video including 1973 footage of Narita Unchiku, the narrator states, “Tsugaru min’yо̄ no chichi to yobareta sonzai desu” 津軽民謡の父と呼ばれた存在です (He is what was known as the father of Tsugaru min’yо̄ ) (RAB Aomori Hōsō 2022).

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contests as these are an opportunity to hear a nation-wide variety of min’yо̄ . Since contests are usually held annually, each year’s contest serves as a snapshot in time. Several elements made the 2022 Zen Ōsaka meeting different from the previous one in 2019. Entry required COVID-19 track-and-trace completion; chairs were widely spaced, limiting numbers; everyone was masked, except when singing; there were disposable covers on the microphones; and the opening speech included a detailed rundown of COVID-19 protocols. The speech set aside a minute’s silence for the late former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, who was murdered only a few days previously in the nearby city of Nara. It was a sobering start, setting the event firmly in the present. There were seventy-one contestants, considerably down on the previous meeting, according to my friendly socially distanced neighbour. But the meeting was far from subdued: a three-year-old sang with a trio of veteran shakuhachi players; even during performances, there were loquacious reunions at the back, and, from the wings, shamisen could be heard being tuned. In the audience, an occasional smartphone went up to photograph or film a salient point, but more striking in 2022 were the many kinds of vintage cameras and cassette recorders. Their owners are unlikely to post on social media. There are two main types of contest: multi-song, as mentioned above, where each contestant sings a min’yо̄ of their choice, and single-song, where singers compete in interpreting the same song (Hughes 2008, 224). At present, there does not appear to be a single-song contest for “Hо̄ hai-bushi.” 4

Case 2: “Suzuka Mago Uta”

There are many “Mago Uta” 馬子唄 (horse-leading songs) around the country; the Zen Ōsaka contest mentioned above featured five, from different regions. Through one from Suzuka city in Mie prefecture, the “Suzuka Mago Uta” 鈴鹿 馬子唄, this section looks at a single-song type of contest. “Suzuka Mago Uta” is a horse-leading song from the Tōkaidō mountain pass on the border of Shiga and Mie prefectures.16 Located at the foot of the pass, in Shiga prefecture, is Tsuchiyama village 土山町, which hosts the annual national single-song contest, Suzuka Mago Uta Zenkoku Taikai 鈴鹿馬子唄全

16 Mago 馬子 (horse leaders) are discussed and illustrated in Bird (2006 [1880], 120).

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国大会. Here, the 31st contest was held in 2022, the 29th and 30th having been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The singers are judged on skill and expression, and the particular singing skill here is in the ornamentation (kobushi). With introductory music and ornamentation that extensively prolongs single syllables, only one verse can be sung by each singer in the allotted time of one minute forty seconds each, as shown below: 坂は照る照る / 鈴鹿は曇る / あいの土山 / 雨が降る

Saka wa teru teru / Suzuka wa kumoru / Ai no Tsuchiyama / ame ga furu17 The slope is shining / Suzuka is cloudy / Ai no Tsuchiyama / rain falls.18 Accompaniment is provided by permutations of shakuhachi, shamisen, and percussion (in the case of this song, a slow measure of small bells simulates the languid plod of a burdened horse). Different players accompany each singer; these are often the teachers and fellow pupils of the same min’yо̄ school. Encouraging shouts (kakegoe), usually from the bell player, imitate the coaxing voice of the horse driver. This competition started in 1992, and according to the glossy programme, illustrated by the local paper-cutting technique preservation society, it is enabled by an array of supporters. It is hosted by the local council, Board of Education, Board of Culture and Sports, and the song’s own preservation society; and sponsored by the local branch of NHK, the local newspaper, and various local and national branches of min’yо̄ societies and committees. The local Suzuka Mago Uta Preservation Society 鈴鹿馬子唄保存会19 erected a stone monument in the village in 1997, rendering the song in material form and cementing it as part of the local landscape and community identity (see Gillan 2017). At this contest’s peak in 2001, there were 237 competitors. Since then, it has seen a general overall decline, and although this post-COVID-19 year may be exceptional, in that it was not certain whether the contest could go ahead, over the pandemic hiatus the adult category (16 years and over) has fallen from seventy-four (2019) to sixty (2022), and the young people’s category (15 years and under) has fallen from thirty-one to six (Suzuka Mago Uta National 17 18 19

Note the 7-7-7-5 syllable structure, common to many min’yо̄ . The meaning of “Ai no” is a subject of debate (see Kōka Shiyakusho 2013). Started in 1981.

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Contest Secretariat, pers. comm., 4 September 2022). I am told that from year to year the age divisions are adjusted to accommodate the upward trend in the modal age of participants and that this year the contest is of particularly short duration because of low numbers (Shimizu Satsuki 清水彩月, pers. comm., 19 June 2022). Although the pandemic appeared to be subsiding, the COVID-19 protocols were still very strict: for a whole week beforehand, would-be attendees were obliged to complete a form with their daily temperature.20 Due to the sociable nature of such face-to-face events, it is possible to meet many people. Below I describe two of the adult competitors, both career musicians, to illustrate interesting routes and processes in contemporary min’yо̄ culture. Shimizu Satsuki (b. 1962) has been studying min’yо̄ for twenty-eight years, since her interest was piqued by an encounter in India.21 Currently based in Kyoto, Shimizu’s main musical activity is an indie cabaret band, but she independently performs min’yо̄ , accompanying herself on the shamisen and sanshin 三線 (Okinawan three-string plucked lute).22 I witnessed two of her performances in a tiny sakaba (bar) in Ōtsu, Shiga prefecture, and heard twenty-four min’yо̄ in all, from various parts of Japan. The audience of just eight to ten people was predominantly male and probably aged over fifty. Each performance ended with the customers learning to dance to Shimizu’s own min’yо̄ -style composition, “Sentō Ondo” 銭湯音頭 (fig. 7.3), a “support song of Japanese public bath[s].”23 Following min’yо̄ custom, Shimizu has made available the lyrics and dance instructions, but she has also created a music video set in an old community bath house. Watching her performance in the cabaret band, I would say that her min’yо̄ training is evident in the vocals. Shimizu is a good example of a modern musician who did not grow up with min’yо̄ but embraced it fully within the context of her modern, urban, and online life.

20

It is a national contest; however, all but one of the sixty-six contestants in 2022 were from the surrounding prefectures of Nara, Shiga, Kyoto, Aichi, Osaka, Mie, and Hyōgo. 21 Shimizu related how a young boy asked her for a Japanese song. She obliged with a modern pop song, whereupon the boy looked blank. When he reciprocated with a traditional Indian song, Shimizu was moved to search for her own roots too ( jibun no ruutsu mo sagashitai to omotta) 自分のルーツも探したいと思った (Shimizu Satsuki, pers. comm., 4 March 2022). 22 Shimizu Satsuki’s website links to videos; see http://tsukikoe.net. 23 This description of the song appeared on the artist’s TuneCore page; see https://web .archive.org/web/20210226071855/https://linkco.re/mdq3Hf2s?lang=en.

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Figure 7.3 Shimizu Satsuki performs “Sentō Ondo” Image credit: BRAH = art, 2020

Another contestant in the “Suzuka Mago Uta” contest whom I would like to highlight is Ilán Terrell (fig. 7.4). As a professional musician playing at anime conventions in the US, Terrell (b. 1979) became involved with Matsutoyo-kai 松豊会 and Minyo Station 民謡ステーション, two related Japanese diasporic min’yо̄ -based groups in California. Through these groups Terrell encountered the well-known Japanese enka 演歌 and min’yо̄ singer Naruse Shōhei 成世昌平 (b. 1951) when Naruse visited the US to teach and perform. Naruse encouraged Terrell to study min’yо̄ singing, shamisen, and Japanese percussion in Japan, as one of his students (Ilán Terrell, pers. comm., 23 June 2022). Terrell’s story illustrates international flows and shows how, as Naruse had hoped, globalization can feed back into min’yо̄ in Japan (Naruse Shōhei, pers. comm., 9 July 2022). 5

Conclusion

At the beginning of this chapter, I referred to the local rural context as the “root and core” of min’yо̄ . Starting with modern “crusaders,” I used two songs to illustrate some of the ways that min’yо̄ can be easily accessed and witnessed in

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Figure 7.4 Ilán Terrell in a shamisen lesson with Naruse Shōhei. Note the social distance screen Image credit: Ilán Terrell, 2022

the present day. However, at the grassroots level, rural contexts remain where min’yō songs are sung, dances danced, and rites celebrated within communities rather than in concerts, contests, or online. Such occurrences might be reported after the fact in local newspapers, rather than pre-advertised widely, in order to preserve their local specificity, even if this contributes to the genre’s decline. At one particularly remote event, I found that, although (or, perhaps, because) it was depleted, locals were not keen to recruit outsiders or promote the event far afield. It appeared to be hard work both for the senior inhabitants and for some teenage grandchildren drafted in from elsewhere to make up the numbers. It was easy to see how a custom can dwindle to nothing. As Hughes (2019, 157) has observed, there can be ambivalence towards the attention or pressure arising from promotion or designation as, say, an item of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Technology too is a double-edged sword. It was surely the nemesis of “old” ways of min’yо̄ , from the mechanization of manual industries to the effects of urbanization and transportation on communities and the increase in popularity of music consumption rather than music-making. In numerous ways, the Internet is both a blessing and a curse: it has contributed to the long, ongoing Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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rise of passive and private consumption of music instead of active participation. But as the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted, thanks to the Web, a lack of physical presence no longer precludes access, nor does it preclude participation in discussion, research, education, and dissemination. Considering world music instinctively, we might visualize a model whereby the present is the remainder of successive levels of loss and forgetting—the rounded surface of a weathering rock. Immediately, we can see that this model is too simplistic—the present is always in flux because of changes in technology and society—so our model should not be one of only retrospection. While decay and erosion may be ongoing, these are natural processes in a living ecology also manifesting growth and evolution. There is always potential for new blooms, new participants, and cross-pollination. At the risk of stretching the metaphor, contemporary society may be seen as the soil and the min’yō archives as the seed bank. Improved public access to these seed banks should be advocated. The examples in this chapter show that min’yо̄ is far more than words and music. Min’yо̄ is the product of landscape, lifeways, and history and involves generations of voices passing on the songs in faithful and inventive ways. Song evolution was surely occurring long before any surveys captured the status quo of their time. For future research, contextual studies can be done both remotely and on-site. By definition, online research is required to monitor trends in the digital presence of min’yō, online archival resources, and their uptake. However, although Web information is ever-increasing, it cannot provide the full story. Field visits add nuance and scope: live observation and informal conversations reveal min’yō practices and attitudes that may not manifest online, especially when concerning the elderly. Field research is necessary to update previous field studies and to monitor certain trends as each event is a unique snapshot on a continuum. Finally, on-site research in libraries and sound archives would demonstrate the demand for better direct access, remote access, and digitization.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to many people for formal and informal contributions to the research for this chapter. Heartfelt thanks to the following in particular for their time and generosity (in alphabetical order): Akazawa Atsushi 赤澤淳, Peter Barakan, Stuart Galbraith IV, Hatakeyama Tomoaki (Hatao) 畑山智明 (はた お), David Hughes, Henry Johnson, Romain Jourdan-Ōtsuka, Kawano Hiroko 河野浩子, Kirk King, Kishimoto Tarō きしもとタロー, Kurokawa Ayako 黒川 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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章子, Kurokawa Kunio 黒川邦男, Matsumoto Hiroyuki 松本裕行, Marie-Aurore Morfoisse, Moriwaki Yūji, Naruse Shо̄ hei, Nishikawa Misao 西河みさを, Nishikawa Shinobu 西河しのぶ, Simon Rosati, Shimizu Satsuki, Shо̄ ji Shigeru 小路滋, Suzuka Mago Uta National Contest Secretariat, Takagawa Rono 高川 博信, Terada Sōichi, Ilán Terrell, Tsuzuki Shigeo 都築滋雄, Eleanor Yamaguchi, and Yamauchi Harumi 山内はるみ, Yoshida Osamu 吉田修, and the members of Kyōto Min’yō Kiyо̄ kai Uzumasa Branch 京都民謡暉謡会太秦支部.

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Moriwaki, Yūji 森脇由二, dir. 2022. Buringu min’yō bakku! ブリング・ミンヨー・バック！ Film, 85 min. Nakazono, Shigeo 中園成生. 2003. “Outline of the 2nd Traditional Whaling Summit.” Isana 28. http://www.whaling.jp/english/isana_28.html#003. NHK 日本放送協会. n.d. “Hōhai-bushi” ホーハイ節. Accessed 1 May 2023, https:// www2.nhk.or.jp/archives/movies/?id=D0004380030_00000. Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, ed. 日本放送協会. 1944–93. Nihon min’yō taikan 日本民謡大観. 14 vols. Tokyo: Nippon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai 日本放送出版協会. NPR Music. 2021. “Minyo Crusaders: Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts.” Video, 21:30. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1QgsEl6zI. Omodaka. 2009. Plum Song. Far East Recording, FER06900 EP (CD). Potter, John. 2001. The Power of Okinawa: Roots Music for the Ryukyus. Kobe: S U Press. RAB Aomori Hōsō 青森放送. 2022. “Ano toki kono toki: ‘Tsugaru min’yō no chichi Narita Unchiku san’” あの瞬この時「津軽民謡の父　成田雲竹さん」. Video, 3:46, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAqn4xTsDQ. Ragawa, Marimo 羅川真里茂. 2009–22. Mashiro no oto ましろのおと. Tokyo: Kо̄ dansha 講談社. Ragawa, Marimo. 2010. Mashiro no oto 1 ましろのおと 1. Tokyo: Kōdansha 講談社. Ragawa, Marimo. 2021. Those Snow White Notes. New York: Kodansha USA. Senba, Kiyohiko 仙波清彦, and Haniwa All Stars はにわオールスターズ. 1991. イン・コン サート. Sony, SRCL2132 (CD). Shiobara, Mari. 2018. “Transmitting Japanese Folk Song: Strategies for Nationalizing the Local and Taking it into Schools.” In Community Music in Oceania: Many Voices, One Horizon, edited by Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, Melissa Cain, Diana Tolmie, Anne Power, and Mari Shiobara, 47–58. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Statistics Bureau of Japan. 2022. “Statistical Handbook of Japan 2022: Chapter 2 Population.” Accessed 17 February 2023. https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/hand book/. Terada, Soichi [Sо̄ ichi 寺田創一]. 2015. Sounds from the Far East. Rush Hour, RHRSS12 (CD).

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Chapter 8

Traditional Folk Music in Contemporary Japan: Case Studies of Standardization and Diversification in Tsugaru Shamisen and Folk Song Gakuto CHIBA and Patrick E. SAVAGE 1

Introduction

What is Japanese “folk music”? In the “Folk Music” (民俗音楽) section of the Ongaku Daijiten 音楽大辞典 (Music Encyclopaedia/Encyclopaedia Musica), pioneering Japanese ethnomusicologist Koizumi Fumio 小泉文夫 (1983) defined folk music as (1) existing in a stratified society; (2) originating among the people without a known composer; (3) having no normative transmission method; and (4) being handed down over a long period of time. As elsewhere, the diversity of Japanese music makes it difficult or impossible to craft perfect definitions that apply to all cases, but Koizumi’s general conception has become commonly understood among Japanese folk music researchers (Hughes 2008a; Tokita and Hughes 2008). Most researchers today would consider traditional folk music in modern Japan to include at least min’yō 民謡 (songs reflecting the emotions of daily life, such as work, celebrations, and festivals), minzoku geinō 民俗芸能 (folk performing arts, including dances, plays, and instrumental music performed at events and festivals in daily life), and warabeuta 童歌 (songs sung by children during play and daily life), and perhaps other genres too. We, the authors, are award-winning folk musicians, but our backgrounds and experiences are very different. Mainly, Savage learned to sing min’yō 民謡 in Japan as an adult and foreigner, while Chiba learned to sing min’yō and play the Tsugaru shamisen 津軽三味線 as a child growing up in northern Japan (see “Origins of the Tsugaru Shamisen” below). Min’yō and Tsugaru shamisen are among the best known of Japan’s folk music forms and are actively performed at conventions, in live performances, and on TV broadcasts. Nevertheless, for those who have experienced folk music for many years, it is clear that these genres are in decline (fig. 8.1; see also Hughes 2008a). Much of our research combines our knowledge and experience performing folk music with quantitative methods to explore factors shaping the evolution of musical diversity in Japan and around the world. In this chapter however, we

© Gakuto CHIBA and Patrick E. SAVAGE, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_010 Henry Johnson

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Figure 8.1 Estimated numbers of Tsugaru shamisen and folk song performers in 1982 and 2022. (Since no specific data were kept, this is the approximate number of people known to the Nihon Kyōdo Min’yō Kyōkai 日本郷土民謡協会 and Nihon Min’yō Kyōkai 日本民謡協会, the largest organizations representing Japanese folk music.) The data and code are available at https://github.com/gakuto101207 /bookchapter

take the opportunity to explore a more qualitative perspective to describe our own experiences performing the traditional folk music of modern Japan in the form of two autoethnographic case studies (one by Chiba and one by Savage). These case studies demonstrate how abstract phenomena we have published about, such as “melodic evolution” and “audiovisual interactions” (Savage et al. 2022; Chiba et al. 2021), are meaningful to us and other performers. Through Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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this discussion of the evolution and diversification of Japanese folk music, we consider what the future of folk music might be like. This chapter updates and extends the seminal surveys of Japanese folk music by David Hughes (2008a, 2008b), who has covered its history in depth based largely on his own in-depth fieldwork conducted while he lived in Japan during the “min’yō boom” of the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, this chapter provides further details and context about the Tsugaru shamisen, an instrument unique to Japan and on which literature is scarce, while also providing information about min’yō, which parallels other folk song genres throughout the world. We hope that this material will assist and promote future research and revitalization efforts on Japanese folk music from domestic and international perspectives. 2

Case Study: Chiba

In our first case study, we focus on my (Chiba Gakuto’s) experience of learning Tsugaru shamisen, a unique Japanese instrument, from an early age and performing it at competitions and in concerts.1 We consider how these experiences have classicized and diversified the instrument and its music in modern Japan. To begin, I will provide a short background to the Tsugaru shamisen. 2.1 Origins of the Tsugaru Shamisen The Tsugaru shamisen is a three-string fretless lute that originated in the Tsugaru region of Aomori prefecture in northern Japan. It has the same structure and historical roots as the Chinese sanxian 三弦, Ryūkyūan sanshin 三線, and other variants of the mainland Japanese shamisen 三味線, but it has a larger body, thicker neck and strings, harder wood, and tough dog skin, which combine to produce a louder sound. The plectrum for the strings is made of tortoiseshell, which is hard yet flexible to withstand the power of the player’s striking action and small enough to be played delicately and quickly. With this instrument, the playing style changed to striking, and the shamisen came to be treated as a percussion instrument as well as a string instrument. Thus, as the instrument and performance form changed, so did its musical role, and the Tsugaru shamisen, which had previously been used as an accompanying instrument for folk songs, became established as a solo instrument (Daijō 1995; Matsuki 2011).

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Figure 8.2 Chiba Gakuto playing the Tsugaru shamisen Photo taken at the Takada Photo Studio, 2017

Why did the Tsugaru shamisen evolve in this way? The reason is that in the Edo period the Tsugaru shamisen was positioned as a musical instrument to be played by bosama 坊様 (blind male travelling entertainers). At that time, Japan was a feudal society, and those who were in a socially vulnerable position could not receive support from the government, were despised by others, and were not allowed to work. In order to survive, bosama had no choice but to travel around in the harsh winters of the Tōhoku region, playing the shamisen under the eaves of houses and receiving rice and money through a practice known as kadozuke-gei 門付芸 (performing arts at the gate) (Takahashi 1991). These circumstances required bosama to attract people through shamisen playing, hence the Tsugaru shamisen was devised (fig. 8.2). 2.2 Encountering the Tsugaru Shamisen My parents have been music teachers for a long time, my mother specializing in piano and my father in percussion. However, when I was a child, they recommended that I learn traditional Japanese folk songs and Tsugaru shamisen rather than their speciality of Western music. During the Meiji era, Japan underwent a policy of westernization, and music was included as part of this change. In particular, shamisen music, which had Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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represented Japan for centuries, was historically used in the red-light district (yūkaku 遊郭), and the shamisen was associated with the status system of the Edo period and was not considered appropriate for use in education. Instead, Western music was introduced, and in 1879 the Ministry of Education established the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari 音楽取調掛 (Music Investigation Committee, later the Tokyo Music School, now the Tokyo University of the Arts), which was the first institution to start a programme of Western music education in Japan (Tanaka 2008). In 1998 (the year I was born), a revision of Gakushū shidō yōryō 学習指導 要領 (Courses of Study) mandated the teaching of Japanese musical instruments in junior high schools, with instructions to use at least one instrument at any time over three years (Monbushō 1998).2 Although this change was expected to revive traditional Japanese folk music, few schools were able to incorporate traditional Japanese music and instruments in their classes because teachers lacked such skills and there were few teaching materials to carry on the tradition. Overall, the Western-centred trend in compulsory education has extended to contemporary Japan, where music classes in primary and secondary education predominantly focus on the performance of Western instruments and the appreciation of Western music. My parents, who are now working in the field of school education after graduating from a music academy, were concerned about the fact that Westerncentred education was still provided in Japan and that we would lose our intangible cultural heritage of traditional Japanese folk music, and they recommended Japanese music to me. This led me to hear the Tsugaru shamisen, and I was fascinated and moved by the sound and power of the instrument that resonated in people’s hearts. Since then, my motivation has been to bring this excitement to people around the world. 2.3 Tsugaru Shamisen Keiko (Lessons) I grew up in Asahikawa city in Hokkaido, where I met my folk song and Tsugaru shamisen teacher (sensei), Kanno Kōzan 菅野孝山 (fig. 8.3).3 Although I was very young when I first became an apprentice under Kanno-sensei, I still vividly remember the scene of being surrounded by elderly apprentices, a few of whom were of my generation or my parents’ generation (in their thirties to fifties at that time). Nowadays, I know few apprentices, and the training hall has

2 Monbushō and Kagaku Gijutsutsuchō merged to form Monbukagakushō in 2001. 3 For a video example of keiko with Kanno-sensei teaching my younger brother, see https:// youtu.be/02Aarcz0Y1Y. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 8.3 Chiba Gakuto (age four) performing a folk song at the 2002 Kōzan-kai Recital (孝山会発 表会) held at the Asahikawa Public Hall (旭川公会堂) in Hokkaido. Chiba’s teacher, Kōzan Kanno, is playing the Tsugaru shamisen on the left.

become neglected. This situation is partly due to the declining birth rate and aging population, the educational problems described above, and the rising cost of musical instruments because of a shortage of resources and makers. But it is also due to the difficulty of learning because of the constraints of tradition, which I outline below. My learning method was to go to a practice hall once a week, receive instruction, and practise by myself before the next lesson. This method is not so different from general music lessons in Japan, with the exception that sheet music is not used in the instruction and practice of Tsugaru shamisen. As mentioned above, the Tsugaru shamisen was played by blind bosama, so there was no sheet music to begin with, and the music was learned by ear and passed down orally. The masters believed that such training and transmission would lead their apprentices to become top players. While nowadays there are shamisen notations (e.g., bunkafu 文化譜; fig. 8.4), I have rarely used them. Rather, the sound recordings of our predecessors on vinyl, cassette tape, and CD, including music and dialogue, serve as teaching/learning resources. For example,

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8.4a

8.4b Figure 8.4 “Bunkafu” shamisen score of “Tsugaru Jongara-bushi” (Kanno 1983). The score is read from left to right and top to bottom. The three horizontal lines represent the three strings, and the numbers represent how far up the string the performer should press their finger, similar to frets on a guitar, although the shamisen does not have frets Courtesy of Kanno Kōzan

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I noticed that the ma 間, rhythm, melody, and timbre of the same piece or the same technique differed depending on the performer.4 However, it is very difficult for newcomers to learn the Tsugaru shamisen without notation. Even experienced players take several years to master the tones and rhythms of their predecessors. In order to improve this situation, more and more young people who have passed the natori 名取 (a licence granting a professional name) are using notation rather than sound recordings and providing videos of their performances with the development of media technology from the perspective of a beginner. In fact, this development has led to an increase in the number of young people who are learning to play the instrument in non-traditional settings. National Competitions 2.4 National Tsugaru shamisen competitions are held at different locations throughout Japan. Today, there are many such competitions, and in 2014 I won the Tsugaru shamisen “A Class” (the highest class in “Kyokubiki” 曲弾き—Solo Instrumental Performance) tournament title in Aomori and the Tsugaru Shamisen Grand Prix in Tokyo. In all of the competitions, the music performed is largely determined by “Tsugaru Jongara-bushi” 津軽じょんがら節, the most famous Tsugaru song, but not everyone plays it the same way. The famous words of Nitabō 仁太坊 (1857–1928), the founder of Tsugaru shamisen, “Don’t just follow the path of others, play your own shamisen!” (Nishizawa 2004), have been passed down from generation to generation, and solo performances with original arrangements that do not break the flow and rhythm of the music are still required at competitions. Because the Tsugaru shamisen was originally an accompanying instrument, the skill of utatsuke 唄付け (accompanying the singer) has become more important, and an increasing number of competitions now judge both kyokubiki and utatsuke performances. While the Tsugaru shamisen tradition is valued in these ways, certain competitions have employed guitarists and koto 箏 (thirteen-string zither) players as judges in addition to professional Tsugaru shamisen players. Naturally, the flow and rhythm of the music in “Tsugaru Jongara-bushi” can only be understood by skilled Tsugaru shamisen players, but having other musicians judge the non-traditional aspects of the performance allows for a multifaceted evaluation of the performance as a whole. Also, there is a tradition of wearing a kimono for Tsugaru shamisen performances, but at most competitions the performers are allowed to perform in clothing of their choice. This allows them to perform in their own unique style. 4 Ma is the temporal interval created by the breathing of the folk song performer. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization Yosare Project

よされプロジェクト coordinated an online Tsugaru shamisen competition on

10 July 2021.5 However, not only did the home recording environment and applications create differences in the sound of the instrument, but the audio and video often stopped depending on the Internet environment, making one wonder how the performers were being judged. Having learned the importance of auditory information from the history and practice of Tsugaru shami­ sen and the potential role of visual information from studies of classical piano competitions (Mehr, Scannell, and Winner 2018; Tsay 2013), I wanted to clarify how our performances are actually evaluated from an academic perspective. I designed a controlled experiment to investigate the role of visual and auditory information in judging Tsugaru shamisen performances (Chiba et al. 2021). Consistent with previous research on classical piano competitions (Mehr, Scannell, and Winner 2018; Tsay 2013), visual media played a role, and that role increased as the difference in quality between the performers decreased. As someone who has learned the importance of auditory information from the history and practice of Tsugaru shamisen, this result came as a shock to me. I am certain that the results will affect my performance in order to adapt to the times. 3

Case Study: Savage

3.1 An Outsider’s Perspective on Min’yō In our second case study, we focus on my (Patrick Savage’s) experience of learning to sing min’yō and how this experience reflects the role of traditional folk music in an increasingly diverse modern Japan. While my co-author, Chiba Gakuto, learned to play the Tsugaru shamisen as a child growing up in Japan, I only started learning min’yō and other Japanese traditions as an adult speaking Japanese as a second language. After living in Japan for over a decade, I now have my own children, who are natively bilingual in Japanese and English and have started learning to play shamisen themselves, so I have a unique window on the process of intergenerational transmission of traditional folk music in a globalized Japan. My first encounter with min’yō was with Sekiya Teruo 関谷照夫, a family friend of my wife (then girlfriend), Sawa Matsueda Savage サベジ佐和 (旧姓松 枝). Sawa and I met as undergraduates at Amherst College in Massachusetts, US, and Teruo had accompanied Sawa’s parents to meet us in Amherst to 5 See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ6H_i_2Mkg&t=2103s.

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celebrate our 2007 college graduation. At a celebratory dinner with our two families, Teruo sang for us the Fukushima prefecture min’yō “Shin Sōma-bushi” 新相馬節 (New Song of Sōma). My relatives and I were deeply moved by the beauty of Teruo’s singing in this unfamiliar style with its piercing timbre and intricate ornamentation that was so different from anything we’d ever heard. Although we couldn’t understand any of the words and Teruo (who is blind) couldn’t see us, it was obvious this song expressed deep emotions that bridged cultural gaps between the Japanese and American attendees and was more valuable than any physical gift could have been. This was one of many memorable experiences of how music can bond people together despite barriers such as language, age, and disability, which I later developed into a “social bonding” hypothesis for the evolution of musicality (Savage et al. 2021). After graduation, Sawa and I moved to Japan to be near her family, and I began learning Japanese traditional music. I learned first as the 2007–8 Amherst-Doshisha Fellow at Doshisha University then as a graduate student at Tokyo University of the Arts (2011–17; from 2009–11, I studied for a master’s in psychology at McMaster University in Canada, where I learned more about the science of music). I started by learning more “classical” genres like koto, jiuta shamisen 地歌三味線, and utai 謡 (noh 能 chant), but when I started learning min’yō, something about it spoke to me more than the other genres. While I gave recitals in koto, jiuta, or utai, I felt there was a kind of barrier between me and the audience in these styles (as I also felt giving classical piano recitals in my youth). In contrast, I loved the feeling of connection with others when I would sing min’yō and the others around me would clap or sing along. This communal music-making was always facilitated when alcohol was involved, such as at the enkai 宴会 (parties) we would have after a day of cleaning up debris from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami during my fieldwork in Iwate prefecture. Lessons and Competitions: The Transmission and Selection of Modern Min’yō When I first decided to learn min’yō, I wasn’t sure how to start, since the sound of the singing was so different from all of the Western styles I had experience performing (classical, jazz, barbershop, a cappella, funk). After reading David Hughes’s (2008b) comprehensive book, Traditional Folk Song in Modern Japan, and listening to the companion recordings, I decided I would start by just trying to imitate the sounds of the recording. I was surprised to find that if I didn’t hold back and sang at full volume, somehow my voice was able to create these unfamiliar sounds. 3.2

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Soon, I started formal lessons after connecting through word-of-mouth with Ogita Shūsei 小木田秋声, who taught at the Shūmin-kai 秋民会 min’yō studio in Sagamihara city, about an hour’s train journey from where I lived in Yokohama. I began attending weekly group lessons with him together with four to eight other students, all of whom were retired and most of whom were women. Ogita-sensei was originally from a rural part of Akita prefecture in northeast Japan, as were many of my fellow students. It seemed that min’yō studios and competitions were particularly common in Sagamihara, apparently influenced by the high number of elderly residents who had moved to the greater Tokyo region from rural areas as part of a mass migration immediately after the Second World War and were now singing min’yō in their retirement in part as a way to preserve the nostalgia of their rural youth. In our keiko, the basic method of teaching/learning was oral transmission supplemented by audio recordings and printed lyrics. With very rare exceptions, such as for “Esashi Oiwake” 江差追分 (see below), no musical notation was used. Ogita-sensei and we students would decide together on a song to learn, then Ogita-sensei would sing an example, which we would record (I recorded on my computer, and most of the others on analogue tape recorders). Usually, though not always, the song would be one of the more than 500 listed in the min’yō song book compiled by Fujio Rokubon (1997). If Ogita-sensei’s lyrics didn’t match the book’s, which happened a lot, we would sing to match Ogita-sensei. We would then practise at home by listening to this recording (supplementing this by listening to other recordings of the same song) then take turns singing for Ogita-sensei in lessons. He would stop us when needed and demonstrate the correct version for us to imitate (e.g., if we weren’t performing a particular kobushi 小節 [ornamentation] correctly, if the rhythm was wrong, or if we weren’t conveying the nuance of the lyrics). As I would listen back over my recordings of lessons, I noticed that some differences between my and Ogita-sensei’s performances were more likely to be noticed and corrected by one or both of us than others. For example, small micro-ornamentation was often quite loose, and Ogita-sensei himself would sometimes use slightly different ornamentation in different recordings. But major changes, especially those affecting the lyrics, were more likely to be corrected by Ogita-sensei. This struck me as analogous to the process of transmission, mutation, and selection that occurs in genetic evolution, and Chiba and I and some experts in molecular genetics and cultural evolution went on to test and confirm these analogies quantitatively on a large corpus of about 6,000 min’yō recordings from NHK’s epic anthology and on a separate corpus of about 4,000 traditional English ballads like “Scarborough Fair” (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 1944–93; Savage et al. 2022).

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The main goal of the lessons was to prepare students to perform in amateur min’yō competitions. Students would generally perform in two to six annual competitions each year. Many of these would be general competitions where performers could sing any min’yō, but some were restricted to songs from a specific region or prefecture or even a specific song (e.g., “Esashi Oiwake” or “Nanbu Ushioi Uta” 南部牛追唄). For example, the national “Esashi Oiwake” championship gathers several hundred performers from around Japan to Esashi town, Hokkaido, where they all perform the same song, “Esashi Oiwake,” over the course of two days—and these several hundred performers represent only a subset of those who have passed through regional qualifying stages. At each competition, performers compete within their classes, which are generally divided by age and sometimes also by ability (beginner, intermediate, etc.). The age groupings reflect the extremely skewed demographics of min’yō enthusiasts: I would generally be part of a generic “Under-55” adult category, while older categories are divided more finely (e.g., 55–70, 70–80, 80+), and there is also often a children’s category. All performers receive numeric scores from the judges, and the top scorers would receive trophies, certificates, and sometimes items like sacks of rice or local delicacies. Winning Awards as a Foreigner: Sight vs. Sound? 3.3 The previous section described my experiences learning and performing min’yō through orally transmitted lessons and at competitions, which are the dominant ways in which min’yō is preserved and transmitted in Japan today. Yet min’yō is diversifying in many other directions. I have been fortunate enough to receive a number of awards for my folk song singing. These include 1st place in the 2014 and 2015 “Under-55” section of the Sagamihara Folk Song Association Championship (相模原市民文化祭 民謡大会) and 1st place in the “Foreigner” section of the 2019 Nanbu Ushioi Uta National Championship (南部牛追唄全国大会; fig. 8.5). The latter was to my knowledge the first time a special “foreigner” section was created. However, because only a six-year-old half-Japanese boy from Australia and I registered, I suspect it will also be the last time. While this competition was the only time my “foreigner” status has been formally incorporated in the judging, I have always wondered how it may have unofficially influenced my awards. With a couple of exceptions, I am almost always the only performer who is visibly non-Japanese at these competitions. I often get unusually enthusiastic applause from the audience and receive comments like “You’re better than the Japanese!” (日本人よりうまい！) or “I would have thought you were Japanese if I had closed my eyes” (目を閉じていれば日

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Figure 8.5 Patrick Savage with his trophy for 1st place in the “foreigner” category of the 2019 National Championship (南部牛追唄) in Iwaizumi, Iwate prefecture The full video of the performance and post-performance interview is at https://youtu.be/W2HLiajKg0w

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本人と思ったかも). While I am proud to receive these comments and awards,

I often wonder whether I’m benefiting from a kind of “affirmative action” or novelty effect and whether I would still receive such awards if, say, the judging was done blind and based only on the sound without knowing what I looked like, as is sometimes done (controversially) in professional orchestral auditions (Sommers 2019). Such questions about the role of race in judging competitions were part of why I was excited to collaborate with my co-author on our study exploring the effects of sight vs. sound on evaluating musical performance (Chiba et al. 2021; described above in Chiba’s case study). Our experiment design could not disentangle visual effects from different components like race, gender, and age, but we hope that future research may be able to do so and help ensure diversity and equity in evaluating musicians.

3.4 Notation and Classicization in “Esashi Oiwake” Although min’yō is predominantly transmitted orally, one major exception is the song “Esashi Oiwake,” which is considered by many to be the most difficult of all min’yō because of its complex ornamentation.6 To summarize, while “Esashi Oiwake” and its predecessors and related melodies were initially sung with great local and individual variation like all folk songs, during the twentieth century, a movement began to create a single, standardized (“correct”) notation (seichō 正調). When I began learning this song, I was told that to perform in competitions I couldn’t just belong as a member of the Shūmin-kai, but I would have to register with (and pay dues to) the Esashi Oiwake-kai 江差追分会 (organization) and take special lessons in just this song from a recognized teacher. This teacher, Matsunaga Tatsuo 松長辰雄, told me that I had to follow this notation exactly and would use a stopwatch and a pointer to track my singing. Any deviation from the standard—such as vocalizing too many or too few ornaments, singing the first phrase in less than twenty-five seconds, or running out of breath and taking an extra breath during any of the phrases—would automatically disqualify me during the competition. For better and for worse, the “Esashi Oiwake” model seems to have successfully “classicized” this song, taking it from a free, unstructured folk song into a highly prescribed, notated performance, monetized and supported by the institutional structure of the Esashi Oiwake association and the town of Esashi itself (for which “Esashi Oiwake” 6 For further discussion of “Esashi Oiwake,” see Hughes (2008b) and Machida and Takeuchi (1965).

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and related tourism was a conscious and apparently successful strategy after its economy was devastated by the collapse of its stock of herring). 3.5 Fusion and Globalization Min’yō today is not only preserved and transmitted in traditional forms. Many performers are combining and fusing traditional folk styles with those from diverse traditions. A popular recent example is the group Minyo Crusaders (民謡クルセイダーズ), whose creative fusions of min’yō with Latin/jazz grooves and instruments have been featured globally in places like the Tiny Desk Concerts hosted by NPR Music (Boilen 2021). In Roppongi, a long-running event named Japanese Lounge Night features traditional Japanese music, including Tsugaru shamisen and min’yō, in various traditional and fusion forms in a casual environment with food, drink, and extensive audience interaction. At one performance in 2012, David Hughes, who was visiting from the UK, and I sang a hip hop inflected version of the min’yō 南部俵積唄 (Nanbu Basket-stuffing Song) accompanied by a Tsugaru shamisen remixed over the instrumental backing from Timbaland’s “The Way I Are” (2007). For a keynote lecture/concert I was invited to give at MUTEK Tokyo (a major electronic music festival) in 2020, my co-author and I reprised and extended this collaboration to remix not just these two songs but also diverse musical samples, including Japanese ethnic minorities (Amami island shima-uta by Naruse Marin, Ainu mukkuri jaw harp by Ehara Utae), central and western Africa (Baka Gbiné, Sona Jobarteh), Mongolia (The HU), and Queen’s “We Will Rock You” (fig. 8.6). We were able to do this because, like much of the world’s music, these all shared similar basic structural features such as duple meters and minor pentatonic scales (Savage et al. 2015). 4

Conclusion

Written notation has shaped the evolution of both Tsugaru shamisen and min’yō. It has resulted in standardization and a loss of diversity in genres that were originally transmitted orally with more variation. Although the means of oral transmission has changed with the development of different media, our teachers have remained respectful of tradition and have maintained the oral transmission of the tradition in parallel with the introduction of notation. However, the transmission of Tsugaru shamisen music and min’yō increasingly uses written notation inspired by (though different from) the introduction of

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Figure 8.6 Screenshots of live performances during the 2020 MUTEK Tokyo keynote lecture/concert, featuring live performances of Tsugaru shamisen (Chiba Gakuto, bottom right), min’yō (Patrick Savage, top right), Amami island shima-uta (Naruse Marin, top left), and Ainu mukkuri (Ehara Utae, bottom left). These performances were remixed with each other and with traditional and popular music from around the world (Sona Jobarteh, Baka Gbiné, The HU, Timbaland, and Queen) to demonstrate universality and diversity in the world’s music The full video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYuTyMg9JBA

Western scores. If this standardization continues, the element of variety in succession created by differences in the social backgrounds and personalities of the inheritors will be lost. However, written notation may encourage new musicians who may have struggled with the old, purely orally transmitted learning methods. It may also help to preserve the existence of folk music for future generations, even as the number of performers decreases. While notation largely serves to standardize and reduce diversity, other dimensions of folk music have diversified in recent years. These dimensions

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include visual appearance, where performers nowadays may wear traditional kimono, Western suits, T-shirts, etc. This visual diversification includes ethnic/ racial diversity, with foreigners like Savage increasingly participating in competitions enough for organizers to create special categories. This diversification also extends to cross-cultural collaborations between Japanese folk musicians and Western instruments. Concepts such as “ma” in Tsugaru shamisen and “kobushi” in folk songs previously considered to be uniquely Japanese have been successfully fused together and attracted the world’s attention. Thus, the evolution of Japanese traditional folk music has balanced standardization to preserve traditional aspects (especially aural elements) with diversification (especially of visual elements) to attract more people and to increase the number of successors. In the post-COVID-19 era, online classes, video, and social networking distribution have become popular. However, skilled practitioners of traditional Japanese folk music are seniors and not always skilled in utilizing these media. The current situation is that young people are freely diffusing the music. The question that arises here is whether the folk music performances that have been disseminated are really traditional. In an age when anyone can spread and share information, this is the best means of disseminating traditional Japanese folk music, but it is a double-edged sword that can overturn tradition if one step is taken the wrong way. Despite the challenges in preserving and promoting traditional music, we believe that Tsugaru shamisen, min’yō, and other forms of traditional Japanese folk music will continue to evolve, like all music (Savage 2019). Our challenge will be to adapt to the changes of new eras and ensure the sustainable evolution of folk music in a way that strikes a balance between standardization and diversification. In one form or another, traditional Japanese folk music will live on in the hearts and minds of generations to come.

Acknowledgements

We thank Henry Johnson for the invitation to contribute this chapter. We thank Kanno Kōzan, Ogita Shūsei, and Matsunaga Tatsuo for their teaching and our fellow students for their support. We thank members of our Keio SFC CompMusic Lab (Ozaki Yuto, Daikoku Hideo, Christopher Mitcheltree, and Shafagh Hadavi) and David Hughes for comments on a draft of this manuscript. An earlier version of this chapter was submitted in partial fulfilment of Chiba Gakuto’s MSc thesis at Keio University: Chiba, Gakuto. 2023. “Tradition

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and Innovation in Japanese Folk Music: Cognitive, Evolutionary and Historical Analyses.” MSc thesis, Keio University. References Boilen, Bob. 2021. “Minyo Crusaders: Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts.” Posted 17 January. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/18/957310367/minyo-crusaders-tiny-desk-home -concerts. Chiba, Gakuto, Yuto Ozaki, Shinya Fujii, and Patrick E. Savage. 2023. “Sight vs. Sound Judgments of Music Performance Depend on Relative Performer Quality: CrossCultural Evidence from Classical Piano and Tsugaru Shamisen Competitions.” Collabra: Psychology 9 (1). https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.73641. Daijō, Kazuo 大條和雄. 1995. Tsugaru shamisen no tanjō: Minzoku geinō no seisei to ryūsei 津軽三味線の誕生:民俗芸能の生成と隆盛. Tokyo: Shinyōsha 新曜社. Fujio, Ryūzō 藤尾隆造, ed. 1997. Nihon no min’yō 日本の民謡. Tokyo: Fujio Rokubon フジオロクボン. Hughes, David W. 2008a. “Folk Music: From Local to National to Global.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes, 281–302. Aldershot: Ashgate. Hughes, David W. 2008b. Traditional Folk Song in Modern Japan: Sources, Sentiment and Society. Folkestone: Global Oriental. Kanno, Kōzan 菅野孝山. 1983. Nihon min’yō sangen: Kanno Kōzan-ryū shamisen fu 日本 民謡三弦:菅野孝山流三味線譜. Unpublished scores. Koizumi, Fumio 小泉文夫. 1983. “Minzoku ongaku no una” 民俗音楽の項. In Ongaku daijiten 音楽大辞典, 5. Tokyo: Heibonsha 平凡社. Machida, Kashō 町田佳声, and Takeuchi Tsutomu 竹内勉, eds. 1965. “Esashi Oiwake” to “Sado Okesa”: Min’yō genryū kō 「江差追分」と「佐渡おけさ」:民謡源流考. Columbia, AL-5047/50 (4 LP s). Matsuki, Hiroyasu 松木宏泰. 2011. Tsugaru shamisen mandara: Tsugaru kara sekai e: Sōsha tachi no kutō to sono rekishi 津軽三味線まんだら:津軽から世界へ:奏者たちの 苦闘とその歴史. Tokyo: Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャーナル. Mehr, Samuel A., Daniel A. Scannell, and Ellen Winner. 2018. “Sight-over-Sound Judgments of Music Performances Are Replicable Effects with Limited Interpretability.” PLOS ONE 13 (9): e0202075. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202075. Monbushō 文部科学省. 1998. “Chūgakkō gakushū shidō yōryō: Ongaku” 中学校学習指 導要領:音楽. Accessed 23 February 2023. https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou /cs/1320075.htm. Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, ed. 日本放送協会. 1944–93. Nihon min’yō taikan 日本民謡大観. 14 vols. Tokyo: Nippon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai 日本放送出版協会.

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Nishizawa, Akio 西澤昭男, dir. 2004. NITABOH. Nitabō: Tsugaru shamisen shiso gaibun NITABOH. 仁太坊:津軽三味線始祖外聞. Tokyo: Wao Corporation. Film, 100 min. Savage, Patrick E. 2019. “Cultural Evolution of Music.” Palgrave Communications 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0221-1. Savage, Patrick E., Steven Brown, Emi Sakai, and Thomas E. Currie. 2015. “Statistical Universals Reveal the Structures and Functions of Human Music.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112 (29): 8987–8992. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414495112. Savage, Patrick E., Psyche Loui, Bronwyn Tarr, Adena Schachner, Luke Glowacki, Steven Mithen, and W. Tecumseh Fitch. 2021. “Music as a Coevolved System for Social Bonding.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 44: e59. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X 20000333. Savage, Patrick E., Sam Passmore, Gakuto Chiba, Thomas E. Currie, Haruo Suzuki, and Quentin D. Atkinson. 2022. “Sequence Alignment of Folk Song Melodies Reveals Cross-Cultural Regularities of Musical Evolution.” Current Biology 32 (6): 1395–1402. e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.01.039. Sommers, Christina Hoff. 2019. “Blind Spots in the ‘Blind Audition’ Study.” Wall Street Journal, 20 October. https://www.wsj.com/articles/blind-spots-in-the-blind -audition-study-11571599303. Takahashi, Chikuzan 高橋竹山. 1991. Tsugaru shamisen hitoritabi 津軽三味線ひとり旅. Tokyo: Chūōkōron-Shinsha 中央公論新社. Tanaka, Kenji 田中健次. 2008. Zukai nihon ongakushi 図解日本音楽史. Tokyo: Tokyodō Shuppan 東京堂出版. Tokita, Alison M., and David W. Hughes, eds. 2008. The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music. Aldershot: Ashgate. Tsay, Chia-Jung. 2013. “Sight over Sound in the Judgment of Music Performance.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 (36): 14580–14585. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221454110.

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Chapter 9

Naniwa-bushi: A Musical Narrative Born in Modern Japan Alison TOKITA 1

Introduction

Naniwa-bushi 浪花節 is a genre of musical story-telling (story-singing).1 A duo of singer-narrator and shamisen 三味線 (three-string lute) player delivers stories of bravado and romance, alternating lyric song with spoken narrative and dialogue. This relatively recent addition to Japan’s stable of oral story-telling with musical accompaniment left the streets for small variety theatres in the late nineteenth century, the era of Japan’s modern nation-building. It dominated nascent sound recording media, and its popularity grew further in the age of radio, experiencing a peak in the 1930s and another golden era in the 1960s and 1970s. Although it reached its greatest heights of popularity between 1900 and 1950, it retained a high profile in the postwar decades. It continues to attract new audiences and performers and to generate new repertoire today. As a form of orally transmitted musical story-telling, naniwa-bushi is an anomaly that is surely incompatible with modernity. With a heritage that goes back at least to the medieval narratives of Heike 平家 and kōwaka 幸若 and the early modern sekkyō-bushi 説経節 and jōruri 浄瑠璃 (Tokita 2015), this relic of oral culture emerged at the very time that Japan was introducing Western music, which would become Japan’s default music. It was at the same time a modern entertainment. Its meteoric rise from street performance to permanent venues, then major theatres, was assisted by astute use of modern media, the pro-active use of which attests to its modernity. It interacted with other genres to broaden its repertoire by eclectically appropriating narrative content and diversifying its musical expression. This upstart form of urban entertainment rapidly rose to eclipse its story-telling rivals, kōdan 講談 (Mastrangelo 1995) and rakugo 落語 (Brau 2008), and capture the emerging recording market.

1 Rōkyoku 浪曲 was a later appellation and is interchangeable with naniwa-bushi.

© Alison TOKITA, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_011

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In its heyday, naniwa-bushi was not considered a traditional narrative art but regarded as a popular entertainment (figs. 9.1–9.2). But its very popularity made it vulnerable to appropriation by the establishment: by educators, administrators, and ultimately the nation state. It was a victim of its own success. Now that it is no longer widely popular, it is starting to claim traditional status and to access support from funding bodies, especially in Osaka. Many features place naniwa-bushi in a traditional or neo-traditional frame. Its character as oral narrative is evident in its minimal reliance on texts and total lack of musical notations and its oral methods of transmission, combined with the characteristic voice that does not sing but “growls” (unaru うなる). Its musical style is also traditional, cognate with jōruri. Performers are always attired in kimono in a plain, unadorned stage setting. Its narratives concern premodern marginal figures and espouse old-fashioned values. Despite naniwa-bushi’s enthusiastic reliance on print and electronic media, naniwa-bushi’s orality is

Figure 9.1 The naniwa-bushi stage in the Meiji era. Fūzoku Gahō 風俗画報, 1907 Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naniwabusi -yose.jpg

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Figure 9.2 The contemporary naniwa-bushi stage at Mokubatei 木馬亭. Rōkyoku-shi: Tamagawa Nanafuku 玉川奈々福; kyokushi: Sawamura Toyoko 沢村豊子. Performing Kan’ei Sanba-jutsu: Magaki to Dodohei 寛永三馬術:曲垣と度々平. 22 August 2015 Photo © Midō Yoshinori 御堂義乘

enduring. Flexibility and improvisation remain central. Continuing to embrace new content, it has great generative capacity and an extraordinarily broad repertoire, while the popular music genres of Edo—jōruri, nagauta 長唄, jiuta 地歌—have come to seem classical even fossilized in the modern period. Naniwa-bushi parallels and starkly contrasts with “modern” biwa 琵琶 (lute) music that also came to prominence in modern Japan (de Ferranti 2020). These new biwa genres had an aristocratic patina, redolent of a past era. The biwa was respectable, while the shamisen was decadent, carrying the stigma of association with the licensed quarters. Supported by aristocrats and upwardly mobile moderns, biwa narrative evoked samurai culture and was serious and stoic. Although modern biwa’s aesthetic and fandom contrasted with naniwa-bushi’s, both genres served the agenda of the nation state, revelling in nationalistic content, for which they were castigated after the Second World War; both struggled to reinvent themselves in the postwar period.

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This chapter argues that the enduring orality of naniwa-bushi defines performer-audience interaction and enables its ongoing vitality and capacity for change. I provide a counter-argument to a discourse of decline and of being outmoded and aesthetically impoverished. Presenting factors that keep naniwa-bushi alive, despite declining audiences, this chapter documents the changing demographics of audiences and performers. It begins by outlining the form of naniwa-bushi as narrative and as music, stressing its oral features, then follows a historical survey of its origins and development before looking at the current state of the art. 2

Staging, Narrative, and Musical Form

Naniwa-bushi is performed on a simple stage in a small theatre, similar to the performance of rakugo and kōdan. The singer-narrator (rōkyoku-shi 浪曲師), attired in a kimono, stands behind a table draped with a distinctive, personalized cloth, while the accompanist (kyokushi 曲師) playing the shamisen is seated to the singer’s left, normally screened from view but recently often in full view. The only props are a fan and towel. The setting is intimate and encourages a close relationship with the audience. What might be called an impoverished aesthetic is limited to the voice and gestures of the singer, who is fixed to the mic placed on the table, and the dramatically expressive shamisen. The musical aspect gives naniwa-bushi a richer aesthetic appeal than rakugo and kōdan, but because musical delivery slows the narrative, stories are less detailed. The orality of naniwa-bushi is most evident in the formulaic expression of its verbal aspect (texts) and its musical aspect: the fluid, improvisational character, the minimal reliance on written texts, and the total lack of musical notation. Because of the influence of kōdan, the source of much early repertoire, naniwa-bushi is a hybrid of story-telling (wagei 話芸) and story-singing (katarimono 語り物). The narrative unfolds in a sequence of discrete sections, alternating sung narrative ( fushi 節) and spoken sections (tanka 啖呵) of narrative and dialogue. The division of fushi and tanka is fluid. Some singers apply the division differently; one singer may even deliver text in fushi one time and tanka another. Length is not fixed; a section can range from one or two phrases to five minutes or more. The text of sung sections is in traditional poetic metre of lines of seven plus five syllables, while spoken sections are in prose or dialogue. Music is at the core of the genre. While spoken narrative may occupy more time than sung fushi, a piece starts and ends with musical delivery, and the sections of spoken narrative with dramatic dialogue are interpolated into

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the musical flow. The vocal delivery consists of an array of fushi “melodies” that have orally transmitted names and are formulaic. Fushi are actually not fixed melodies but narrative musical substyles. Each fushi has loosely-defined musical characteristics, but variation and individual fluidity in realization is the norm. The basic or most commonly used fushi unit has two parts: kikkake, which is unaccompanied, apart from brief shamisen motifs between phrases, melismatic and in free rhythm; this part is followed by kizami, a more syllabic style, in fitted rhythm, with active shamisen accompaniment (Tokita 2022, 48–52). Only urei and seme are content specific. The basic modality is traditional pentatonic. The vocal melody slips easily between ritsu 律 (E–F#–A) and miyako-bushi 都節 (E–F–A) tetrachords; sometimes a min’yō 民謡 tetrachord (E–G–A) appears. Modally consistent across all pieces, the sectional cadence E–A–F# (ate-bushi アテブシ) and the piece-final E–F–E (barashi バラシ) are the only phrase-length formulas. The biggest shamisen ( futozao 太棹) is tuned to sansagari 三下がり (B–E–A). It provides the musical foundation of the narrative with short section preludes and a brief postlude. It supports the extensive spoken narrative with fragmentary motifs and melodies that atmospherically match the narrative content. The kyokushi controls the narrative to a considerable extent and must be adaptable to work with singers of different styles. She sits facing not the audience but the singer, intently following his breathing and phrasing.2 Her “sound track” is mostly unobtrusive, at times explosive, and completely improvised. 3

Origins of Naniwa-bushi and Early Stars

Naniwa-bushi emerged in modern Japan as a musical narrative that addressed disenfranchised groups by embodying traditional values in a time of social disjuncture. It had its origins in street performances of the Edo period, including saimon 祭文, chobokure ちょぼくれ, and sekkyō-bushi. It also drew on non-musical story-telling kōdan, making it more dependent on spoken narrative than earlier story-singing genres. By the 1890s, naniwa-bushi was increasingly being heard not only on the streets and in temporary reed enclosures but in small variety theatres (yose 寄席). By 1900, the number of specialist naniwa-bushi theatres outstripped those for kōdan and rakugo, and naniwa-bushi became the dominant form of entertainment for the working classes. A key foundational figure, 2 The kyokushi may be male or female, though female is more common.

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Naniwatei Komakichi 浪花亭駒吉 (1842–1906), mobilized performers in Tokyo to form a naniwa-bushi union in the 1880s. There have always been two streams of naniwa-bushi: Kantō-bushi 関東節, which derived largely from saimon and kōdan in the east (Tokyo), and Kansai-bushi 関西節, which stemmed from ukare-bushi 浮かれブシ in the west (Osaka). Although they coalesced into a shared identity as naniwa-bushi, these two streams remained. Kantō-bushi was foundational for the genre, but the more musical Kansai-bushi became the dominant style. In Tokyo, more performers identify as Kansai-bushi than as Kantō-bushi. As the two lineages intertwined and lost any geographical significance, stylistic distinctions remained. Kantō-bushi has more spoken delivery and less musical variety. Kansai-bushi’s fushi include the content-related urei and seme, which traditionally do not feature in Kantō-bushi. Tōchūken Kumoemon 桃中軒雲衛門 (1873–1916) first brought naniwa-bushi to national attention (fig. 9.3). His father was a saimon narrator who was active in Tokyo in the 1880s. Kumoemon was born and raised in Shin’ami-chō 新網町, one of Tokyo’s four main slum districts, near Shinagawa, and started with saimon through his father and others in the district, which had a significant population of street entertainers. Kumoemon eloped with his teacher’s shamisen player and self-banished to Kyushu with her, performing at towns and cities on the way. Working in Kyushu from 1900 to 1907, he became embroiled with journalists and political activists who were supporters of Chinese revolutionaries. They encouraged his performances of tales about the forty-seven samurai (Chūshingura 忠臣蔵) or Gishiden 義士伝, which inspired anti-establishment behaviour while being highly loyal and self-sacrificing. The patriotism of early twentieth-century Japan was fired by such sentiments (Hyōdō and Smith 2006). Gishiden pieces are a core repertoire of naniwa-bushi even today and are emblematic of the genre (Tokita 2018). Kumoemon made a triumphal return first to Osaka and Kobe, then to Tokyo, where he had a fourteen-day season at the Hongō-za 本郷座, a major theatre with a capacity of 1,000. In Tokyo, high-ranking bureaucrats and educators noticed his influence and recruited him to espouse bushidō (the way of the samurai) values as expressed in the Gishiden and attempted to use him as a purveyor of neo-traditional values of loyalty and nationalism. In following decades, naniwa-bushi continued to attract the attention of officialdom, who sought to appropriate it for educational and propaganda purposes (Manabe 2013). Uniquely, Kumoemon changed the stage format of naniwa-bushi: instead of the traditional seated position on the floor, the singer-narrator stands behind the table, a change influenced by political speeches of the Freedom and People’s

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Figure 9.3 Tōchūken Kumoemon. Poster commemorating the 150th anniversary of his birth Image courtesy of Nihon Rōkyoku Kyōkai 日本浪曲協会

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Rights movement ( Jiyū Minken Undō 自由民権運動) of the 1880s. Completely unconventional with long flowing hair, he performed in a formal kimono, and his shamisen player was screened from view on stage left. Kumoemon made some recordings and was able to command high fees for his performances. However, he died almost penniless of tuberculosis in 1916. He became a legendary figure, about whom later naniwa-bushi pieces were created. Another less flamboyant foundational figure was Yoshida Naramaru 吉田 奈良丸 (1899–1967). Like Kumoemon, Naramaru was the son of a saimon performer in the Kansai region. His broad repertoire, mostly kōdan derived (Manabe 2017, 59–82), followed that of Kumoemon by focusing particularly on Gishiden (Kitagawa 2015). He was a more astute artist than Kumoemon and became widely known through his large number of recordings, which kick-started the early recording industry. He was a successful entrepreneur who owned and managed several yose halls. In 1917, he toured America and was introduced to the President, although his audience was primarily Japanese. He was among many rōkyoku performers who toured America and Brazil, performing aboard ships en route. His legacy is seen in the number of students he raised (reputedly nearly one hundred) and his performance practice. He was married to another rōkyoku-shi, Haruno Yuriko 春野百合子 (1900–46), whose child and successor, Haruno Yuriko II (1927–2016), was active into the twenty-first century and raised disciples active in Osaka. Although Kumoemon and Naramaru musically fit the loose parameters of Kansai-bushi, their individual styles were distinct and often compared (Kitagawa 2015). The iconoclastic Kumoemon probably had a greater impact on the public at the time. Kumoemon was musically less subtle than Naramaru, using a simple pentatonic scale without semitones (B–D–E–G–A [B D E]), whereas Naramaru’s singing was more modally nuanced and finished phrases with melismatic flourishes. 4

The Golden Age of the 1930s

The 1930s was indisputably the Golden Age of naniwa-bushi. Naniwa-bushi was consistently the most popular genre on radio (see Hyōdō 2000, 229; Yui 1999, 55). Recording technology continued to improve, and private ownership of record players increased. While recordings brought naniwa-bushi to many listeners and fans, the advent of radio from 1925 had a larger impact.3 Owning 3 The earliest modern media was sokki 速記, stenographic versions of performed texts published in newspapers and magazines (Miller 1994). While sokki continued until well into

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a radio or having access to radio broadcasts was more widespread over the social spectrum than owning a record player. Another technical innovation of the 1930s was the electric microphone. Rōkyoku films were produced, especially once talkies overtook silent films in the 1930s. Such films incorporated naniwa-bushi into the film in an organic way, whether as a theme song or, in some cases, part of the story. Diversification of narrative content occurred (Tokita 2018, 11–17). The typical narratives of the bravado and loyalty of outlaws were adapted from kōdan by performers themselves. Very early, script writers started to create new material for naniwa-bushi, often adapted from published literature and other sources. Multiple narratives about General Nogi Maresuke 乃木希典 (1849–1912), the hero of the Russo-Japanese War, for example, abounded, and many are still performed today. Musical diversification was also undertaken. There were experiments using piano accompaniment in the 1930s (Manabe 2013). In the postwar period, guitar and studio orchestra were often paired with shamisen or totally replaced it. Other instruments, including koto 箏 (zither) and shakuhachi 尺八 (vertical flute), have been experimented with. The introduction of Western instruments brought into the musical fabric westernized pentatonic (yonanuki 四名貫) “major” and “minor” scales, the latter being the same modality as postwar enka 演歌, whose roots are largely in rōkyoku. When the shamisen is included in a studio orchestra, there are moments of modal clash, which sound strangely dissonant, but no-one seems to mind. Japan’s colonial spaces (Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria) provided performers with expanded outlets to reach Japanese communities in those territories, while tours to diasporic communities in Hawai‘i, California, and Brazil sustained rōkyoku into the postwar decades. One of the most famous rōkyoku-shi active from the 1930s to the 1960s was the iconic Hirosawa Torazō 広沢 虎造 (1899–1964). He became a symbol of the genre and is still widely known. He specialized in pieces about outlaws and gangsters, with his most famous repertoire being the Shimizu Jirōchō 清水次郎長 series of pieces. Torazō’s voice did not carry like the typical performer’s voice, but he made skilful use of the new electric microphone. He featured in several rōkyoku films and recorded profusely.

the 1920s, the most significant media from the early 1900s was sound recording. On sound recording, see Kurata (1979).

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Wartime Patriotic Rōkyoku and Postwar Reinvention

From the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, performers were under pressure to provide content that ignited patriotism and support the government’s militaristic policies. They performed patriotic pieces (aikoku rōkyoku 愛国浪曲) to scripts written by influential writers who collaborated with the military agenda. The pressure to perform patriotic pieces increased after the Pacific War broke out in 1941 (Yui 1999, 96–97). In the postwar period, rōkyoku suffered from the stigma of having collaborated with the military government. During the Occupation, material such as Gishiden was banned by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. When television was introduced in 1953, visually uninteresting rōkyoku became less popular than popular song with studio orchestra and lavish sets. At this time, further musical changes occurred, challenging the character of the genre. Minami Haruo 三波春夫 (1923–2001) began his career as a rōkyoku-shi but in the 1950s was drawn to popular song. He pioneered a style of rōkyoku with orchestral backing, adopting the strophic form of kayōkyoku 歌謡曲 and min’yō, which was a seedbed of enka. Similarly, kayō rōkyoku 歌謡浪曲 (also called enka rōkyoku) replaced shamisen with studio orchestra. With pre-recorded orchestral accompaniment complete with cinematic sound effects, the rōkyoku-shi continued to give live performances, relying on an “operator” (who also received a professional name) to cue the accompaniment appropriately for different parts of the narrative. One prominent exponent of this style was Mayama Ichirō 真山一郎 (1929–2021), and his successor of the same name (b. 1959). A new talent, Mayama Hayato 真山隼人 (b. 1995) initially trained in kayō rōkyoku with Mayama Ichirō, but after a few years he started working with the kyokushi Sawamura Sakura 沢村さくら (b. 1974) in Osaka and now is a complete convert to shamisen-accompanied rōkyoku. He feels that performing with a live accompanist gives him more flexibility in performance, facilitating improvisation and originality. One of many popular artists active from the 1960s to the 1980s was Kyōyama Kōshiwaka 京山幸枝若 (1926–91), whose centre of activity was Osaka. He toured widely and featured regularly on television. Musically, Kōshiwaka’s style was relatively monotonous, compatible with the strophic Kawachi Ondo 河内音頭 ballads that he performed regularly for Bon dances. But his ability to portray character and comic dialogue was brilliant, and he had a huge following. Like Torazō, he specialized in gangster content, such as the series Aizu no Kotetsu 会津の小鉄 and Yūten Kichimatsu 祐天吉松, and is famous for the

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comic character series Hidari Jingorō 左甚五郎. Basically, conventional shamisen accompanied his performance, although he included in the mix an electric guitar or two. In the postwar period, radio broadcasts and new EP recording technologies were important. Commercial recordings appeared on cassette tapes, and other recordings were made by surreptitiously taping performances. The long texts were folded up in the small cassette boxes. Many retrospective collections of LP s were created when the CD medium overtook records. Radio and television broadcasts gradually declined, with the only regular broadcasts now being the weekly NHK Rōkyoku 18 ban 浪曲十八番. Fears of decline and the death of the art were palpable in the 1990s. Tamagawa Fukutarō 玉川福太郎 (1945–2007) became a new type of artist, who, it was hoped, would appeal to a broader and younger audience. With his wife and kyokushi, Mineko みね子, he gave new life to the repertoire he inherited from his teacher, Tamagawa Katsutarō 玉川勝太郎 III (1933–2000), famous for the series Tenpō Suikoden 天宝水滸伝 (The Water Margin of the Tenpō Era). Fukutarō left a three-CD set of six of the episodes of this kōdan-derived series. He died prematurely in a motor accident but left a number of followers, including two who have been trained mainly by Mineko and are actively creating new repertoire. Kantō-bushi continues to thrive through these performers. 6

Current State of Naniwa-bushi

It is usually believed that naniwa-bushi audiences are shrinking and consist only of aged people with low levels of education, losers in Japan’s economic miracle who cling to outdated values of giri-ninjō 義理人情, the conflict between obligation and sentiment, and a nostalgic Japanese sentimentality. A survey of audiences in Tokyo and Osaka carried out in 2013 tested these assumptions. The survey was undertaken by the author with sociology students from Doshisha University, Kyoto, as part of fieldwork on the Isshinji Monzen Rōkyoku Yose 一心寺門前浪曲寄席, the Osaka venue for monthly naniwa-bushi performances. The questionnaire was administered 12–14 October 2013 and at Mokubatei 木馬亭 in Asakusa, 2–7 December 2013, and the data was compared (Tokita and Okamoto 2014).4

4 Isshinji Monzen Rōkyoku Yose is held monthly by the professional association for rōkyoku in Osaka, the Rōkyoku Shinyū Kyōkai 浪曲親友協会, in a small hall belonging to Isshinji temple in Tennōji, Osaka. The regular monthly season of the Tokyo professional association, the Nihon Rōkyoku Kyōkai 日本浪曲協会, is held at the Mokubatei theatre in Asakusa, Tokyo. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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This survey, although limited in scope and already dated, provides an insight into the profile of contemporary audiences and the reasons they go to hear naniwa-bushi. It confirmed that while audiences were predominantly male (at Isshinji nearly 30 percent of respondents were female and at Mokubatei only 17 percent) and over sixty, they ranged from twenty to over eighty years of age. It also showed the local nature of consumption, confined to easy commuting to downtown Tokyo or Osaka. We were surprised that no one attended Isshinji from neighbouring Kyoto, but one lady came regularly from Sendai to the Osaka performances, bypassing Tokyo. The occupation of fans was predominantly white collar (especially retired), not working class. The highest educational level was mostly high school graduates, but a significant number were university graduates (in Osaka 37 percent and Tokyo 43 percent). The three respondents who replied “primary school level” were all over eighty. In Osaka, Kyōyama Kōshiwaka was by far the most popular performer. He is the son of Kyōyama Kōshiwaka I, whose repertoire and general style he inherited. The next most popular was Haruno Keiko 春野恵子, a former TV host for NHK, who has good looks and appeals to males. She inherited Haruno Yuriko II’s repertoire of giri-ninjō stories of Edo-period love suicide dramas and has pioneered English-language rōkyoku overseas. Kō Itten 幸いってん is popular for his personality as well as his performance and is admired for having overcome cancer to make a comeback but has since withdrawn from the stage. Mayama Ichirō, who uses karaoke accompaniment, has a riveting gaze and a dramatic ability to convey character. Matsuura Shirōwaka 松浦四郎若 has a winning but self-effacing personality and brilliantly conveys human foibles. He focuses on historical tales from kōdan but with humorous elements. In Mokubatei, Kunimoto Takeharu 国本武春 polled highest by a large margin. Both of his parents were rōkyoku-shi, but he developed an eclectic style including rock and bluegrass and experimented with fusion of shamisen and electric guitar. Sadly, he died in 2015, aged fifty-five. Sawa Takako 澤孝子 (1939–2022), who was a veteran performer, had a wide repertoire and a commanding presence and engaged audiences in her introductory comments. She has left several followers. Azumaya Uratarō 東屋浦太郎 (1942–2022) first became popular as an enka singer. A Kantō-bushi performer, his repertoire included several kōdan series. Minatoya Koryū 港家小柳 (?–2018; active since 1945) toured exhaustively in her prime, and NHK made a documentary about her in 2016. Fuji Michiko 藤路子 (in 2018, she took the name Azumaya Sanraku V 東家山 楽, indicating artistic maturity and status) has a wide and ever-expanding repertoire. She has strong fan club support. Her voice is not brilliant, but she is a serious, convincing performer. Tamagawa Nanafuku 玉川奈々福 actively collaborates with other genres (rakugo, kōdan, pansori) and works closely with veteran kyokushi Sawamura Toyoko 沢村豊子 (b. 1937). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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The favourite genre for respondents was outlaw pieces that exploit giri-ninjō conflict, punish the powerful, and champion the weak. The next most popular was tear-jerkers that feature a mother figure, such as “Mabuta no Haha” 瞼の母. Next came success stories (shusse mono 出世もの), Gishiden, and comic pieces, such as “Hidari Jingorō” and “Mito Kōmon” 水戸黄門. While there was little difference in preferred genres between Isshinji and Mokubatei, specifically named pieces differed. This variance is clearly linked to the repertoire of the most popular singers in each location. Performers in principle do not perform at the regular monthly seasons of the other association. As a result, there is almost no crossover of performers in the monthly seasons of the Mokubatei and Isshinji venues. It became clear that the older generation had listened to rōkyoku from an early age, but young to middle-aged listeners and the university-educated first became aware of it recently. For them, it was something unfamiliar and slightly exotic, the charm of “retro” old working-class (shitamachi 下町) culture contrasts with their modern lifestyle and is refreshing and nostalgic at the same time. What is the appeal of naniwa-bushi, and what induces fans to travel perhaps monthly and pay 2,000 yen to enjoy it for two hours in Osaka or four hours in Tokyo? To the question Why do you like naniwa-bushi?, there were broadly two types of response: a cluster of keywords relating to form, and a cluster relating to narrated content. Regarding form, respondents valued the interaction between singer and shamisen (kakeai 掛け合い), improvisation, the quality of the shamisen, the fushi and microtonal ornamentation, and skill in delivering dialogue. In relation to content, prominent responses were romance and tragedy, the rousing of emotions, the values conveyed, such as giri-ninjō, Japanese spirit, and learning about history and past eras. At Isshinji, a preference for emotional appeal stood out. By listening to naniwa-bushi, respondents experienced emotions that provoked tears and laughter and gave a sense of calm or peace. At Mokubatei, many respondents referred to the appeal of traditional narrative art, wagei. Audiences of the regular monthly seasons only hear rōkyoku-shi who belong to the local organization. Therefore, although favourite types of pieces were much the same in both places, favourite pieces were distinctly different. The audiences’ favourite performers are the local ones that they could hear live at the monthly sessions. Their favourite pieces reflect the key repertoire of the local performers. When they mentioned performers from the other region, these performers were ranked lower and were people who performed beyond their region. They were also actively releasing commercial recordings. Interestingly, information about the monthly performances in Tokyo and Osaka is posted on their websites, but information about the pieces to be Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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performed is not usually given. This is the traditional practice: the piece can be decided at the last minute; even the kyokushi may not know what pieces they will accompany till they arrive at the theatre. This flexibility is possible because of the residual orality of the genre and shows the importance of improvisation and spontaneity for seasoned performers. 7

Conclusion

From its humble beginnings with marginal street performers, naniwa-bushi experienced a phenomenal rise to become a major form of popular entertainment by the 1930s. It went through many vicissitudes and by the early twenty-first century seemed to have lost its place in the entertainment world, deserted by audiences and mass media alike. What was originally modern is now antiquated. The draped table was a modern innovation but now is traditional. In the 1930s, the electric microphone enabled vocal transformation, but today it is a strange relic as a stage prop fixed to the table that restricts the singer’s movement. There has been no attempt to adopt the face mic used in musicals. A modern innovation has become a traditional ornament, like the performer’s kimono. However, having enthusiastically embraced modern media, notably sound recording, naniwa-bushi now uses digital technology, the Internet, and platforms such as YouTube to reach new audiences. Vestiges of the diverse origins of the art, embracing traditions from different regions, remain in the two musical styles of Kantō-bushi and Kansai-bushi, although the geographical connection is quite loose. The survey revealed a persistent East-West divide in the rōkyoku world that mirrors the old separation of performers and styles. The two professional rōkyoku associations have negligible interaction, creating two distinct localities of performance and consumption in which two groups of artists with separate repertoires perform for separate audiences. This situation indicates the highly local nature of the fan base. The demography of fans, while still predominantly, though not overwhelmingly, male and over sixty, shows change in its well-educated and white-collar character. More importantly, demographic changes in the performers have affected the aesthetic of the art. For example, the voices of many younger performers, who are university graduates and came to rōkyoku as adults, lack the traditional earthy quality of previous generations (fig. 9.4). Those performers with a background in folk song or other traditional genres sit better in rōkyoku’s vocal aesthetic. For many, any inadequacy in vocal quality is compensated for by their story-telling ability and enthusiastic generation of new repertoire.

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Figure 9.4 Poster for a special summer performance at Mokubatei, 22 July 2023, featuring veteran rōkyoku-shi Tenchūken Ungetsu 天中軒雲月 and several young performers Image courtesy of Nihon Rōkyoku Kyōkai 日本浪曲協会

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One cornerstone of contemporary repertoire is the pieces originating in kōdan, which date back to naniwa-bushi’s earliest days, its “classical” repertoire (Tokita 2018). But new repertoire is constantly being created: some by script writers such as Ashikawa Junpei 芦川淳平 (b. 1957) and Inada Kazuhiro 稲田 和浩 (b. 1960), while some performers are generating their own scripts—these include Tamagawa Nanafuku, Azumaya Ichitarō 東家一太郎 (b. 1978), and Tamagawa Daifuku 玉川大福 (b. 1979). They are also initiating creative collaborations with performers of other traditional popular entertainments. More than anything, it is the enduring orality of naniwa-bushi that ensures its continuing place as a vital performing art in contemporary Japan. Its fluidity and improvisational aspects are seen especially in the relation between singer and shamisen player, and the intimate and dynamic nature of audience-performer interaction is fostered by the small venues. Innovative performers skilfully capitalize on traditional, old-fashioned elements while speaking directly to contemporary audiences. This dynamism suggests a robust future for the art as it continues to flourish in the digital, post-COVID world. References Brau, Lorie. 2008. Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. de Ferranti, Hugh. 2020. “Biwa’s Place in Modern Times.” In Presence through Sound: Music and Place in East Asia, edited by Keith Howard and Catherine Ingram, 177–191. New York: Routledge. Hyōdō, Hiromi 兵藤裕己. 2000. “Koe” no kokumin kokka, Nihon 「声」の国民国家・日本. Tokyo: Nihon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai 日本放送出版協会. Hyōdō, Hiromi, and Henry DeWitt Smith. 2006. “Singing Tales of the Gishi: ‘Naniwabushi’ and the Forty-Seven Rōnin in Late Meiji Japan.” Monumenta Nipponica 61 (4): 459–508. Kitagawa, Junko 北川純子. 2015. “Tōchūken Kumoemon to nidai Yoshida Naramaru: Rōkyoku no ‘fushi’ no bunseki, shiron” 桃中軒雲右衛門と二代吉田奈良丸:浪曲の「 節」の分析・試論. Osaka Kyōiku Daigaku Kiyō, Dai Ichi Bumon, Jinbun Kagaku 大阪教 育大学紀要. 第 I 部門，人文科学 64 (1): 7–66. Kurata, Yoshihiro 倉田喜弘. 1979. Nihon rekōdo bunka-shi 日本レコード文化史. Tokyo: Tōkyō Shoseki 東京書籍. Manabe, Masayoshi. 2013. “Naniwa-bushi and Social Debate in Two Postwar Periods: The Russo-Japanese War and the First World War.” In Music, Modernity and Locality in Prewar Japan: Osaka and Beyond, edited by Hugh de Ferranti and Alison Tokita, 123–134. Farnham: Ashgate.

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Manabe, Masayoshi 真鍋昌賢. 2017. Naniwa-bushi—Ryūdō suru katarigei: Enja to chōshū no kindai 浪花節－流動する語り芸:演者と聴衆の近代. Tokyo: Serika Shobō せりか書房. Mastrangelo, Matilde. 1995. “Japanese Storytelling: A View on the Art of Kōdan, The Performances and the Experience of a Woman Storyteller.” Rivista Degli Studi Orientali 69 (1/2): 207–217. Miller, J. Scott. 1994. “Japanese Shorthand and Sokkibon.” Monumenta Nipponica 49 (4): 471–487. Tokita, Alison. 2015. Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative. Farnham: Ashgate. Tokita, Alison. 2018. “The Narrative Worlds of Contemporary Naniwa-bushi (Rōkyoku).” Nihon Dentō Ongaku Kenkyū 日本伝統音楽研究 15: 19–40. https://rcjtm.kcua.ac.jp /pub/document2018-/publications/bulletin/15/kiyou15_tokita.pdf. Tokita, Alison. 2022. “Orality in Naniwa-bushi: The Taikōki Cycle of Pieces.” In Folk and Songs in Japan and Beyond: Ethnomusicological Essays in Honour of David W. Hughes, edited by Matt Gillan, Kiku Day, and Patrick Huang, 35–65. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. Tokita, Alison 時田アリソン, and Okamoto Yōichi 岡本洋一, eds. 2014. Naniwa-bushi no fīrudowāku: Ōsaka-shi Tennōji no Isshinji monzen rōkyoku yose oyobi Tōkyō Asakusa no Mokubatei o hikaku shite 浪花節のフィールドワーク:大阪市天王寺の一心寺門 前浪曲寄席および東京浅草の木馬亭を比較して. Kyoto: Dōshisha Daigaku 同志社 大学. Yui, Jirō 唯二郎. 1999. Jitsuroku rōkyoku-shi 実録・浪曲史. Tokyo: Tōhō Shobō 東峰書房.

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Chapter 10

An Innovative Conservative: Satsuma-biwa Practice and the Legacy of Fumon Yoshinori Hugh DE FERRANTI and Thomas Charles MARSHALL 1

Introduction

The Japanese short-necked lute, biwa 琵琶, burst onto the international classical music scene in 1969 with Takemitsu Tōru’s (1930–96) November Steps, a commissioned piece for the New York Philharmonic for biwa, shakuhachi 尺八 (vertical flute), and orchestra. The player Takemitsu worked with, Tsuruta Kinshi 鶴田錦史 (1911–95), was an ambiguously gendered figure whose approach to her instrument was as innovative as her public persona. Back in Japan however, she was one of a handful of prominent figures in the late twentieth-century biwa world, among whom another innovator, Fumon Yoshinori 普門義則 (1911–2002), was her polar opposite. As in other spheres of Japanese music in the modern era, prominent biwa players range from staunch conservatives to brilliant mavericks, but the comparatively non-institutionalized nature of biwa practice meant that from the 1950s to the 1970s it was possible to combine elements from what would otherwise seem opposing orientations. Having studied with Fumon, we, the co-authors, present him in this chapter as a musician with conservative objectives antithetical to Tsuruta’s, as his innovations in pedagogy, theory, and practice were directed toward ensuring the full transmission of the style of Satsuma-biwa 薩摩琵琶 singing and instrumental accompaniment that he had mastered in the 1920s and early 1930s as well as a distinctive view of the genre’s practice grounded in a spectrum of historical, spiritual, and moral orientations found among players of the instrument.1

1 Both authors studied biwa and singing technique with Fumon, although Marshall did so for a much longer period, achieving advanced-level competence as a performer. Much of what follows is based on oral statements during lessons and interviews from the mid-1980s to the 1990s.

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Satsuma Region Biwa Music

While forms of biwa were played in Japan from at least the eighth century in instrumental (gagaku 雅楽), narrative singing (katarimono 語りもの), and Buddhist ritual contexts, Satsuma-biwa is a biwa singing tradition that had its origin in regional Kyushu in the early modern or Kinsei 近世 period of Japanese history (ca. the seventeenth to mid-nineteenth centuries). The word “Satsuma-biwa” also denotes the type of lute that developed with the singing tradition. Like the Heike-biwa 平家琵琶 that is played to accompany Heike 平家 (katari 語り), a nationwide tradition of reciting episodes from what came to be known as The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari 平家物語) about the late twelfth-century war between the Heike and Genji clans, the Satsuma-biwa is sounded in preludes and individually titled melodic interludes interspersed with sections of sung text in ways that articulate regular musical and narrative structures (de Ferranti 1991, 2006; Komoda and de Ferranti 2020). From the twelfth century until the start of the Meiji era in 1868, Satsuma was one of Japan’s most powerful feudal domains. It was there, in the southern Kyushu region that became present-day Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, that a distinctive tradition of biwa singing emerged from Heike and strands of regional blind singers’ practices (dubbed mōsō-biwa 盲僧琵琶 by scholars, some of whom have also called it zatō-biwa 座頭琵琶; de Ferranti 1996). Various forms of biwa contributed to the development of the lute that came to be called the Satsuma-biwa, characterized by frets higher than those of the gagaku-biwa (gaku-biwa 楽琵琶) and Heike-biwa, a left-hand technique of pulling strings down between the frets to tones over wide intervals as well as to glide between tones and sound microtonal embellishments, and a triangular-shaped wooden plectrum (bachi) much larger than that used for any other Japanese plucked lute. In the 1780s, Tachibana Nankei 橘南渓 (1753–1805) wrote about regional biwa music in his travel diary, Saiyūki 西遊記. His account of performances gives the impression that a practice of purely instrumental playing without singing may have been present among young men of the Satsuma warrior class by the late eighteenth century (T. Shimazu 1997, 149). This regional tradition—a distinctive instrument and singing technique and a body of pre-modern songs (biwa uta 琵琶歌)—was brought to the country’s new capital, Tokyo, by Satsuma men who had played important roles in the conflict that led to the 1868 Meiji Restoration, a brief civil war whereby Japan’s rapid modernization was initiated. Thereafter, the tradition—newly called Satsuma-biwa—was taught and popularized in Tokyo, in part through the development of a new repertory of narrative songs (de Ferranti 2020).

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Satsuma-biwa Repertory in the Modern Era

The pre-Meiji biwa uta repertory in Satsuma had included a variety of text forms, subjects, and narrative perspectives, from accounts of battles among the former overlord (daimyo 大名) clans of feudal domains in Kyushu, to expressions of Buddhist tenets and even portrayals of profane love. Shimazu Tadashi (1997, 23) speculates that the latter songs of profane love entered the repertory under Shimazu Shigehide 島津重豪 (1745–1833), the Satsuma daimyo from 1755 to 1787, who was an exceptional figure among leaders of the Shimazu clan in being very open to the cultures of Edo and Kamigata (present-day Kansai), which hitherto had been regarded with disdain by most members of the Satsuma warrior class. Shimazu Tadashi (1993) describes how twenty-five songs from this time display the aesthetic ideal of “ga” or “miyabi” 雅 (refinement and elegance) in their titles and a skilled use of poetic devices, such as kakekotoba 掛詞 and engo 縁語, in their texts. It is apparent that Meiji-era musicians chose to let those songs fall out of the active repertory, for they preferred to prioritize narrative and poetic texts that conveyed the moral and spiritual beliefs adhered to by representative Satsuma figures who wielded power for much of the 1870s to the 1890s. The new biwa uta in the Meiji era included many written by prominent players, such as Yoshimizu Tsunekazu 吉水経和 (1845–1910), and by established poets and authors of fiction, among them Takasaki Masakaze 高崎正風 (1836–1912) and his followers (T. Shimazu 2001, 46). Song texts often drew directly from historical sources; for example, “Yoshino Ochi” 吉野落 and “Kawanaka-jima” 川中島 parallel their sources in structure and text (Taiheiki 1977 [fourteenth century], 1:287; Rai 1911 [nineteenth century], 325). Other songs used the original text source while changing the structure. “Hachi no ki” 鉢の木 draws directly from many points in the text of the noh (nō) 能 play of the same name but does not reproduce them in the same order. There are also many songs written in a through-composed fashion, such as “Jinyōkō” 潯陽江, based on the poem “Pipa xing” 琵琶行 (Ballad of the Lute) by the Tang-dynasty poet Bái Jūyì 白居易 (772–846; also called Po Chü-i). Nakamura states that “Kogō” 小督, based on the sixth chapter of the modern era’s standard version of Heike monogatari, was composed by Takasaki Masakaze “for the Meiji Emperor, who enjoyed satsumabiwa very much and took lessons from various Kagoshima players” (1990, 22). There were also many freely composed texts, including “Sakuragari” 櫻狩 (Seeking the Blossoms), an early composition by Yoshimizu Tsunekazu about responses to the beauty of sakura (cherry) blossoms among canonical “ancient” poets such as Saigyō 西行 (1118–90).

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Many of the newly composed Meiji- and Taishō-era songs were poetic narratives about historical and contemporary military actions and events of significance for national and imperial polity. In that regard, Katsu Kaishū’s narrative song “Shiroyama” 城山 (completed by 1885; T. Shimazu 2001, 177) about the final battle of the 1877 Seinan War (or Satsuma Rebellion) and the death of the rebels’ leader, Saigo Takamori 西郷隆盛 (1828–77), was a significant development in Satsuma-biwa uta.2 Thereafter, tens of songs were written about martial feats of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5); for example, the once enormously popular “Hitachimaru” 常陸丸 recounts the sinking of the Japanese military transport ship of the same name in June 1904. Actions during the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s and in the course of Imperial Japan’s acquisition of Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula (Chōsen), its principal colonies, were also subjects of new biwa songs. Following Japan’s defeat in 1945, a period of decline began, with only a small number of biwa songs being written and a marked turning away from martial themes. One postwar composition that is still often performed is “Chiki” 知己 (Friendship), a song by Harada Kenji 原田謙次 (1893–1971) based on a story from Lüshi chūnqiū 呂氏春秋, a text compiled around 239 BC, about the Chinese qin 琴 player Bó Yá 伯牙 and Xióng Zǐqí 鍾子期. The Kagoshima biwa player Nagahama Nanjō 長浜南城 is noteworthy for his work in the 1950s and 1960s, which included the creation of an elegiac song for President John F. Kennedy upon his assassination (Koshiyama 1983, 204). 4

Tokyo Schools of Performance and the Seiha/Kinshin-ryū Polarity

Before the middle years of the Meiji era, there was no significant organizational structure in the Satsuma-biwa world. However, this changed with Yoshimizu Tsunekazu. He had performed for the Meiji emperor and was highly regarded for his skill in composing new Satsuma-biwa songs. In 1892, he advertised himself as a biwa teacher (Koshiyama 1983, 198), and he began to simplify Satsuma-biwa music and make it more appealing to the tastes of the general public in Tokyo. He attracted many new students although also disdain from his peers (Yoshimura 1933, 56). In 1902, he founded his own school of performance, Kinsui-kai 錦水会, taking the name Kin’ō 錦翁 and making himself ipso facto head or iemoto 家元 (Koshiyama 1983, 198). He stopped using the term Satsuma-biwa, opting instead for teikoku-biwa 帝国琵琶 (imperial biwa). Of particular interest is that he made strong efforts to promote biwa-playing 2 “Shiroyama” became a mainstay of the repertory of Fumon Yoshinori and in turn a touchstone piece for his advanced students to master. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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among women (Yoshimura 1933, 56). In fact, Yoshimizu regularly performed with other Kagoshima biwa players at one of the two principal Tokyo biwa salons founded in 1900 by the two Kagoshima brothers Oda Kinmu 小田錦夢 (1842–1915) and Oda Kinwa 小田錦蛙 (1855–1916). The expression seiha 正派 (orthodox school) came into use generally as a style term for the collective practice of those who retained the vocal and instrumental tradition that had been transmitted among players from Kagoshima (Satsuma). This expression was a response to the wildfire popularity of a young Tokyo-born performer named Nagata Kinshin 永田錦心 (1885–1927; birth name Takeo 武雄) and his founding of a new style called (Satsuma-biwa) Kinshin-ryū 錦心流 in 1915 (Koshiyama 1983, 258).3 Later, the term was adopted by those who sought to preserve and transmit the tradition. Among the seiha groups, those led by the following players yielded lineages that survived into the late twentieth century: Yoshimura Gakujō 吉村岳城 (1888–1953); students of Kagoshima player Ban Hikoshirō 伴彦四朗 (1837–97), such as Ijūin Kakujō 伊集院鶴城 (1879–1947) and Fumon Yoshinori’s teachers, Sagara Shijō 相良司城 (1884–1945) and Tōgō Shigeatsu 東郷重厚 (dates unknown), as well as Tsuji Seigō’s 辻正剛 (1892–1981) teacher, Kodama Tennan 児玉天南 (1846–1917). Yoshimura in particular had a large following, and his untimely postwar death, just when biwa players were becoming active again in the mid-1950s, was an irreplaceable loss that contributed to the decline of the instrument’s popularity. With very few exceptions, seiha players did not make their living from performing and teaching biwa, as had been and continued to be the case in Kagoshima. By contrast, Kinshin-ryū and Nishiki-biwa, a style founded in 1926 by Kinshin’s former pupil Suitō Kinjō 水藤錦穣 (1911–73), were both created in Tokyo by young people who sustained themselves by performing in theatres, teaching large numbers of students, making 78 rpm recordings, and, in some cases, writing books and manuals on biwa songs and performance technique for commercial publication.4 Together with Chikuzen-biwa 筑前琵琶, those two styles dominated the biwa world of the late 1920s and 1930s, both in 3 Nagata started using the character for water, sui 水, from an early age in performers’ names (gagō 雅号) for his students. He formed his own group known as Teikoku Ōshi-kai 帝国黄 嘴会 in 1906, and, drawing from influences throughout popular shamisen genres, he developed a style characterized by a florid singing technique with only short instrumental interludes (Koshiyama 1983, 276). 4 Suitō Kinjō made modifications to produce a five-string instrument suitable for women, called the Nishiki-biwa 錦琵琶. She added an extra fret so that the left-hand technique required less pressure at individual frets to produce a range of pitches. The term Nishiki-biwa used the Japanese reading (kun’yomi) of the character 錦 (nishiki), the first character in Nagata’s gagō Kinshin (using the Chinese reading kin), as an unequivocal expression of its artistic lineage. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Japan and in many cities of the Japanese Empire. It was from the Kinshin-ryū then Nishiki-biwa that the young Tsuruta Kikue 鶴田菊枝 (1911–95) emerged as a performer in the 1920s; she first held the Kinshin-lineage professional name Tsuruta Kisui 鶴田欷水, which subsequently changed to Ōgyoku 櫻玉, a Nishiki-biwa name given her by Suitō Kinjō, then in the 1950s it changed again to become Tsuruta Kinshi 鶴田錦史. 5

Seiha Satsuma-biwa in the Postwar Era

Biwa singing all but ceased with Japan’s defeat then Occupation by the Allied Forces. The censorship division of the Occupation bureaucracy soon drew up lists of prohibited subjects for both traditional and modern performing arts; as a result, biwa uta in effect could not be performed nor recorded.5 Fumon and other musicians of his generation have talked about how they had to put biwa aside until at least the early 1950s, as the combined result of enforcement of the official ban until 1951, a need to work hard to ensure their families’ and their own survival, and a general distaste among the Japanese public for arts that reminded them of decades of militaristic nationalism that had led to calamity and so much suffering in Japan, Asia, and Oceania. Nevertheless, by 1955, Fumon, Tsuruta (who around that time changed her professional name to Kinshi), and a handful of surviving leading musicians of the generation above them were performing again for small private gatherings of biwa afficionados. The seiha player Tsuji Seigō founded the Seigen-kai group in 1951 and a national body in 1959, the Biwagaku Kyōkai, which provided opportunities for performance and an annual concours from 1964. His students Suda Seishū 須田 誠舟, Kiyokawa Ranshū 清川嵐舟, and Motohashi Senshū 本橋仙舟 all came to prominence after their initial success in the Biwagaku Kyōkai’s competitions, and they are still active as senior seiha figures in the 2020s. Despite having lineages that in all cases stem from outstanding Kagoshima musicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, seiha performers do not comprise a unified group.6 Their various strands differ in the extent to which they emphasize the mastery of instrumental interludes (te 手) and both vocal and instrumental microtonal embellishments within melodic phrases. They also perpetuate different views on the purpose and meaning of biwa 5 This claim reflects oral accounts. No reference to censorship of biwa singing has yet been found. 6 Please note that while the term seiha 正派 is in common, seiha biwa players have nothing to do with the prominent Seiha Hōgaku-kai in the Ikuta-ryū koto tradition.

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training and the performance of biwa songs. Generally, such views have three elements. The first is the inculcation of military fighting spirit and “warrior formation,” exemplified in accounts of the origin of Satsuma-biwa, such as that found in Inoue (1923, 47) and in the discourse of the biwa-maker Tamura Kōji 田村晧司 as described by Gish (2004, 80). The second is as a tool for moral formation in the educational development of youth, an element found throughout seiha but strongly expressed among Kagoshima players and practitioners of other traditional artforms of the former Satsuma domain (Y. Shimazu 2005, 24). The third is a religious and spiritual orientation exemplified by the teachings, writings, and compositional work of Fumon (fig. 10.1). 6

Fumon Yoshinori’s Notational Innovations

In the latter part of the twentieth century, Fumon stands out from other seiha musicians in several ways. He had a degree of understanding of both Western and Japanese music theory not found among other Satsuma-biwa practitioners of any style. Fumon’s lineage was through Satsuma men who resided in the Kansai region, where he was raised and attended university; his primary teachers were Sagara Shijō and Tōgō Shigeatsu, who had learned from Ban Hikoshirō. Although active as a performer at the end of the golden age of biwa in the late 1920s, Fumon performed relatively little from the early 1930s, when he began his career as an engineer and devoted much time to studying music history and theory. He learned gagaku performance practice and theory in the 1930s, playing the ryūteki 龍笛 (a type of transverse flute) as a member of one of the Kasuga Shrine’s community groups in his hometown, Nara. According to his own writings, moreover, Fumon regarded Satsuma-biwa as a means for spiritual education. He seems to have held in high regard the spirit of Shimazu Tadayoshi 島津忠良 (1492–1568; also known as Nisshinsai 日新斎) and the apparent roots of the instrument in the regional practice of blind Buddhist priests. In order to study the relationship between Satsuma-biwa and the biwa playing of mōsō 盲僧 (blind priests) in southern Japan who had secured Tendai sect affiliation, Fumon visited the Tendai sect’s head temple, Enryakuji in Kyoto. There he met and studied with Taki Dōnin 多紀道忍, the shōmyō 声明 (Buddhist liturgical chant) scholar and practitioner, in a way that combined his interests in religious practice and music theory. He received from Taki his 1934 book on the musical theory of Buddhist chant. In a forty-nine-page booklet, Fumon (1979) expressed his interest in the theoretical exposition of biwa music, in particular its modality (onchō 音調), and the origins (yurai 由来) of the instrument, as well as various historical influences upon its development.

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Fumon playing the biwa in his studio in Tokyo Photo by Thomas Charles Marshall, 2000

Fumon’s work developing notation for biwa is especially notable. The musical elements of Satsuma-biwa were transmitted orally until the modern era. While some written song texts predate the Meiji era, study of the instrument had involved no written media. Rather, oral mnemonic vocables (shōga, called Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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kuchi biwa 口琵琶 by most biwa players) were used to represent the instrumental component. No pre-Meiji form of notation for either vocal melody or biwa interludes has been found. By the late 1880s, with the emergence of demand for tuition in Tokyo, “text-scores” began to appear with symbol annotations to show basic elements of performance, and attempts were made to represent basic interlude patterns. This notation took the form of tablature indicating the way the instrument should be played rather than the sounds produced. Such notation was designed to serve as a memory aid in learning the instrument. With the principal exception of sets of published notations by Nanba Mokuan 南波杢庵 (1911), these tablatures took on a similar form (fig. 10.2) and are still in use today. The triangles indicate the direction of the plectrum, striking from above or below the string, and the size of the triangles indicates the pressure applied to the string between two of the frets (or bridges as they may better be called in view of their function) but does not denote any specific pitch to be produced. Under the influence of Sagara, his teacher, Fumon developed this system of notation in two important ways. First, he indicated the exact pitches of the notes to be played, at first using characters for the five Chinese scale tones (1, 2, 4, 5, 6), which were represented by the characters kyū 宮, shō 商, kaku 角, chi 徵, and u 羽. Later, he used Arabic numerals in a system based on the same tone scheme. Second, he delineated with vertical lines the boundaries of melodic

Figure 10.2

Notation by Ijūin Kakujō. Fumon made this copy in the 1930s from a copy his teacher, Sagara Shijō, had in his possession. This is a negative image of page 11 of the manuscript, titled Gakufu Satsuma-biwa Kakumei-kai 楽譜薩摩琵琶鶴鳴会

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Notation by Fumon (compare fig. 10.2, which is a similar version of the utaidashi pattern). Satsuma-biwa danpō renzoku danpō sono ichi 薩摩琵琶弾法連続弾法その一. Dated 8 December 1989

patterns that act as the musical building blocks for the instrumental sections of the song (fig. 10.3). The musical theory behind these practices came from Nihon ongaku no chōshi no hanashi (Sanjō 1932), a book to which Fumon often referred. Fumon was able to make an accurate record of pitch for the complete set of instrumental interludes used in songs in his lineage. 7

Fumon’s Approach to Biwa Tuition

Fumon’s substantial notational innovations yielded the most detailed representations to date of both vocal and instrumental elements in the seiha style of Satsuma-biwa. In both authors’ experience of lessons with Fumon, as well as in other students’ lessons we observed, it was standard to use his detailed instrumental notations in combination with imitative practice for learning the more extensive interludes (some of them up to two minutes long). At the same time, in face-to-face tuition, most of his students continued to acquire vocal phrases by rote imitation (de Ferranti 1991; 2006, 148). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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In his style of teaching, Fumon invariably introduced students to the instrument using a short rhythmic interlude called kuzure no ji 崩の地, through which they could learn the principal plectrum strokes, while the placement of the left hand to change pitch was taught incrementally. This interlude was suitable for group instrumental performance. Nevertheless, Fumon sought to combine recitation and playing at the earliest point possible, even if this only involved the student playing open strings with the plectrum between lines of the text. Once the student had completed the kuzure no ji, Fumon introduced the opening prelude to every recitation, known as the utaidashi 謡出し. This interlude involves the more advanced and difficult technique of pressing on the thinnest string at one point between the two bottom frets (highest in pitch) to produce notes within the range of an octave. As preparation, he acquainted his students with a melodic pattern used traditionally by sellers of tofu consisting of the intervals of a fourth, fifth, and second sung in succession. He then got the student to sing these intervals before reproducing them on the instrument. From this point, he began to use his number system with his students and introduced the concept of movable pitches found a half tone above the fundamental and fifth, expressed as #1 and #5, and also the fixed nature of the note a tone below the fundamental, expressed as #6 or ei-u 嬰羽, which he described as do-on 導音 or a “leading tone.” Where appropriate, he would approach the concept of pitch through a mode starting on mi (mi fa la ti do re mi) if the student was familiar with this representation. He regularly sang the interludes using kuchi biwa, though he did not get students to sing the vocables. As soon as the student had a grasp of any interlude, Fumon had them practise it in the context of a recitation. With respect to the technique of imparting recitation (singing), following a brief initial stage where he played and sang with the student throughout, Fumon followed an established pattern of first singing a phrase of text on his own before inviting the student to join him in singing the same phrase and then finally getting the student to sing on their own. This procedure was followed by criticism and corrections, with rare occasions of praise. One distinctive characteristic of his teaching style was to sing a phrase of text in a number of different ways using the same named melodic pattern. Fumon remarked on the importance of adapting individual patterns to the text. Often, he would sing a phrase demonstrating the florid style of the teikoku-biwa, as opposed to the plainer style of his teacher, Sagara. He also showed how the regional accent of a performer could be reflected in where that performer placed the climactic point of a melodic pattern in relation to the text. As the student advanced further, Fumon regularly returned to singing and playing a full recitation in unison with the student. On these occasions, Fumon took a more improvisatory Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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approach in his selection from the range of melodic possibilities available, thus testing the student’s knowledge of the full range of melodic options available in the vocal and instrumental part and promoting the student’s ability to render a more immediate performance in response to the moment or setting at hand. Fumon taught small groups at the Sanshū Club, an institution for the promotion of the culture and business interests of the former Kyushu provinces of Satsuma, Ōsumi, and Hyūga. He had a small studio in Horikiri Shōbuen in Tokyo, at that time a working-class district on the Keisei line to Narita Airport. He also regularly taught in Sueyoshi town in Kagoshima prefecture and in Takasaki city in Gunma prefecture. 8

Fumon’s Creative Practice and Legacy

Fumon’s innovative and creative output was considerable. He composed settings of poems from Manyōshū, the ancient collection of poetry, to explore his ideas about how biwa in the eighth century may have sounded (for example, his song “Fuji no takane” 富士の高嶺). He made abridged versions of many of the longer recitations composed at the end of the Meiji era so as to make them more accessible to a late twentieth-century public. Taking hints from Tachibana’s eighteenth-century account of a visit to Kagoshima in his Saiyūki, Fumon compiled an instrumental piece consisting of shorter interludes linked together to make a seven-minute work culminating with an extensive tremolo section (kuzure 崩). Fumon regularly performed the instrumental piece “Kadobiwa” 門琵琶, believed to have its origin in mōsō-biwa practice, and incorporated it into his settings of some songs (notably “Chiki”). Reflecting his lifelong understanding of Satsuma-biwa as a spiritual practice, he taught himself as a young man to recite the short sutra “Nehan Kōshiki” 涅槃公式 from a 78 rpm recording of shōmyō by Taki Dōnin, and then he set the recitation to Satsuma-biwa accompaniment. He performed the composition throughout his life. Fumon lectured on the musical structure of biwa repertories at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (now Tokyo University of Arts) in courses run by Kindaichi Haruhiko 金田一春彦.7 In April 1972, he founded the Fumon Biwa Institute (普門琵琶研究所). He frequently travelled abroad to give lectures and demonstrate biwa at educational institutes in China, Hong Kong, 7 Kindaichi was a researcher of Japanese linguistics who also wrote studies of narrative recitation and song genres from the perspective of relations between language and melody.

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Germany, the UK, Ireland, and the US. In 1986, he became head of the Seiden Shifū Satsuma-biwa Shigen-kai 正伝士風薩摩琵琶士弦会. In 1987, within the Shigen-kai 士弦会, he formed his own school of playing called Fumon-in ryū 普門院流 to promote the “correct and traditional” style of playing Satsumabiwa. At this point he started to use the title Fumon-in Shijō 普門院紫城. In 1995, he selected Morizono Shijō 森園史城 (1928–2022) to succeed him as leader of the Shigen-kai. Under the name Fumon Yoshinori, he recorded a CD for worldwide release with English documentation (Fumon 2001). Fumon’s students active in the 2020s include Hashimoto Kōyō and Toku Shōjō in Tokyo and Yamazaki Kōyō and Kitamura Ranjō in Hamamatsu. Some of his students have not remained in the Shigen-kai, opting to explore new possibilities with the instrument while maintaining the traditional elements of Satsuma-biwa. Of particular note in this respect is Gotō Yukihiro 後藤幸浩, who collaborated with Tsuruta-ryū player Mizushima Yuiko 水島結子 over a period of ten years (Gotō and Mizushima 2013, 2017), with shakuhachi player Obama Akihito 小濱明人, and with jazz ensembles and blues harp players. He has a wide repertoire of original songs, including ones based on themes from Heike monogatari and the sekkyō-bushi 説経節 tradition as well as settings of poems by the innovative Meiji-era writer Kitamura Tōkoku 北村 透谷. He is well-known in media circles, in 2022 providing music segments for several prominent anime projects and appearing in a new Fuji Television production of Heike monogatari. 9

Conclusion

This chapter demonstrates the surprising diversity that can be found even within streams of modern-era Japanese music that most would regard as having become stagnant and decidedly minor in the aftermath of Japan’s wartime defeat and Occupation. Within one of the several distinct styles in Satsuma-biwa—itself just one of several biwa traditions continuing in Japan today—there has been significant diversity of practice in terms of aesthetic, objectives, conceptualization, and repertory. The thoroughgoing innovations by Suitō Kinjō, then Tsuruta Kinshi, gave rise to a new school of performance and celebrated figures such as Tanaka Yukio 田中之雄, Nakamura Kakujō 中村 鶴城, and Nishihara Kakushin 西原鶴真. However, the meticulous work and efforts of Fumon to present and pass on the seiha practice of his teachers yielded not only a precious body of documentation of the music as it was in the early twentieth century but also figures such as Gotō, innovators whose music is firmly grounded in the old biwa style transmitted from Kyushu. While

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Tsuruta’s work with Takemitsu, in particular, led her to international fame and accorded overwhelming prominence to her students around the turn of the century, Gotō’s continuing success in winning television and anime soundtrack work may mean that the seiha Satsuma-biwa instrumental style, at least, regains a degree of aural familiarity among popular media audiences. References de Ferranti, Hugh. 1991. “Composition and Improvisation in Satsuma Biwa.” Musica Asiatica 6: 102–127. de Ferranti, Hugh. 1996. “Text and Music in Biwa Narrative: The Zatô Biwa Tradition of Kyushu.” PhD thesis, University of Sydney. de Ferranti, Hugh. 2006. “Taming the Reciting Voice: Satsumabiwa Text-scores and Their Roles in Transmission and Performance.” Context: Journal of Music Research 31: 137–149. de Ferranti, Hugh. 2020. “Biwa’s Place in Modern Times.” In Presence through Sound, edited by Keith Howard and Catherine Ingram, 177–191. London: Routledge. Fumon, Yoshinori 普門義則. 1979. Satsuma-biwa no yurai to onchō 薩摩琵琶の由来と音 調. Yokosuka: Shintaku Daimon 新宅大門. Fumon, Yoshinori. 2001. Satsumabiwa: Japan’s Noble Ballads. Celestial Harmonies, CH13207-2 (CD). Gish, George. 2004. Wandafuru difarensu: Nihon no subarashisa o shiranai Nihonjin e ワンダフルディファレンス:日本の素晴らしさを知らない日本人へ. Tokyo: Gakushū Kenkyūsha 学習研究社. Gotō, Yukihiro 後藤幸浩, and Mizushima Yuiko 水島結子. 2013. Biwa duo 琵琶デュオ. Active Voice, KYIM-2003 (CD). Gotō, Yukihiro 後藤幸浩, and Mizushima Yuiko 水島結子. 2017. Ninin bayashi 二人囃 子. Studio Wee, SW507 (CD). Gotō, Yukihiro 後藤幸浩, and Obama Akihito 小濱明人. 2008. Michinone ミチノネ. Waternet Sound Group, SG WQCA-1022 (CD). Inoue, Ranshū 井上巒州. 1923. Kokin biwa seitan 古今琵琶正譚. Matsuyama: Keirindo 桂林堂. Komoda, Haruko, and Hugh de Ferranti. 2020. Grove Music Online, s.v. “Biwa.” Accessed 18 February 2023. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093 /gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-90000323359. Koshiyama, Seimi 越山正三. 1983. Satsuma-biwa 薩摩琵琶. Tokyo: Perikansha ペリカ ン社. Nakamura, Masami 中村正己. 1990. Satsuma-biwa Songs: An Anthology. Shizuoka: Nishigai Press.

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Nanba, Mokuan 南波杢庵. 1911. Satsuma-biwa danpo gakuri to gakufu 薩摩琵琶弾法楽 理と楽譜. Kyoto: Higashie Kichibei 東枝吉兵衛. Rai, San’yō 頼山陽. 1911. Kōkoku Nihon gaishi 校刻日本外史. Osaka: Shōbunkan 彰文館. Sanjō, Shōtaro 三條商太郎. 1932. Nihon ongaku no chōshi no hanashi 日本音楽の調子 の話. Tokyo: Kōseikaku Shoten 厚生閣書店. Shimazu, Tadashi 島津正. 1993. “Edo jidai no Satsuma-biwa uta no kenkyū josetsu” 江戸時代の薩摩琵琶歌の研究序説. Tōyō Ongaku Kenkyū 東洋音楽研究 58: 39–56. Shimazu, Tadashi 島津正. 1997. Meiji izen Satsuma-biwa shi 明治以前薩摩琵琶史. Tokyo: Perikansha ぺりかん社. Shimazu, Tadashi 島津正. 2001. Meiji Satsuma-biwa Uta 明治薩摩琵琶歌. Tokyo: Perikansha ぺりかん社. Shimazu, Yoshihide 島津義秀. 2005. Satsuma no hikken: Nodachi jigenryū 薩摩の秘剣: 野太刀自顕流. Tokyo: Shinchōsha 新潮社. Taiheiki 太平記. 1977. Volume 1. Tokyo: Shinchōsha 新潮社. Taki, Dōnin 多紀道忍. 1934. Tendai shōmyou no kōgai 天台声明の梗概. Tokyo: Tōhōshoin 東方書院. Yoshimura, Gakujō 吉村岳城. 1933. Biwa dokuhon 琵琶読本. Tokyo: Shiba Shōin 芝書院.

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Chapter 11

Wondrous Tones: The Transnational Appeal of the Shakuhachi through Time and Space Christopher Yohmei BLASDEL 1

Introduction

The shakuhachi 尺八 vertical flute is deceptively simple. In its traditional form, it consists of a hollowed piece of bamboo with five finger holes. Sound is produced by breath and the lips as air is directed across a sharpened blowing edge (uta-guchi 歌口). The stream of air vibrates in the bamboo and creates tones whose pitches can be controlled by opening and closing the finger holes. Its simplicity is archetypal, but because the player must maintain absolute muscle control of breath, lips, and fingering, the “simple” shakuhachi becomes a very difficult instrument to master. Yet, once mastered, it transforms the lives of those who have succumbed to its ethereal, ineffable beauty. Through references to its storied history in Japan and its subsequent migration throughout the world, this chapter explores how the shakuhachi has mesmerized musicians and listeners through the ages. And, as if in a fitting footnote to the modern history of the shakuhachi, which was originally imported into Japan from China, I discuss how the instrument is currently undergoing a significant renaissance in that country. 2

Shakuhachi in Early Japan

During Japan’s Nara period, a state-of-the-art (for the times) imperial storage facility, called the Shōsōin 正倉院, was constructed in the temple grounds of Nara’s extensive Tōdaiji 東大寺 complex. The Shōsōin houses the treasures that were gifted to the Japanese emperor Shōmu 聖武 (ruled 701–756) from countries along the fabled Silk Road, a trade route that stretched all the way from the ancient Mediterranean cultures across Asia to Chang’an 長安, the cosmopolitan capital of China during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The Silk Road extended even further to Japan as Japanese students, scholar-priests, and government officials made their way to and from Chang’an to learn and borrow

© Christopher Yohmei BLASDEL, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_013 Henry

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from the advanced culture of China. Expensive gifts of tapestry, handicrafts, pottery, sculptures, masks, and everyday items flowed along the Silk Road into Japan, where they were stored in the Shōsōin. Amongst the “exotic” foreign gifts were a number of musical instruments, including eight shakuhachi that had made their way across China and Korea. Only four of these shakuhachi were made of bamboo; the others were fashioned from white jade, stone, or ivory but carved to resemble bamboo (Blasdel and Kamisangō 2008, 72). These precious gifts were some of the earliest shakuhachi to reach the shores of Japan. They had six finger holes and were used in the imperial court’s ceremonial gagaku 雅楽 music. They are, even now, stunning to behold. It is difficult to imagine what people of the eighth century thought when viewing these exceptional treasures. It is even more challenging to conceive how the music played by these instruments affected them. The six-hole gagaku shakuhachi gradually disappeared from gagaku around the ninth century, re-emerging as a five-hole flute that remained a vital part of the musical and religious culture of Japan throughout the ages into the present. One of the reasons for the appeal of the shakuhachi may have been its similarity to the human voice. Just as song and speech are formed by the suspiration of breath flowing past the larynx, tones on the shakuhachi are created as air passes over the shakuhachi’s uta-guchi (歌口, song mouth) blowing edge. Like a well-trained singer, the movement of the player’s lips and breath pressure allow for pitch, timbre, and volume control on the shakuhachi. In this way, the shakuhachi becomes an extension of the body. Song and the intonation of poetry were vital aspects of life in ancient Japan, especially amongst the elite class of nobles and priests. Particularly important at the time was the practice of chanting the Buddhist sutras in a discipline known as shōmyō 声明 (literally, the wisdom of the voice). According to Taigenshō 體源鈔, a treatise on gagaku written in 1512, the Tendai priest Ennin 圓仁 (794–864)—one of the holy men who had travelled to Chang’an for Buddhist studies—introduced shōmyō into Japan and began using the shakuhachi to augment the voice: “Ennin used the shakuhachi in Buddhist rituals that he had learned in China, and he also utilized the instruments to teach his students the tunes of the sutra chants” (Johnson 2014, 6). This is the first clear indication that the shakuhachi was used to accompany vocal music. Moving to the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, again we rely on Taigenshō to give us a hint about the kind of shakuhachi in use then: five-holed shakuhachi played by blind monks and performers of dengaku 田楽 (a popular dance of the times) and sarugaku 猿楽 (a plebian theatre form that later developed into noh theatre). Around this time, the shakuhachi appears in a number

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of popular songs, generally classified as kouta 小唄 (short songs), for example, the collection of songs compiled during the Muromachi period called Ryūtatsu kouta 隆達小唄 and a delightful collection of anonymous songs, Kanginshū 閑吟集, published in 1518. The shakuhachi also appears in more formal poetry by the revered and highly educated Ikkyū Sōjun 一休宗純 (1394–1482). Ikkyū was a priest in the Rinzai Sect of Zen Buddhism, but he was also a non-conformist and had little patience with bureaucracy and spent much of his energy trying to awaken people from the delusion of worldly power and material goods. He did not hesitate to drink, sleep with prostitutes, or condemn male on male sex in the monasteries. He often went against the grain of authority. The poetry of Ikkyū comes alive to us through these contradictions. Ikkyū loved the shakuhachi and used it as part of his Zen teachings. For Ikkyū, the sounds of the shakuhachi, like bolts of lightning that cut through the layers of delusion, were perfect to drive home the message of enlightenment. Ikkyū was a prolific poet, and his poetry consisted of writings in classical Chinese style and a less formal Japanese style, and his insightful poems were compiled into a collection known as Kyōunshō 狂雲集. It so happens that Ikkyū’s own moment of Zen enlightenment occurred through the agency of sound. While meditating in a small punt on Lake Biwa, not far from Kyoto, he suddenly heard the cry of a crow: Now, as ten years ago, A mind attached to arrogance and anger, But at the laugh of the crow An adept from the dust arises And an illumined face sings In the morning sun. Nishida 1977, 90; my translation

There is nothing more mundane than the call of the ubiquitous crow, especially nowadays in Japan where they have overrun the cities. But here we have a wonderful contradiction. This obnoxious bird provides the vehicle for enlightenment. Through its voice we transcend the “dust,” in other words, our reliance on material-bound perception. Blasdel 2005, 44

Another of Ikkyū’s songs, dedicated to shakuhachi master and poet Ton’ami 頓阿弥 (1289–1372), hints at the power shakuhachi tones have to open up heretofore unseen worlds:

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The incomparable Ton’ami, who roams the heavens and earth Playing the shakuhachi—one can feel the unseen worlds. In all the universe, there is only one song: Our flute player pictured here. Yamaguchi 2005, 89; my translation

One can strive for the heavens while still enjoying the pleasures of the earth—they are not mutually exclusive. Even though we live in the material world, the agency of sound can allow us to become aware of a greater universe, the world of “only one song.” Compared to the Zen-infused poetry of Ikkyū, the poems of the later Kanginshū tend toward the secular, dealing with more immediate emotions of love and loneliness, though not quite on the existential level of Ikkyū. In the following three poems, the shakuhachi is not an agency for enlightenment but rather a scapegoat or solace for loneliness: I take the shakuhachi from under my sleeve, To blow it while waiting and The wind through the pine— Scatters flowers as though a dream. How much longer will I have to play until my heart is quiet again? Hoff 1978, 14

I blow you while I wait, I blow you later in my disappointment. Worthless shakuhachi! Hoff 1978, 66

My shakuhachi is blameless, yet I toss it at the pillow. It makes the sound katari as it hits the wood rim. Yet even this sound does not make it less lonely Nor less sad to sleep alone. Hoff 1978, 46

In the first poem, the poet plays the shakuhachi for consolation because his lover did not show up, but the tones of the shakuhachi suggest a power to heal and assuage loneliness. The second poem is direct and easy to understand: the shakuhachi becomes the target of displaced frustration. However, in the third poem, the shakuhachi seems to be forgiven, though it gets tossed around a bit.

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The medieval period set the stage for the most colourful and certainly best-known episode of the shakuhachi in Japan. The komusō 虚無僧 (monks of nothingness) (fig. 11.1) rose and roamed the countryside while wearing deep basket headgear for anonymity and blowing meditative solo pieces (honkyoku 本曲), purportedly to attain enlightenment through the agency of sound (Blasdel and Kamisangō 2008; Johnson 2014; Linder 2012). The komusō, originally an undisciplined and random collection of begging monks known as komosō 薦僧 (straw-matted priests), basically decided to form a sect of Zen called the Fuke-shū 普化宗, loosely connected to the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. Fuke was an eccentric Zen monk who lived in Tang-period China and is documented in the Rinzai roku 臨済録 official annals of the Rinzai sect. In order to validate and confer legitimacy on the sect, the komusō created a number of official-looking—though questionable—documents throughout the years, culminating with the late eighteenth-century publication Kyotaku denki kokujikai 虚鐸伝記国字体. This document, which traces the putative lineage of the Fuke sect in Japan all the way back to seventh-century China, is more

Figure 11.1

Komusō playing in front of Arai Sekisho 新居関所 (barrier/checkpoint) in Shizuoka prefecture Courtesy of the Komusō Preservation Society (虚無僧保存会) and Riley Lee

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myth than reality and was subsequently debunked in the early twentieth century through extensive research by Nakatsuka Chikuzen 中塚竹禅 (1887–1944) (see Nakatsuka 1979). Nonetheless, Kyotaku denki, as it is often called, was holy writ to the komusō of the times, and its real significance to us, even in modern times, is how such a myth codifies the streams of lofty poetic, spiritual, and mystic traditions connected with the shakuhachi flute. One such stream is how the agency of sound can induce enlightenment, as hinted in the poetry of Ikkyū above. There is a maxim frequently used by shakuhachi players: ichi on jō butsu 一音成仏 (attaining enlightenment in a single tone). One doesn’t need a plethora of equipment, accessories, or gadgets; oftentimes, as with Ikkyū and the crow, one simple utterance can open our eyes and mind to the great metaphysical realities of the universe. Related to this idea, there is an intriguing episode in Kyotaku denki that tells the story of Kichiku 奇竹, a disciple of the head priest Gakushin 覚心 (1207–98) at Kōkokuji temple 興国寺 south of Osaka. One day, Kichiku’s teacher, Gakushin (the priest who, according to Kyotaku denki, transmitted the Fuke shakuhachi to Japan), called the acolyte in and told him he would like to instruct him in kyotaku 虚鐸 (the inner secrets of the shakuhachi). Kichiku was already an adept player but had not quite penetrated the inner sanctum of the tradition, as passed down from priest Fuke.1 However, Kichiku did not feel that he was up to the challenge quite yet and embarked on a lonely pilgrimage through the countryside to increase his physical stamina and inner resolve. After a long and arduous journey, Kichiku finally arrived at a famous shrine situated on top of Mt. Asagatake, known as a holy place with intense spiritual energy: He walked several days and climbed the mountain. Arriving at the summit right at dusk, he confined himself in the shrine and began his devotions. He sat perfectly straight and meditated. As the night grew longer, he fought off sleep and concentrated his mind. Toward early morning, however, his concentration wavered and he began to see visions. Suddenly Kichiku found himself in a punt, alone on the sea. A bright, brilliant full moon hung over the smooth, calm waters, and Kichiku was lost in the reverie of its luminous reflection. As he gazed at the soft light, a thick fog crawled in, slowly obscuring the moon’s reflection. The moon soon completely disappeared. The sea grew dark and Kichiku could no longer see around him. He felt a moment of despair, but then wondrous 1 According to Kyotaku denki, Fuke did not play the shakuhachi, rather he used the sound of a bell to urge enlightenment. Kyotaku literally translates as “not a bell,” that is, the shakuhachi is not a bell but used to imitate Fuke’s bell.

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flute sounds filtered through the fog. The tones, desolate yet sonorous, were beyond description. They came from nowhere yet were everywhere. They relaxed and assured him. The fog then returned, bringing silence. The flute tones reappeared, this time ever more richly, ever more forlorn. Kichiku had never before experienced such perfect tones. Kichiku awakened from his reverie to find that the punt, moon and the sea had been but a fantasy, yet the sound of the flute remained in his ears. Inspired, he set off to imitate his dream tone with his own shakuhachi. Delighted, he made his way back to Kōkoku-ji and went to his master and played his new piece for him. Gakushin smiled, saying that the piece was truly a gift from the Buddha. Kichiku then asked his master to name the piece. Gakushin whispered into Kichiku’s ear “Flute on the Misty Sea” (Mukaiji). Blasdel 2005, 36

Kichiku’s story, even if concocted, demonstrates the power of sound and the archetypal appeal of the shakuhachi. Each individual tone has a mysterious power to connect with the world, and just as the instrument itself becomes an extension of our physical body through concentrated breathing and body control, the tones relax and help balance our inner and outer worlds. The feeling experienced after a focused playing or practice session is of well-being, as if a rush of serotonin has surged into the bloodstream. Like many institutions of the late Edo period, the Fuke sect and its wandering komusō spiralled into decadency in the late nineteenth century and were outlawed in 1871, but the shakuhachi survived and entered the twentieth century with increasing popularity. The ancient spiritual aspects of the instrument still held a strong appeal to some, but the shakuhachi was frequently used in ensemble music with the koto 箏 (zither) and shamisen 三味線 (lute) and in experimental and new music. 3

The Shakuhachi in Modern Japan

Just as China influenced nascent Japanese culture from very early times, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the occidental cultures of Europe and the US profoundly influenced Japan as it entered the twentieth century. In the space of a few decades, Japan replaced its feudal systems and hierarchies and transformed itself into a modern, industrial, and education-driven society. Japanese music was also deeply affected by this transformation as musicians and composers struggled to creatively balance their classic traditions with an influx of new musical ideas from the West. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Around the 1920s, shin nihon ongaku 新日本音楽 (new Japanese music) arose, spearheaded by the koto performer/composer Miyagi Michio 宮城道雄 (1894–1956) and shakuhachi player Yoshida Seifū 吉田晴風 (1891–1950), who later would be one of the first shakuhachi players from Japan to make concert tours of the US. They creatively infused Western musical idioms with the shakuhachi and other traditional instruments, making the most of their unique techniques and timbres. At the time, anything Western was considered fashionable and exciting, and audiences loved the hybridization, as they could enjoy familiar voices in new arrangements. In addition, this “modern” iteration of the shakuhachi allowed Japanese to disassociate the instrument from its questionable late nineteenth-century past and its association with the outlawed Fuke sect. Another notable shakuhachi player/composer of the early twentieth century was Nakao Tozan 中尾都山 (1876–1956), founder of the Tozan-ryū 都山流 school of shakuhachi playing. He began teaching in 1896 and eventually set up a highly organized, community-based teaching system that made it easy for students to learn and enjoy participating in nation-wide groups of shakuhachi players. Around the same time, another development occurred that epitomized the hybridization of East and West. In 1935, Ōkura Kishichirō 大倉喜七郎 (1882– 1963), the wealthy industrialist and amateur shakuhachi player, introduced a new instrument called the ōkurauro オークラウロ that was a cross between the Western flute and the shakuhachi (fig. 11.2). The instrument had a shakuhachi mouthpiece set vertically over the body and the key system of a flute. The addition of keys made it easier to play chromatic notes, which can be difficult on a five finger-hole shakuhachi, while the mouthpiece allowed a shakuhachi-like

Figure 11.2

Ōkurauro Photo by author, 1986

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tone. “This was an attempt to rationalize the shakuhachi and make it closer in nature and function to the western flute. It is also reflective of the thought processes of the time when western technology was held in superior regard” (Blasdel and Kamisangō 2008, 10). Because Ōkura was wealthy, he could finance the production of the instrument and pay musicians to perform it, but it never really took off. By the end of the Second World War, the ōkurauro was almost totally forgotten. Then in 2011, a group of young Japanese shakuhachi performers revitalized its popularity through a series of performances and recordings. The ōkurauro now has its own social media and Internet sites, where it is possible to purchase the instrument.2 All creativity and artistic pursuits were suspended during the Second World War, but by the 1960s, Japan had rebuilt itself and began to thrive economically. Supported by Japan’s national broadcaster NHK, huge efforts were made at this time to promote contemporary Japanese music, especially that of the shakuhachi, and the shakuhachi burst onto the international stage to delight new audiences and devotees. 4

Shakuhachi in the World

The shakuhachi accompanied the initial wave of migrants who left Japan late in the nineteenth century seeking work and a better life. These migrants brought aspects of their culture with them, including the shakuhachi. Those who migrated to Hawai‘i were some of the first to leave their homeland and emigrate abroad. During the early twentieth century, Hawai‘i had a thriving traditional music scene. It included groups of Bon festival dancers, nagauta (song style with shamisen) players, biwa (lute) performers, and at least one group of Tozan-style shakuhachi players, established in 1925 by Mikami Kōgai 三上晄崖, who was also a kendō instructor (Nichibei Shinbun Publication Committee 1964, 516, 572). His daughter, Kay Kazue Mikami (1916–2021), taught koto and was a student of the famed early twentieth-century koto performer/composer Miyagi Michio (Ric Trimillos, pers. comm., 2 August 2022). However, the audience for Japanese music in Hawai‘i consisted mainly of other expat Japanese, as it was a way to sustain a connection with the home culture and preserve their traditional music. There was little outside interest in Japanese or other ethnic music in Hawai‘i until the early 1960s, when the 2 See http://www.okraulo.info/.

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ethnomusicology faculty was established at the University of Hawai‘i under the direction of Barbara B. Smith (Ric Trimillos, pers. comm., 2 August 2022). The situation was slightly different on the US mainland, where there was early acknowledgement of the shakuhachi’s appeal not only to the diaspora of overseas Japanese but also amongst non-Japanese intelligentsia and musicians who were enchanted by the instrument. This interest can be observed in a revealing article from the Japan-California Daily News (Kashū Mainichi Shinbun 加州毎日新聞), a newspaper for the Japanese community in Los Angeles (1931–91). Dated 11 June 1932 and entitled “Girl Shakuhachi Expert to Make American Tour Soon,” this English-language article was written in the context of 1930s values and writing styles, but it is significant in that it introduced Suzuki Fujie 鈴木藤枝 (1898–?), a thirty-four year-old Japanese female shakuhachi player. She had just returned to Japan from a concert tour of “various countries in Europe,” and the article announced her upcoming concert tour of the US. The shakuhachi world in Japan has traditionally been dominated by males, and the fact that Suzuki was able to perform the shakuhachi at concert level is nothing short of astounding, especially given the time. Even the article recognized this: “The shakuhachi music has been combined [played in ensemble] only among the sterner sex of the country and its appearance of femininer [sic] shakuhachi-ist in the person of gifted Miss Suzuki has given an impetus to the traditional music circles” ( Japan-California Daily News 1932, 8). Apparently, “Miss Suzuki” was also expert in judō, kendō, and horse riding as well as an accomplished violoncellist. The article quotes her as saying, I went to Europe with the primary object of studying further the techniques of cello playing. Upon arrival there I found that the educated classes of people on the Continent were, on the whole, keen after things Japanese, particularly Japanese music. Ibid.

Suzuki was not the only shakuhachi player of the time to make an impact on Westerners. Fourteen years earlier, in 1918, Tamada Kitarō 玉田喜太郎 (1894–1969) left the northern prefecture of Aomori to study agriculture in Massachusetts. He had learned shakuhachi from Jin Nyodō 神如道 (1891–1966), the renowned early twentieth-century shakuhachi master, also from Aomori, who later conferred on Tamada the professional name Nyohyō 如萍. Tamada was deeply involved in the Zen Buddhist aspects of the shakuhachi as a religious tool and stressed religious/spiritual aspects in his performances, which, according to accounts in the Japanese-language newspapers of the time,

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were held on both the east and west coasts of the US. (Entering the search term “shakuhachi,” either in English or Japanese, in the Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection results in hundreds of articles referring to the shakuhachi.) While living in California, Tamada met the contemporary composer Henry Cowell (1897–1965), who was enamoured with both the shakuhachi and Tamada’s Zen-infused attitude towards music. Cowell was instrumental in arranging opportunities for Tamada to share his music and philosophy with students, music lovers, and other composers, like John Cage (1912–92) and Gerald Strang (1908–83). Cowell studied the shakuhachi with Tamada and composed a shakuhachi solo dedicated to his teacher entitled “The Universal Flute” (1946), which may be the first shakuhachi piece ever written by a nonJapanese composer. In an announcement of one performance arranged for Tamada, the local Japanese newspaper, Nichibei shinbun (5 February 1935, 3), marvelled at how appreciative American audiences were of Japanese music. It said, Tamada Nyohyō of Mountain View has been invited by Henry Cowell to perform a concert this next Friday (8 February 1935) at the Carmel seashore. The concert will allow a number of Caucasians to hear the shakuhachi. We are noticing that Americans are beginning to appreciate all aspects of the special characteristics of Japanese music; a really wonderful phenomena. The impact of Tamada—together with composers like Cowell and Cage—in creating a base for a profound and lasting appreciation of the shakuhachi in the US cannot be underestimated.3 In the years following the Second World War, interest in the shakuhachi blossomed into a phenomenon that continues into the present. With the end of the war and concomitant economic stability and ease of travel, more and more Japanese shakuhachi players travelled overseas to perform. The decade of the 1960s was particularly notable, when several young shakuhachi masters travelled to the US for high-profile events. Yamamoto Hōzan 山本邦山 attended the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966. In 1967, Yamaguchi Gorō 山口五郎 taught shakuhachi for a year at Wesleyan College in Connecticut, and the premiere of the Takemitsu Tōru 武満徹 masterpiece November Steps, for shakuhachi, biwa, and orchestra, took place with Yokoyama Katsuya 横山勝也 and the New York Philharmonic. Eleven years earlier, in 1956, the established shakuhachi player Iwami Baikyoku 石見梅旭 (1923–2012) emigrated from Japan to São Paolo, Brazil, where he taught Kinko-style honkyoku and sankyoku 三曲 3 For a detailed essay (in Japanese) on Tamada and his activities in the US, see Gillan (2020). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 11.3

Christopher Blasdel having a shakuhachi lesson with Yamaguchi Gorō in 1998 Photo by Alan Miller. Blasdel (2005, 16)

ensemble pieces.4 In the meantime, Hawai‘i-born Thomas Okano (b. 1937) travelled to Japan to study Tozan-style shakuhachi and began teaching the instrument informally in Hawai‘i from the 1970s. As Steven Casano notes, “Although Okano did not set himself up as a shakuhachi teacher, his role was still significant in the transnational flow of the shakuhachi tradition to the West” (2001, 63). In 1963, Araki Kodō V 荒木古童五世 (b. 1938), heir to one of the most important of all the Kinko lineages, moved to Seattle and began teaching shakuhachi part-time at the University of Washington. From the 1970s, many young Westerners travelled to Japan to seriously study the shakuhachi as well (fig. 11.3). The increased exposure of the shakuhachi in the West created fertile ground for more people to experience the instrument and learn about its spiritual roots. In fact, a major factor in the rise of the shakuhachi’s popularity was its connection with Zen Buddhism and the idea of the shakuhachi as a sacred tool for meditation rather than a mere bamboo flute. This association, of course, harks back to the ancient spiritual legacy of Ikkyū and the komusō and, more recently, to nascent pre-Second World War interest in Zen that began 4 Sankyoku has koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi (or kokyū 胡弓). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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with D. T. Suzuki (Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō 鈴木大拙貞太郎 1870–1966) and was expressed through the musical activities of Tamada, Cowell, and Cage. The interest in Zen blossomed in the postwar era through the works of writers such as Alan Watts and Robert M. Pirsig and the later twentieth-century poets Alan Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Synder, and Sam Hamill. In the early 1990s, Yokoyama Katsuya, feeling the need for a more organized approach to the transnational spread of shakuhachi, came up with the idea of an international shakuhachi festival. One of his main desires was inclusivity: he wanted to represent as many styles of shakuhachi as possible. This is not an easy task. Traditional music groups in Japan are notoriously insular and, in general, do not maintain relationships with players outside their own lineage. Due to his infectious enthusiasm and gregarious nature however, Yokoyama was able to gather a small but dedicated coterie of players from a variety of schools for the first international shakuhachi festival that was held in Bisei, Okayama prefecture in Japan, in 1994. The festival was financed entirely by Yokoyama and was attended by only twenty or thirty non-Japanese and about ten Japanese teachers; nonetheless, it was an important step in the cross-cultural flow of the shakuhachi to the West. Soon after this festival, it was realized that in order to live up to its “international” moniker, the next festival should be held overseas, and preparations began for a much larger and more inclusive festival, called the World Shakuhachi Festival, to be held in Boulder, Colorado, in July 1998 (fig. 11.4). This was the first large-scale festival of Japanese music to be held outside of Japan, and it caught the interest of both the Japanese Ministry of Culture and the Japan Foundation. Both bodies, along with several private companies, generously supported the festival. Attended by over three hundred people, the week-long festival presented a variety of shakuhachi teachers, playing styles, and concerts, ranging from the simple Fuke sect-inspired honkyoku to modern jazz and experimental music: The festival reflected just how truly international shakuhachi music had become. It enjoyed broad financial support from both Japanese and US government institutions, corporate support from a major US airline and significant contributions from individuals and small businesses. A senior commentor from NHK television [Japan’s public broadcaster] reported on the national news her amazement at the extent the shakuhachi had developed into an international phenomena. In the same breath, she lamented that although such an ecumenical and large-scale festival should have been held in Japan, political and stylistic differences between the schools would probably prevent it from happening. Blasdel and Kamisangō 2008, 129

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Figure 11.4



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Participants in the final concert of the 1998 World Shakuhachi Festival, Boulder. Front row, left to right: Cory Sperry, Aoki Reibo 青木鈴慕, Yamamoto Hōzan 山本邦山, Yamaguchi Gorō 山口五郎, Araki Kodō 荒木古童, Yokoyama Katsuya 横山勝也. Back row: Christopher Yohmei 遙盟 Blasdel, Andō Masateru 安藤政輝, Yonekawa Toshiko 米川 敏子, Nishigata Akiko 西潟昭子, Kamijo Taeko 上条妙子, Satō Kikuko 佐藤紀久子, David Kansuke 勘輔 Wheeler Photo by Takeuchi Toshinobu 竹内敏信; courtesy of Nishigata Akiko. Blasdel (2005, 158)

Building on the success of the Boulder festival, subsequent World Shakuhachi Festivals were held in New York city (2004), Sydney (2008), Kyoto (2012), and London (2018). Scaled-down festivals were held in Tokyo (2000) and Prague (2016). The continued popularity of these festivals indicates that the shakuhachi has firmly entered the musical consciousness of North America and Europe and transformed into a world instrument. For all practical purposes, the shakuhachi extended the reach of the Silk Road from Japan to the West, and the instrument, with roots in Persia and China, was on its way to completely circumnavigating the globe. At the 2012 World Shakuhachi Festival in Kyoto, a significant number of Chinese shakuhachi players showed up and proved to be very competent players. While the number of shakuhachi fans in China increased,

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shakuhachi teachers in Japan experienced a decrease in the number of students. Subsequently, Japanese teachers found that they could augment their income through teaching tours to China or Taiwan or teaching online. After the Kyoto festival, there was a “boom” in Chinese and Taiwanese shakuhachi players and makers. By the time the next World Shakuhachi Festival was held in London in 2018, the number of Chinese shakuhachi players who could be termed “professional” had hugely increased. Therefore Li Cain 李楽, a young Chinese music empresario and shakuhachi player, announced that he and his group would hold the next World Shakuhachi Festival in Shenzhen, China, in 2022. The funding and venue had already been procured when COVID-19 unfortunately hit, and the festival has been postponed indefinitely. As a way of maintaining interest in the festival however, the organizers, along with the traditional Japanese music magazine Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャーナル, sponsored an online video competition, open to shakuhachi players of any age or nationality. Out of ninety-one applicants, sixty-four of them were from China or Taiwan, many more than from any other country. The Chinese participants constituted by far the youngest group of entrants and ranked very well in the final competition. They ranked 3rd and 4th in the category of traditional music, 3rd and 4th in the category of ensemble playing, and 1st in the category of contemporary music (Hōgaku Jānaru 2022, 29). It is difficult to estimate the present number of shakuhachi players in China. I visited China in 1985 and 1994 on performance tours to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xi’an. Most of the Chinese musicians I met at the time knew of the shakuhachi but had never heard it live. I met only one shakuhachi player, Sun Yongzhi 孙永志, a dizi 笛 (flute) player teaching at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music. He had been given a shakuhachi by a Japanese scholar and learned to play it on his own, though he did not actively teach it. Nonetheless, I met many Chinese musicians who expressed a deep interest in the shakuhachi and wanted to learn more about it. Unfortunately, the politico-social climate in China is generally distrustful of Japan, and I was told that it was difficult for them to actively express interest in the shakuhachi. However, when a shakuhachi player was non-Japanese, like myself, they felt safe in approaching me and asking questions and learning more about the instrument. The present wave of the shakuhachi’s popularity in China seems to have begun around 2000, when the Japanese shakuhachi player Kanzaki Ken 神崎憲 (1949–2015) began teaching there. Around 2003, he estimated that there were 300 to 400 shakuhachi players in China. Present estimates of Chinese shakuhachi players range from 5,000 to 10,000, depending on whom you ask

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(Cai Weizhong 蔡维忠, pers. comm., July 2022).5 Because their teachers come from Japan, most of the Chinese shakuhachi players have thoroughly studied and perform the contemplative traditional honkyoku solo repertory. Although they perceive the instrument as originally Chinese (though it died out in China in the meantime), they appreciate the fact that it was greatly enriched through its centuries-long immersion in Japanese culture. 5

Conclusion

Noted shakuhachi performer David Kansuke Wheeler was one of the judges in the above-mentioned Hōgaku Jānaru competition. He made the following observation concerning the transnational flow of the shakuhachi throughout the world: “I am deeply impressed with how much these players from many parts of the world have taken this classical tradition and made it their own while still celebrating the music’s traditional roots” (pers. comm., August 2022). Indeed, the shakuhachi was transmitted to Japan from the Asian mainland and continued its journey to the Americas and Europe. It is somehow fitting that now, in the modern era, it has made its way back to China. The shakuhachi’s simple construction and deep connection to the body and breath appeal to musicians and listeners from all cultures. Like any good sojourner, the shakuhachi may take on the accoutrements and particularities of the culture or time it inhabits, but its story is always the same and one to which anyone can relate. Shakuhachi music is no longer limited to the earth. On 20 August 1977, Voyager 2 was launched by NASA to study the outer planets and interstellar space. It was designed to eventually exit the sun’s heliosphere, which it did in 2018. It was “sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going” (Gill 2018). Included in its cargo was a Golden Record containing a recording by Yamaguchi Gorō of the honkyoku piece “Sōkaku Reibo” 巣鶴鈴慕 (The Nesting of the Cranes) on shakuhachi. Voyager 2 is now well out of our solar system and will, barring some accident, traverse the universe for eternity. Like an interstellar wandering komusō, the spacecraft will carry this shakuhachi work to the extremes of the universe, giving new meaning to the words priest Ikkyū wrote over five hundred years ago: “In all the universe, there is only one song” (Yamaguchi 2005, 89; my translation).

5 Cai Weizhong is a contemporary Chinese essayist and shakuhachi researcher presently residing in New York.

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References Blasdel, Christopher Yohmei. 2005. The Single Tone: A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music. Tokyo: Printed Matter Press. Blasdel, Christopher Yohmei, and Kamisangō Yūkō. 2008. The Shakuhachi: A Manual for Learning. Tokyo: Printed Matter Press. Casano, Steven. 2001. “From Fuke Shū to Udoboo: Zen and the Transnational Flow of the Shakuhachi Tradition to the West.” MA thesis, University of Hawai‘i. Gill, Victoria. 2018. “Nasa Voyager 2 Probe Leaves the Solar System.” BBC News, 10 December. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46502820. Gillan, Matt. 2020. “Nijūseki zenhan no hokubei shakai ni okeru shakuhachi bukkyō zen’ei ongaku: Tamada Nyohō no katsudō o chūshin ni” 二０世紀前半の北米社 会における尺八・仏教・前衛音楽:玉田如萍・の活動を中心に. Ichion Jōbutsu 一音 成仏 49: 62–92. Hoff, Frank. 1978. Song, Dance, Storytelling: Aspects of the Performing Arts in Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャーナル. 2022. (November), 29. Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection. Japanese Diaspora Initiative: https://hojishinbun .hoover.org. Japan-California Daily News. 1932. “Girl Shakuhachi Expert to Make American Tour Soon.” 11 June, 8. Johnson, Henry. 2014. The Shakuhachi: Roots and Routes. Leiden: Brill. Nakatsuka, Chikuzen 中塚竹禅. 1979. Kinko-ryū shakuhachi shikan 琴古流尺八史観. Tokyo: Nihon Ongakusha 日本音楽社. Nishida, Masayuki 西田正好. 1977. Ikyū Fūkyō no seishin 一休風狂の精神. Tokyo: Kōdansha Gendai Shinsho 講談社現代新書. Linder, Gunnar Jinmei. 2012. Deconstructing Tradition in Japanese Music: A Study of Shakuhachi, Historical Authenticity and Transmission of Tradition. Stockholm: Department of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University. Nichibei Shinbun Publication Committee. 1964. A History of Japanese Immigrants to Hawaii. New York: United Japanese Society of Hawaii. Yamaguchi, Masayoshi 山口正義. 2005. Shakuhachi shigai setsu 尺八史概説. Tokyo: Geijutsusha 芸術社.

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Chapter 12

Choreographing Sound: Ensemble Taiko Drumming in Modern Japan Shawn BENDER 1

Introduction

Some performing arts fit comfortably within established categories of expressive culture. Certain listeners might prefer smooth jazz over hard rock, but they are likely to agree that both are kinds of music. Fans of ballet might not like watching tango but nevertheless recognize it as another kind of dance. Evening performances of Macbeth and Hamilton are both nights out at the theatre. Purists might argue about which kind of music, dance, or theatre is the most authentic—the “real” stuff. They are unlikely to disagree about what exactly constitutes music, dance, or theatre. Yet Japanese ensemble drumming raises just these sorts of questions. Performances of wadaiko 和太鼓 (Japanese drums) centre on the playing of a subset of Japanese drums called taiko 太鼓 (as the genre is commonly called in the West and in this chapter). Taiko are typically carved out of large blocks of wood or put together like barrels out of wooden staves. They are sounded with large stick beaters called bachi, unlike smaller Japanese hand drums, such as the ōtsuzumi 大鼓 or kotsuzumi 小鼓. The focus on the playing of drums would seem to locate taiko artistically as a musical form, and it is true that much popular and scholarly writing on taiko treats it this way. Doing so, however, risks ignoring choreographed movements of the body performed in connection with the playing of drums that are as much a part of taiko as the sounds that drums make. For this specific reason, taiko troubles typical distinctions of music and dance that are rooted in Euro-American performance culture. But even within Japanese performing arts, taiko is an anomaly. Its instruments are drawn from religious ritual and local festivity, yet it appropriates them as vehicles for artistic expression. It emphasizes originality and innovation over the faithful reproduction of inherited patterns and motifs. Its roots are also much shallower than those of the classical stage arts of Japan. Taiko emerged only in the 1950s, far later than performing arts such as noh (nō) 能, kabuki 歌舞伎, or bunraku 文楽. The global scale of contemporary taiko performance unsettles its strict identification with Japan. Some ensembles

© Shawn BENDER, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_014

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Figure 12.1

Taiko ensembles arrange large and small taiko drums in a variety of positions and on top of differently structured drum stands. Players choreograph their drum strokes and their movements around the drums for aural and visual effect Photo by Kim Nakashima. Courtesy of Soh Daiko

outside Japan have histories matching groups in the country, marked by regular exchanges of performing styles and sometimes personnel (de Ferranti 2006). Diasporic communities have made from taiko a unique way of performing ethnic identity, while still other groups explore the sonic potential of taiko drums within the diversity of contemporary world music. Such complications make taiko one of Japan’s most dynamic cultural exports, honouring a wealth of inherited culture while remaining open to innovation and change (fig. 12.1). In this chapter, I explore how taiko’s multiple moments of creation in Japan have contributed to its distinctive characteristics. I discuss as well how contemporary taiko provides an expressive medium for social groups in Japan who have historically been marginalized by Japan’s performing arts community. I conclude with a brief consideration of taiko’s relationship to communities outside Japan. In so doing, my intent is not to provide an exhaustive account of taiko’s musical characteristics but to highlight its meaning and significance as a genre of performance with roots in Japan.

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Beginnings

The interplay between inheritance and creation has marked ensemble taiko from the start. One of the first individuals to perform taiko in the contemporary manner, Oguchi Daihachi 小口大八, was inspired to reimagine taiko performance when he was asked to help revive a local festival tradition (Bender 2012, 48–49). Oguchi was shown a drum score that had formerly been performed during the festival. The person who found the score could not make sense of it, but he knew that Oguchi played drum set and performed with bands around town and so brought it to him in the hope that he might know how to interpret it. With some assistance, Oguchi eventually deciphered the pattern and learned to play it, nevertheless he remained unsatisfied with his result. The part was slow and rhythmically uninteresting to the modern ears of the young Oguchi. It was also meant for only one drum and one drummer. Oguchi thought instead about the music he typically played. Drum sets combine drums of different pitches, as do classical orchestras and marching bands. Oguchi reimagined the drum score along these lines. He combined high-pitched shime-daiko 締太鼓 drums, mid-range chūdaiko 中太鼓 drums, and low-pitched okedō-daiko 桶胴太鼓 into an instrumental arrangement for a group of players. Oguchi called his creation kumi-daiko 組太鼓 (ensemble taiko) (Bender 2012, 49–52), and he named his group Osuwa Daiko 御諏訪太鼓 after the shrine with which the recovered drum score was associated. To this instrumental foundation, he added stylized arm movements ( furi 振り) and vocal articulations (kakegoe 掛け声) to heighten the visual and aural impact. In terms of repertory, Oguchi did not just modify one inherited pattern. Instead, he created his own performance pieces, which were set at a faster tempo than older festival rhythms and arranged for artistic effect. Oguchi was a true innovator and his influence in the taiko community continues to be felt at home and abroad. Importantly, though, his influence did not extend to Tokyo-based groups of taiko drummers who developed ensemble taiko drumming independently of Oguchi and pushed its visuality beyond Oguchi’s model. The four young men who would later form the group Sukeroku Daiko 助六太鼓 met at Tokyo festivals organized in celebration of summer Bon 盆 (Buddhist festival) holidays, a time when Japanese believe the spirits of household ancestors return to visit the living. Solo drummers would play along with recordings of folk songs as groups of festivalgoers danced together. Drummers, usually young men, would circulate among the many Bon festivals in the Tokyo area and compete against each other at an annual Bon-drumming contest held at one local shrine. The members of what was

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to become Sukeroku Daiko were routinely placed among the winners of this contest, not just by playing well but by doing so with considerable flair. Once gathered together in Sukeroku Daiko, the four members would develop the choreography of taiko playing even further. No longer playing Bon drumming individually, they synchronized their arm strokes and scripted acrobatic leaps and twirls around their drums, while maintaining space for displays of solo performance within the group. The dynamism and novelty of Sukeroku Daiko made them a popular act at Tokyo bars, nightclubs, and cabarets (Bender 2012, 52–59). Though its founding members went their separate ways by the early 1980s, the influence of Sukeroku’s approach to taiko performance, particularly their utilization of visually stunning choreography and the unusual placement of their drums at a slant, is evident in the performance styles of taiko groups across Japan and around the world. Osuwa Daiko and Sukeroku Daiko blazed paths out of inherited approaches to taiko playing. Their performance venues nevertheless stayed local: Osuwa Daiko performed mainly at regional festivals and community events; and Sukeroku Daiko rarely performed outside the Tokyo clubs where it had established its reputation. In 1969, over a decade after the founding of Osuwa Daiko, a group formed on an island in the Japan Sea that set its sights on transforming the taiko drum into an instrument of high-art expression suitable for concert halls around the world. That group was called Ondekoza 鬼太鼓座 after a style of “demon drumming” (ondeko; oni-daiko) native to the island of Sado where they established their base; they borrowed rhythmic elements from folk drumming styles like Osuwa Daiko and Sukeroku Daiko but did not limit themselves only to those in their local area. Instead, Ondekoza took inspiration from a diverse array of festival drumming traditions across Japan, appropriated patterns to their liking, and then reworked them into complete performance pieces of their own. Ondekoza notably did not draw from the drumming styles of Sado, not even their namesake “demon drumming.” Nor were they influenced directly by Osuwa Daiko or Sukeroku Daiko. Even more than these two groups, Ondekoza and later Kodō 鼓童, which was created by former members of Ondekoza in 1981 when the founder of the group abruptly left the island, explored the potential of taiko drums and other Japanese folk instruments as instruments of artistic expression. Ondekoza and Kodō continue to tour the world performing their unique brand of ensemble taiko drumming. For many audiences outside Japan, the repertory of Ondekoza and Kodō is taiko, so much so that Kodō’s concert programmes used to inform foreign audiences that the genre of ensemble taiko is distinct from the ensemble group named Kodō. Their influence is similarly

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global in scope, particularly the manner in which they have inspired individuals around the world to approach taiko as a creative medium unencumbered by strict adherence to custom. 3

Characteristics

The distinctive innovations of these formative groups help bring into focus common elements among a diversity of contemporary taiko performance. First and foremost is the appropriation of festival drums as instruments of creative expression. Second is the arrangement of multiple drums together with festival instruments like atarigane 当たり鉦 (small brass gong) and fue 笛 (flute) into ensembles featuring multiple players and a range of tonalities. Third, for many groups, is either the adoption of festival garb as costumes to wear on stage (as with Osuwa Daiko and Sukeroku Daiko) or the rejection of such clothing in favour of apparel that expresses more abstract ideas not tied to locality (as with Ondekoza and Kodō). Fourth, there are stylized, choreographed movements of the body and synchronized strikes of the drum. Lastly, in line with the independent origins of its key practitioners, there is little standard repertory that cuts across taiko groups. Arguably, taiko is better defined by its form and attitude rather than by any broadly shared repertoire of pieces.1 4

Communities

The characteristics noted above make taiko a flexible and highly localizable art form. Japanese taiko groups are distinguished in membership and repertoire by the communities in which they are located. Amateur groups have low barriers for entry. The same is true for professional groups when compared with the often decade-long apprenticeships demanded by other classical stage arts in Japan. While there are no formal surveys of taiko ensembles, most observers agree that their numbers have increased significantly since their emergence in the post-Second World War period. Taiko has proved highly mobile, taking root in Japan and in sites around the world in a manner without parallel in the Japanese performing arts. In so doing, taiko has moved even further from its roots in ritual and festivity, though by no means has it escaped them entirely, to express forms of collective identity and belonging. 1 See Milioto Matsue (2016) for a thoughtful meditation on the complications of applying the concept of genre to taiko performance.

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Perhaps one of the most striking examples of this in Japan is the group Taiko Ikari 太鼓怒り (Taiko Rage) and their advocacy on behalf of their local community in Naniwa ward, Osaka city. Historically, Japanese taiko-makers belonged to an outcast group called burakumin 部落民. The term translates to “hamlet people,” and, although their exact origin is uncertain, most scholars agree that burakumin derive from an outcast group (senmin 賤民) that emerged between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries (DeVos and Wagatsuma 1966; Donoghue 1978; Henshall 1999). The group included people who worked in occupations that were considered polluting, such as butchery, tanning, leatherwork, and grave digging. The ruling authorities segregated members of this group from communities and relocated them to areas called buraku on the outskirts of population centres from which their name derives. Because the construction of taiko involves handling the carcasses and skins of animals, the work was considered polluting by the moral standards of the era and hence relegated to burakumin. Although the official status of burakumin was abolished with the passage of the Emancipation Edict (Kaihō-rei 解放令) in 1871, unofficial discrimination persists into the present. Employers, as well as marriage agencies, commonly check the family registers of applicants for evidence of residence in a historically burakumin community. Burakumin youth continue to have lower rates of academic success and lower levels of occupational attainment than their peers (Henshall 1999; Hill 2003; Kitaguchi 1999), and social alienation leads some young people to the criminal underworld—although reliable statistics are hard to attain, scholars estimate that burakumin youth are disproportionally involved in Japan’s yakuza crime organizations (Ames 1981; Henshall 1999; Kaplan and Dubro 2003). While many Japanese are sympathetic to the plight of the buraku people, the association with violence, crime, and “unclean” activities has contributed to a diffuse wariness about them. Taiko Ikari militates against these kinds of attitudes. The group formed in Naniwa in the late 1980s after its young male founders met a taiko ensemble visiting their community from Okinawa. Zampa Ufujishi Daiko 残波大獅子太鼓, a group of Okinawan drummers who played in the mainland style, had come to Naniwa in search of high-quality drums to use in their performances. Naniwa encompasses a buraku area formerly known as Watanabe village, which was an important centre of taiko production in premodern Japan and is home to the largest concentration of taiko manufacturers in Japan. The Okinawan drummers were therefore surprised that there were no competent taiko players in the area. Community leaders invited the Okinawan group to perform in support of rights for burakumin and Okinawans living in Osaka.

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Inspired by this performance, future members of Taiko Ikari began playing taiko themselves by carefully mimicking the movements they watched on video recordings of the Okinawan group’s performances. They initially played for fun, but once they started to see the emotional responses of their older neighbours, they began to take more seriously the symbolism of their efforts. They were burakumin drummers playing instruments that their ancestors had been building for generations. The fact that there were no good taiko drummers in the community, they reasoned, was “nothing but a manifestation of the long history of discrimination” directed against members of the community (Terada 2008, 311). No longer content to hide in the shadows while “their” instruments were taken up enthusiastically by other Japanese, even in locations as far away as Okinawa, they resolved to play in defiance of past discrimination (ibid., 310–311). The popularization of taiko drumming throughout Japan has led to increased demand for high-quality taiko drums. Demand has not only engendered economic benefits; it has provided a means for taiko-makers to represent their work as the continuation of Japanese “tradition.” Coupled with the local success of Taiko Ikari, in 2004, the Naniwa community opened a “Road of Taiko and Human Rights” (hereafter Taiko Road) that runs through the centre of the ward. The aim of the Taiko Road is to bring public recognition of the 300-year history of drum-making in the community. Rather than obscuring a heritage of leather and taiko production, the Taiko Road opens it up to public view. References to the generations of discrimination that brought the community into being are left off displays and kiosks, as are any depictions of animal slaughter. Instead, the Road represents Naniwa as a community that knows its past of taiko-making and is concerned with the preservation of human rights into the future (fig. 12.2). Much as Taiko Ikari attempts to recuperate a lost inheritance of performance, the Taiko Road signifies a move to bring into public view and thus to memorialize and celebrate the Naniwa community’s long history of drum-making. One local government poster on the Road symbolizes this new direction and the centrality of respect for human rights in its vision of the future. It proclaims Naniwa ward to be a community based on “Life, Love, and Human Rights,” with tolerance and understanding for those who have different cultures and customs. The collective past is not hidden out of shame but rather is celebrated as a unique inheritance of skill, knowledge, and culture. Once again, taiko performance has one foot in the past and one in the future. Taiko drumming stresses iconoclasm and innovation in its artistry, and it has opened up Japanese drums to new groups wishing to express forms of

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Figure 12.2

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Bench at a bus stop on the Taiko Road. The bench has sides shaped like drum heads. Above it is a drum score from a piece by the local taiko ensemble, Taiko Ikari. A recording of the group plays as a bus approaches Photo by author, 2008

identity and community. Yet, in its early years, the musically transgressive genre remained rather conservative with regard to gender expectations. All of the founders of ensemble taiko groups on the Japanese mainland were men, and the influence of their view of the ideal taiko player continues to resonate in contemporary taiko aesthetics. Oguchi Daihachi’s reimagination of Shinto ritual drumming broke with inherited rhythms but conserved a taboo on female drum performance that stems from older Shinto notions of ritual pollution. Women did not join his ensemble group, Osuwa Daiko, until the trend had been established elsewhere. Tokyo’s Sukeroku Daiko grew out of a competition among young men to stand out at summer Bon festivals. Perched on the taiko platform way above Bon dancers, the young drummers showed off their flashy moves in an attempt to win the hearts of the crowd below, especially young women. Ondekoza’s appropriation of folk performance drew on sentimental images of male artisans and peasant farmers. There were women members of Ondekoza from the start. However, they were limited onstage to Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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ancillary roles as singers or dancers. Female members of Kodō did not play taiko on stage until decades after its founding, and women still do not play the demanding solo piece “Ōdaiko” 大太鼓, which is performed on a massive ōdaiko drum and remains a highlight of the group’s concerts. In their gender exclusivity, early taiko ensembles aligned with other inherited forms of Japanese performance whose conventions they otherwise dismissed. The noh stage has been dominated by men, both as actors and as musicians (hayashi 囃子), since the fourteenth century. Women have been banned from performing professionally in kabuki theatre, ironically a performing art founded by a woman, since 1629. They have similarly been excluded from bunraku puppet theatre performances, as the manipulators of puppets or as narrators. They have historically not been allowed to ride in or carry the palanquins (mikoshi 神輿) in which the spirits (kami 神) of local Shinto shrines are processed during festivals. In the Shinto worldview, women are seen as polluting and hence harmful to the delicate kami that are carried through communities. For much the same reason, they have been marginalized from playing in the music ensembles that drive along such processions. (These restrictions have eased in recent years as demographic change has left fewer young men available than in years past; see Bender 2012.) Taiko drumming takes its instruments from ritual festivity. But, despite their conservatism, in the process of recontextualizing taiko as instruments of stage performance, early taiko groups formally severed the connection between festival equipment and Shinto proscriptions. That is to say, women playing taiko on stage did not violate any religious prohibition. Starting in the 1980s, women enthusiastically began taking up taiko drumming in Japan, eventually reaching numbers currently equal to or greater than men. There are all-female amateur taiko groups in Japan and several high-profile professional groups that prominently feature women. Taiko drumming is rare in that it remains one of the few forms of Japanese stage performance where women perform on a par with men. Yet, as women have taken up taiko drumming, they have had to contend with performance aesthetics and forms of gender presentation that stem from the early male dominance of taiko. Moreover, as a kind of musical performance that places particular emphasis on the stylized presentation of the body, the aesthetic standards of taiko performance have been constructed around male bodies. While men’s bodies are often revealed during taiko performance, save for well-placed loincloths, women’s bodies are typically covered or minimally displayed. Although they are asked to play with the same degree of power as men, they must do so while remaining within the bounds of femininity, lest they appear too transgressive for conventional Japanese tastes (Bender 2012, 142–169). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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The group Genki Spark formed in Boston with a mission to promote the empowerment of Asian American women through taiko performance Photo courtesy of Karen Young

Directions

In North America, by contrast, women of Asian heritage have found in taiko a means of performing strength and resilience in the face of racist stereotypes of them as passive and weak (Wong 2000). Ethnically Asian men have similarly found in taiko’s muscularity a way of asserting racial and gender identities that reject emasculation and feminization (Yoon 2009). Members of LGBT communities, especially women, have appropriated taiko as a way of performing gendered and sexual identities that unsettle heteronormative expectations (Ahlgren 2016, 2018) (fig. 12.3). For men and women in Asian American communities, taiko has become an artistic means of working through intergenerational legacies of trauma stemming from the experience of internment during the Second World War (Wong 2019). Forms of community are generated through playing taiko itself. For those who have spent time in Japan in the midst of taiko’s ascendant popularity, joining a taiko group at home has helped maintain ties to experiences abroad

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and form new bonds of affiliation (Johnson 2008). Increasingly, young people are introduced to taiko in colleges and universities, either in class or in extracurricular groups. In North America, the growth of taiko groups based in colleges and universities has been impressive, particularly on the east and west coasts. In fact, it is arguably in institutions of higher education that one can find the next generation of taiko players emerging. The East Coast Taiko Conference, which is organized by schools in the northeastern region of the US, is not only an attractive performance venue for collegiate groups but an opportunity for learning about the art form as well. An Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational has played a similar role for schools on the west coast since 1995 (Yoon and Uyechi 2022). Even beyond boundaries of community or institution, organizations like the Taiko Community Alliance and TaikoSource extend the exchange of information about taiko into online spaces that reach well beyond institutional, municipal, and even national boundaries.2 6

Conclusion

As communities where taiko ensembles have developed in Japan, North America, and elsewhere change in response to out-migration and gentrification, and as the first couple of generations of taiko players enter their twilight years, the connection between taiko and the performance conventions of the past might well be diluted. Yet it is difficult to see this as anything but the culmination of dynamics that were set in motion early on. Once the weight of tradition was lifted off these heavy drums, obeisance to ancestral rhythms became an intentional choice but not at all a necessary one. It is only fitting that a form of performance so manifold in its origins, so defiant of convention, and so confounding of established boundaries of genre continues to mutate and evolve, perhaps even unrecognizably so, into the future. References Ahlgren, Angela K. 2016. “Butch Bodies, Big Drums: Queering North American Taiko.” Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 20: 1–26. Ahlgren, Angela K. 2018. Drumming Asian America: Taiko, Performance, and Cultural Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

2 See https://taikocommunityalliance.org and https://taikosource.com.

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Ames, Walter. 1981. Police and Community in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bender, Shawn. 2012. Taiko Boom: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion. Berkeley: University of California Press. de Ferranti, Hugh. 2006. “Japan Beating: The Making and Marketing of Professional Taiko Music in Australia.” In Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan, edited by Matthew Allen and Rumi Sakamoto, 75–93. New York: Routledge. De Vos, George, and Hiroshi Wagatsuma. 1966. Japan’s Invisible Race. Berkeley: University of California Press. Donoghue, John. 1978. Pariah Persistence in Changing Japan: A Case Study. Washington, DC: University Press of America. Henshall, Kenneth. 1999. Dimensions of Japanese Society: Gender, Margins and Mainstream. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Hill, Peter B. E. 2003. The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Johnson, Henry. 2008. “Why Taiko? Understanding Taiko Performance at New Zealand’s First Taiko Festival.” Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies 5 (2): 111–134. https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-vol5iss2id104. Kaplan, David E., and Alec Dubro. 2003. Yakuza: Japan’s Criminal Underworld. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kitaguchi, Suehiro. 1999. An Introduction to the Buraku Issue: Questions and Answers. Translated by Alastair McLaughlan. Richmond: Japan Library. Milioto Matsue, Jennifer. 2016. “Drumming to One’s Own Beat: Japanese Taiko and the Challenge to Genre.” Ethnomusicology 60 (1): 22–52. https://doi.org/10.5406 /ethnomusicology.60.1.0022. Terada, Yoshitaka. 2008. “Angry Drummers and Buraku Identity: The Ikari Taiko Group in Osaka, Japan.” In The Human World and Musical Diversity: Proceedings from the Fourth Meeting of the “Music and Minorities” Study Group in Varna, Bulgaria, 2006, edited by Rosemary Sialeiova, Angela Rodel, Lozanka Peycheva, Ivanka Vlaeva, and Venlsislav Dimo, 309–315, 401. Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Science, Institute of Art Studies. Wong, Deborah. 2000. “Taiko and the Asian/American Body: Drums, ‘Rising Sun,’ and the Question of Gender.” The World of Music 42 (3): 67–78. Wong, Deborah. 2019. Louder and Faster: Pain, Joy, and the Body Politic in Asian American Taiko. Berkeley: University of California Press. Yoon, Joshua, and Linda Uyechi. 2022. “Community Empowerment via Symbiosis: The Impact of Collegiate Taiko Drumming in the United States, 1990–2019.” SocArXiv. 19 May. Yoon, Paul J. 2009. “Asian Masculinities and Parodic Possibility in Odaiko Solos and Filmic Representations.” Asian Music 40 (1): 100–130.

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Chapter 13

Studying the Past to Predict the Future: Yamauchi Reach, a Professional Percussionist in the Twenty-First Century Jennifer MILIOTO MATSUE 1

Introduction

Yamauchi Reach 山内利一, a graduate of Kyōto Shiritsu Geijutsu Daigaku (京都 市立芸術大学 Kyoto City University of Arts), has enjoyed a rich and complex professional career as a percussionist in the twenty-first century (fig. 13.1).1 Skilled at varied instruments, including European art-based percussion, classical Japanese drumming (nō-bayashi 能囃子), and contemporary Japanese ensemble drumming (wadaiko 和太鼓), he has performed with numerous groups throughout Japan, toured internationally, and taught many students throughout the years. This article draws on multiple conversations with Yamauchi to paint a portrait of contemporary music through the eyes of an artist who is thoughtful, even deliberate in his mission to embrace tradition within innovative contemporary performances. In doing so, he also employs the instruments of wadaiko—not only drums—in broad musical contexts that extend far beyond their potentially limiting original Japanese functions. Despite the increasing perception of both identity research and the negotiation of tradition being passé and even essentialist, some artists continue to grapple with how best to connect with their own culture, maintain historical styles, and find their authentic selves within their artistic expressions. In this chapter, Yamauchi reveals the complexity of such an endeavour through his reflections on his journey as a professional Japanese performer and the vision that unites his compositional work. Yamauchi’s passion for studying the past informs his individual creations but also speaks to larger concerns about the relationship between tradition and innovation in modern Japanese music.

1 “Reach” is Yamauchi’s preferred romanization of the Japanese characters in his given name, Riichi. Kyōto Shiritsu Geijutsu Daigaku is a prestigious creative and performing arts university in Kyoto, Japan.

© Jennifer MILIOTO MATSUE, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_015

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Yamauchi Reach solo concert poster, 2020

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Connecting with Yamauchi Reach, the Consummate Artist

I first met Yamauchi while conducting fieldwork on the world of wadaiko in Kyoto, Japan, from the autumn of 2009 to the end of summer 2010 (Milioto Matsue 2015, 2016). Looking to develop my skills as quickly as possible in the limited time afforded by my fieldwork, I studied several instruments at the Kyoto Taiko Center—the dominant school of Japanese drumming in the city—including Yamauchi’s course on shime-daiko 締太鼓, a small doubleheaded drum at the core of classical, festival, and ensemble drumming. Yamauchi quickly revealed himself to be a thoughtful teacher, clear with his intentions and considerate of his students’ distinct abilities. We all had the pleasure of learning his compositions, which are precise, lively, and enjoyable to embody. I soon discovered that Yamauchi was then a member of the professional wadaiko group Furyūdagaku Matsuri-shū 風流打楽祭衆 (typically contracted to “Matsuri-shū”) as well as a devotee of famed classical drummer Tōsha Roetsu 藤舎呂悦, with whom I also was training. Yamauchi most generously helped me navigate the unfamiliar requirements of these lessons (okeiko お稽古), which were particularly formal and rendered all the more difficult by the use of a localized dialect (Kyōto-ben 京都弁). Towards the end of my research window, Yamauchi and another of his professional groups, Wa San Bon 和讃梵, prepared for the premiere of an original piece by an American-born composer then residing in the Netherlands, Nora Crane. I assisted this endeavour as a translator in Japan when Crane visited (2010) and in the Netherlands when Wa San Bon performed a concert (2012). I continue to connect with Yamauchi through my own ensemble—Zakuro-Daiko 柘榴太鼓, the Union College Japanese Drumming and Global Fusion Band—in which the students delight in regularly rehearsing and performing several of his pieces. Through all of these interactions, the most significant impression left with me of Yamauchi is that he is an incredibly reflective performer and composer, with expansive ideas and deep musicality. He is, as his students said years ago, a “consummate artist.” The following narrative therefore prioritizes Yamauchi’s voice. 3

Musical Biography, Intertextual Identity, and Multiple Selves

Whether framed as musical biography, life story, or another epistemological approach, there has been a resurgence in giving precedence to the individual’s voice as a valid methodology in ethnomusicological inquiry. The degree and type of focus placed on the individual, however, has differed over time, often

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depending on prevailing attitudes about the relevance, rigour, and even ethicality of such research (Rees 2009; Stock 2001). Ruth Hellier acknowledges the continued difficulty authors face articulating the experiences of the informant and balancing this with general theorizations—representing people vs. ideas—where the latter, in the extreme, could potentially erase the individual’s voice (2013, 9). In her review of Heimarck’s (2015) musical biography, Meghan Hynson advocates a more holistic research approach that counteracts “the influx of overly theoretical and often dehumanizing research that has begun to proliferate in the field of ethnomusicology” (2019, 162). Hynson suggests that if we consider how “a musical genre might inform a musician’s biography and, conversely, how a biography might inform a musical genre … the significance of biographical data is theorized, and approaches that may be deemed ‘theoryless’ are positioned as being equally important to a theoretical approach” (162). In this way, even though critics presume that general theories are lacking in a biographical approach, proponents writing on the individual may speak to larger social processes and offer historical significance. The thoughtful telling of another’s life story, for example, enables rigorous reflection on questions of identity—a mode of inquiry that is increasingly critiqued as outmoded and irrelevant but is absolutely necessary when our informants themselves question their intertextually constructed multiple selves in music (Hellier 2013). These questions may be especially necessary in the case of Japan, with its long history of amalgamating imported cultural practices and rapid modernization—processes whose contentious impact are still negotiated through artist choices today. In the case of wadaiko specifically, questions of identity circulate, when considering the genre’s emergence amidst the post-Second World War refashioning of Japanese national identity (Bender 2012), or in the context of North American gender and racial identity politics (Ahlgren 2018; Wong 2004, 2019). In one way, a musical biography of an artist such as Yamauchi risks perpetuating a “great man” approach, as I highlight a cisgender man I clearly envision as an exceptional, specialist musician. However, Yamauchi may also be perceived as marginalized vis-à-vis the globally renowned and much written about Japanese progenitors of wadaiko, such as the groups Kōdo and Ondekoza (Bender 2012; Milioto Matsue 2015, 2016). Yamauchi’s life story is situated within this complex history and contemporary performance of wadaiko, but it also reveals an intricate intertextual identity that informs his creative work. I came to know him through the study of neo-traditional wadaiko, which soon intersected with the distinct world of Japanese classical drumming, but Yamauchi is first and foremost a highly educated professional European art percussionist who necessarily became a composer. His own intersectional

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positionality demands a unique view only possible through his own words, which reveal the experiences that shape his vision and musicality, and the daily practice that leads to his musical language. Yamauchi’s musical biography also illuminates several larger issues, including the continued negotiation of tradition in Japanese contemporary music, the place of wadaiko in broad performative contexts, and the institutional framing of both in modern Japan. 4

Yamauchi, the Percussionist, Drummer, Shamisen Player, and Composer

Born in Tottori prefecture in 1974, Yamauchi’s multifaceted musical immersion began early in his childhood. His father played the trumpet and later in his life became a professional shamisen 三味線 (three-string lute) player, and his aunt was a professional pianist in Tokyo. Perhaps because of his aunt, Yamauchi’s father “forced” him to study the piano at the tender age of four and continued to encourage him to become a pianist for many years, although Yamauchi claims he never really connected with the instrument.2 In fact, even though he played the piano regularly, when he graduated from elementary school, he couldn’t read music; instead he just copied his older sister, who was also learning. This pedagogical approach no doubt helped positively shape his ear as he learned to play everything from memory without notation. At seven, on his own volition, he picked up one of the many shamisen in the house and similarly started to copy his father, whom he saw perform folk music (min’yō 民謡), which he would return to with greater intent in his early thirties (fig. 13.2). Yamauchi did have the opportunity to play taiko 太鼓 (in this case, Japanese drums in support of folk song) for his father’s group when the permanent percussionist became ill, but this was a special temporary opportunity and not a long-term gig. His younger brother though followed in his father’s footsteps and is becoming a professional shamisen performer. Yamauchi’s musical world expanded in junior high school when, at the age of ten, he joined the wind band and began his lifelong journey with percussion (dagakki 打楽器). For Yamauchi, “this started everything” and truly “opened the door to music,” an experience facilitated by an excellent music teacher who so inspired Yamauchi that he too thought he would like to teach junior high school. His dreams were temporarily thwarted when his home burned down and he could not attend the music high school he had in mind, but, of course, 2 Unless attributed to a specific source, words and phrases in quotation marks are drawn with permission from my personal communication and interviews with Yamauchi Reach.

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Yamauchi Reach shamisen recital poster, 2009

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he did eventually attend the conservatory in Kyoto. Yamauchi never returned to Tottori prefecture, but his early exposure to Japanese traditional music, piano, and wind band percussion feeds his multiple musical selves today. Once in college he was exposed to the scores he had learned by ear, and he applied the dexterity he gained playing the piano to the marimba instead, feeding his passion for percussion. As he watched himself improve day after day, he realized he wanted to become a professional performer. In order to do so, in addition to specializing in the marimba, Yamauchi studied a breadth of orchestral percussion. Recognizing that it is difficult to inspire audiences with contemporary art music, he played everything from classical to film music to pops. He and his friends performed at preschools, elementary schools, and other similar venues, laying the groundwork for the active and varied musical projects he continues to pursue today. Even though Yamauchi was already dabbling in wadaiko, it wasn’t until he saw the famous Ondekoza in concert around the time he graduated from university that his interest really blossomed. He explains that “as a Japanese he felt compelled to pursue Japanese instruments.” Although Yamauchi was initially interested in wadaiko, a teacher advised him to first study classical Japanese drumming, specifically the percussion that accompanies the music of kabuki theatre (koten kabuki-bayashi 古典歌舞伎囃子) comprising a pair of small and large hourglass drums (kotsuzumi 小鼓 and ōtsuzumi 大鼓) and a type of shime-daiko. Yamauchi began studying with the renowned and respected Tōsha Roetsu at the age of twenty-two in 1996. Yamauchi feels that Tōsha, who is now in his eighties, still has a tremendous amount of knowledge to share, but “time is running out.” He therefore continues to take lessons whenever he can with this master of Japanese classical music. While living in Kyoto in his twenties, working as a professional musician in European-style orchestras, and studying classical Japanese drumming, Yamauchi honed his skills in wadaiko from 2000 to 2011 as the musical director of Matsuri-shū and through his teaching at the Kyoto Taiko Center. Yamauchi concomitantly performed with an eclectic variety of groups with wide-ranging instrumentation and musical goals in Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area) and Kanto (Tokyo-Yokohama area), where he now resides (see the Appendix). After moving to Kanto, he found more opportunities to play with different performers, including Nihon Ongaku Shūdan 日本音楽集団, also known as Pro Musica Nipponia, “a group of leading composers and top-ranked musicians devoted to performing a wide-ranging repertoire of classical and contemporary compositions from both Japan and the West. The group’s outstanding feature is that all music is performed by traditional Japanese musical instruments” (Pro Musica Nipponia 2002). Yamauchi had long been attracted to the group’s vision of bringing Japanese instruments together in an orchestral setting and Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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finally auditioned in 2010, a clear indication of the high level of skill he had by then achieved in koten kabuki-bayashi. In addition to performing with Pro Musica Nipponia, Yamauchi teaches at the Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten 宮本卯 之助商店街 (instrument and festival equipment maker) school in Yokohama. From performing a chappa チャッパ (handheld cymbals) solo in the soundtrack to an episode of Disney’s Star Wars Visions to performing in Pro Musica Nipponia, Yamauchi’s varied musical expressions are unified by his common vision to embrace Japanese tradition in new compositions and, in turn, create opportunities for wadaiko instrumentation in unexpected performative contexts. Yamauchi makes it clear that although he did not formally study composition while at university, he started composing because of a lack of accessible repertoire that inspired him. In the case of wadaiko in particular, individuals and groups actually tend not to perform each other’s songs, which means he cannot perform a lot of unique, excellent pieces. Given this understanding in the community, Yamauchi necessarily began creating his own works. He worries, however, that the complex concepts he has in mind do not always come through in his compositions, a concern that especially plagued him earlier in his career as he experimented with sound. 5

Contemporary Composition Rooted in Tradition

Yamauchi has long been aware of the creative potential of bringing together the European art compositional styles he embodied since his childhood with the rich rhythm and timbre of Japanese traditional music, including Tsugaru shamisen 津軽三味線 (a celebrated virtuosic style of folk shamisen from the Tsugaru region in Aomori prefecture), general min’yō (folk music from throughout Japan), and classical Japanese drumming associated with the so-called “great” theatrical genres noh (nō) 能, kabuki 歌舞伎, and bunraku 文楽. He articulates his creative approach through two related concepts: onkochishin 温故 知新, to develop new ideas based on the study of the past; and kan’ōchirai 観往 知来, which can be understood as studying the past to see the future. Yamauchi stresses the importance of expressing tradition, but to just perform traditional music is not that interesting to him. His life-long immersion in European music—from piano to percussion—equally shapes who he is, so although he wants to mine Japanese traditional music, he also wants pieces to be in “his style,” referring to European chamber and orchestral settings. As a result, particular established source materials inspire his imagination and the innovative work he develops as well as the collaborative relationships he seeks. This combination can be confusing at times, thus for him song-making is experimental; he is not afraid to try various instrumentation and combinations Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Matsuri-shū performing “Shimen-soka,” 2007. Left to right: Kawarazaki Yoshihiro 川原崎 能弘, Nakajima Makoto 中嶋真, Yamauchi Reach, and Yura Hidenori 由良英寛 Photographer unknown

of sonic material and incorporate movement. Yamauchi is not unique in the sense that a good number of wadaiko players with similar intertextual experiences are involved in innovative, collaborative creation, but how the multiple selves manifest in each of these artists is unique. In programme notes for concerts featuring Matsuri-shū in the first decade of the twenty-first century, Yamauchi clearly relates how his early music experience through his college years impacted his musical experimentation at the time (fig. 13.3). He writes, “In my mind, the distinction between east and west doesn’t exist. After performing many styles of music, right now the method that I use to express myself is wadaiko,” here referring to his decision to primarily channel his expansive musical skills through the instrumentation of wadaiko. He further explains that he wants pieces for wadaiko to take on broader forms and functions than were typical at the time: I think it is okay for wadaiko to have long songs just as with a Western classical orchestra or short pieces, such as those used for brief television ads. I don’t want wadaiko to always have to be festive, fun, cool, or powerful—but to be just “music.” For this reason, … I experiment with Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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things musically. Each player executes a different rhythm in a different tempo, accidentally creating the music that only exists at that moment. There is a song with a big band jazz taste, nagauta hayashi (kabuki rhythms), two songs simultaneously played together, and each player understood and expressed these. I hope someday the audience finds it fun to listen to too. These ideas are embodied in his piece “Shimen-soka” 四面楚歌, which Yamauchi composed then performed multiple times from 2006 to 2011, with each iteration in dialogue with his original vision (see multiple versions of this piece on the Internet; Furyūdagaku Matsuri-shū 2011 provides the link to the final performance of this piece). The title “Shimen-soka” refers to a battle formation when one is surrounded on all four sides by enemies with no allies to help. This formation is visually enacted in performance when Yamauchi, on the small shime-daiko, is surrounded by four ōdaiko 大太鼓, the large barrel drum associated with a particular style of solo performance. Although ōdaiko pieces typically entail driving virtuosic displays, Yamauchi desired to create a different—to him “more interesting”—piece for this instrument. Always in tune with fine distinctions between sounds, he recognizes the specific timbre of shime-daiko will cut through even four large ōdaiko. Given his familiarity with European art music, he notes Bach’s major influence on this piece, which is methodical and intricate. With the final 2011 performance of “Shimen-soka” stretching to nearly twenty minutes, he is living up to his word by creating long pieces, demanding on performers, who, of course, must play everything from memory, as well as the audience, who must stay attuned to the mêlée on stage. In musical sources that are perceived as originating in Japanese or European historical and performative contexts, Yamauchi is attracted to intricacy, and this motivates him. He notes that “Yatai-bayashi” 屋台囃子, a well-known wadaiko piece, has been performed for over 300 years; kabuki is more than 400 years old. As he expanded his knowledge of kabuki percussion, he began recognizing the inclusion of specific kabuki rhythmic motives in a variety of other musical styles. He is surprised by the longevity of such practices when “the music itself is really complicated and a high level of skill is required to play these [instruments and genres].” He relates this phenomenon to European art composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, whose work continues to be performed for the same reasons—complexity leads to the longevity of all this music. Yamauchi initially provided a culturally motivated reason for his interest in Japanese traditional music when he encountered Ondekoza and decided “as a Japanese” he should embrace Japanese instruments and related performance practices. This motivation is no doubt still present, but he revealed an

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even more passionate connection with the sonic possibilities of elements of traditional music that can be explored in contemporary compositions. “Inspiration” is one such piece that Yamauchi created based on traditional performance of “Futago Onikenbai” 二子鬼剣舞 (Twin Demon Sword Dance), folk performance from the Kitakami and Morioka areas that combines music and dance.3 In Yamauchi’s “Inspiration,” elements of jazz dance are added to the original, but traditional details of costume, such as the textiles and use of a fan, continue to evoke a sense of tradition. The instrumentation, with Japanese fue 笛 (transverse bamboo flute) and wadaiko, also maintains a connection with the original folk genre, yet Yamauchi is able to play with the rhythm, for example, by incorporating rapid fire, heavy syncopation. When discussing this piece, however, he reinforces his desire to build upon the traditional in his compositions. He explains that although “the band does not look traditional, the dance does not look traditional, and the sound does not appear traditional—deep down, the piece is based on tradition.” Yamauchi clearly hopes that others will discover traditional music through his modern pieces, but questions remain as to whether audiences are able to connect with his experimental works and whether nods to tradition actually serve as effective conduits to contemporary compositional techniques. 6

Expanding the World of Wadaiko

Yamauchi’s artistic vision is informed by another dream that wadaiko instruments will find their own voice devoid of attachments to particular performative contexts and genre. Both African percussion, especially the djembe, and Latin American percussion have successfully entered a global pantheon of interchangeable instruments in art, pop, and even rock groups. Yamauchi finds, however, that the instruments of wadaiko are still coded as Japanese (wagakki 和楽器). Given his background, he feels he is in a special position to widen wadaiko’s reach. Pro Musica Nipponia’s approach to creating orchestral pieces resembles this vision; for example, they perform Ravel’s Bolero (1928) on Japanese instruments such as kotsuzumi, ōtsuzumi, and shime-daiko. Yamauchi is pushing for these instruments to be tools in the hands of percussionists to perform any kind of music, where the selection of instruments is based on the desired sound and not on the perceived genre or cultural context (Milioto Matsue 2016). 3 See “Futago Onikenbai” (n.d.). This folk performance varies by area and therefore does not translate directly into Yamauchi’s version.

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Another one of Yamauchi’s musical endeavours, Persession, is a “without country and of many countries” percussion group. The name “Persession” reveals the group’s playful sensibility as it combines “percussion” and “session,” acknowledging the fact that this group often performs without a score in an improvisational jazz-like session. In his piece “Hōhai” ホーハイ (Persession 2011), Yamauchi celebrates his continued connection with Japanese traditions and Persession’s mission to be an inclusive, genre-less percussion ensemble. The piece is based on a folk song, “Hōhai-bushi” ホーハイ節, from Aomori prefecture for voice and shakuhachi 尺八 (end-blown Japanese bamboo flute) accompaniment. It has an unusual rapid ascension and descension along octaves, which Yamauchi refers to as a Japanese yodelling style (Narita Unchiku n.d.). For Persession, Yamauchi arranged the original for fifteen performers on varied instruments, including wadaiko, classical Japanese drums, a drum kit, darbuka (Islamic goblet-shaped drum), Latin percussion, marimba, vibraphone, African percussion (djembe and talking drum), and classical Western percussion. He again plays with rhythm, layering a slow samba over the original min’yō base. Yamauchi also looks beyond Japan’s borders for collaborative opportunities that challenge both him and pre-conceived notions of wadaiko. In 2014, for example, Yamauchi and his wadaiko trio, Wa San Bon, collaborated with Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu, a Māori performing arts group from Hamilton, New Zealand, to create a concert (fig. 13.4). For this project, Yamauchi composed a series of songs about Japan’s creation, which was followed by several pieces featuring the Māori relating their history and, lastly, combined works, in which the two groups performed together. Yamauchi warmly reminisces about this component of the collaboration, applauding Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu’s ability to choreograph several of Wa San Bon’s wadaiko pieces, including their version of another well-known piece, “Miyake” 三宅 (Wa San Bon and Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu 2014a, 2014b). This collaboration resulted in equitable treatment of each other’s heritage, with Wa San Bon and Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu adding performative elements to each other’s music and dance. 7

Artistic Success, Audience Reception, and the Music Curriculum

Yamauchi is not the first wadaiko performer to explore such sonic possibilities, but he is incredibly aware of the complexity of creating innovative pieces that work artistically. He stresses the importance of being educated about originating genres and instruments, insisting that if he had not studied proper technique on all the instruments he plays, then, in his mind, the new pieces would not work. This is a very personal process for him; he has to decide whether a

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Wa San Bon and Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu performing in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2014. From left to right: Yamauchi Reach, Yura Hidenori, and Furutate Kenji 古立ケンジ Photo courtesy of Lianne Stephenson

particular combination of sounds connects or not. Once again, he argues that his varied embodied musical experiences in everything from shamisen to soul provide him with an expansive toolbox from which he can draw when composing. As he repeats over and over, most unusual in his mind was his conservatory exposure to European art compositions, instruments, and rhythms, which he finds very rare in the Japanese wadaiko world. Accomplishing his vision might sound reasonable, even common, however, he has found the process really difficult, no doubt in large part due to his extremely high standards. Yamauchi prizes mastery of whatever he is playing, but as a result, he has found that the more he knows about a particular instrument, the more difficult he finds breaking from tradition and truly innovating. Honest about the results of his efforts, he feels he has many rhythm patterns “in him,” embedded through embodied performance and his diverse and active consumption of historical European art composers and contemporary music. As a result, he needs time to “pull rhythms” out of himself and often questions

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the success of his work. Whether artistically effective or not, Yamauchi sees his musical biography permeating his artistic process, through which he adds his unique voice to Japanese traditions that either serve as source material or inspire completely original ideas. He is similarly demanding on his audience’s knowledge, which he often finds lacking thus complicating his ability to introduce innovative instrumentation and compositional practices. He finds that most Japanese audiences have expectations about how music should be performed; for example, they assume that well-known pieces such as “Yatai-bayashi” and “Miyake” will be performed in a standard way. Yamauchi is also greatly concerned about the diminishing relevance of tradition and interest in music in general, a trend he blames in large part on music curriculums. He is critical of the 2002 Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) edict that introduced Japanese traditional instruments into the junior high school curriculum, primarily because most Japanese music teachers study Western music at school and university and do not have the skills on these emblematic Japanese instruments to properly teach them. In fact, Yamauchi fears that music education in schools is making people “hate music,” referring to the whole situation as “mazui” まずい (not good). Indeed, he worries that the study of Japanese traditional music in particular is “disappearing.” As for wadaiko, although we must respect the grass-roots efforts of groups around the world, Yamauchi clearly longs for these instruments and their related genres to occupy a central place in the Japanese curriculum as a way of combatting this lack of interest and opportunity. 8

Conclusion

When asked about the future of his music and by extension wadaiko, Yamauchi paused and pondered, unsure what to say because he was only beginning to return to live performance after the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. He wondered if audiences will return to watch his unique interpretation of wadaiko. He cited certain obstacles that prevented him from returning to Tottori, ones that are present in urban centres too, including Tokyo: decreasing interest in music in general, especially in Japanese traditional and classical music; the limited inclusion of wadaiko instrumentation in varied performative contexts; and the audience’s limited knowledge that both results from and, in turn, perpetuates the preceding barriers. As the pandemic subsides, he therefore desires to tour Europe, where he feels his style of experimentation may be better received.

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Yamauchi’s unique intersectional identity reflects the tremendous change that Japanese music underwent in the modern era, as Western music took hold of the nation. After all, he was first indoctrinated with European art-based instruments and genres, only turning to Japanese traditional music in earnest after graduating from university. At that point, he desired to know more about his own Japanese heritage and began studying shamisen, wadaiko, and classical drumming. He deeply appreciates the complexity of Japanese rhythm and the skills necessary to perform on related Japanese instruments, therefore he hopes that contemporary musicians will continue to look to the past, pulling resources from it and respecting tradition. He is not alone in his concern over the potential loss of tradition—a much debated concern in broader Japanese studies. Recognizing that traditions are mutable, however, he argues that composers should not just regurgitate established idioms, nor should performers restrict instrumentation to hard and fast genre-based boundaries—processes that he finds inhibit his creativity. Instead, he relies on these ideas to inspire new works on varied European and Japanese instruments that he hopes will lead his audience back to the original sources and thus sustain both tradition and innovation well into the future.

Appendix: Yamauchi Reach’s Selected Musical Projects

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Fluegel (shamisen, saxophone, piano, bass, and percussion), http://reach -ism.com/fluegel.html 2. Matsuri-shū (wadaiko and fue), https://www.last.fm/music/Matsuri+Shu /+wiki 3. Nazna (shamisen duo), http://reach-ism.com/nazna.html 4. Persession (wadaiko, Japanese percussion instruments, djembe, darbuka, percussion, marimba, vibraphone, and drum), http://reach-ism.com /persession.html 5. Pro Musica Nipponia (Japanese transverse flutes, shakuhachi, shamisen, biwa, koto, Japanese percussion), http://www.promusica.or.jp/index .html; http://www.promusica.or.jp/english/ 6. Wa San Bon (wadaiko) 7. Wakana (wadaiko, fue, and shamisen), http://reach-ism.com/wakana.html 8. Yamaoka Youichi (shamisen and guitar), http://reach-ism.com/yamaoka .html 9. Yamauchi Reach Website, http://reach-ism.com/index.html 10. Yamauchi Reach YouTube Channel (KTK2828), https://www.youtube .com/results?search_query=ktk2828

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References Ahlgren, Angela. 2018. Drumming Asian America: Taiko, Performance, and Cultural Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. Bender, Shawn. 2012. Taiko Boom: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion. Berkeley: University of California Press. Furyūdagaku Matsuri-shū 風流打楽祭衆. 2008. “Inspiration.” Filmed December 2008 at the Kyoto Prefectural Centre for Arts and Culture. Video, 10:46. https://www .youtube.com/watch?v=-lPV4xtK14g. Furyūdagaku Matsuri-shū 風流打楽祭衆. 2011. “Shimen-soka.” Filmed June 2011 at the Kyoto Prefectural Centre for Arts and Culture. Video, 19:19. https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=IugHeby8EqI. “Futago Onikenbai” 二子鬼剣舞. n.d. Filmed April 2022 at the Kitakami Tenshōchi Park Cherry Festival (北上展勝地さくらまつり). Video, 32:06. https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=r8e33bsuuVI. Heimarck, Brita Renée. 2015. Gender Wayan Music of Bapak I Wayan Loceng from Sukawati, Bali: A Musical Biography, Musical Ethnography, and Critical Edition. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions. Hellier, Ruth. 2013. “Vocal Herstories: Resonances of Singing, Individuals, and Authors.” In Women Singers in Global Contexts: Music, Biography, Identity, edited by Ruth Hellier, 1–37. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. Hynson, Meghan. 2019. Review of Gender Wayan Music of Bapak I Wayan Loceng from Sukawati, Bali: A Musical Biography, Musical Ethnography, and Critical Edition, by Brita Renée Heimarck. Asian Music 50 (2): 161–163. https://doi.org/10.1353/amu .2019.0023. Milioto Matsue, Jennifer. 2015. Focus: Music in Contemporary Japan. New York: Routledge. Milioto Matsue, Jennifer. 2016. “Drumming to One’s Own Beat: Japanese Taiko and the Challenge to Genre.” Ethnomusicology 60 (1): 22–52. Narita, Unchiku (voice) 成田雲竹. n.d. “Hōhai-bushi” ホーハイ節. Video, 2:28. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7XMQ4glMtQ. Persession. 2011. “Hōhai” ホーハイ. Filmed December 2011 at Kyoto Prefectural Hall— Arts Live Theatre International (ALTI). Video, 5:40. https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=fSLupj9EVcE. Pro Musica Nipponia. 2002. “Profile.” Accessed 9 January 2023. http://www.promusica .or.jp/english/. Rees, Helen, ed. 2009. Lives in Chinese Music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Stock, Jonathan P. J. 2001. “Toward an Ethnomusicology of the Individual, or Biographical Writing in Ethnomusicology.” The World of Music 43 (1): 5–19.

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Wa San Bon (Japanese Drummers) and Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu (Kapa Haka Group). 2014a. “Hybrid Miyake Part 1.” Filmed by Arai Yurika on February 2014 at Hamilton Gardens, NZ. Video, 3:50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XBu9R3BOaA. Wa San Bon and Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu. 2014b. “Hybrid Miyake Part 2.” Filmed by Arai Yurika on February 2014 at Hamilton Gardens, NZ. Video, 2:40. https://www .youtube.com/watch?v=qMf1AUXbFMg. Wong, Deborah. 2004. Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making Music. New York: Routledge. Wong, Deborah. 2019. Body Politic in Asian American Taiko. Oakland: University of California Press.

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Part 3 Institutions

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Chapter 14

Learning Musical Instruments in Japanese Schools David G. HEBERT and Kōji MATSUNOBU 1

Introduction

Foreign music educators who visit Japan for the first time may express eagerness to see all of the following: (1) performances of traditional Japanese music on Japanese instruments, (2)  school music classes taught using the Suzuki Method as an approach, (3)  teacher-centred learning that instils impressive discipline in children in school ensembles, (4) extensive use of the latest music technologies, and (5) performances on all the latest instruments from Yamaha and other Japanese companies. Actually, the reality of the situation in Japanese schools is very different from what they may expect. In fact, the inclusion of traditional Japanese musical instruments in Japanese schools is a relatively recent phenomenon, while the Suzuki Method was never terribly popular in Japan, although it seems unrivalled as the country’s most well-known export in the field of music pedagogy. Moreover, Japanese school music ensembles tend to emphasize student-centred learning through peer tutoring, which ensures motivation through a sense of ownership among participants, essentially the opposite of a teacher-centred curriculum focused on maintaining discipline. Additionally, while some of the most famous school ensembles and elite private schools undoubtedly have access to high-quality instruments and the latest music technologies, these are rarely found in most Japanese schools. But what forms of musical instrument learning are actually found in a typical Japanese school? Interestingly, this reality tends to be well represented in popular media, such as stories offered in manga (comic books) and anime (animated videos) that are situated in the familiar context of common school music programmes. 2

Two Vignettes of School Music in Manga and Anime

Manga and anime play an important role in defining major issues in the lives of contemporary Japanese youth and offer a sense of common situations and

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feelings encountered by young people nationwide. We begin this chapter with two examples of different kinds of Japanese school music ensembles.1 2.1 Kitauji High School Marching Band “And next is the Kitauji High School Marching Band,” blares a voice from a loudspeaker. A band director is kneeling down, tying his shoes, while a school band is standing in formation directly in front of him. “Sensei [teacher], we are ready,” says the drum major in a soft, high-pitched voice. “Music,” the director explains, “is not supposed to be something you use to show off in front of your rivals.” The row of colour guard members in short skirts and long white socks makes no sound, listening attentively to him. He continues, still kneeling, “But these spectators still don’t know what Kitauji [our school] is made of.” He stands up and concludes, “That’s why today we must show them something they will never forget.” The band members quietly listen while he gestures toward them: “So now, go show what Kitauji is made of!” They smile and all reply with an affirmative “Hai! [Yes!]” The drum major raises her baton and signals the tempo with her whistle. The cymbal player rolls the opening beat, and the brass players take a quick breath and start playing their song. The band immediately marches along a street with spectators on both sides, the colour guard gesturing with cheerleader pom-poms. The audience begins to react: “Huh? What’s that?” “Aren’t they great?” “They’re pretty good, aren’t they?” “What school was this?” “Did you see that drum major—she is hot!” “Do you know them?” “I don’t know them.” “Let’s look up who they are.” “Is it really Kitauji?” “No way! They were never this great before.” The scene ends with an intimate close-up shot depicting the euphonium player smiling as she takes her mouth away from her mouthpiece, while a bead of sweat drips from her face, symbolic of the satisfaction attained from great efforts. She majestically gazes into the distance as the image freezes. “And that is how the Sunrise Festival came to an end,” says the narrator (a young schoolgirl’s voice). This vignette is our description of an excerpt from Episode 5 of the anime series Hibike! Yūfoniamu 響け！ユーフォニアム, marketed with the English title “Sound!: Euphonium” (Kigami 2015). 2.2 Kono Oto Tomare on the Wall of Tōkai Minami High School “It must feel good to have that ‘call and response’ part there completely worked out!” An enlarged photocopy of a page in the comic book Kono Oto Tomare この 音とまれ (Vol. 24) with these words was found taped on a hallway wall of Tōkai 1 Interview transcripts originally in Japanese have been translated into English by the authors.

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Figure 14.1

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Hōgaku Club posters, memorabilia, and a photocopy from the comic book Kono Oto Tomare (Vol. 24) at Tōkai Minami High School in 2022 Courtesy of Tanaka Takafumi

Minami High School 東海南高校, an actual school in Aichi prefecture (fig. 14.1). The school’s Hōgaku Club (邦楽部) is well known for koto performance, with a history of having joined the national festival thirty-one times. Next to this photocopy are students’ handwritten messages: “The 24th volume of our club’s ‘bible’ has just been released. If you have not read it, please take a look. You need a handkerchief.” “What awaits you after you try your very best with so much effort—to the extent that you cry desperately—is the feeling that you had the greatest of times. Your friends, memories, and all of this will become everyone’s ‘assets.’ Therefore, we must face the koto with all our might.” The comic book, from which these pages were taken and to which students wrote their responses, sold six million copies since its first publication in 2012, so we may assume some of its pages are posted on more than one school wall in Japan. In fact, it is widely read by koto learners, including high school students, and the comic was turned into an anime series for television. Many high school koto clubs have performed pieces featured in the anime. The author herself

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(who uses the pen name “Amyū”) is a skilled koto player, and the comic book has become so popular and influential that it is known as the “bible” among school koto clubs (Tanaka 2022a, 25). Both cases illustrate the importance placed on students exerting great effort in their school music clubs. The first excerpt, from “Sound!: Euphonium,” shows the fruits of such endeavours, as the band is finally able to impress the audience, while the example from Tōkai Minami High School demonstrates how students apprehend the value of utmost devotion to achieving high standards in koto performance. It is important here to recognize that traditional musical instruments are not easy to learn—requiring sustained individual effort to develop expressive coordination—and that many societies and education systems worldwide place much less emphasis than Japan on instilling an appreciation for the value of devoting one’s greatest effort to a complex task. For these and other reasons, Japanese schools provide a globally significant case for musical achievement across multiple traditions. 3

Overview of Musical Instruments in Japanese Schools

From the 1880s, a collaboration between Isawa Shūji (1851–1917) and Luther Whiting Mason (1818–96) resulted in music being formally taught as a subject in Japanese schools (Kimura 1998). Across generations, music education evolved alongside major social changes. Today, school music education in Japan entails an eclectic mix of practices from diverse sources. Typical music classes emphasize singing and playing simple classroom instruments, such as the recorder, melodica, and electronic keyboard, often with the aim of developing an ability to read Western staff notation. Choirs are common in Japanese schools, and although instrument learning will be the focus of this chapter, it is important to note that the learning of instruments (e.g., in a wind band or orchestra) often relies on a prior ability to casually sing individual instrumental parts. Much of the notably high achievement in Japanese school music programmes is associated with elective after-school club activities selected by a fraction of students, but compulsory classroom music also leads to significant competencies across the general population. Among the positive outcomes of this system is that most Japanese adults appear to be reasonably comfortable with their own singing voices, and the majority—irrespective of their profession or the extent of their participation in formal music learning—can participate comfortably in karaoke singing with reasonable competence. Additionally, most Japanese are enthusiastic lifelong consumers of music, whether in the form of sound recordings or as audiences at live performances,

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and Japanese are often perceived by foreigners as having a relatively sophisticated musical taste, which sometimes results in complex jazz recordings being heard as background music at convenience stores or late romantic symphonies in banks and department stores. This chapter focuses on approaches to learning in Japanese school clubs for instrumental music. Because of constraints on space, it will not be possible to discuss the historical development of Japanese school music programmes, but we encourage readers to examine other publications for this background (Hebert 2012; Kimura 1998; Tonoshita 2013; Tonoshita and Yokoyama 2011). We will note, however, that the most significant development in recent decades is arguably a policy change from 2002: for the first time, Japanese instruments were included in middle school education, which resulted in sudden changes to teacher education and professional development programmes. Additionally, jazz bands, which had already developed in a small number of schools, started to gain popularity, becoming relatively widespread. The recent COVID-19 pandemic also caused some challenges, which we will address in our conclusion. 4

Visiting a Sōbun School Festival: Varieties of School Music in Japan Today

Compared to the wealth of research on wind bands and choirs (the most common school ensembles), information about extra-curricular activities for Japanese music is scarce. One way to grasp an overall picture of these activities is to check the websites and online videos provided by schools and regional high school cultural associations.2 Another way to assess the current situation of music ensembles in Japanese high schools is to examine the scope of the annual Zenkoku Kōtō Gakkō Sōgō Bunka Sai 全国高等学校総合文化祭 (All Japan High School Cultural Festival) or “Sōbun.” Equivalent to its sports festival counterpart, “Interhigh” (インターハイ), this festival provides high school students with an opportunity to present and exhibit their artistic and cultural activities, thereby increasing their motivation, cultivating their creativity, and facilitating interaction and communication among students within Japan and beyond.3 Sōbun events offer an overview of the range of high school students’ activities in the arts, with music-related performances ranging from wind ensembles and choirs to rock bands and koto ensembles. 2 See, for example, https://www.aikoubun-nihon-ongaku.com/ and https://fukuoka-koubunren .jp/section/nippon. 3 See, for example, https://tokyo-soubun2022.ed.jp.

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The list of musical genres performed at Sōbun shows a wide scope of activities. For instance, the section “Ensemble and Orchestral Music” includes performances of string, guitar, mandolin, and recorder ensembles. In the “Japanese Traditional Music” section, the most popular format is the koto ensemble, known as “Sōkyoku-bu” 筝曲部 (Sōkyoku Club) or “Hōgaku-bu” (Hōgaku Club), which may or may not include the shakuhachi (vertical flute). In rare cases, gagaku ensembles (e.g., Tenri School 天理高校) and nōgaku (noh music) ensembles (e.g., Nagoya Municipal Meito High School Nōgaku Club 名古屋市立名東高校能楽研究部) perform. The section “Local Performing Arts” (kyōdo geinō) is comprised of two divisions: “Folklore” (denshō geinō, such as kagura [Shinto music and dance], min’yō [folk song], and dance) and “Japanese Drumming” (wadaiko, in which traditional and composed pieces are performed). Instruments such as the shinobue (flute) can be heard in the “Japanese Traditional Music” and “Local Performing Arts” sections. In the “Popular Music” section, fifty-six bands nominated from thirty-one prefectures performed their original songs on stage at the 2022 Sōbun in Tokyo; each band was supervised by a teacher. Nomination is based more on the school’s recommendation than the band’s popularity in the community. Performers typically wear school uniforms, like students who perform in choirs and bands. It is rare to see performances of hip hop, heavy metal, and anime songs. Two winners of the “Local Performing Arts” section of the Tokyo Sōbun featured especially interesting music traditions. Toyama Prefectural Nanto Taira High School was awarded the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology prize, and Baekdu Academy Keonguk High School (Hakutō Gakuin Kenkoku 白頭学院建国) was awarded the Chief of the Cultural Affairs Agency prize. Nanto Taira, located in Gokayama, is known for its historic villages, designated as UNESCO world heritage sites. The school’s “Local Performing Arts” club regularly performs local Gokayama folk songs, including “Mugiya-bushi” 麦屋節 and “Kokiriko-bushi” こきりこ節, in a variety of settings. These songs and dances are an intangible cultural heritage and have been transmitted through local preservation groups. Since its establishment over thirty years ago, the club has played a vital role in the transmission of local folk tradition. Keonguk High School is a Korean international school in Osaka. Established as a Korean school, it became an accredited Article-1 school (ichijōkō 一条校) under the School Education Act in 1951, offering Japanese curriculum standards using certified textbooks (kentei kyōkasho 検定教科書) while receiving certified status from the Korean government as a Korean school in 1976. In its performances inside and outside the school, it exhibits traditional forms of Korean music and dance, such as pangut (percussion dance) and talchum

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(masked dance), in the hope that they can bridge the gap between Korea and Japan. The school’s traditional arts club has participated many times in the gala festival at Japan’s National Theatre and received the Korean president’s award at the World Samulnori Festival in Korea, as featured in the documentary The Summer in Ibaraki (2015). Given rising tensions between Japan and Korea and widespread hate speech against Zainichi 在日 (permanent resident) Koreans in Japan, schools like Keonguk High School play a significant role in attaining multicultural coexistence (Isoda 2021). The fact that Keonguk performances have been selected at the national level as an exemplary local expression suggests an expanded view of what counts as Japanese folk tradition. 5

Ensembles as Kurabu Katsudō: The Case of Wind Bands

Playing in a school band in Japan is a different quality of experience than that encountered in many other countries, partly because bands are offered as a kurabu katsudō (school club activity). For instance, rehearsals take place at the end of the school day, often requiring a few hours on nearly every school day as well as even longer weekend rehearsals, so student band members ultimately spend more time playing in their band than in any other single activity besides sleeping. Most of the learning takes place through peer tutoring on like instruments, with the responsible adult teacher only appearing for a small part of the time. School bands typically participate in the All Japan Band Association (AJBA) National Contest, which shapes their annual schedule and repertoire selection. Previous studies have examined Japan’s national system of school bands (Hebert 2012), but there have been new developments over the past decade. One is the closure of Fumonkan 普門館, a renowned performance hall that had been the mecca for national competitions for a few generations. Located on the campus of the religious organization Rissho Kosei-kai 立正佼 成会 in Suginami, a suburb of central Tokyo, Fumonkan was constructed in 1970, becoming the headquarters of the world-renowned professional band the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. It is likely that more sound recordings and videos of wind band music were made in this hall than in any other location in the world. However, 2011 unexpectedly saw the final band contest at Fumonkan. In 2012, stress tests determined the structure would not survive a magnitude 6 earthquake, so it had to be demolished. Consequently, the 2012 contest was moved to Nagoya. Fumonkan was demolished in November 2018, but the redevelopment process was not completed until 2021. Now the site has been transformed into a landmark space called “Fumon Area.”

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School Jazz Bands

Although jazz bands are not as popular as wind bands in Japanese schools, they have a long history in Japan. The historical development of jazz in Japan is well documented (Atkins 2001; Hosokawa 2013; Pronko 2018, 2021), but the gradual acceptance of jazz in Japanese schools is less studied. It has proven difficult to obtain accurate numbers, but by some accounts, as of 2020 roughly 10 percent of Japanese high schools have a jazz band as one of their student clubs. The sentimental movie Swing Girls (Yaguchi 2004) is the most notable medium to date depicting student jazz bands in Japan, offering evidence of their importance in some local communities. Indeed, E. Taylor Atkins observed that “As municipalities since the 1970s have sought to identify, preserve, and promote local identities, and thereby attract tourists, Yokohama, Kobe, and Yokosuka, in particular, have embellished their respective places in Japan’s jazz history and developed competing events and festivals that celebrate local jazz heritage” (2004, 250). The gender imbalance that is sometimes associated with particular instruments in Western countries (e.g., drums and bass are for boys, and piano and saxophone are for girls) is relatively uncommon in student jazz bands and wind bands in Japan. School music tends to be a female-dominated sphere, because one can normally choose only one kind of extra-curricular club, and boys more often choose to participate in sports than music. Overall, jazz education has remained a relatively informal sphere of learning in Japan compared to the status of orchestras and wind bands. As jazz writer (and professor at Meiji Gakuin University) Michael Pronko explains it, Most of the pro musicians now started playing in the jazz circle while a university student. Usually, graduates of the school who turned pro go back and help their alma mater’s circle. Other musicians learn on their own or study at one of the specialized schools for music. … I’m not sure there’s a field of jazz education as might be thought of in the US or in Europe. Pers. comm., September 2022

By “specialized schools,” Pronko refers to both small private establishments led by local musicians and large systems, such as the Yamaha Music Schools found throughout Japan. According to Pronko, Yamaha Music Schools offer a chance for talented young people to have jazz savvy instructors and to get in touch with all kinds of music. Yamaha was really a central channel for many years, but I think other specialty schools have taken over that role a bit in recent years. Ibid.

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One of the most notable school jazz educators in Japan today is Saitō Kenrō 齋藤研郎, head of the Japan Association for School Jazz Education and whose own jazz teaching in a rural school served as the basis for the popular movie Swing Girls (figs. 14.2 and 14.3). As he explained, There are Yamaha Music Schools all over the place. And some jazz players are being nurtured from them … although there seem to be a lot of jazz schools, I feel that they are more like lifelong education for middle-aged and older people to “enjoy” jazz and music rather than [for] nurturing players. Pers. comm., 18 October 2022

The 53rd meeting of the Japan Academic Society for Music Education (held in 2022 at Kunitachi College of Music) featured special sessions on jazz, with the conference theme “Dialogue Music Education—Towards Diversity and Inclusion,” but the conference descriptions emphasized the notion that research in jazz education is still a young field in Japan. As of 2022, five Japanese higher education institutions are known for having full-time jazz major programmes: Osaka College of Music (大阪音楽大学), Senzoku Gakuen College

Figure 14.2

Tateshina High School Jazz Club. Nagano prefecture, 2010 Courtesy of Saitō Kenrō

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Tateshina High School Jazz Club performing at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC, 2008 Courtesy of Saitō Kenrō

of Music (洗足学園音楽大学), Kunitachi College of Music (国立音楽大学), Showa Academia Musica (昭和音楽大学), and Nagoya College of Music (名古 屋音楽大学). These programmes ensure that a small but steady stream of jazz musicians is formally educated in Japan, but it is important to note that these degrees do not entail teaching certification (Kunitachi College of Music 2022; Nagoya College of Music 2022; Osaka College of Music 2022; Senzoku Gakuen College of Music 2022; Showa Academia Musica 2022). In fact, a large gap remains between functional jazz competence and the actual training of school music teachers in Japan. According to an article sourced from the Japan Times, Senzoku Gakuen College of Music may be credited as having been a pioneer in the field of jazz in higher education from around 1999. Senzoku Gakuen opened its own jazz department five years ago. Though most universities have jazz circles and private jazz schools abound, the full-time, degree-bearing program in Japan is a rarity. With handpicked Tokyo Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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musicians (Yosuke Yamashita, Kazumi Watanabe and Shigeharu Mukai, for starters) and a curriculum based on the famed Berklee College of Music, Senzoku started to teach formally what in the past was picked up through jam sessions, long apprenticeships or fiddling around on one’s own. Jazz in Japan n.d.

Like many university jazz departments worldwide, Senzoku Gakuen emphasizes training in techniques and repertoire associated with a particular middle period of jazz history, paying less attention to the very earliest (e.g., New Orleans, Dixieland) and most recent forms (e.g., avant-garde, free jazz, fusion). Swing through bebop, cool, and post-bop styles get the bulk of attention, much like the emphasis on “common practice” repertoire typically seen in classical music studies at conservatories (baroque, classical, and romantic-era music, with less attention paid to earlier and more recent forms). However, Senzoku Gakuen also has a popular music studies programme that ensures some recognition of fusions. With respect to jazz tradition, it is worth noting that, particularly in the East Asian context, “most of the music unproblematically labeled ‘jazz’ in the first half of the twentieth century is no longer considered to be a part of the ‘jazz tradition’” (Atkins 1999, 9). According to media reports, as with education in most spheres of Japanese society, jazz at Senzoku Gakuen is taught in a rigorous and demanding way. One report notes, By the end of the hour, they had worked through three difficult songs, played thousands of chord changes, worked in eight rhythmic patterns, written their own chordings, and run through several different tempos—an intense workout that rivals the traditional jazz classroom of late-night jam sessions and isolated practice. And that was just one class one day out of the three-year program; a good step in what would be lives pursuing the goal of playing jazz. Jazz in Japan n.d.

Another notable school jazz educator in Japan is Ōyama Hideo. According to Saitō, Ōyama “is one of the top professional alto saxophone players in Japan and of course plays with his own band. He is now leading the band as the concertmaster of Sharps & Flats after the death of Nobuo Hara” (pers. comm., 18 October 2022). Saitō observes that Shiina Yutaka 椎名豊 is notable as “one of Japan’s top jazz pianists and is also very active in educational activities” (ibid.). Saitō commented on learning jazz improvisation. He said, “first of all, they use notation … someone listens to the performance on a CD, for example, takes Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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notes from the CD, scores it, writes it into a musical score, and has the students play it” (pers. comm., 18 October 2022). Still, according to Saitō, “there is no such thing as a jazz textbook for high school students. We just teach from all sorts of stuff” (ibid.). He outlined the typical school jazz repertoire: “For elementary school students, I think they start with well-known songs like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. When they get to high school or so, they still play a little higher level. For example, Basie, Ellington, Thad Jones, and so on” (ibid.). As Pronko informed the authors, there are several organizations in Japan that aim to support jazz education in schools. These organizations include the Japan Association of Student Jazz Education (JAJE), which hosts a student jazz contest and lists thirty-three student bands, from elementary school to high school, on its website (http://jaje.jp/). Its Kansai branch hosts the Student Jazz Festival in Kobe. The branch website lists forty-three student jazz bands, from elementary school to high school, affiliated with its chapter (http://jaje-kansai.net/). There are also jazz band contests, such as the Yamano Big Band Jazz Contest, which in 2022 included twenty-four bands comprised of students from universities, colleges, and specialty schools, and the Symphonic Jazz & Pops Contest, founded by Mashima Toshio, which included thirty-two bands in 2022.4 As Saitō explained, the Yamano Big Band Jazz Contest is “for college students. However, I think the reality is that at the stage up to high school, it is difficult to develop students to that level, and there are no instructors” (pers. comm., 18 October 2022). According to Saitō, among young Japanese people, jazz is perceived not as American or African-American music but, rather, as a traditional genre of relevance to anyone. He said, “I don’t think most children recognize it as black music because it is jazz. Rather, they accept jazz as music. … Children do not perceive jazz in a difficult sense, such as ideological, racial, or emotional. They see it as a pretty familiar music” (ibid.). 7

Hōgaku Clubs

Most hōgaku or sōkyoku clubs in schools are koto ensembles. Especially in Japanese high schools, particularly all-girl schools, sōkyoku clubs are more common than other forms of traditional music ensembles, such as folk (min’yō) music, gagaku, and noh (nō). Although members tend to be female, reflecting the adult hōgaku community, co-educational schools also have sōkyoku clubs,

4 See https://www.yamano-music.co.jp/ybbjc/2022/ and http://libe1980.html.xdomain.jp/sjpc /index.html.

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inviting male students to participate. Instructors are often koto teachers in the community. Some schools do not have a regular instructor but depend solely on graduates who have acquired further skills after graduation (Tanaka 2022b, 26). In general, students decide the repertoire and lead the practice sessions by themselves. The editor of the magazine Hōgaku Jānaru, Tanaka Takafumi 田中 隆文, observed that in general the level of performance is steadily improving (pers. comm., July 2022). As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the anime Kono Oto Tomare, originally a comic book, featuring high school sōkyoku club students coming of age and winning at the national competition, has been popular among koto students. The details of the instrument and performance technique depicted in the anime and the emotional discharges of the characters are so vivid and natural that both professional and amateur players can relate to the story. Following the success of this anime, a CD was produced featuring original songs performed in the anime as well as popular classical koto repertoire, such as “Sakura Sakura” さくらさくら and “Rokudan no Shirabe” 六段の調べ. The original piece “Ryūseigun” 流星群 has been streamed over 700,000 times online. Inspired by this recording, many students uploaded their own performances onto YouTube. Tanaka Takafumi observed that most student koto players are influenced by this anime (pers. comm., July 2022). One may wonder if the increasing passion of these students for koto music has something to do with the introduction of Japanese music into the school curriculum in 2002. The seventh curriculum guidelines enacted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in the same year specified that at least one type of traditional instrument, such as the koto, shamisen, shinobue, taiko, or shakuhachi, should be taught in junior high schools so students will appreciate their country’s native music (Oshio 2019; Shiobara 2011). Following this shift, the curriculum framework in 2011 stipulated that music teachers had to introduce folk singing styles in their lessons. Observing the recent inclusion of traditional music in Japanese schools, Oshio Satomi indicated that high school students still have a preconceived image of it as “boring and uninteresting” (2019, 96). However, this is likely not the case for active participants in sōkyoku club activities. Hōgaku Club students at Tōkai Minami High School mentioned that they “became interested in the koto through music classes in junior high” (Tanaka Takafumi, pers. comm., July 2022). Moreover, Tanaka mentioned that students “transferred to the hoga­ kubu [upon finding] the performance of sakura sakura really interesting in music class” (2022a, 26). These students were initially exposed to Japanese music through regular school music classes, but that exposure ultimately led them to the Hōgaku club.

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Despite these encouraging developments, not many koto club students continue to play the instrument after high school. Tanaka observed that on top of burnout and the pressure to win at competitions, they are not necessarily interested in hōgaku pieces (pers. comm., July 2022). Instead, they want to “enjoy” and play modern and pop music on the koto, while the main repertoire of the hōgaku community tends to be limited to classical music. After high school, these young players rarely find groups in which they can fully enjoy the music they love. They show little interest in joining a particular ryū 流 (school/tradition), becoming a shihan 師範 (teacher), or remaining in the traditional circle. An estimated 10,000 students join high school sōkyoku clubs nationwide. However, this volume of koto students may be insufficient to ensure the sustainability of hōgaku because of conservative practices in the hōgaku community. 8

Conclusion

This chapter began with a brief historical overview and description of Japanese school music education, followed by a discussion of instrument learning in kurabu katsudō, including wind bands, jazz bands, and hōgaku-bu, as well as the role of high school festivals. From 2019 to 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted school music participation and led to the cancellation of some band contests in Japan, including the 2022 AJBA national competition. According to a Ministry of Education survey, by late January 2022, “1,114 schools, or 3.1%, had implemented schoolwide closures and 4,727 schools, or 13.3%, had closed down some of their classrooms or grades” (Japan Times 2022). Studies show that school closures significantly increased anxiety in mothers of Japanese schoolchildren (Takaku and Yokoyama 2021), and no evidence was found to support the conclusion that school closures were effective in reducing the threat of COVID-19 in Japan (Fukumoto, McClean, and Nakagawa 2021). In April 2021, an article by Tomohiro Osaki appeared in the Japan Times; in it, he described pandemic conditions at Funabori Elementary School in Edogawa ward, Tokyo. There, music performance offered some sense of normality. He noted that the subject music was particularly challenged by pandemic restrictions: Among subjects flagged as high-risk by the education ministry is music. As is the case at many schools, Funabori Elementary no longer lets children sing aloud during music classes. Instead, they are instructed to clap their hands or stomp to the music as a way to hone their sense of rhythm,

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or focus more on playing instruments. But any wind instruments that generate droplets, such as recorders and melodicas, are no longer played. Osaki 2021

It is not uncommon to find Japanese school ensembles in which music is taught by senior students rather than specialist instructors (Hebert 2012), and the cancellation of club activities during the pandemic had a negative impact on those ensembles as the routine practice of within-group knowledge transmission was nearly lost. Indeed, the impact of the pandemic on school ensembles, such as wind bands and jazz bands, has been severe in Japan. In 2020, this situation led Ozawa Buchō, the author of many popular books on brass bands, to publish “吹奏楽部バンザイ！！:コロナに負けない” (Brass Band Banzai!!: Don’t Lose to Corona), in which band members from five schools described the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the end of 2022 approached, the homepage of the AJBA website featured the image of a school band performing in an unusual seating arrangement, with ample space between seats, consistent with pandemic recommendations (http://www.ajba.or.jp/). According to Pronko, jazz education thus far appears to have responded “poorly” to the COVID-19 pandemic: “[The pandemic] cut off a lot of student circles and student activities, and there’s not much to do about it. Probably Japan is stricter about that, and has more power to enforce bans and restrictions than other countries. But it really slowed everything down incredibly” (pers. comm., September 2022). Saitō concurred with this assessment: “The Covid-19 challenge also affected my jazz festival, which was completely on hiatus for a year. During the year before last, I was unable to do the entire thing” (pers. comm., 18 October 2022). As we have seen, resilience is one of the valuable characteristics that Japanese students learn through participation in instrumental music. Resilience through music can ensure that Japan’s education system does far more than simply train the next generation of salariman (businessmen) and oeru (female office workers): it can engender creativity, autonomy, cooperation, and an appreciation of cultural heritage. Through the challenge of learning musical instruments, young Japanese develop a resilience that is likely to ensure cultural survival. References Atkins, E. Taylor. 1999. “Jammin’ on the Jazz Frontier: The Japanese Jazz Community in Interwar Shanghai.” Japanese Studies 19 (1): 5–16. Atkins, E. Taylor. 2001. Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

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Atkins, E. Taylor. 2004. “Inventing Jazztowns and Internationalizing Local Identities in Japan.” In Image and Identity: Rethinking Japanese Cultural History, edited by Jeffrey E. Hanes and Hidetoshi Yamaji, 249–262. Kobe: The Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kōbe University. Fukumoto, Kentaro, Charles T. McClean, and Kuninori Nakagawa. 2021. “No Causal Effect of School Closures in Japan on the Spread of COVID-19 in Spring 2020.” Nature Medicine 27: 2111–2119. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01571-8. Hebert, David G. 2012. Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools. Heidelberg: Springer. Hosokawa, Shuhei, 2013. “The Swinging Phonograph in a Hot Teahouse: Sound Technology and the Emergence of the Jazz Community in Prewar Japan.” In Sound, Space and Sociality in Modern Japan, edited by Joseph D. Hankins and Carolyn S. Stevens, 122–140. Abingdon: Routledge. Isoda, Mitsuko 磯田三津子. 2021. Kyōto shi no zainichi gaikokujin jidō seito kyōiku to tabunka kyōsei; Zainichi Korian no kodomotachi o meguru kyōiku jissen 京都市の 在日外国人児童生徒と多文化共生:在日コリアンの子どもたちをめぐる教育実践 . Tokyo: Akashi Shoten 明石書店. Japan Times. 2022. “Nearly 6,000 Public Schools in Japan at least Partially Closed amid Omicron Wave.” Accessed 17 January 2023. https://www.japantimes.co.jp /news/2022/02/04/national/school-closures-omicron/. Jazz in Japan. n.d. “Senzoku University of Jazz.” [Excerpted from the Japan Times, 2004.] Accessed 22 November 2022. https://www.jazzinjapan.com/homepage /2008/12/10/senzoku-university-of-jazz/. Kigami, Yoshiji 木上益治, dir. 2015. Hibike! Yūfoniamu 響け！ユーフォニアム. https:// youtube/DSRedzGWwao. Kimura, Nobuyuki 木村信之. 1998. Shōwa sengo ongaku kyōiku shi 昭和戦後音楽教育 史. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Kunitachi College of Music. 2022. “Jazz Program.” Accessed 22 November 2022. https:// www.kunitachi.ac.jp/undergraduate/college/perform/jazz.html. Nagoya College of Music. 2022. “Jazz Popular Music Course.” Accessed 22 November 2022. https://www.meion.ac.jp/department/jazz-popular.html. Osaka College of Music. 2022. “Jazz Course.” Accessed 22 November 2022. https://www .daion.ac.jp/course/jazz/. Osaki, Tomohiro. 2021. “‘No singing, eat in silence’: How Japanese Schools have Stayed Open Despite the Pandemic.” Japan Times, 4 April. Oshio, Satomi. 2019. “Traditional Music and World Music in Japanese School Education.” Min Su Qu Yi 203: 73–110. Pronko, Michael. 2018. “Quiet about It: Jazz in Japan.” In The Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies, edited by Nicholas Gebhardt, Nichole Rustin-Paschal, and Tony Whyton, 271–280. New York: Routledge.

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Pronko, Michael. 2021. “The Flow of Jazz in Japan: Why Jazz Resonates so Far from Home.” In Music in the Making of Modern Japan: Essays on Reception, Transformation and Cultural Flows, edited by Kei Hibino, Barnaby Ralph, and Henry Johnson, 147–166. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Senzoku Gakuen College of Music. 2022. “About Jazz Course.” Accessed 22 November 2022. https://www.senzoku.ac.jp/music/jazz/about_course.html. Shiobara, Mari. 2011. “Transferring Community Music into the Classroom: Some Issues Concerning the Pedagogy of Japanese Traditional Music.” International Journal of Community Music 4 (1): 29–37. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijcm.4.1.29_1. Showa Academia Musica. 2022. “Jazz Course.” Accessed 22 November 2022. https:// www.tosei-showa-music.ac.jp/course/college/jazz.html. The Summer in Ibaraki. 2015. Directed by Jeon Sung-ho. Produced by Busan MBC. Dengei: Watashi tachi no seishun でんげい:わたしたちの青春. Takaku, Reo, and Izumi Yokoyama. 2021. “What the COVID-19 School Closure Left in Its Wake: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Analysis in Japan.” Journal of Public Economics 195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104364. Tanaka, Takafumi 田中隆文. 2022a. “Tōkyō Sōbun 2022: Koto ni kakeru seishun! (1) Tōkai Minami Kōkō” 東京総文２０２２箏にかける青春（１）東海南高校. Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャーナル 428: 22–26. Tanaka, Takafumi 田中隆文. 2022b. “Tōkyō Sōbun 2022: Koto ni kakeru seishun! (1) Sōka Kōkō” 東京総文２０２２箏にかける青春（１）創価高校. Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャ ーナル 429: 24–28. Tonoshita, Tatsuya 戸ノ下達也, ed. 2013. Nihon no suisōgaku-shi: 1869–2000 日本の吹奏 楽史. Tokyo: Seikyūsha 青弓社. Tonoshita, Tatsuya 戸ノ下達也, and Yokoyama Takuya 横山琢哉, ed. 2011. Nihon no gasshō-shi 日本の合唱史. Tokyo: Seikyūsha 青弓社. Yaguchi, Shinobu 矢口史靖, dir. 2004. Suwingu Gāruzu スウィングガールズ. Tokyo: Tōei 東映. DVD.

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Chapter 15

Yōgaku, Western Music in Japan: Perspectives from Osaka Junko IGUCHI 1

Introduction

Unlike many Asian countries, Japan modernized without falling under the colonial rule of Western nations. This had a decisive influence on Japanese acceptance of Western music (yōgaku 洋楽) (Galliano 2002; Mehl 2014). After the Meiji Restoration (1868), the Japanese were able to proactively engage with Western music, even if this engagement was a government initiative, and able to decide what Western music they would accept, create, and disseminate. Needless to say, it was Western musicians who taught their music to the Japanese, although Western missionaries played a major role in the earliest days. With the exception of foreign teachers hired by the government, some Western musicians visited Japan as a consequence of war, including exiled Russians in the 1920s and German Jews in the 1930s, who contributed to specialized Western music education. While the eight-year-long Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) would have impacted on music-making, even during Japan’s occupation of Shanghai, that city continued to produce Western music, popular music, and ballet throughout the war. As leading Japanese yō­gaku musicians were active in Shanghai, Western music in Japan was promptly revived after the war. Generally, the history of Western music in Japan has focused on Tokyo, and it might seem unusual for the account in this chapter to emphasize Osaka. However, before the war, Osaka was as musical a city as Tokyo. Further, with the author herself teaching at Osaka College of Music (Ōsaka Ongaku Daigaku 大阪音楽大学), which has taught Western music for more than one hundred years, this chapter has been written from the viewpoint of a “participant observer” situated within Japan’s Western music tradition. The purpose of this chapter is to show how the Japanese received, learned, and created Western music over the last 150 years. Previous descriptions of the history of yōgaku have often lacked links between Japan and the rest of the world. However, as a result of world politics and war, Japan has connected with many exiled musicians who have supported Western music in Japan. Covering Tokyo, Osaka, and

© Junko IGUCHI, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_017

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Shanghai, the chapter focuses on Osaka and offers an understanding of yōgaku in the Japanese and global contexts. 2

Tokyo, the Birthplace of Yōgaku

Japan’s acceptance of Western music during the Meiji era began in the form of direct instruction from Westerners. The British and French led Japanese military bands from 1869. The Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari 音楽取調掛 (Music Investigation Committee), later known as the Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkō 東京音楽学 校 (Tokyo Academy of Music), invited teachers from Europe (mainly Germany) and began to offer specialized music education from 1880. In some rural areas, Christian churches and missionary schools exposed local populations to Western music through organ-playing in chapels and the singing of hymns. Many mission schools were opened during the Meiji era, and they played a major role in the introduction of Western music.1 The Meiji government rapidly promoted nation-building based on existing Western models, and as early as 1879, it established the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari. In 1880, the head of the committee, Isawa Shūji 伊澤修二 (1851–1917), invited Luther Whiting Mason (1818–96), a music educator from Boston, to train Japanese students to teach Western music in public schools throughout Japan. Isawa, along with Megata Tanetarō 目賀田種太郎 (1853–1926), proposed a basic teaching curriculum for Western music education based on school songs (shōka 唱歌) with simple melodies and Japanese lyrics.2 In 1887, the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari was reorganized as Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkō, and graduates who had studied Western music in this school were sent out as music teachers throughout the country. One representative of the foreign teachers invited by the Meiji government was Franz Eckert (1852–1916), a German composer and musician who arranged the harmony for the national anthem, “Kimigayo” 君が代 (His Imperial 1 Missionary schools were established much earlier than general music schools. In Kansai, Kōbe Jogakuin 神戸女学院 was founded in 1875, Poole Gakuin プール学院 in 1879, and Kwansei Gakuin 関西学院 in 1889. These schools often held concerts and were also places for learning Western music, such as hymns with organ accompaniment. 2 The term shōka (also called gakkō shōka) refers to songs for school education. The first shōka textbook was published in 1881, and various types of textbooks have been produced. Many of the lyrics in Japanese are didactic in content or describe the beauty of the Japanese scenery. (Several Scottish and German folk songs were included.) The shōka are unaccompanied, often in the major scale (fa and ti are not common), and in simple duple or quadruple time. They were often sung with reed organ accompaniment playing simple chords.

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Majesty’s Reign). He was invited to Japan in 1879. From then until he left Japan in 1899, he was involved in almost all institutions that taught Western music, including the Navy Military Band, the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari, the Music Department of the Imperial Household, and the Army’s Toyama School (Gottschewski 2019). In this era, only very elite members of Japanese society travelled to the West. Yamada Kōsaku 山田耕筰 (1886–1965) travelled to Germany at the age of twenty-four and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1912, he became the first Japanese person to compose a symphony, which he titled Kachidoki to Heiwa かちどきと平和 (War and Peace). From then on, he composed leading works of Japanese music and continued to advance Western music in Japan. Yamada was one of the rare composers who quickly mastered Western music by studying in the West and was able to develop his own style rather than imitating the Western one. Following the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), Japan incorporated the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan into its gaichi 外地 (territories of the Empire of Japan). Japan’s rapid westernization attracted intellectuals from China, the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan to its naichi 内地 (inner lands). Music was no exception to this westernization, and the Tokyo Academy of Music functioned as a centre for education in Western music in East Asia. In China, Japanese influence can be recognized in the early years of modern music education, as in the development of xuetang yuege 学 堂楽歌 (school songs), which are based on shōka.3 In the Taishō era, Western music became widely and deeply popular through phonograph records and radio broadcasting. This period is referred to as “Taishō modernism” (Starrs 2011). During this period, the Japanese public’s fascination with opera grew, and even if they had never seen an opera on stage, people could hum melodies such as “Habanera” from Carmen as if they were popular songs. Modern Japanese-language musical theatre, such as the Asakusa Opera and Giovanni Vittorio Rosi’s (1867–1940) popularizations of Western opera at the Imperial Theatre, became familiar to the masses (Nakano 2022). Early film screenings were accompanied by Western instruments, although with the advent of talkie films, many silent film musicians lost their jobs. 3 The term xuetang yuege refers to songs taught and sung in the “new-style” schools that appeared from the end of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Most of these songs were written by intellectuals who had studied in Japan, with Chinese lyrics added to existing Japanese shōka. In 1903, Shen Xingong 沈心工, who had studied in Japan, returned to China and taught songs at a primary school in Shanghai, which was the start of the xuetang yuege movement (Gao 2003).

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The Founding of a Music School in Osaka

Studies of the history of Western music in Japan have generally centred on Tokyo. In this chapter, however, the emphasis is placed on the Kansai region (especially Osaka) because it played an equally important role in the history of Western music, particularly with the founding of a music school in 1915 called the Ōsaka Ongaku Gakkō 大阪音楽学校 (later called the Ōsaka Ongaku Daigaku and with the English name Osaka College of Music). Indeed, for more than one hundred years, the history of Osaka College of Music has overlapped the history of Western music in Japan. Small, private higher-education providers expanded as the popularity of Western music grew, showing how Western music came to be accepted in Japan, although in the early 1990s, the number of students actually declined, and majors and courses became more diverse. Nagai Kōji 永井幸次 (1874–1965) founded the Ōsaka Ongaku Gakkō. Born into a samurai family in Tottori, a small provincial city 700 km west of Tokyo, he dedicated his life to the promotion of Western music. In the Edo period, the Nagai family were samurai class in the Ikeda domain (in today’s Tottori prefecture), but after the Meiji Restoration, they lost their feudal privileges and became farmers. Nagai Kōji grew up in this former samurai family that had no noticeable connection to music. However, an encounter with an American missionary at the age of five helped define his life through music. Nagai heard hymns sung by the American missionary in church that sounded completely different to traditional Japanese music. He was instantly captivated by these hymns. The American woman recognized his musical talent and gave him a small reed organ, which she had taken the trouble to import from the US. Around this time, exposure to Western music was rare. However, some people were introduced to Western music through hymns sung in churches. Even in Tottori, missionaries built churches, opened their doors wide to Japanese, played organs, sang hymns, and captivated people. Nagai had a very good ear for music. Many Japanese were unable to escape their traditional sense of pitch, such as one hears in their own songs or in koto 箏 and shamisen 三味線 music. For example, the semitone range of Japanese traditional music is narrower than that of Western music, and flats and sharps are slightly different from those in Western music. This kind of sound sense remained deeply rooted in the Japanese population, and even nowadays professional musicians of hōgaku 邦楽 (Japanese traditional music) change the tuning of their instruments when they play with Western instruments. In other words, many Japanese did not have an ear for Western music but retained their Japanese ear, their sense of sound. In contrast, once Nagai heard a hymn, he could imitate it exactly.

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By practising hard as a child on the small reed organ given to him by the missionary and singing hymns every day, Nagai became familiar with Western music and promptly developed a Western-type ear, even in the absence of a local teacher. In 1892, Nagai, who had been supporting his family by farming, took a leap of faith and went to Tokyo to take the entrance examination for the Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkō. He easily passed the entrance examination with rudimentary organ-playing and singing. He later wrote in his memoirs that many of the examinees were “tone-deaf,” being unable to reach the correct pitch (Nagai 1954). Indeed, in the early entrance examinations for this national music school, many candidates could not sing even a rudimentary melody accurately. Nagai studied organ and vocal music for four years (fig. 15.1), and after graduation he was posted to several locations as a music teacher in public schools. While teaching music, Nagai continued to compose energetically. At the time, shōka with Japanese lyrics were used as educational music in Japan, but because new songs were in short supply, Nagai received numerous requests to compose shōka. A song he entered in a competition won a prize, and the prize money from this competition and the royalties from other songs helped to finance his school. He was able to establish the Ōsaka Ongaku Gakkō in Osaka, which was known as a “Western music wasteland” in the Meiji era (Nagai 1954, 167). In the early twentieth century, there were no professional orchestras in Osaka, and girls from wealthy families remained strongly connected with sōkyoku jiuta 箏曲地歌 (chamber music of koto and shamisen). However, in 1915, and possessing a piano, an evening-only music school for boys and girls was launched (a kind of cram school) in Minami-ku Shio-machi 南区塩町 (now Minami Senba 南船場). Nagai’s great ambition was to make this school the birthplace of shin kageki 新歌劇 (new music theatre) and sekai ongaku 世界 音楽 (music of the world). In the pioneering musical circles of the 1910s, people were aware that they were not only importing Western music but also creating their own unique Japanese style of Western music. 4

The Golden Age of Western Music

The Russian Revolution of 1917 forced many Russian artists to leave their country, and many musicians emigrated to the Kansai region after the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. These exiled Russians began to form a community in the seaside village of Fukae 深江村, between Osaka and Kobe. Emmanuel Metter (1878–1941), a conductor who was active in Harbin 哈爾濱, China, pianist Alexander Rutin (1865–1932), violinist Alexander Mogilevsky (1885–1953), and

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Figure 15.1

Nagai Kōji and his reed organ (undated). Ōsaka Ongaku Daigaku (2023)

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others gave private piano and violin lessons to the children of wealthy families in Kansai. Metter, for example, was particularly involved in Kansai. As well as teaching music theory and harmony from home, he conducted the orchestra of JOBK (Osaka Broadcasting Station—now NHK Osaka), led the orchestra of Kyoto Imperial University, and conducted the Kansai premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 1929. He trained the conductor Asahina Takashi 朝比奈 隆 (1908–2001) and composer Hattori Ryōichi 服部良一 (1907–93), two key figures in postwar classical and popular music. Another key figure in this era was Austrian Joseph Laska (1886–1964), the conductor of the Takarazuka Symphony Orchestra; he was the first musician to perform Bruckner’s symphonies in Japan. Many private universities in Kansai were established by missionaries, and choral and organ performances were held in the chapels on campus. Later composers, such as Yamada Kōsaku, Kishi Kōichi 貴志康一 (1909–37), and Ōsawa Hisato 大澤壽人 (1906–53), followed a common path of learning Western music from Westerners and Russians in private education or mission schools. The number of students at the Ōsaka Ongaku Gakkō increased rapidly, and the institution expanded. With music in the Japanese home shifting from instruments such as the shamisen and koto to the likes of the Western piano and violin, domestically made pianos and violins became widespread. Further, in 1925, radio broadcasting began (JOBK’s first broadcast was on 1 June that year), making it possible for people to enjoy Western music on phonograph records and the radio in the comfort of their own homes. In the Taishō era, radio became increasingly popular in households, and Western classical music began to be broadcast alongside traditional Japanese music, popular music, and narrative genres such as rōkyoku 浪曲. Record lovers could readily listen to the music of performers such as Kreisler and Elman and hope to hear them perform live one day. 5

Japanese Experience Real Western Music, Opera, and Dance

As soon as the impresario Awsay Strok (1875–1956) was appointed manager of the ninety-strong Russian Grand Opera Company in 1919, he took it on an Asian tour, including to East Asia, Southeast Asia, and India. With regard to Japan, Strok recognized that the country was a burgeoning market for Western music (Iguchi 2017, 80). Strok was a southern Latvian Jew born into a musical family; he fled to Shanghai via Vladivostok before the Russian Revolution. The company toured Japanese cities for about a month, performing ten programmes. Rather than perform the Russian operas in which this company excelled, their

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repertoire was chosen to suit the tastes of local audiences, with their performances of Carmen, La Traviata, and Aida proving popular. Despite high ticket prices, large audiences flocked to the venues to see live and authentic opera.4 The standard of the Russian Grand Opera Company, whose mezzo soprano later transferred to the Metropolitan Opera, would have been all but unparalleled for Japanese audiences at the time. While performances would probably have been imperfect, as the company was formed in the tumultuous two years after the Revolution, Japanese audiences at least had the opportunity to see and hear opera for the first time (Morimoto 2020). In fact, the Japanese had such an intense fascination with opera that they would debate Wagner’s operas in music magazines even if they had never seen an opera by Wagner (Takenaka 2016). Starting with this opera tour, Strok demonstrated his management skills by inviting a succession of world-class performers to appear, including Elman, Kreisler, Rubinstein, Challiapin, and other virtuosos and dancers.5 Strok’s tours of East Asian and Southeast Asian cities, which numbered more than fifty over about twenty years, were originally planned for Shanghai, where he lived, but gradually the focus of his tours moved to Tokyo (Imperial Theatre, Hibiya Public Hall) and Osaka (Central Public Hall, Osaka Asahi Hall). Before the appearance of Strok, Western music in Japan consisted only of music played on phonograph records or of amateur performances by Japanese performers. With Strok’s influence, other world-class artists appeared, ones who had only been heard on phonograph records, which must have had a huge impact on audiences. Strok put his name forward as the manager of the opera and launched the Strok brand. Tickets to his performances were very expensive but sold out in no time. (This branding approach of managing foreign artists is still practised in Japan today.) The Imperial Theatre in Tokyo and the Central Public Hall and the Ōsaka Asahi Hall in Osaka were the theatres to be. The lavishly bound programmes, using special paper and designs, suggest that Strok’s stages were extraordinary. World-renowned performers and opera singers visited Japan every year, giving rise to the “Golden Age of Western Music,” with Strok the leading promoter of the encounter between Asia and Western music (fig. 15.2). The 1920s saw a number of achievements that were crowned firsts for Japan. These achievements included the country’s first professional symphony orchestra, which was founded in 1925. The birth of the orchestra was prompted by the visit of a Russian orchestra from Harbin in 1925: thirty-four Russian 4 See https://www.daion.ac.jp/about/anniversary/. 5 See https://ongakugaku2.wixsite.com/strok.

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Front row, far left: Strok; front row, second from right: violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Osaka, 1924. Iguchi (2019, 181)

musicians came to Japan and gave a joint concert with members of a Japanese orchestra, creating the Shin Kōkyō Gakudan 新交響楽団 (The New Symphony Orchestra).6 The orchestra was formed by composer Yamada Kōsaku, his student Konoe Hidemaro 近衞秀麿, and their manager, Hara Zen’ichirō 原善一 郎. Strok was in Shanghai, and Konoe and Hara in Tokyo, and together they organized many tours of Japan and Shanghai. Performances of artists visiting Japan were broadcast on radio, which was the best medium for encouraging record sales. This period was marked by the Japanese premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 1924 and the premieres of operas performed by Japanese singers. At the time, opera houses did not exist in Japan. Japanese opera singers Fujiwara Yoshie 藤原義江 (1898–1976) and Miura Tamaki 三浦環 (1884–1946), both of whom had performed abroad, were reaching their artistic zenith. 6 Often shortened to Shinkyō 新響.

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Meanwhile, Carpi’s Italian Grand Opera Company visited Japan six times and gave many performances at the Imperial Theatre between 1923 and 1930.7 Another notable development in this era was the return of cellist Saitō Hideo 齋藤秀雄 (1902–74) from the Royal School of Music in Leipzig in 1927. He participated in Konoe’s orchestra, Shin Kōkyō Gakudan, as principal cellist. After the war, Saitō and his comrades established the Music School for Children (子供の ための音楽教室), which later became the Toho Gakuen School of Music (桐朋学 園音楽部門), where he trained many students in his method. Saitō introduced many top-class musicians, such as the conductor Ozawa Seiji 小澤征爾, to the world and made Japan a leading centre for Western classical music. In the 1920s, as a result of the growing presence and influence of Western music in the Kansai region, enrolments at the Ōsaka Ongaku Gakkō increased rapidly. Nagai finally built a full-fledged four-storey school building in 1925, just ten years after the school’s foundation; student numbers continued to increase, although now there was a shortage of teachers. 6

Eight Years of Sino-Japanese War and Shanghai

In the 1930s, a number of prominent Jewish musicians fled Europe for Tokyo to escape Nazi persecution. Key figures included pianists Leo Sirota and Leonid Kreutzer, who performed and taught many students, and conductors Klaus Pringsheim and Joseph Rosenstock, who worked with professional orchestras. These Jewish pianists and conductors significantly raised the standard of Japanese performance. Meanwhile, Yamada Kōsaku composed operas, including Ochitaru Tennyo 堕ちたる天女 (The Depraved Heavenly Maiden; 1913), Ayame あやめ (Iris; 1931), and Kurofune 黒船 (The Black Ships; 1940). In an interview in the North China Herald (23 June 1937, 505), Strok said, “I am going to establish a national opera in Japan and am also going to bring out the best in English theatrical companies to the Far East.” He must have imagined that Japan would continue to grow into one of the world’s leading markets for Western music. However, the Second Shanghai Incident in August 1937 and the subsequent escalation of tensions leading to war meant that no opera houses were yet built in Japan. In 1939, after working for the Berlin State Theatre, German composer and conductor Manfred Gurlitt (1890–1972) travelled to Japan and conducted many opera premieres. After the Pacific War, he founded in 1952 the Gurlitt Opera 7 See https://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/centre/library/timeline/.

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Society (グルリット・オペラ協会) in Tokyo. If Gurlitt and other exiles had not chosen Tokyo as a place of refuge, the education of professional musicians in Japan would have stagnated until after the war. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the significance of Western music in the gaichi, especially Shanghai, grew continuously. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese could experience aspects of European culture in Shanghai without having to go to Europe. Shanghai, also known as the “Paris of the East,” had a municipal orchestra composed of Westerners. In the 1930s, the quality of the orchestra improved, and it performed contemporary works by composers such as Shostakovich and Stravinsky. Furthermore, in November 1934, exiled Russians formed the Shanghai Ballet Russe, whose performances included Diaghilev’s (1872–1929) Ballets Russes, such as Petrushka and The Firebird (Iguchi 2019, 102–168). When the Pacific War broke out in December 1941, Shanghai came under Japanese military control, and many Japanese cultural figures flocked to Shanghai. From ports in Kobe and Nagasaki, Shanghai could be reached by liner in forty-eight hours. As Japan gradually tightened its control over cultural events after the outbreak of the war, a trip to Shanghai provided access to uncontrolled and free artistic activity. For example, Shanghai had clubs where American jazz and dance music were played; French and American radio stations broadcast world-class music programmes; and cinemas showed the latest Chinese and Japanese films. For jazz players and dancers, the act of “returning from Shanghai” became a rite of passage. In contrast to Japan, where the light of culture had gone out, in Shanghai Jewish refugees joined the Russians, creating an unprecedented boom in theatrical culture. Asahina Takashi conducted the Municipal Orchestra in 1943 and 1944 and was amazed at the high standard of the musicians. In Shanghai, Hattori Ryōichi gained experience of jazz, dance, and cinema music leading up to the postwar period. Komaki Masahide 小牧正英 (1911–2006) was the first Japanese dancer to perform modern ballet onstage after the war, having learned it from the Russians in the Shanghai Ballet Russe. The first full performance of Swan Lake in Tokyo in 1946 was based on the score and choreography of the Shanghai Ballet Russe brought to Japan by Komaki. In other words, Shanghai played a role in filling the void in the Japanese musical world created by the war. This is why music and ballet performances were quickly resumed after the war. In particular, Asahina’s successes in orchestral, ballet, and opera performances in Osaka attracted classical music lovers to concerts at the Osaka Asahi Hall. During this period, Osaka regained its lustre as a centre for Western music alongside Tokyo.

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After a long period of inactivity, Strok arrived in Tokyo from New York in September 1951, accompanied by one of the best violinists of the twentieth century, Yehudi Menuhin (1916–99). They toured twelve cities across Japan, performing live in radio broadcasts. Strok subsequently toured Japan annually, including with the Symphony of the Air (formerly the NBC Symphony Orchestra) and with opera singers such as Helen Traubel (1899–1972). Strok’s vision of the first large-scale international music festival in Japan, the Osaka International Festival (大阪国際フェスティバル), would be realized by the Asahi Shinbun Company (朝日新聞社) in 1958 after his sudden death in Tokyo in 1956. 7

Western Music Today: From Admiration to “Japanese Music”

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, Osaka College of Music, where the author has worked for many years, celebrated its centenary in 2015. The music school that began 100 years ago in a small Japanese house has now become a college with over 1,000 students. What kind of centre for Western music-learning has this college become? In 1989, Japan’s first opera house was built on campus at the Osaka College of Music—a small but authentic theatre dedicated to opera, with seating for just over 700 and with an orchestra attached to it. This small university-based opera house has taken on the challenge of presenting operas by Japanese composers or twentieth-century operas, such as Wozzeck, The Turn of the Screw, and Peter Grimes. Further, German-language operas by Japanese composers, including Kinkakuji 金閣寺 by Mayuzumi Toshirō 黛敏郎 and Chinmoku 沈黙 (Silence) by Matsumura Teizō 松村禎三, have been highly acclaimed. In addition, numerous Japanese-language operas have been created in Japan since the end of the war. Yūzuru 夕鶴 (Evening Crane; 1952) by Dan Ikuma 團伊 玖磨 (1924–2001) is a popular opera that has been performed over 800 times, and in recent years, the German-language opera Matsukaze 松風 (Wind Through Pine Trees; 2011) by Hosokawa Toshio 細川俊夫 (b. 1955), based on the noh (nō) play of the same name, has attracted much attention. The harsh reality, however, is that most Japanese operas have faded away without being performed repeatedly (Tōsei Gakuen 1995–). The 1997 construction of the New National Theatre in Tokyo, which includes a world-class, 1,800-seat opera house (Opera Palace), has not improved the production of Japanese operas. For instance, the theatre’s opera programme for 2022 and 2023 consists only of European and Russian operas. Does the failure of Japanese-language opera to take root indicate that “yōgaku is still Western music by Western people?”

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(Yoshihara 2007). That is, in the Japanese Western classical music world, the path to success is still paved by studying in Western countries and winning prizes in Western competitions, and tickets for overseas orchestras and operas sell out no matter how expensive they are. Although Western music has been accepted and practised in Japan for 150 years, a certain degree of “Western worship” is still maintained from the Meiji-era slogan “datsu-a nyū-ō” 脱亜入欧 (leaving Asia and entering Europe). Now in the 2020s, some music colleges in Japan have experienced a rapid decline in the number of students of Western classical music (Ōuchi 2022), and new courses are emerging that teach composition or performance with a focus on commercial popular music. In addition, when opening a music textbook from an elementary, junior high, or high school, one will find all kinds of Japanese and Western pop, folk, and rock music and musicals alongside the masterpieces of Western classical composers. While it seems that Western classical music will not disappear from school curricula, the diversification of musical genres that are a subject for study will continue to grow. 8

Conclusion

In recent years, Japanese orchestras have faced difficult times because of an aging population and the declining number of concertgoers who enjoy classical music, and, as a result, some professional orchestras are in danger of closing.8 Attempts by orchestras to attract younger audiences with music from films, animation, and games are not uncommon and are already well established. At the same time, the ranks of talented performers and conductors are growing, and thematic music festivals are flourishing. Many Japanese composers work in a wide range of musical styles: the contemporary works of Takemitsu Tōru 武満徹 (1930–96) have already become classics, and other composers, such as Miyoshi Akira 三善晃 (1933–2013), Yuasa Jōji 湯浅譲二 (b. 1929), and Hosokawa Toshio, have diverse musical backgrounds. However, in contrast to the breadth of experience of these classical music composers, the repertoire of Japanese orchestras is still the classical masterpieces composed 150 to 200 years ago.9 Nevertheless, the emergence of new media in the contemporary era, including 8 In 2020, classical music concerts were also severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. 9 The top ten composers featured by professional orchestras in Japan (the number of performances of the composer in 2018) are No. 1: Mozart (80 times). No. 2: Beethoven (65). No. 3: Stravinsky (43). No. 4 (equal): Brahms, R. Strauss, and Tchaikovsky (39; 125 years after Tchaikovsky’s death). No. 7: Bruckner (38). No. 8: Bernstein (36; 100th anniversary of his death). No. 9: Sibelius (32). No. 10: Ravel (31) (Nihon Ōkesutora Renmei 2019). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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music-listening tools and distribution technology, has the potential to make classical music, including contemporary Japanese classical music, appealing to younger consumers. In Japan, the “age of admiration for Western music” in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is now over, and musicians and audiences are free to make their own choices and enjoy Western music in their own way, according to their own preferences. The venues for performances are also becoming more diverse, including temples, gardens, and casual stages. At the same time, more people are enjoying live performances from around the world via real-time Internet streaming than going out to halls. Further, professional orchestras, which are often regarded as conservative, are now promoting social inclusion and outreach activities involving the elderly, children, and people with disabilities. In summary, yōgaku (Western music) in Japan has passed through various stages since the mid-nineteenth century—introduction, imitation, and learning—and has now entered a new stage in the contemporary era with its Japanese practitioners pursuing their own styles of Western music more freely (fig. 15.3). Further, evolving digital technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, have created new contexts for consuming classical music as popular culture, extending the reach and consolidating the practice of yōgaku in the modern era.

Figure 15.3

Amateur and professional orchestral musicians collaborate with performers of gamelan, sitar, and traditional Japanese instruments. Echigojishi Concert 越後獅子 (2018) by Nomura Makoto 野村誠. Toyonaka City, 2018 © Toyonaka City

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References Galliano, Luciana. 2002. Yōgaku: Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century. Translated by Martin Mayes. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow. Gao, Jing 高婙. 2003. “Chūgoku kindai gakkō ongaku kyōiku no genryū: Shinmatsu ni okeru ‘gakudō-gakka’ undō kōki no shisō-teki dojō ni tsuite” 中国近代学校音楽教 育の源流:清末における「学堂楽歌」運動興起の思想的土壌について. Keiō Gijuku Daigaku Daigakuin Shakaigaku Kenkyū-ka Kiyō: Shakaigaku Shinrigaku Kyōikugaku 慶応義塾大学大学院社会学研究科紀要:社会学心理学教育学 56: 35–49. Gottschewski, Hermann. 2019. Kindai Nikkan no yōgaku juyōshi ni kansuru kiso kenkyū: Oyatoikyoshi Furantsu Ekkeruto o chūshin ni 近代日韓の洋楽受容史に関する基 礎研究:お雇い教師フランツ・エッケルトを中心に. Tokyo: Tōkyō Daigaku Daigakuin Sōgō Bunka Kenkyū-ka 東京大学大学院総合文化研究科. Iguchi, Junko 井口淳子. 2017. “A. Sutorōku no Ajia tsuā: Shanhai sokai de hakkō sareta Eiji shinbun ni motozuite” Ａ．ストロークのアジアツアー:上海租界で発行された英字 新聞にもとづいて. Ongakugaku 音楽学 62 (2): 73–85. Iguchi, Junko 井口淳子. 2019. Bōmeishatachi no Shanhai gakudan: Sokai no ongaku to baree 亡命者たちの上海楽壇:租界の音楽とバレエ. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Mehl, Margaret. 2014. “Western Art Music in Japan: A Success Story?” NineteenthCentury Music Review 10 (2): 211–222. Morimoto, Yoriko 森本頼子. 2020. “Taishō-ki Nihon ni okeru hakkeiroshiajin no opera katsudō: 1919-nen, 21-nen no ‘Roshia dai kagekidan’ o chūshin ni” 大正期日本にお ける白系ロシア人のオペラ活動: 1919年、 21年の「ロシア大歌劇団」を中心に . Kinjō Gakuin Daigaku Ronshū. Jinbun Kagaku-hen 金城学院大学論集．人文科学編 16 (2): 154–166. Nagai, Kōji 永井幸次. 1954. Koshikata hachijūnen 来し方八十年. Osaka: Osaka Ongaku Tanki Daigaku Gakuyūkai Shuppanbu 大阪音楽短期大学楽友会出版部. Nakano, Masaaki 中野正昭. 2022. Rōshī opera to Asakusa opera: Taishō-ki hon’yaku opera no kōgyō, jōen, engekisei ローシー・オペラと浅草オペラ:大正期翻訳オペラの 興行・上演・演劇性. Tokyo: Shinwasha 森話社. Nihon Ōkesutora Renmei 日本オーケストラ連盟. 2019. Nihon Ōkesutora Renmei Nyūsu 日本オーケストラ連盟ニュース 103. Ōsaka Ongaku Daigaku 大阪音楽大学. 2023. “Ōsaka Ongaku Daigaku ni tsuite” 大阪 音楽大学について. Accessed 17 January 2023. https://www.daion.ac.jp/about /anniversary/1915-1930/. Ōuchi, Takao 大内孝夫. 2022. “Nihonjin wa ‘ongaku daigaku’ chōraku no shinkoku-sa o wakattenai yowamaru keizai o hokan suru bunka kiban no kōchiku o dō suru” 日本 人は｢音楽大学｣凋落の深刻さをわかってない:弱まる経済を補完する文化基盤の構

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築をどうする. Tōyō Keiza Shinpōsha 東洋経済新報社, 14 July. https://toyokeizai.net /articles/-/602173. Starrs, Roy. 2011. Modernism and Japanese Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Takenaka, Tōru 竹中亨. 2016. Meiji no Wāgnā būmu: Kindai Nihon no ongaku iten 明治 のワーグナー・ブーム:近代日本の音楽移転. Tokyo: Chūōkōron-Shinsha 中央公論 新社. Tōsei Gakuen 東成学園, ed. 1995–. Nihon no opera nenkan 日本のオペラ年鑑. Kawasaki: Tōsei Gakuen 東成学園. Yoshihara, Mari. 2007. Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

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Chapter 16

Violin Playing and Women in Japanese Music Ena KAJINO 1

Introduction

This chapter focuses on professional female violinists active in the Meiji era and examines their activities in the context of the social position of women and Japanese views on music at the time. The study is based on the following question: Does gender play a role in the history of the violin in Japan? Japan was mostly closed to the West from 1641 to 1853 under the Tokugawa Shogunate. During this period of isolation, only a limited number of people came into contact with Westerners, and Western civilization was completely unknown to most Japanese. There are no known records of the violin being played by Japanese during this time (Kajino 2022). However, the Meiji Restoration of 1868 opened the door to the West, and with it the violin became localized in Japan. Roman Chiba Tadasaku ロマン千葉忠朔 (1857/58–1932), a member of the orthodox church in Japan, is considered to be the first Japanese violinist. It was around 1877 when he learned this instrument (Nakamura 1996, 85, 96). In the West, the violin was considered a male instrument in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because it was perceived as an instrument that detracted from feminine grace and was not suitable for women to play (Hoffmann 2004 [1991], 22, 74). It was not until around 1870 that music schools began to accept female violin students (Reich 1991, 118). Around this time, the Japanese began to play the violin. In contrast to the instrument’s gender orientation in the West, in Japan the violin was not perceived as a male instrument but rather spread mainly among women. Further, the idea that “music is a woman’s thing to do” has been rooted deeply in Japanese people throughout the modern era. During the Meiji era, Japan was very much a male-dominated society, and music was one of the few spheres in which women could express their creative talents. In fact, when considering how the craft of playing the violin spread among Japanese, one cannot ignore the remarkable dedication of professional female violinists. Therefore, in the Meiji era, the leading Japanese violinists were not men but women. This chapter outlines the efforts of such female violinists, in particular Kōda Nobu 幸田延 (1870–1946), who made a significant impact on Japanese

© Ena KAJINO, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_018

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society. Research on the history of Western music in Japan has only been conducted from the 1980s. Kōda’s accomplishments had been temporarily forgotten as a result of a generational shift in musicians. However, as the study of Western music history in Japan became more active in the 1980s, her achievements were more and more recognized, and in recent years her violin sonatas have been increasingly performed. 2

History and Background of the Spread of the Violin

The first music education institution in Japan, Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari 音楽取調掛 (Music Investigation Committee), was founded in 1879, began accepting students in 1880, and offered lessons on Western musical instruments, the piano, organ, and violin (Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari 1880–81).1 In December 1882, the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari stipulated that the instruments to be used as auxiliary instruments in shōka 唱歌 (singing) education should be the koto 箏・琴 (thirteen-string zither), kokyū 胡弓 (three- or four-string bowed lute), violin, organ, and piano. This move meant that violins could be purchased nationwide as a school resource, which helped spread the instrument. Its use in school education would have given people a positive impression of the instrument. For example, the shamisen 三味線 (three-string plucked lute), the most popular Japanese instrument in the Edo period, was shunned at one time in the Meiji era as a vulgar instrument and was not recognized as an auxiliary instrument for shōka education (Kajino 2019, 178–218). In the 1880s, domestic violin production began (Kajino 2019, 283–297). From around 1890, mass-production techniques were developed, and inexpensive instruments were distributed throughout the country. From the beginning of its spread in the Meiji era, Japanese people enjoyed playing both Western and traditional Japanese music on the violin. After the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), the violin became very popular among schoolgirls because it was easy to carry, inexpensive, and fashionable (Mehl 2010). For young Japanese women who had a strong yearning for a Western lifestyle, the violin fulfilled part of that desire. The idea that music was a woman’s activity had taken root in Japan, which undoubtedly supported their learning of the violin (Kajino 2019, 434–448). 1 Unless otherwise stated, information about students enrolled at the Tokyo Academy of Music (東京音楽学校) and its precursors is sourced from the Tokyo Academy of Music Enrolment Database (東京音楽学校在籍者データベース) at https://musicology.geidai .ac.jp/wp/research/ongakugakkoudb/.

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Pioneering Japanese Violinist, Kōda Nobu

Kōda Nobu was not only a Japanese pioneer of the violin but also the most important musician in the early years of Western music (yōgaku 洋楽) in Japan. She was born in downtown Tokyo into a family of former shogunate ministers. Her mother was concerned about her children’s education, and from an early age Kōda learnt the koto and nagauta 長唄 (a genre of shami­ sen music). It is thought that Kōda had a very good sense of sound (Takii and Hirataka 2012, 465). She began to study Western music when Luther Whiting Mason (1818–96), an American who had been hired to teach shōka at primary schools attached to Tōkyō Joshi Shihan Gakkō 東京女子師範学校 (Tokyo Women’s Normal School) since April 1880, recognized her musical talent as a student and encouraged her to study music. In October of the same year, Kōda began piano lessons with Nakamura Sen 中村専 and Mason, and in April 1882 she enrolled in the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari, where she continued her piano studies and began learning the violin with Ōno Hisayori 多久随 (1850–1924), who was a gagaku (court music) musician and one of Mason’s early violin students. She was the only candidate to pass the practical violin examination in February 1885. In July of the following year, she was the first graduate of the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari, where she continued to study further courses. At the same time, aged just fifteen, she was assigned to work as an assistant for the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari. For some time after this, Kōda excelled at both piano and violin (Hagiya 2003, 268–271; Takii and Hirataka 2012, 465–466). In 1889, Kōda was selected as the first student sponsored by the Ministry of Education to study overseas in the field of music, and in April that year she went to the US and studied for a year at the New England Conservatory in Boston. She moved to Vienna the following year and entered Das Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (the Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music) in 1891. Both in the US and in Vienna, her major was violin. In Vienna she studied the violin with Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr. She took lessons in harmony, counterpoint, and composition and composed several pieces, including two violin sonatas. Kōda spent six and a half years studying abroad, and the cost paid by the state is unknown. What is important to note is that she studied at a time when the school attendance rate for girls was still very low. On her return to Japan in 1895, at the age of twenty-five, Kōda was appointed professor at the newly named Tokyo Academy of Music (東京音楽学校).2 She succeeded Rudolf Dittrich (1861–1919), who taught orchestra and violin and 2 In 1887, the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari was renamed the Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkō 東京音楽 学校 (Tokyo Academy of Music).

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had returned to Vienna the previous year. When the Tokyo Academy of Music hired August Junker (1868–1944) in 1899, the school orchestra was revitalized, and Kōda became concertmistress while also training the school’s students. Kōda had a younger sister, Andō (née Kōda) Kō 安藤幸 (1878–1963). Like her sister, Andō was a very accomplished musician and violinist. She started playing the violin on the recommendation of Dittrich and entered the Tokyo Academy of Music in 1889. She performed at the first subscription concert of the Tokyo Academy of Music on 4 December 1898, when she played J. S. Bach’s “Doppelkonzert” for two violins with her sister.3 At the concert after her graduation ceremony on 8 July the following year, Andō performed Mozart’s Symphonie Concertante with her sister as a viola soloist and the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Henshū Iinkai 1990, 83–84). She had only been learning the violin for a little over a decade. According to music critic Ushiyama Mitsuru, guests and family members of graduates who attended this concert then wanted their daughters and sisters to learn the violin, and Andō’s performance signalled the beginning of the violin boom amongst schoolgirls (1949, 19). Andō left to study in Germany soon after the concert. As is still the case today, many musicians combine their performance work with teaching. However, Kōda and Andō only performed at intramural and charity concerts, as they considered playing an instrument in public for money as undesirable (Hagiya 2003, 144). Other female teachers at the Tokyo Academy of Music did the same. This was because in Edo-period Japan earning money by playing musical instruments was a profession of the lowest class of people, who did not even belong to the status system of the time—samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants. In other words, musicians and kabuki actors belonged to a socially repressed class, and they were labelled kawara kojiki (beggars on the riverbanks), a derogatory term that remained in use until the second half of the twentieth century. Although kabuki and other forms of entertainment existed in early modern Japan, instrumental and vocal music concerts were only found in small-scale musical gatherings. The inclusion of music lessons in school education and the acceptance of Western music as a symbol of Western high culture may have helped change these discriminatory views of musicians. However, the fact remains that opportunities to perform Western instruments professionally were very limited, although teaching was considered one of the most prestigious occupations.

3 On their early performances, see Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Henshū Iinkai (1990, 38–39, 77–79).

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Female Violin Teachers at the Tokyo Academy of Music

Kōda’s meteoric rise through the ranks within the school led to a backlash from those around her. The newspaper Yorozuchōhō 万朝報 published a slanderous opinion piece claiming that it was due to favouritism that Kōda selected Andō as the next government-funded student rather than the male students who had been on the shortlist (Hagiya 2003, 126). In July 1899, Andō went to Berlin to study at the Königliche akademische Hochschule für Musik (Royal Academy for Music) under the world-renowned violin pedagogue and violinist Joseph Joachim (1831–1907). She returned to Japan in 1903 after surviving a mentally and physically demanding period of study abroad. She became a professor of violin at the Tokyo Academy of Music, where she contributed to the training of future generations. One of the leading candidates among the three men shortlisted for government funding was the famous composer Taki Rentarō 滝廉太郎 (1879–1903). He went to Germany in April 1901 as the first male government-sponsored music student and entered the Leipziger Konservatorium der Musik (Leipzig Conservatory of Music) in October.4 As Taki was a pioneering male music student, expectations were very high for him. In 1900, the magazine Teikoku Bungaku 帝国文学 wrote that he had a great responsibility and would be compared to Andō (Hagiya 2003, 133). However, on 25 November 1901, he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, and he returned to Japan the following year as he had not recovered sufficiently to continue his studies. After returning home, Taki spent the rest of his life recovering from his illness but died prematurely on 29 June 1903. At this time, there was a very strong tendency for men to aim for risshin shusse (success in life), and ryōsai kenbo (good wife and wise mother) was considered the ideal image for women, although there was a growing interest in women’s occupations. Until the Edo period, women had assisted in family businesses and did not have the same occupations as men, but as Japan modernized, women’s employment became socially recognized. Women who engaged in new occupations were called shokugyō fujin (working women), and typists, telephone operators, and teachers are representative examples of working women’s occupations. However, women were considered inferior to men in terms of physical strength and ability, which led to antagonism towards Kōda, who had a risshin shusse status superior to many men. Although Kōda had led a smooth life as a shokugyō fujin after being appointed professor at the only government music school, people changed the way they looked at her, and she began to lose honour around 1908, when the internal 4 The generation of male students after Taki were the best students at the school. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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feuds at the music school were covered by the media. Among the teachers at the Tokyo Academy of Music were excellent female teachers, such as Kōda, Andō, Tanomogi Koma 頼母木駒 (1874–1936), and two pianists, Tachibana Itoe 橘糸重 (1873–1939) and Kanbe Aya 神戸絢 (1879–1956).5 Male teachers were less present. The conflict between the two groups—men and women—was reported, and the newspapers were increasingly critical of Kōda. They reported that Kōda, who was single, was having an affair with one of her colleagues, who was said to be a co-conspirator in the plot. In the end, Kōda resigned from the Tokyo Academy of Music in 1909 (Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Henshū Iinkai 1987, 568–572). Relationships among students were criticized during the early 1900s, and it is not surprising that controversy at the Tokyo Academy of Music, which was dominated by female students, attracted much attention (Inagaki 2007, 207). The violin became very popular among schoolgirls after the Russo-Japanese War, and those who played the instrument were occasionally accused of impropriety (Kajino 2019, 458–464). Kōda’s resignation coincided with the peak of the violin boom among schoolgirls. The trope of highly educated women being corrupted by sexual problems also applies to Kōda’s scandal, albeit on a different scale. Having achieved risshin shusse and the highest status as a shokugyō fujin, Kōda was dragged down by her colleagues, the media, and public opinion and forced to resign in an inexcusable way because of issues related to sexual depravity. Kōda’s downfall may have been due in part to her masculine and winning personality, but it was also because of her way of life, which fell far outside the norms that the male-dominated society expected of women. However, respect for Kōda was not completely undermined by these events. She was a musician close to the upper classes, including the royal family, and she used to play the violin at the Rokumeikan, a reception house that brought high-ranking Japanese and Westerners together, in front of the royal family, influential people in the political and financial world, and foreign guests. After leaving the Tokyo Academy of Music, she made her living teaching piano privately to the daughters of prominent families and was considered a leading figure among Japanese musicians (fig. 16.1). Following Kōda, Tanomogi was appointed associate professor in 1897 (and promoted to professor in 1912), and Andō was appointed professor in 1902.6 But what were the lives of these female violin teachers of the Tokyo Academy of 5 After 1900, Kōda changed her teaching subject from violin to piano. 6 Tanomogi’s father, Tanomogi Genshichi 頼母木源七, was one of the earliest violin makers in Japan. He had been a geta 下駄 merchant in Hamamatsu and, having fallen on hard times, moved to Tokyo. He started making gekkin 月琴 (four-string Chinese lutes), which were popular at the time, and soon branched out to manufacture other musical instruments, including violins (Itō 1914). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Left to right: Kanbe Ayako, Andō Kō, Shibata Tamaki, Kōda Nobuko. Fujin Gahō (1911a) Courtesy of the National Showa Memorial Museum (昭和館)

Music who escaped condemnation? Andō married English literature scholar Andō Katsuichirō 安藤勝一郎 (1879–1962) in 1905, and they had four sons and a daughter. Tanomogi Koma married Tanomogi Keikichi 頼母木桂吉 (1867–1940) in 1903 and raised an adopted son. Tanomogi Keikichi was a leading businessman and politician in modern Japan; he studied in the US, and, after returning to Japan, he distinguished himself at a newspaper company before becoming active in business and political circles (Kajino 2019, 476–477). Andō and Tanomogi embodied what was perceived as the proper way to be a “working woman”: they kept steady jobs while protecting their families and being “good wives and wise mothers.” They symbolized the idealized way of being a professional female violinist, simultaneously realizing the two ideals of women’s education in the Meiji era: “working women” and being a “good wife and wise mother.” Further, having husbands who were professionals, these women did not need to work to earn an income (fig. 16.2). Andō acquired the ability to communicate with foreigners during her time studying in Germany, and she often entertained foreign performers visiting Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 16.2

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Tanomogi Koma with her grandchildren. Shufu no Tomo (1935, 16) Courtesy of the National Showa Memorial Museum (昭和館)

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Japan. There are many articles in women’s magazines with photographs of Andō interacting with prominent foreign performers, such as Mishel Piastro and Kathleen Parlow. Unlike Andō, whose career has been widely documented, Tanomogi’s is more modest, with only a few magazine interviews. Andō taught at the Tokyo Academy of Music as a professor until 1932, and Tanomogi remained until 1928. Both women contributed to the Japanese violin world for many years by making a concerted effort to nurture a new generation of performers. 5

Female Violinists as Working Women

So far, this chapter has focused on women who made the violin their career, but most women who embraced the instrument did so as a hobby. The custom of parents having their daughters learn musical instruments, such as the shamisen for everyday people and the koto for the warrior class and wealthy merchant families, declined temporarily after the Meiji Restoration but was revitalized around 1900. At that time, in addition to the shamisen and koto, two Western musical instruments, the organ and violin, had a similar gendered association. In the late Meiji era, the playing of Japanese music in ensembles with Western and Japanese instruments, called wayō gassō 和洋合奏, became widely practised (the Western instruments were usually violins). The popularity of this practice helped spread the violin in Japan (Kajino 2013). Many schools made the reed organ and violin an extra-curricular option, which was a characteristic of the revitalization of learning musical instruments (Kajino 2019, 434–448). At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, when violin-playing women entering the performance field encountered social disapproval in Europe and the US, Japan was only just beginning to reward women for playing Western musical instruments. Why did some women take up playing a musical instrument as a profession rather than a hobby? In the Meiji era and soon after, it was taken for granted that female children of upper-class families would not work throughout their lives, while women from lower-class families would usually work in primary industries. It was primarily women from middle-class families who took up employment in the fields that emerged as new occupations in the Meiji era. Kitamura (née Amano) Hatsuko 北村初子 (1883–1960) was one Meiji-era female violinist who studied at the Tokyo Academy of Music; she matriculated in 1897, graduated in 1901, and continued to study after graduation until 1905.

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She differed from the female violinists mentioned so far in that she undertook a wide range of activities in the private sector. Hatsuko appears to have studied voice at the school but was able to play both piano and violin.7 Shortly after she left the school, the Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun (1905) reported on the circumstances of the budding violinist. As the article notes, she moved with her parents from Toyohashi (now in Aichi prefecture) to Tokyo and enrolled in the Tokyo Academy of Music. During this time, she experienced marriage and divorce and the misfortune of her father’s business failure, which led to financial and emotional hardship. However, she realized that neither poverty nor emotional pain could take away from her the musical skills she had acquired, so she decided to become a professional musician. Hatsuko and her younger sister, Amano Aiko 天野愛子 (1887/8–1945), a piano graduate, devoted themselves to music. Before long, Hatsuko was commissioned to teach at the Joshi Bijutsu Gakkō 女子美術学校 (Women’s School of Fine Arts) and was asked to tutor Natsuko 夏子, the wife of Count Sakai Tadaaki Sakai 酒井忠興 (1879–1919), and Sumanko 寿満子, the daughter of Katsura Tarō 桂太郎 (1848–1913), the prime minister of Japan at the time. Hatsuko also established her own private music school, and Aiko joined her in teaching (fig. 16.3). In this way, the article concludes, the sisters were able to support their parents. Hatsuko married composer Kitamura Sueharu 北村季晴 (1872–1931), and the couple were professionally active in music. Because Kitamura was head of the Western music department at Mitsukoshi Department Store (三越), the most fashionable and popular store of the time in Tokyo, Aiko joined the couple in free concerts organized by Mitsukoshi for its customers. While maintaining her position as a wife assisting her husband, Hatsuko devoted her energy to education, in the same style as Andō and Tanomogi (Kajino 2019, 482). However, Hatsuko liked to go out and hated housework, so her sister-in-law did all the household chores and looked after her children. Finally, in 1921, she left her husband, and the couple divorced (Nakamura 1978, 307–308). The female violinist Shikama Ranko 四𥧄蘭子 (1887–?) failed to become a successful shokugyō fujin. Ranko was the daughter of Shikama Totsuji 四𥧄 訥治 (1854–1928), who published Japan’s first music magazine, Ongaku Zasshi (Music Magazine), in 1890. Shikama spent his own money on the publication, which was read with great interest by those associated with the Tokyo Academy of Music, members of military bands, gagaku musicians, and music teachers. It promoted the achievements of the national music culture and the 7 Hatsuko’s major at the Tokyo Academy of Music is listed as voice in the institution’s records, but in other sources, including the Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun (1905), her major is noted as violin. Considering her many achievements playing violin, it is safe to assume that she actually majored in that instrument. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 16.3

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Top: Kitamura Hatsuko (1883–1960?) playing the violin and Amano Aiko on the piano; bottom: Hatsuko and Aiko with their pupils. Fujin Gahō (1906) Courtesy of the University of Tokyo General Library (東京大学 総合図書館)

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spread of Western music. Its significance was great, but as a business it was a failure. When publication of the magazine ceased in 1898, Shikama made a living by running a private school of music. His daughters were all able to play several instruments, as he had encouraged them to play musical instruments from an early age. Photographs of Ranko appeared in Tōyō Fujin Gahō (1908, 1909); she is shown with a violin in her hands and with her two younger sisters. These photographic articles, entitled “Talented Ladies of the Music World” and “Sisters in Concert” (fig. 16.4), present readers with a model of an ideal family and sisterly love, similar to that of Kitamura Hatsuko. Ranko and her younger sister Kunie 国会 (1890–?) practised the violin intensively in order to enter the Tokyo Academy of Music. Although no records of their enrolment have been found, except for a record of Ranko learning piano as an elective in 1908, an article in the Tōkyō Nichinichi Shinbun 東京日日新聞 (1909a) praised the sisters’ musical talent, albeit as yose geinin (vaudeville performers). However, a few weeks after the newspaper wrote about Ranko’s musical talent, her lover, Nishio Ryūki 西尾柳喜 (dates unknown), was arrested. He was a public figure and labelled a philanderer, inazuma kozō 稲妻小僧 (lightning boy), and Ranko was one of his mistresses. According to the Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun (1909a, 1909b),

Figure 16.4

Left to right: Shikama Ranko and her two sisters, Seiko and Kunie. Tōyō Fujin Gahō (1909) Courtesy of the University of Tokyo General Library

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Nishio referred to himself as a “master of music,” mixing with nobility and high society and painting portraits on commission. His special skill was playing the violin, and at home he played the violin and other musical instruments from morning till night. However, he was a philanderer. The philanderering incident drew a lot of public attention, but the fact that Ranko was one of the women who was cheated seemed to attract particular attention. An article in the Tōkyō Nichinichi Shinbun described Ranko in glowing terms. She was referred to as “the second coming of the Gautama Buddha,” and her father as “the founder of our country’s musical instruments,” and the newspaper was sympathetic to the misfortune that befell Ranko (Tōkyō Nichinichi Shinbun 1909b, 5).8 People’s interest in Ranko seems to have been boundless. Later that year, the Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun reported that her father was now wandering the Tōhoku region with a violin and calligraphy brushes, her brother was studying in the US, and her older sister was a musician whom Rudolf Dittrich expected to surpass Andō. However, Ranko’s older sister (Fujiko ふじ子) soon passed away, and Ranko had to support her mother (a geisha before marriage) and her nine-year-old sister Seiko 清子 by teaching music and, desperate for an income, performing three times a week at a beer hall (Matsuzaki 1909). Ranko played the piano and Kunie the violin, but for a woman to play an instrument in a restaurant is the very act of a geisha. Suzuki Koson 鈴木鼓村, founder of the Kyōgoku 京極 school of koto music, recalls that he went to the beer hall unaware of this and was quite shocked to find that his old friend Ranko was a regular performer. In the early years of the Taishō era, Seiko appeared in the media playing the violin and mandolin. One article written about her contains information about Ranko running a music school, but Ranko’s performance activities in the public eye have not been confirmed since the scandal (Kajino 2019, 490–493). Instead of her father and mother, Ranko raised Seiko to become a musician. However, with her own career cut short by the scandal, Ranko played the role of “wise mother” in place of her parents. 6

Conclusion

This chapter has examined the activities of prominent Japanese female violinists during the early years of Western music in Japan. I have shown that the traditional attitude that “music is for women” was one of the reasons why female violinists emerged ahead of their male counterparts. This gender-based value 8 All translations are my own unless otherwise noted.

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system gave young Japanese women a reason to play the violin and promoted musical activities by women that were not limited to this instrument. In Japan, music did not exist as an art form during the Edo period, and early violinists were regarded as entertainers of very low social status, called geinin 芸人. The Kōda sisters’ exceptional talent and their selection, ahead of male students, as the first government-funded students in the field of music may have helped change the way Japanese people viewed music. In the late nineteenth century, being a violinist in the West was a male occupation, and in Japan, too, most professional violinists were men. The main difference, however, is that the profession of “performer” was effectively a new one in Japan. Most female violinists in the Meiji era concentrated on educational work because women who played the violin and were from middle- or upper-middle-class families were not willing to accept payment for their performances, as the geinin would have done. There was no shortage of anecdotes of family opposition to men playing the violin or making music their profession, but from the end of the Meiji era onwards, there were more opportunities for professional violinists, including accompanying silent films and playing in orchestras and military bands, which encouraged men to take up the profession. In other words, in Japan and the West, professional violinists were predominantly men, but the reasons for this were very different. I will now refer briefly to the current situation and how gender inequalities in the Western music world in Japan have changed since the Meiji era. Japan’s professional orchestras once had an overwhelmingly male membership. In 1990, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, which had only male members since its foundation, accepted a female violinist as a regular member for the first time. Since then, all professional permanent orchestras in Japan have followed this lead and become mixed gender. Today, most Japanese professional orchestras have a higher proportion of men playing brass instruments, but most string instruments, especially violins, are played by women. In recent years, the activities of Japanese female conductors have attracted international attention, and it is expected that more Japanese women will enter this field. As for amateurs in Japan, the number of children learning the piano remains overwhelmingly female, but the gender ratio of children learning the violin does not appear to be as skewed. Brass bands are extremely popular as an extra-curricular activity and thrive among junior and senior high school students. While most brass players in professional orchestras are male, most players in junior and senior high school brass bands are usually girls. During the twentieth century, being able to play the violin or piano was considered a pre-marital skill for women. Only a small percentage of music academy graduates were able to make a living from the skills they had acquired,

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and it was thought that a music degree would make one look more presentable (i.e., give the impression of being a young lady from a good family), which made it easier to find a suitable marriage partner. However, such attitudes no longer persist, and today’s female violinists in Japan are no longer “shokugyō fujin” but are professionals just like male violinists. References Fujin Gahō 婦人画報. 1906. “Shimai ongakuka to sono montei” 姉妹音楽家と其 門弟. 2 (February). Fujin Gahō 婦人画報. 1911a. “Kōda Nobuko joshi to Shibata Tamaki joshi” 幸田延子女 史と柴田環女史. 51 (January). Fujin Gahō 婦人画報. 1911b. “Andō Kō joshi to Kanbe Ayako joshi” 安藤幸子女史と神戸 絢子女史. 51 (January). Hagiya, Yukiko 萩谷由喜子. 2003. Kōda shimai: Yōgaku reimeiki o sasaeta Kōda Nobu to Andō Kō 幸田姉妹:洋楽黎明期を支えた幸田延と安藤幸. Tokyo: Shopan ショパン. Hoffmann, Freia. 2004 [1991]. Instrument und Körper: Die musizierende Frau in der bürgerlichen Kultur. Translated by Sakai Yōko 阪井葉子 and Tamagawa Yūko 玉川裕子. Tokyo: Shunjūsha 春秋社. Inagaki, Kyōko 稲垣恭子. 2007. Jogakkō to jogakusei: Kyōyō tashinami modan bunka 女学校と女学生:教養・たしなみ・モダン文化. Tokyo: Chūōkōron Shinsha 中央公論 新社. Itō, Keiichirō 伊東圭一郎. 1914. Tōkai sanshū no jinbutsu 東海三州の人物. Shizuoka: Shizuoka Min’yū Shinbunsha 静岡民友新聞社. Kajino, Ena. 2013. “A Lost Opportunity for Tradition: The Violin in Early TwentiethCentury Japanese Traditional Music.” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 10 (2): 293–321. Kajino, Ena 梶野絵奈. 2019. “Kindai nihon no baiorin: Sore o torikakomu kawariyuku shakai” 近代日本のヴァイオリン:それを取り囲む変わり行く社会. PhD diss., Tokyo Daigaku 東京大学. Kajino, Ena 梶野絵奈. 2022. Nihon no baiorinshi: Gakki no tanjō kara Meiji ishin made 日本のヴァイオリン史:楽器の誕生から明治維新まで. Tokyo: Seikyūsha 青弓社. Matsuzaki, Tenmin 松崎天民. 1909. “Tōkyō no onna” 東京の女. Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun 東京朝日新聞, 22 September, 5. Mehl, Margaret. 2010. “Japan’s Early Twentieth-Century Violin Boom.” NineteenthCentury Music Review 7 (1): 23–43. Nakamura, Rihei 中村理平. 1996. Kirisutokyō to Nippon no Yōgaku キリスト教と日本の 洋楽. Tokyo: Ōzorasha 大空社. Nakamura, Sadenji 中村佐伝治. 1978. “Shinano no kuni” monogatari 「信濃の國」物語. Shiojiri: Shinano Mainichi Shinbunsha 信濃毎日新聞社. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari, ed.  音楽取調掛. 1880–81. Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari jidai bunsho tsudzuri: 7 kaigi shorui  音楽取調掛時代文書綴：巻 7 回議書類. Tokyo: Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari 文部省音楽取調掛. Reich, Nancy B. 1991. “European Composers and Musicians, ca. 1800–1890.” In Women and Music: A History, edited by Karin Pendle, 97–122. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Shufu no Tomo 主婦の友. 1935. “Daigishi Tanomogi Keikichi-shi Fujin: Komako-sama” 代議士頼母木桂吉氏夫人:駒子樣. Shufu no Tomo 主婦の友 19 (May): 16. Takii, Keiko 瀧井敬子, and Hirataka Noriko 平高典子. 2012. Kōda Nobu no “Taiō nikki” 幸田延の『滞欧日記』. Tokyo: Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Shuppankai 東京藝術大学出 版会. Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun 東京朝日新聞. 1905. “Shimai no ongakuka” 姉妹の音楽家. 6 December, 6. Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun 東京朝日新聞. 1909a. “Taizoku inazuma kozō” 大賊電小僧. 7 February, 5. Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun 東京朝日新聞. 1909b. “Moteasobaretaru Chiyoko” 弄ばれたる千 代子. 9 February, 5. Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Henshū Iinkai 東京芸術大学百年史編集委 員会, ed. 1987. Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku hyakunen-shi: Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkō-hen dai 1 kan 東京芸術大学百年史:東京音楽学校篇　第１巻. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Henshū Iinkai 東京芸術大学百年史編集委 員会, ed. 1990. Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku hyakunen-shi: Ensōkai-hen dai 1 kan 東京芸術 大学百年史:演奏会篇　第１巻. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Tōkyō Nichinichi Shinbun 東京日日新聞. 1909a. “Ikanaru fujin ni gakusai ariya” 如何な る婦人に楽才ありや. 21 January, 4. Tōkyō Nichinichi Shinbun 東京日日新聞. 1909b. “Sanji rika o nayamasu: Joryū geiju­ tsuka no nageki” 惨雨梨花を悩ます:女流藝術家の嘆. 16 February, 5. Tōyō Fujin Gahō 東洋婦人画報. 1908. “Gakkai no saien” 楽界の才媛. 14 (July). Tōyō Fujin Gahō 東洋婦人画報. 1909. “Shimai no gassō” 姉妹の合奏. 21 (January). Ushiyama, Mitsuru 牛山充. 1949. “Wagakuni saisho no joryū baiorinisuto Andō Kōko sensei: Yohahimu ni shiji” 我が国最初の女流ヴァイオリニスト安藤幸子先生:ヨハヒム に師事. Ongaku no Tomo 音楽の友 7 (7): 18–19.

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Chapter 17

The Suzuki Method, Yamaha System, and Japanese Traditional Music: A Case Study of Japanese Music Education in the Modern Era Eria KUBO 1

Introduction

The Suzuki Method, Suzuki Violin Seizō (SVS), and Yamaha (see Abbreviations and Definitions at the end of this chapter) contributed to the popularization of Western music in Japan by way of supplying instruments (i.e., reed organs, pianos, and violins) or establishing music education programmes. Their success may have been a factor in the decline of hōgaku 邦楽 (Japanese traditional music). However, the approach and lesson system of the Suzuki Method can be applied not only to Western classical music but also to hōgaku. Further, the Suzuki Method incorporated aspects of hōgaku pedagogy in its development. This chapter outlines the history of these major organizations, their respective music education programmes, and how the Suzuki Method was influenced by hōgaku. The discussion shows how distinct aspects of Japanese music education developed in modern Japan. 2

History

The Suzuki Method and the Yamaha Music School (YMS) are internationally recognized in the field of music education.1 Several entries in Grove Music introduce these terms in connection with establishing an original method of music education for beginners. For example, they note that “the ‘Suzuki method’ has revolutionized violin teaching in some areas, allowing pupils to develop artistic potential simultaneously with technical skills” (Stowell 2001); 1 The term “Suzuki Method” has been in use since 1964, after Suzuki Shin’ichi’s 鈴木鎮一 (1898–1998) teaching technique was introduced into the US in the late 1950s through the activities of the Talent Education Research Institute (TERI), where Suzuki served as the first president (Kubo 2014, 37–38; Suzuki 1971, 51). Though the TERI used the term “Suzuki Method” in its activities, in this chapter the term represents only Suzuki Shin’ichi’s method.

© Eria KUBO, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_019

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and “The Yamaha piano instruction method does for beginners on the piano what the Suzuki method does for the violin” (Davis, Good, and Tarr 2001). Historically, both practices have some similarities: their companies started as makers of Western musical instruments, they were founded and developed during the Meiji era and linked directly with the history of Western music in Japan, and they primarily established their respective education systems for children to learn music in modern Japan. The Western musical instrument industry in Japan had high potential to be a lucrative business after the Meiji Restoration (1868) with the government’s policy of “civilisation and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika 文明開化). Suzuki Masakichi 鈴木政吉 (1859–1944), the father of Suzuki Shin’ichi, began making violins in 1887, and Yamaha Torakusu 山葉寅楠 (1851–1916), the founder of Yamaha, began making reed organs and pianos.2 The demand for their products was created mainly as a consequence of the Ministry of Education’s policy of “modernization.” The Japanese government decided to redesign the education system (including performing arts) to follow the Western system during the Meiji era, and, as a result, Suzuki and Yamaha supplied their instruments to public schools using the distribution network of the publishing companies Kyōeki Shōsha 共益商社 in Tokyo and Miki Sasuke Shoten 三木佐助書店 in Osaka (Hiyama 1990, 165–169). Reed organs were especially considered indispensable for education because of their ease of use for singing (shōka 唱歌) (Akai 1995, 34–52). 3

The Yamaha Music School

The curriculum guideline revision of 1951 greatly benefited the Japanese instrument industry, which had been struggling with the lack of materials because of the Second World War. After the war, Japan’s education system drastically changed. In 1958, the Ministry of Education added the playing of musical instruments to the music education curriculum in elementary and middle schools, which had previously only covered shōka (Hiyama 1990, 226–229; Tanaka 2021, 137–138). Influenced by this curriculum change, Yamaha established the Zen 2 Suzuki Masakichi changed his occupation from koto (thirteen-string zither) and shamisen (three-string lute) maker to violin maker due to the decline of Japanese traditional music after the Meiji Restoration (Ōnogi 1981, 4). Yamaha Torakusu was requested to repair reed organs because of his reputation as a dexterous tradesman in medical equipment in Hamamatsu city, where Yamaha is located today. He used the opportunity to study the design and engineering of reed organs, and in 1888 he founded Yamaha Fūkin Seisakujo 山葉風琴 製作所 (Nippon Gakki Seizō 1977, 2–7).

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Nihon Kigaku Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 全日本器楽教育研究会 (Research Group for Music Instrument Education in Japan), which sent its instructors to train music teachers at schools (Tanaka 2021; Zen Nihon Kigaku Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 1964). While supplying reed organs for public schools, Yamaha also founded a private music education institution, the YMS. While Yamaha was enhancing its business in the early 1950s, the domestic demand for pianos had peaked, and a decline in the industry was anticipated. Consequently, Yamaha sought a new business strategy, and the YMS was their answer. The YMS was founded in 1954 under the fourth CEO, Kawakami Gen’ichi 川上源一 (1912–2002), who held the position until 1977 (Hiyama 1990, 230–232). A pilot project was launched at the Ginza branch in Tokyo, followed by the opening of the Yamaha Organ School in 1956, which was renamed Yamaha Music School in 1959. Yamaha used market research to identify country towns to target and then opened music stores in them. The next step was to offer music lessons via the Yamaha Method in those stores. Consumers could see and understand the connection between instruments and learning, and this resulted in a robust Yamaha network across Japan. In 1964, the first overseas YMS branch was opened in Los Angeles (Yamaha Music Foundation n.d.). Today, the YMS has branches in over forty countries with 156,000 students (Yamaha Corporation n.d.). To develop the “Yamaha Method,” well-known Japanese pianists Iguchi Motonari 井口基成 (1908–83) and Yasukawa Kazuko 安川加寿子 (1922–96) were asked to produce a textbook, although it was never completed. The YMS employed a method proposed by Tanaka Sumiko 田中すみ子 (dates unknown) using “iro-onpu” いろおんぷ (a coloured notation system), but it was discontinued after a few years so that children would not gain a fixed association between specific colours and specific musical notes (Kawakami 1979, 153–154). However, the YMS continued to develop the Yamaha Method, which was established to standardize textbooks, materials, and methodologies, therefore making it possible to offer standardized classes at every YMS branch (Tanaka 2021, 144–145). As pointed out by Nishino (2017), the Yamaha Method’s development remains vague as its origin has never been thoroughly investigated, and he further concluded that the concept and educational methods of the YMS were almost entirely adopted from the Suzuki Method. However, the philosophies of the Suzuki Method and YMS are antithetical, especially regarding how they define talented or gifted children. The basic philosophy of the YMS is “Nurture the musicality that everyone has, compose music by themselves, play the music, and nurture the ability to

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enjoy and widely share the joy of music” (Yamaha Music Foundation 1984, 4).3 Moreover, in the guidebook for YMS instructors, the following quotation from an instruction manual acknowledges the existence of “talented children”: Most children only have normal abilities and are never born with special gifts; therefore, if we, as Yamaha, could give opportunities for an enriched future, it means we did a significant job. Instructors of YMS must be careful to identify when a talented child is among them and must lead the child’s talent to develop optimally. Yamaha Music Foundation 1984, 4

As Kubo (2014, 124–138) points out, the search for “talented children” was one of the objectives for the early childhood music education boom in the 1930s partly because of expectations from parents and teachers in classical music education in Japan.4 The YMS was not an exception. Many musicians and experts were involved in the foundation of the Yamaha Method. They systematically established the Yamaha Method, reflecting multiple views and perspectives, including those of CEO Kawakami Gen’ichi (Kawakami 1979, 1986). Kawakami mentions that the YMS’s purpose is to train children to become capable of improvisation, to be able to compose original pieces, and to acquire “absolute pitch ability” from early childhood (1986, 49). Like other schools of Western classical music in Japan, the YMS attached importance to acquiring skills in equal temperament with Western music that may hinder learning hōgaku.5 Currently, YMS group lessons are divided by age and provided as introductory classes for children from age one. After completing introductory classes, individual classes are provided. YMS instructors

3 Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. 4 The Ueno Jidō Ongaku Gakuen 上野児童音楽学園 (Ueno Music School for Children), established in 1933 under the management of the alumni association of the Tokyo Ongaku Gakkō 東京音楽学校 (Tokyo Music School, now Tokyo University of the Arts), was founded with the objective of “discovering geniuses” (Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Henshū Kenkyūkai 2003, 1077–1079). 5 The Kodomo no tame no Ongaku Kyōshitsu 子供のための音楽教室 (Music School for Children) (1948–), the current Toho Gakuen School of Music (Tōhō Gakuen Ongaku Bumon 桐朋学園音楽部門), also emphasized absolute pitch training. It was founded by Yoshida Hidekazu 吉田秀和 (1913–2012), Iguchi Motonari, Saitō Hideo 斎藤秀雄 (1902–74), Itō Takeo 伊藤武雄 (1905–87), and Shibata Minao 柴田南雄 (1916–96). Yasukawa Kazuko, who was asked to produce a textbook for the YMS, was also a faculty member of the school.

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must pass the fifth-level exam of its own examination grade system to be a certified instructor.6 Regarding hōgaku, Yamaha serves as a retailer for manufacturers of Japanese traditional musical instruments (wagakki 和楽器), such as Asano Taiko 浅野太鼓 and Okadaya Fuse 岡田屋布施, and sells them for hōgaku classes (including gagaku 雅楽 [court music]) at schools as “School Instruments” (学校用楽器). By establishing a relationship with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Yamaha was able to develop a marketing strategy that enabled the company to expand its product range from musical instruments to diverse items such as motorcycles, sporting goods, and swimming pools. While Yamaha might have been encouraged to provide classes for wagakki, as a result of revisions to the middle and elementary school curricular guidelines—in 1998 and 2008 respectively—to include the playing of wagakki, such instruments are currently only offered intermittently, instructors are outsourced, and classes are conducted without using the Yamaha Method. With these developments, Yamaha may be attempting to replicate the success of changes to the school curricular guidelines in the 1950s when reed organ and piano sales to music classes increased significantly. What separated Yamaha and the YMS from SVS and the TERI was the former’s use of a business model to simultaneously promote their instruments and teaching methods.7 Ōnogi describes Yamaha Torakusu as a “mechanic” and entrepreneur rather than a “craftsman.” He supports Torakusu’s insights about the modernization and standardization of instruments and describes the management skill of the fourth CEO, Kawakami Gen’ichi, as “ijigen” 異次元 (on a different level) (Ōnogi 1966, 48, 77). 4

The Suzuki Method and TERI

SVS took a softer approach to marketing than Yamaha. Despite having the same opportunity to be a supplier to schools, Suzuki Masakichi’s personality as a craftsman led his company to become an efficient family-based company (Ōnogi 1981, 2). Masakichi and his sons, who took over his factory, did not expand their business but continued manufacturing string instruments. 6 The Yamaha examination grade system was established in 1967 and based on similar grading systems in the UK, France, and Germany (Tanaka 2021, 146–147). 7 Kawakami Gen’ichi, however, persistently emphasized the independence of the school and downplayed its business profits (1986, 18–19; Nippon Gakki Seizō 1977, 148–149).

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The Suzuki family’s interest was always in string instruments, particularly violins, and improving their sound. SVS is not the TERI’s parent company, and SVS’s products are not especially promoted, nor are students required to buy a Suzuki violin (Ōnogi 1982, 42). During the Second World War, Suzuki Shin’ichi assisted the SVS factory in Kiso Fukushima in Nagano prefecture. He restarted his educational activities at his former colleague’s request in September 1946 at Matsumoto Ongakuin 松本音楽院 (Matsumoto Music School) in Matsumoto city, Nagano prefecture. In 1946, the Zenkoku Yōji Kyōiku Dōshikai 全国幼児教育同志会 (All Japan Early Childhood Education Association) was established, and the group was renamed Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 才能教育研究会 (Talent Education Research Institute) in 1948 (Kōeki Shadan Hōjin Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 2021, 18). Local branches were established, and its philosophy was spread across Japan. While Shin’ichi’s approach is conveyed on an individual level through his lectures and publications, the most effective promotional tool was concerts by his pupils, as these embodied his theory through practice. The TERI established its first graduation system in 1952. In order to become a certificated instructor, graduating from the International Academy of the Suzuki Method is also required.8 The Suzuki Method network currently covers seventy-four countries with over 400,000 students (Kōeki Shadan Hōjin Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 2021, 19).9 The TERI’s textbooks are mostly edited by Shin’ichi and based on his research on playing the violin, violin structure, and teaching over many decades. His ideas were expressed from the early 1930s, more than ten years before the TERI launched its programme in 1946. Further, his publications since 1939, the year he started to advocate his theory, define “talent” as an ability that can be nurtured while lessening the importance of “talented children.” One reason why his ten-volume textbook series of the 1950s, Suzuki Violin School, is one of the most well-known violin teaching methods around the world is its universal applicability. As Kubo (2014, 2017) notes, Shin’ichi’s foundational research on instrument quality and maintenance is a critical factor in his theory. That is, he believed that a musician should focus on proper playing technique and instrument maintenance in order to produce the best sound, which he saw as the basis of a maestro. 8 Each Suzuki Method organization is able to have its own graduation system. 9 Currently, the Suzuki Method network includes several organizations: the Talent Education Research Institute, Asia Region Suzuki Association, Suzuki Association of the Americas, European Suzuki Association, Pan Pacific Suzuki Association, and International Suzuki Association.

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Suzuki Shin’ichi and Hōgaku

The possible connection between hōgaku and Shin’ichi’s method has been pointed out by Riccardo D. Trimillos (1988), who looked at koto lessons, and Ronald Cavaye and Nishiyama Shifū (1987, 108–109), who referred to the possibility of applying hōgaku teaching methods to Western music. However, this is difficult to corroborate because of the lack of documentation regarding Shin’ichi’s activities prior to the Second World War. Therefore, it is crucial to present discourse between Shin’ichi and ethnomusicologist Tokumaru Yoshihiko 徳丸吉彦 in the 1970s to verify this connection. According to Tokumaru, in response to his queries, Shin’ichi stated clearly that his teaching method was taken from nagauta (a style of shamisen music) lessons and that Tokumaru was the first scholar to point this out.10 The connection between hōgaku and Shin’ichi’s teaching theory is supported by evidence in Kubo’s (2014, 2017) research. Shin’ichi’s father, Masakichi, and grandfather, Masaharu 正春, were koto and shamisen makers. According to koto player Wako Masashizu 輪湖雅祁 (b. 1920), she was told by Shin’ichi that his parents were true amateurs of nagauta and he grew up listening to this style every day, even attending regular concerts (known as tsukinamikai 月並会) (1980, 118–119). In a recording of the TERI’s summer school in 1978, Shin’ichi performed the piece “Echigo-jishi” 越後獅子 on the violin, then he confirmed his early knowledge of nagauta: “Since I grew up listening to the sound of my father’s shamisen, it is rather familiar to me” (Suzuki 1999). Further, as noted by Kubo (2014, 57–58, 63–67), when Shin’ichi stayed at Tokugawa Yoshichika’s 徳川義親 (1886–1976) residence (1920–21), before he moved to Berlin to study music in 1921, he must have had numerous opportunities to learn hōgaku from people who were dedicated to its research and documentation, including: – the 19th Marquise of the Owari Tokugawa clan, Tokugawa Yoshichika, who served as the first president of the Nagauta Association (長唄協会) from 1925 to 1927 (Nagauta Kyōkai 2007); – physicist, music theorist, and inventor of the enharmonium Tanaka Shōhei 田中正平 (1862–1945), who organized high-level hōgaku concerts with his group, Bion-kai 美音会 (Group for Beautiful Sounds) (Tanabe 1981, 289–297); – ethnomusicologist Tanabe Hisao 田辺尚雄 (1883–1984), under whom Shin’ichi studied acoustics for one year (Suzuki 1931; Tanabe 1958, 180–181); 10

My gratitude to Tokumaru Yoshihiko for providing this information at the Fifth International Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on Musics of East Asia (26 August 2016).

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– composer Hirota Ryūtarō 弘田龍太郎 (1892–1952), under whom Shin’ichi studied musical grammar (gakuten 楽典); – nagauta shamisen player Kineya Rokushirō 稀音屋六四郎 (1904–87); – phonetician, amateur violin and viola player, and disciple of Kineya Rokushirō, Satta Kotoji 颯田琴次 (1886–1975); – koto player Nakanoshima Kin’ichi 中能島欣一 (1904–84); and – nagauta hayashi flutist Mochizuki Chōnosuke 望月長之助 (dates unknown). Upon returning to Japan with his wife, Waltraud (1905–2001), in 1928, Shin’ichi started his career as a violinist, teacher, and conductor, while publishing his research on the violin. In his articles, Shin’ichi always analysed the violin scientifically and logically, an approach comparable with his father’s craftsmanship. In his article “A Study on Open-strings” of 1934, Shin’ichi introduces a conversation with Kineya Rokushirō. Based on their dialogue, Shin’ichi claims that every stopped string note should sound like an open string: [Shin’ichi asked:] “I believe that open string sounds are critical to tonal study. In the case of the shamisen, what do you think?” He [Kineya] answered: “In the case of the shamisen, indeed, the open string sound is key. Above all, I try to make the best sounds with open strings. That’s the soul of shamisen.” 1934a, 74–76

His article was aimed at those studying Western music, but he also declared that Western music was just another form of musical expression for Japanese. Comparing the similarities between Western musical instruments and the shamisen, Shin’ichi may have been trying to bridge the cultural gap between the West and Japan. While Shin’ichi had many international colleagues, such as Russian violinist Alexander Mogilevsky (1885–1953), he did not refer to their advice, even though he might have asked them for it. On the contrary, he often used examples from Japanese culture, such as the calligraphy brush (Suzuki 1934b, 1934c).11 Shin’ichi’s point might have been to explore the common points between the West and Japan rather than over-valuing Western culture or over-disparaging Japanese culture. 11 Shin’ichi compared the line produced by a calligraphy brush with the sound produced by a violin bow (Suzuki 1934c). He argued that the force of the right hand’s fingers holding the bow should be applied on the hair of the bow and not on the stick like when one writes a line using the rebound of the calligraphy brush. He came to the conclusion that the flexibility of the wrist and fingers of the right hand is the key to producing a beautiful line with a brush and a beautiful sound with a bow.

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During a roundtable discussion on music organization and policy under the “New Order” (Shin-Taisei 新体制) of the Taisei Yokusan-kai 大政翼賛会 (Imperial Rule Assistance Association), Shin’ichi stated: “From the perspective of the arts, I admire both overseas and Japanese arts. … I have never assumed a ‘Japanese-like’ approach when playing, as I believe one’s own interpretation is enough to express the composers’ intent” (Ongaku Hyōronsha 1941).12 Shin’ichi shared his thoughts in his article “My Introspection” in 1941. He notes, Japanese must learn to respect each other. … In terms of music, we may be disrespecting each other. We should refrain from saying “Japanese cannot produce any good works.” … We must first have our internal strengths in order to truly respect others. When you achieve your own strengths, you will finally be able to understand the value of other people’s work. Suzuki 1941

Such perspectives are also evident in the work of Tanabe (Shin’ichi’s teacher), who states, “I believe that our knowledge from now on must be equally inclusive without any borders between Japan, the West, and other Eastern nations” (1958, 219). From these connections, without doubt, Shin’ichi engaged with hōgaku. Moreover, one can assume that the first step to understanding Shin’ichi’s way of thinking might be Japanese can play Western music, thereafter, everyone can play the violin, and, finally, “every child can be educated” (Talent Education Research Institute n.d., 2018). Shin’ichi’s method also inspired the koto teaching methods of Wako, a disciple of koto players Nakashima Utashito 中島雅楽之都 (1896–1979) and Yuize Shin’ichi 唯是震一 (1923–15) (fig. 17.1).13 Further, in some Suzuki networks, such as the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the European Suzuki Association, Shin’ichi’s method is applied to the teaching of other instruments, such as the double bass, guitar, organ, brass, and vocals, which are not taught this way in Japan. (The TERI provides classes for only four instruments that were founded while Shin’ichi was alive.) Shin’ichi’s theory is based on his structural analysis of instruments, which can be scientifically verified and formulated. In other words, it is an axiom that everyone can pursue. Certain basic elements of Shin’ichi’s method are applicable to any genre of music and various 12

Taisei Yokusan-kai was established by the 2nd Konoe Fumimaro 近衛文麿 cabinet in 1940. Previous political parties were disbanded and mostly absorbed into it. 13 From 1971 to 2009, in concert programmes 18–52 (excluding 51), the piece “Haru no Umi” 春の海 by Miyagi Michio 宮城道雄 and the piece of Western music “Menuet No. 2” by J. S. Bach were performed by numerous koto performers of Seiha Hōgaku-kai 正派邦楽 会 and violin students of TERI (Talent Education Research Institute 2018). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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The 29th TERI All Japan Koto and Violin Performance from the 1983 event programme (第29回才能教育全国大会コンサート:3000人の児童による大合奏) Courtesy of TERI

objectives, as some countries are doing today and as Shin’ichi attempted in the past in cooperation with researchers and pedagogues (Shadan Hōjin Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 1950). Repeated listening and imitating the instructor and recordings distinguish Shin’ichi’s method from other methods. Shin’ichi may have adopted some aspects from kuden 口伝 (oral learning); however, the overall goal is different. With the absence of sheet music, musical works are passed on from generation to generation using purely instructional methods during lessons and relying completely on memorization, distinguishing the hōgaku system. In contrast, Western music uses notation almost exclusively to teach, learn, and practise. Shin’ichi did not believe that pupils should copy their teachers, but rather he saw imitation as a means to access and be introduced to the arts. The concept of tsukinamikai in hōgaku may also have influenced his method. Prior to the Second World War, Shin’ichi often organized opportunities for his pupils to give performances, titled Benkyōkai 勉強会 (Study Sessions) (Kubo 2014, 116) (fig. 17.2). As he consistently used the term keiko 稽古 (training) in his lessons, the events Shin’ichi organized should be considered Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 17.2

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Programme cover of the 14th Suzuki Shin’ichi Student Study Session of 21 March 1943 at the Kazoku Kaikan Concert Hall in Toranomon, Tokyo

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in the context of tsukinamikai.14 Furthermore, as Starr documents, “In a typical Talent Education [TERI] private lesson the studio is filled with mothers and children who wait patiently watching private lessons of other students” (2000 [1976], 10). This practice is similar to a hōgaku lesson, where, as Trimmilos reports, “all students assigned for the day gather and wait for the teacher to summon each one individually” (1988, 19). 6

Conclusion

The Suzuki Method, SVS, and Yamaha have contributed to the popularization of Western music in Japan, yet their activities may have unintentionally played a role in the decline of hōgaku under MEXT’s initiative. However, as the Suzuki Method’s foundation is deeply rooted in hōgaku, it can be applied to teaching hōgaku in Japan. Unlike the YMS and similar music education institutions that prioritize acquiring equal temperament through absolute pitch training and solfège from an early age, Shin’ichi aimed to develop children’s abilities intuitively as much as possible. His method emphasizes learning music by ear, which is discouraged in Japan, probably because of an overreliance on an objective approach to learning music, devaluing flexibility and creativity. In the Meiji era, Japanese music textbooks for public schools were mainly provided for students who could barely recognize musical pitches or sing Western music scales because they lacked experience and exposure to music. This approach is still prevalent in Japanese music education, especially in Western classical music education, where reading notes is prioritized instead of listening to the music. It may have overcompensated for the lack of experience in listening to and playing Western music in Japan. This inferiority complex has shaped Western classical music education in Japan, as has an admiration for the West and its music that remains prevalent today. Music teachers mostly learn Western classical music, therefore some teachers have difficulty listening to hōgaku, which includes tones that may be “out of tune” for them. Clearly, MEXT’s 1998 and 2008 revisions of the curricular guidelines were superficial with little actual impact. The Japanese government has paid little attention to hōgaku for too long, and, as a result, the popularity of hōgaku continues to decline. Teaching hōgaku at public schools is the first 14

Nishihira defines keiko as being very similar to training, including lessons, study, practice, exercise, and rehearsal, and explains that in keiko there is no specific goal for lessons but every lesson in itself is a performance (2019, 18–24).

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step to reinvigorating it. Perhaps in response to MEXT’s initiative, Yamaha is playing a larger role in teaching hōgaku at schools as a distributor of wagakki. Incorporating the Suzuki Method for teaching hōgaku into Yamaha’s established network might further support the re-emergence of hōgaku in Japan.

Abbreviations and Definitions

MEXT

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (文部科学省) Suzuki Method Suzuki Shin’ichi’s teaching method SVS Suzuki Violin Seizō 鈴木バイオリン製造 (1930–) TERI Talent Education Research Institute (才能教育研究会, 1948–) Yamaha Yamaha Orugan Seizō-sho 山葉オルガン製造所 (1889–97); Nippon Gakki Seizō 日本楽器製造 (1897–1987); Yamaha Corporation ヤマハ 株式会社 (1987–) Yamaha Method Yamaha Music School’s teaching method YMS Yamaha Music School (ヤマハ音楽教室, 1954–)

References Akai, Rei 赤井励. 1995. Orugan no bunka-shi オルガンの文化史. Tokyo: Seikyūsha 青弓社. Cavaye, Ronald, and Nishiyama Shifū 西山志風. 1987. Nihon-jin no ongaku kyōiku 日本 人の音楽教育. Tokyo: Shinchōsha 新潮社. Davis, Hugh, Edwin M. Good, and Edward H. Tarr. 2001. Grove Music Online, s.v. “Yamaha.” Accessed 29 August 2022. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view /10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046913. Hiyama, Rikurō 檜山陸郎. 1990. Gakki-sangyō 楽器産業. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Kawakami, Gen’ichi 川上 源一. 1979. Watashi no rirekisho: Rōshi kyo ni hoyu 私の履歴 書:狼子虚に吠ゆ. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社. Kawakami, Gen’ichi 川上源一. 1986. Shin ongaku fukyū no shisō 新音楽普及の思想. Tokyo: Yamaha Ongaku Shinkōkai ヤマハ音楽振興会. Kōeki Shadan Hōjin Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 公益社団法人才能教育研究会. 2021. Suzuki Method Annual Report 2020–2021. Matsumoto: Shadan Hōjin Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 公益社団法人才能教育研究会. Kubo, Eria 久保絵里麻. 2014. “Suzuki Shin’ichi to sainō kyōiku: Sono keisei-shi to honshitsu no kaimei” 鈴木鎮一と才能教育:その形成史と本質の解明. PhD diss., Meiji Gakuin University. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Kubo, Eria. 2017. “Shedding New Light on the Suzuki Method: An Examination of the Early Writings of Shin’ichi Suzuki.” Paper presented at the International Musicological Society Congress, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo. Nagauta Kyōkai 長唄協会. 2007. “Nagauta Kyōkai 80-nen no ayumi” 長唄協会八十年 の歩み. Accessed 27 September 2022. https://www.nagauta.or.jp/ayumi.html. Nippon Gakki Seizō 日本楽器製造. 1977. Sha-shi 社史. Hamamatsu: Nippon Gakki Seizō 日本楽器製造. Nishihira, Tadashi 西平直. 2019. Keiko no shisō 稽古の思想. Tokyo: Shunjūsha 春秋社. Nishino, Katsuaki 西野勝明. 2017. “Sainō Kyōiku (Suzuki Mesōdo) to Yamaha Ongaku Kyōshitsu, soshite gakki sangyō no hatten” 才能教育（スズキ・メソード）とヤマハ音楽 教室、そして楽器産業の発展. Keiei to Jōhō 経営と情報 28 (1): 33–43. Ōnogi, Kichibē 大野木吉兵衛. 1966. “Nihon Gakki Seizō Kabushiki Gaisha to Yamaha Torakusu no kigyōsha katsudō” 日本楽器製造株式会社と山葉寅楠の企業者活動. Hamamatsu Shōka Tankidaigaku Kenkyū Ronshū 浜松商科短期大学研究論集 9: 35–80. Ōnogi, Kichibē 大野木吉兵衛. 1981. “Gakki sangyō ni okeru seshū keiei no ichi genkei (I) Suzuki Baiorin Seizō Kabushiki Gaisha no enkaku” 楽器産業における世襲 経営の一原型（Ｉ）鈴木バイオリン製造株式会社 の沿革. Hamamatsu Tankidaigaku Kenkyū Ronshū 浜松短期大学研究論集 24: 1–38. Ōnogi, Kichibē 大野木吉兵衛. 1982. “Gakki sangyō ni okeru seshū keiei no ichi genkei (II) Suzuki Baiorin Seizō Kabushiki Gaisha no enkaku” 楽器産業における世襲 経営の一原型（ＩＩ）鈴木バイオリン製造株式会社の沿革. Hamamatsu Tankidaigaku Kenkyū Ronshū 浜松短期大学研究論集 25: 1–46. Ongaku Hyōronsha 音楽評論社. 1941. “Shin-taisei-ka gakudan no soshiki to ongakuseisaku o kataru” 新体制下楽壇の組織と音楽政策を語る. Ongaku Hyōron 音楽評論 10 (1): 18–40. Shadan Hōjin Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 社団法人才能教育研究会. 1950. Ongaku igai no sainō kyōiku no jikken to jigyō 音楽以外の才能教育の実験事業. Nagano: Shadan Hōjin Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 社団法人才能教育研究会. Starr, William. 2000 [1976]. The Suzuki Violinist. Miami: Summy-Birchard. Stowell, Robin. 2001. Grove Music Online, s.v. “Violin.” Accessed 29 August 2022. https:// www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630 .001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000041161. Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. 1931. “Vaiorinisuto taran to suru hitobito no tame ni” ヴァイ オリニストたらんとする人々の為めに. Ongaku Sekai 音楽世界 3 (5): 161–164. Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. 1934a. “Vaiorin sōhō kenkyū (1) Kaihō-gen ni taisuru ichi-kōsatsu” ヴァイオリン奏法研究（１）開放弦に対する一考察. Gekkan Gakufu 月刊 楽譜 23 (9): 74–76.

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Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. 1934b. “Vaiorin sōhō kenkyū (2) Hippō ni tsuite” ヴァイオリ ン奏法研究（2）筆法について. Gekkan Gakufu 月刊楽譜 23 (10): 53–55. Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. 1934c. “Vaiorin sōhō kenkyū (3) Yumi to fude no kyōtsū-ten” ヴァイオリン奏法研究（3）弓と筆の共通点. Gekkan Gakufu 月刊楽譜 23 (11): 102–104. Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. 1941. “Hitotsu no jiko-hansei” 一つの自己反省. Ongaku Hyōron 音楽評論 10 (8): 74–75. Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. ca. 1950–59. Suzuki Shin’ichi vaiorin shidō kyoku-shū 鈴木鎮 一ヴァイオリン指導曲集. 10 vols. Tokyo: ZEN-ON Music 全音楽譜出版社. Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. 1971. “Nōryoku to sono hōsoku o tsuikyū shite” 能力の法 則を追求して. Edited by Kyōiku to Igaku no Kai. Kyōiku to Igaku 教育と医学 19 (4): 45–51. Suzuki, Shin’ichi 鈴木鎮一. 1999. Shinichi Suzuki Memorial Album. Universal Music, PCDZ-1630 (CD). Talent Education Research Institute. 2018. “Monthly Suzuki.” Accessed 29 August 2022. https://www.suzukimethod.or.jp/monthly/GC-special.html. Talent Education Research Institute. n.d. “Principles.” Accessed 29 September 2022. https://www.suzukimethod.or.jp/english/E_mthd112.html. Tanabe, Hisao 田辺尚雄. 1958. Gakki kokontōzai 楽器古今東西. Tokyo: Dabiddosha ダヴィッド社. Tanabe, Hisao 田辺尚雄. 1981. Tanabe Hisao jiden 田辺尚雄自伝. Tokyo: Hōgakusha 邦楽社. Tanaka, Tomoaki. 2021. Piano no Nihon-shi ピアノの日本史. Aichi: Nagoya Daigaku Shuppankai 名古屋大学出版会. Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Henshū Kenkyūkai 東京芸術大学百年史編 集委員会, ed. 2003. Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku hyaku-nen-shi: Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkōhen Dai-2-kan 東京藝術大学百年史:東京音楽学校篇　第二巻. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Trimillos, Riccardo D. 1988. “Hãlau, Hochshule, Maystro, and Ryū Cultural Approaches to Music Learning and Teaching.” ISME Yearbook 15: 10–23. Wako, Masashizu 輪湖雅祁. 1980. Koto no hibiki ni 箏の響きに. Nagano: Fukashi Shobō 深志書房. Yamaha Corporation. n.d. Sustainability: Consumer Issues: Products and Services Enhancement. Accessed 29 August 2022. https://www.yamaha.com/en/csr/consu mer/products_services/. Yamaha Music Foundation. 1984. Yamaha Piano School Instruction Manual and Sheet Music for Accompaniment. Tokyo: Yamaha Music Foundation. Yamaha Music Foundation. n.d. “About Yamaha Music Foundation.” Accessed 29 August 2022. https://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/english/about/history.html. Zen Nihon Kigaku Kyōiku Kenkyūkai 全日本器楽教育研究会. 1964. Orugan to ongaku kyōiku オルガンと音楽教育. Edited by Isao Shimoda. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Chapter 18

Ryukyuan Uta-sanshin in Modern Japan: The Influence of Government Institutions on Teaching and Performing Matt GILLAN and Mina ENDŌ 1

Introduction

The Ryukyu islands (琉球諸島) in the south of Japan boast a rich and thriving music and performing arts culture that has become well known nationally and abroad.1 Historically, the islands were independent and known as the Ryukyu Kingdom until the late nineteenth century, and they enjoyed a strong relationship with China over many centuries; these circumstances meant that Ryukyu developed performance traditions that are markedly different from most other regions in Japan. The Ryukyu islands were incorporated into the Japanese state, first as the Ryūkyū domain (琉球藩) in 1872, followed by the creation of Okinawa prefecture (沖縄県) in 1879, and traditional Ryukyuan performing arts continue to thrive on many levels of modern Okinawan society. In this chapter, we examine the social position of Ryukyuan traditional music in modern Okinawa and consider the ways that traditional genres are transmitted through government-sponsored institutions. Through the use of interviews, we introduce three young professional Okinawan musicians, who all graduated from Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, and outline their career paths. All three are performers of the genre known as uta-sanshin 歌 三線 (songs accompanied by the sanshin 三線, a long-necked three-string plucked lute with snakeskin membrane), but all have followed widely diverging career paths, negotiating the various opportunities to make a living from traditional music in modern Okinawa. By looking at these three careers, we show how the cultural position of uta-sanshin in modern Okinawa has been influenced by Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts as well as a number of government-sponsored cultural and educational institutions. 1 We use “Ryukyu” to refer to the archipelago stretching from the Amami islands in the north to the Yaeyama island group in the southwest as well as the languages and cultures that developed historically in these islands. We use the term “Okinawa” to refer to modern-day Okinawa prefecture and, where appropriate, the cultures that have developed within this modern cultural context. In some cases, the terms may be interchanged without large variance in meaning. © Matt GILLAN and Mina ENDŌ, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_020Henry

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Musical Cultures of the Ryukyu Islands

The Ryukyu islands stretch in an arc from below the large Japanese island of Kyushu to a little over 100 km from Taiwan. Most of these islands make up modern Okinawa prefecture, while the Amami archipelago in the north of the Ryukyu islands is part of modern Kagoshima prefecture.2 The Ryukyu islands share many cultural traits with each other while also exhibiting strong regional variations in language, music, and other aspects. One of the most prominent features of Ryukyuan musical culture is the use of the sanshin, found throughout the region although with some regional variations (for example, the instrument played in the Amami region tends to be strung with lighter strings that are tuned at a higher pitch than other regions in order to accompany the distinctive singing style of the Amami islands). Other aspects that distinguish the Ryukyu islands from other Japanese regions might include the widespread composition of traditional song lyrics using the ryūka 琉歌 poetic structure of 8-8-8-6 mora (Gillan 2015) and, to some extent, the use of the “Okinawa/Ryukyu scale” (Gillan 2012, 39–44). The Ryukyuan sanshin derives from the Chinese sanxian 三弦, although it is not clear when and how the latter was originally imported to the Ryukyu islands. Ryukyu became a tributary state to the Chinese Ming dynasty in 1372, and it is possible that the instrument was brought by a small group of immigrants (known as binjin 閩人) sent to Ryukyu from Fujian in 1392. The sanshin seems to have been confined to Chinese communities for several hundred years until the development of a distinctly Ryukyuan uta-sanshin repertoire of songs in the Ryukyuan language in the early seventeenth century. In 1609, the Ryukyu islands were forcibly annexed by the Satsuma feudal domain in Japan, and there followed a period in which Ryukyu maintained a dual tributary relationship with both China and Japan, a political position which had a profound influence on the development of Ryukyuan music and performing culture. In particular, genres such as the Ryukyuan drama form known as kumiudui 組踊 (combined dances) and the classical dance tradition (known in modern Okinawa as Ryūkyū buyō 琉球舞踊) developed as entertainments for the Chinese sappōshi 冊封使 envoys who visited Ryukyu on the occasion of the coronation of each new Ryukyuan king. The need for performing arts on such diplomatic occasions led the Ryukyu government to designate official positions to perform musical repertoire within the court, such as the creation of a “minister for dances” (odori bugyō 踊奉行) as early as 1663. These performing arts specialists were often skilled in Japanese performance traditions such as 2 Ōshima-gun was also created as part of Kagoshima prefecture in 1879.

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noh (nō).3 The Ryukyu court also trained musicians who were able to perform Chinese pieces on Chinese instruments in a genre that has come to be known today as uzagaku 御座楽. The sanshin is used in modern Okinawa in at least four distinct cultural settings, most of which overlap with each other to some extent. The first of these is often referred to as “classical Ryukyuan music” (Ryūkyū koten ongaku, or simply “koten”—classical—in everyday speech). This genre developed in the Ryukyu court between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, during which time it was performed predominantly by members of the ruling aristocratic class. The genre is centred around a repertoire of songs accompanied by the sanshin, but it also includes other Ryukyuan instruments, such as the koto 箏 (zither), kūchō 胡弓 (spike fiddle), fue 笛 (transverse bamboo flute), or taiko 太鼓 (stick drum).4 Beginning in the early twentieth century, the classical Ryukyuan music tradition began to be controlled by ryūha (lineage organizations) modelled loosely on similar organizations in mainland Japan. A second genre is broadly described as min’yō 民謡 (folk song), a term that in its broadest sense encompasses most other Okinawan sanshin-accompanied songs sung in the Ryukyuan languages. The min’yō genre includes traditional songs from outlying regions, such as Yaeyama and Miyako, as well as modern compositions in a folk style (shin-min’yō), such as the twentieth-century compositions of composers such as Fukuhara Chōki 普久原朝喜 (1903–81) or some of the songs of the well-known performer Kina Shōkichi 喜納昌吉 (b. 1948). Kina’s compositions may also be included in a separate genre often known as Okinawa Pop (Okinawa poppusu), a genre that is more clearly represented by artists such as BEGIN, Parsha Club, and Nenes (Kumada 1998). Finally, scholars of Ryukyuan music often identify a fourth genre commonly known as “folk performing arts” (minzoku geinō 民俗芸能; see Kumada 2011). Minzoku geinō includes the music of local ritual and semi-ritual events, such as the eisā エイ サー and angamā アンガマー dances performed at Bon ancestor rituals or the various festivals connected with the agricultural cycle, such as the harvest festival (豊年祭, プーリィ).

3 These positions were filled by government officials who had other responsibilities and should not be seen as “professional” performers. 4 In this chapter, we transliterate Japanese/Ryukyuan words as they are most commonly used in modern Okinawa. In some cases, Japanese and Ryukyuan variant pronunciations are possible. The 13-string zither 箏 is most often described using the Japanese “koto” rather than Ryukyuan “kutu.” Conversely, the bowed fiddle 胡弓 is commonly described using the Ryukyuan “kūchō” rather than the Japanese “kokyū.” The names “tēku” and “fansō” are occasionally used in place of “taiko” and “fue.”

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Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts

One of the biggest influences on the dissemination of traditional performing arts in modern Okinawa has been the establishment in 1986 of Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts (Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku 沖縄県立芸 術大学, often abbreviated to Kengei in everyday speech; fig. 18.1). The university has educated many of the leading current younger generation of performers and has been responsible for many important changes in the social and cultural position of Okinawan performing arts in Okinawa. Kengei is an example of the “educational institutionalization” of traditional music that has parallels in many parts of the world. In a 2007 article, Simon Keegan-Phipps described the educational institutionalization of English folk music in the twenty-first century through the creation of university courses such as the degree programme in folk music at Newcastle University in 2001. As Keegan-Phipps notes, the institutionalization of folk music genres is often bound up with national cultural and political discourses—in the English case, with conceptions of postmodern pluralism. In the case of Kengei, similar processes of “decontextualization” may be observed (Keegan-Phipps 2007, 103), yet the political motivations behind the institutionalization of traditional music in Okinawa differ markedly from the English instance. Plans for a prefectural arts university began to take shape in April 1982 with the establishment of a preparatory committee by the Okinawan prefectural government.5 The financing of the project was initiated by the Prefectural Governor Nishime Junji, who entrusted details of the educational remit of the university to the doyen of modern Okinawa studies, Hokama Shuzen 外間 守善 (1924–2012). Hokama in turn sought advice from the leading Japanese ethnomusicologist of the time, Koizumi Fumio (Hokama 2017, 119). For many years, Koizumi had led research expeditions to Okinawa to record regional song repertoires, a project which led to the publication of several collections of Okinawan song transcriptions.6 He had struggled for many years to establish an ethnomusicology programme at his home university, Tokyo University of the Arts, and offered enthusiastic support for the forward-looking plan to establish such a programme in Okinawa. In this way, Kengei was founded both from within Okinawa itself and with the active help and collaboration of the national Japanese academic world.

5 For a timeline of the development of Kengei, see Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku (2017, 189–190). 6 The transcriptions were published initially by Tokyo University of the Arts and subsequently in four volumes as part of the Nihon min’yō taikan series (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 1989–93). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 18.1

Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts (Kengei) Photo by Endō Mina 遠藤美奈, 2022

Construction work on the university buildings began in July 1985, and the first students enrolled in classes beginning in April 1986. Initially, classes were offered only in the fine arts, but in April 1990 the first students enrolled in the new music department, taking classes in a range of Western instrumental and vocal traditions as well as traditional Ryukyuan music and dance. The Ryukyuan performing arts were initially offered under the umbrella-term “Japanese traditional music” (hōgaku 邦楽), a reminder that Kengei was largely imagined within a national Japanese cultural framework. From 2004, the title of the programme was officially changed to “Ryukyuan Performing Arts” (Ryūkyū geinō 琉球芸能). The department employed several non-performing scholars, who offered classes in musicology, music theory, and music history. From the beginning, in addition to focusing on Western and Ryukyuan genres, the university employed top scholars of mainland performing arts traditions, for example, the pre-eminent noh scholar Yokomichi Mario, who taught at the university from 1986 to 1990. One of the most important ways that Kengei has influenced the uta-sanshin tradition has been in the rethinking of the performance practices of the ryūha organizations that had dominated the tradition in the twentieth century. The initial uta-sanshin faculty members were taken from the Nomura and Afuso Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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lineages, and students were expected to specialize in one of these traditions.7 But public performances at the university often feature members of both ryūha playing the same piece together on the same stage, a phenomenon that would have been uncommon for most of the twentieth century. Other innovations, such as a liberalization of the traditional gender roles within uta-sanshin performance, are commonly cited by younger performers, and we give one example in our interview with Arakaki Megumi below. A second influence of Kengei on the uta-sanshin tradition has been a move towards a more historically informed approach to performance practice. Kengei faculty members, such as the Afuso performer Ōwan Kiyoyuki, have been active in reconstructing old notations (e.g., the eighteenth-century Yakabi Kunkunshī notation) for practical performance (Ōwan 2002). This kind of melding of theoretical research with practical performance was made possible by the relative artistic freedom that Kengei afforded. The current Ryukyuan Performing Arts major curriculum at Kengei is heavily focused on performance practice. Students may major in uta-sanshin but must also study at least one other Ryukyuan instrument, such as the koto, kūchō, fue, or taiko. After four years of study, students are expected to have mastered selected pieces from the classical repertoire, representing various sub-genres, such as the relatively fast jōkan-bushi pieces found in the first volume of the kunkunshī notated collections, the much slower nkashi-bushi (old songs) of the second volume, and the dynamic and expressive ni-agi songs of the third volume. Students in the master’s programme in performance continue their studies of the classical repertoire, covering the more difficult ufu-nkashi-bushi (extended old songs) that are seen as the most challenging part of the repertoire. As the classical repertoire consists almost entirely of songs in a literary form of the Shuri dialect of the Ryukyuan language, the university requires students to take classes in Ryukyuan, although these classes currently tend towards a linguistic approach rather than fostering practical speaking ability. One of the most obvious features of this curriculum is that it focuses almost entirely on the classical uta-sanshin repertoire. Relatively little consideration or instruction is devoted to the sanshin traditions of other Ryukyu islands, such as the songs of Yaeyama, or to any of the more recent min’yō traditions of Okinawa. This extreme focus on the Ryukyuan classical tradition is not without criticism, and the subject arose in the third of our interviews (with Gibo Kazuya) below.

7 The first full-time faculty member to teach uta-sanshin from 1990 was the Afuso-ryū performer Kishimoto Yoshio (b. 1935). The Nomura-ryū performer Shiroma Tokutarō (b. 1933) joined the full-time faculty the following year. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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In the early years of Kengei, partly because of the Ministry of Education stipulation mentioned above, uta-sanshin students were required to take introductory courses in the performance of mainland Japanese shamisen traditions, such as nagauta, as well as carrying out fieldwork in mainland Japan. These requirements have been largely abandoned in favour of classes in basic musical training, such as piano and solfège (necessary for the Japanese public school music teacher licence), as well as classes in transcription (using the Ryukyuan kunkunshī notation system). 4

Case Studies

In this section, we take a look at the careers of three young traditional musicians, who all graduated from the Kengei programme in Ryukyuan performing arts. The authors have had extended interactions with these musicians over many years, but the information here was obtained primarily through a series of interviews carried out in person and online in early August 2022. 4.1 Arakaki Toshimichi We look first at the career of Arakaki Toshimichi 新垣俊道, who is currently an associate professor of Ryukyuan music at Kengei and enjoys a prominent career as a performing musician in Okinawa and throughout Japan (fig. 18.2). Through a series of fortuitous coincidences, Toshimichi’s career has intersected with many of the most important cultural initiatives of recent decades in Okinawa, and in many ways he represents the success of these initiatives in promoting the Ryukyuan uta-sanshin tradition.8 Toshimichi was born in Ōzato village in the south of the Okinawan mainland in 1979 and began studying uta-sanshin around the age of eleven when a class was established by his father, an uta-sanshin teacher, at a community centre near their home. Toshimichi recalled that at this time his image of the Ryukyu classical uta-sanshin tradition was that it was played as a hobby by elderly people and was not at all popular with his contemporaries. A few years later, his uncle moved back to the village and established a classical uta-sanshin school in Ōzato. Under the strong encouragement of his father, Toshimichi reluctantly enrolled in formal classes: 8 Two of our case studies feature performers with the family name “Arakaki” (though they are unrelated). To avoid confusion between them, we use their first names, “Toshimichi” (this case study) and “Megumi” (the following study). A video of Toshimichi performing a selection of pieces from the classical repertoire may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=0g1P5QZ25_E. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Arakaki Toshimichi teaching an uta-sanshin class at Kengei Photo courtesy of Arakaki Toshimichi, 2021

I was so embarrassed to go to classes or even be seen walking around with a sanshin. I took a grade test exam on the sanshin when I was in middle school and was so embarrassed when I was presented with the certificate in front of the whole school. But after a while studying with my uncle, I began to realize that the sanshin was actually rooted in everyday life all around me and was at the heart of local festivals and celebrations. Toshimichi Arakaki, pers. comm., 2 August 2022

By coincidence, as Toshimichi was searching for a suitable high school, he learned of a newly created programme that had been established in Haebaru High School (沖縄県立南風原高等学校) in 1994, which would focus on traditional Okinawan performing arts. Under his father’s encouragement, Toshimichi entered the programme and found that his previous study of the sanshin put him well ahead of most other students on the course. While in his second year, the school decided to attempt a performance of a kumiudui play. The skill required to perform this intricate art form was well beyond that of

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the students, and the school invited several students from Kengei to come and help the musical accompanists ( jiutē 地謡). Toshimichi remembers the big impression these young university students made by their performance ability, though they were only slightly older than himself, and he started to consider entering Kengei as a student. On enrolling at Kengei in 1998, Toshimichi studied with Shiroma Tokutarō (b. 1933) and Higa Yasuharu (b. 1953), two of the most accomplished uta-sanshin performers in modern Okinawa, continuing to study for a master’s degree in uta-sanshin performance. As he was nearing the end of his studies at Kengei, construction of the brand new National Theatre Okinawa was nearing completion in Urasoe city, a theatre that would be dedicated mainly to kumiudui and other traditional Ryukyuan performing arts. Inspired by similar programmes in mainland Japanese performing arts in the national theatres of Tokyo and Osaka, from its opening in 2004 the National Theatre Okinawa introduced a specialist training programme to produce polished professional performers who could perform in the theatre. Toshimichi was in the first batch of students to enter this training programme and spent three years undergoing further instruction in uta-sanshin on top of what he had learned in the master’s programme at Kengei. In order to supplement the small allowance for trainees, Toshimichi supported himself by working in the culture section of the Okinawa Times, the newspaper that sponsors the Okinawan music grade tests that he had taken as a young student.9 In contrast to many mainland Japanese traditional genres, such as kabuki, bunraku, and noh, which in many cases had been performed as commercial genres to a paying public for several hundred years, Okinawan classical performing arts had never previously benefited from such established theatres or performance venues. The creation of the National Theatre Okinawa thus provided both training for up-and-coming performers and a site offering regular paid performance opportunities. Another direct result of the National Theatre Okinawa training programme was the creation of the performance unit Shii no Kai by Toshimichi in 2008; it comprised members of the first intake of training-programme students.10 The title “Shii” 子 refers to a lower rank of samurai in the class system of the Ryukyu court up to the late nineteenth century, and the name of the group reflects the 9 Similar programmes in Tokyo and Osaka involve full-time study during the day and a living allowance. The Okinawan programme provides only minimal financial assistance, but classes are held in the evenings, allowing participants to work during the day. 10 A video introducing Shii no Kai may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =xQaeIKjl1UQ.

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relative youth and potential of the performers, who were all aged around thirty when the group was formed. In a society in which older, more experienced performers are often preferred, the creation of Shii no Kai was groundbreaking in giving prominence and professional experience to a new, younger generation of performers. The fact that these performers had all graduated from the National Theatre programme meant that they were subsequently on a “first-call” list of performers invited to concerts organized by other government institutions, including frequent performances in theatres throughout Japan. In our interview, Arakaki noted how the creation of the National Theatre Okinawa caused noticeable changes in performance practice towards a more polished delivery that would appeal artistically to an audience who were listening intently. While similar changes date back at least to the post-Second World War years with the advent of the grade-test system and singing competitions in Okinawa (Gillan 2012, 104–106), the National Theatre Okinawa seems to have further accelerated the process of singing refinement in classical uta-sanshin. In 2021, Toshimichi became an associate professor of music at Kengei, giving instruction in uta-sanshin performance to a new generation of students. In comparison to his own teachers at Kengei (Shiroma and Higa), neither of who had studied music in a formal academic context, Toshimichi represents a new generation of performer/teachers whose musical education came largely through government-sponsored educational programmes such as Kengei and the National Theatre Okinawa. According to Toshimichi, one of the biggest influences of these institutions has been a subtle but important weakening of the power of the ryūha organizations that developed in the early twentieth century and have held great power in disciplining the development of Ryukyu classical music and dance until the recent past. One example is that under the ryūha system it is usual to study with a single teacher throughout one’s life, leading to relatively little input from other performers in the same ryūha and almost none from performers in other ryūha. Under the Kengei system, most students study with a teacher outside the university, which manages their ryūha performance activities, and have the opportunity to learn from several teachers within Kengei itself. This leads to a much broader range of knowledge on performance variants and deviations from the (often rigidly imposed) kunkunshī notations that are used in the classical uta-sanshin tradition. 4.2 Arakaki Megumi Our second case study is the uta-sanshin performer Arakaki Megumi 新垣恵 (b. 1971). Megumi is one of a large number of female performers who have graduated from Kengei’s Ryukyuan performing arts programme and who have begun to effect changes to the gender balance of the modern uta-sanshin

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tradition. Megumi also works as a radio broadcaster and is one of the few media personalities to introduce the Ryukyu classical music tradition in broadcast media. Although Megumi’s father was an uta-sanshin teacher, she had no interest in or knowledge of Ryukyuan performing arts until well into her twenties. After studying for an economics degree at Okinawa University, she began to learn uta-sanshin as a hobby, studying informally for three years as part of a sanshin club before beginning more formal studies of the classical uta-sanshin repertoire. Inspired by the growing number of amateur female performers and the opening of the National Theatre Okinawa in 2004, Megumi began to consider music as a career. In 2002, Kengei introduced a new policy that allowed mature students to enter the Ryukyuan performing arts programme as undergraduate students, and Megumi entered the university shortly after. In a conversation with the authors, she remembered how her resolve to increase the presence of female performers among the professional Ryukyuan classical music community was one element that got her through the university entrance interview (pers. comm., 2 August 2022). In common with Arakaki Toshimichi (see above), Megumi credited Kengei with providing new ways of performing uta-sanshin that bypassed the practices of the ryūha lineage organizations. To give one example, the current practice when performing in large groups in ryūha recitals is to tune the top string of the sanshin to the note B3 or C4, a pitch which is considered optimal for male singers but uncomfortably high for most female voices.11 In contrast, at Kengei a more rationalized approach is taken, allowing female groups to perform separately from male ones to lower the sanshin pitch several semitones in order to achieve a more comfortable singing range.12 In more recent years, the practice of all-female uta-sanshin groups for dance accompaniment has filtered back into ryūha concert situations, demonstrating the influence of the rationalized Kengei approach on modern ryūha group performances. In 2011, for example, Megumi was one of the founding members of the group Shihora (fig. 18.3), dedicated to the traditionally all-male genres of kumiudui and classical dance.13 Shihora is comprised entirely of female performers, the majority of who are graduates of the Kengei programme. 11 The sanshin is usually tuned from low to high “Do-fa-do” or “Do-sol-do” (pitches are relative). When performing in mixed male-female groups, the common practice is for female singers to sing a full octave higher than male singers. 12 Female performers commonly tune the sanshin to the pitches A2-D3-A3 or lower. 13 A performance by Arakaki Megumi and Shihora may be viewed at https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=A3SpP7YzgrY.

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Arakaki Megumi (top-right) performing as part of the all-female unit Shihora Photo courtesy of Arakaki Megumi, 2012

Since 2012, Megumi has presented a regular radio programme on the popular Radio Okinawa station, presenting traditional music from around Okinawa. While there have been several long-running radio programmes in Okinawa focusing on professional Okinawan min’yō genres,14 Megumi’s presentation of songs from the classical uta-sanshin tradition and more regional folk performing arts traditions sets her programme apart from previous ones and reflects her formal studies at Kengei. In contrast to the Okinawan min’yō genre, which has been disseminated largely through commercial recordings and broadcast media since before the Second World War, the classical tradition and the rich musical traditions of Okinawa’s regional villages have never been able to support professional performers through concert or record sales. Megumi’s efforts have undoubtedly increased the prominence and status of such musical genres among the modern Okinawan listening public. The fact that Kengei has promoted the cultural status of the classical tradition through creating a university course dedicated to its teaching is surely a strong factor in allowing it to be presented in a public radio show such as Megumi’s. 14

Uehara Naohiko’s long-running radio show Min’yō de Chū-uganabira (Folk Song Greetings) on the Ryukyu Broadcasting Company station is the best known. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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4.3 Gibo Kazuya Our final case study is the uta-sanshin performer and songwriter Gibo Kazuya 宜保和也 (b. 1984). Like the previous two examples, Gibo is a graduate of the Kengei Ryukyuan performing arts programme, but his musical output and performance career diverges from those of the previous performers. Gibo was born in Akaishi village on the island of Ishigaki in the Yaeyama district in the very southwest of Okinawa prefecture. Yaeyama is well known for the strength and uniqueness of its traditional music and, since the 1990s, has produced a large number of professional musicians in various traditional genres (Gillan 2012). Yet Gibo’s home village of Akaishi was in fact created relatively recently by early twentieth-century immigrants from the Okinawan mainland and consequently shares with the mainland many cultural and linguistic traits. As an example, Akaishi is one of a small number of Yaeyaman villages that perform the eisā songs and dances that are commonly practised on the Okinawan mainland to celebrate the return of departed ancestors during the Bon ritual in the middle of the seventh lunar month each year. Gibo’s early musical training came through playing the guitar in a band during his teenage years before becoming interested in the village eisā group. He initially joined the group as a dancer/drummer before developing a desire to learn the sanshin in order to play the musical accompaniment to the eisā dances.15 This desire was prompted partly by a love of the music and partly by a realization that the advanced age of the accompanists at the time meant that the tradition was in danger of dying out without an influx of young uta-sanshin performers. Despite his desire and willingness to learn, Gibo’s lack of experience on the sanshin meant that he found it hard to break into the closed environment of the group, and his ambitions remained unfulfilled. Around this time, Gibo became aware of the Ryukyuan performing arts programme at Kengei and decided to prepare for the entrance exam by learning from a classical uta-sanshin teacher in Ishigaki. Based on his musical talent and mastery of just two songs from the repertoire, he managed to pass the exam and entered the university in 2003. His first two years of study, which he refers to as his “input” phase, were spent diligently learning the classical uta-sanshin repertoire, the rudiments of Okinawan notation and singing technique, and the Okinawan transverse bamboo flute ( fue). After these two years of intense study, Gibo suddenly found that he was in demand as an accomplished performer. He transcribed the eisā repertoire of his village tradition and was finally welcomed into the group with open arms. His transcriptions made it easier for other younger players to enter the group and perform the eisā repertoire, revitalizing the Akaishi eisā tradition. 15 Eisā often involves dancers simultaneously playing a variety of drums as they dance. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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In addition to his eisā activities, from his third year at Kengei, Gibo began to find paid gigs as a supporting musician to other singers in restaurants and live music venues around Okinawa. Through his songwriting and several self-released CD s, he began to construct his own network of performance venues, and, by the time of his graduation after four years at the university, Gibo was already becoming self-sufficient as a professional musician. At the age of twenty-six, after several years working as a gigging musician in Okinawa and around Japan, Gibo was contacted by a talent agency with an offer to perform at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York in an event featuring young Japanese musicians. This opportunity had a profound impact on the young Gibo, who realized that his studies in the history and background of the repertoire he performed were now of practical use in explaining Okinawan music to an outside audience. This was also the moment when he decided to step away from his previous role supporting other musicians and make a career as a solo artist. A few years after the Blue Note experience, Gibo’s career was given another boost through his appearance on an Okinawan television version of the talent show X-Factor, in which he proceeded to the final round, taking second place. As he progressed through the series, Gibo performed a series of his own compositions, including the song “Ryūka no Tane” 琉歌の種.16 As a result of his success on this programme, he was suddenly in demand throughout Okinawa for events and live shows. The exposure also led to corporate sponsorship in various forms, including the adoption of his song “Heso no O” へその音 in commercial advertisements for the Okinawa Electric Power Company.17 As with many of Gibo’s compositions, this song consciously incorporates elements of Okinawan traditional music (in this case, the refrain from the folk song “Akata Sundunchi”) with a pop/rock rhythm and instrumentation. Gibo’s career has intersected with three distinct genres of Okinawan music: the classical uta-sanshin that forms the basis of the Kengei education programme; Okinawan pop/rock genres, through which he makes most of his income; and the traditional village eisā repertoire that was his first point of contact with Okinawan traditional music. In discussing the impact of Kengei on his performance career, Gibo was clear that his education in the classical tradition gave him both the training and the status to create his own pop/rock-based compositions and to find success as a creative artist. In contrast, he was less optimistic about the future of folk song genres in Okinawa. He said, 16 Gibo’s performance on X-Factor Okinawa may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=w_zKp6nB0js. 17 The song may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vun69ndEIk.

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I believe that min’yō is in the most danger of disappearing. Because of Kengei, there are now many proficient performers of the classical repertoire. When it comes to Okinawa pop/rock styles, there is strong enough support from paying listeners that the genre can survive on its own. But min’yō is a different story. Young Okinawans have little understanding of the Ryukyuan languages, and this means that young min’yō singers have little opportunity to get inside the repertoire, even if they like the sound. With min’yō, it is essential that you are able to express some kind of personality within the music—this is not so true for the classical tradition, which depends much more on techniques that can be learned and taught. In the past, it was said that the only way to learn min’yō was by “stealing” (nusumu) the techniques from the people around you, but this approach doesn’t seem to work for younger generations. Maybe the time has come to introduce min’yō classes within the university. Pers. comm., 7 August 2022

5

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have touched on some of the issues surrounding the institutionalization of Ryukyuan performing arts through the establishment of educational institutions such as Kengei and performance venues such as the National Theatre Okinawa. In many ways, these institutions have been highly successful in educating and nurturing a new generation of performers. Arakaki Toshimichi’s career has been facilitated at almost every stage by these kinds of government initiatives, and his current position on the faculty has brought him full circle to a position where he is now training the next generation of performers. We have seen several examples of how Kengei has brought about changes to the often rigid performance practices of the uta-sanshin ryūha organizations. One of the most obvious of these is the liberalization of gender norms in classical uta-sanshin performance, as commented on by Arakaki Megumi. While Kengei is not solely responsible for the huge surge in popularity of uta-sanshin among female performers in the last twenty-five or so years, its approach to allow female performers to form all-female dance accompaniment ( jiutē) groups and to tune the sanshin to suit their vocal range has more recently fed back into the common practice of the ryūha themselves. In contrast to the institutionalization of folk music in England, which has self-consciously veered away from an overemphasis on nationalism or bounded regionalism (Keegan-Phipps 2007, 92–97), the focus at Kengei has

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been quite narrowly centred around the Ryukyu classical music tradition, to the detriment of other Ryukyuan folk traditions. As Gibo noted in our interview, without any substantial government support to date, it is the various Okinawan min’yō genres that are currently in the most danger of losing a living performance tradition. This is perhaps unavoidable given the current poor state of Ryukyuan language maintenance in modern Okinawa, but it is the focus of an ongoing debate among many cultural actors in the prefecture. As Gibo’s career demonstrates clearly, the current focus on the classical tradition in Kengei does in fact provide a strong basis for many performers to create new and exciting musical possibilities representing the depth of Ryukyuan culture. References Gillan, Matt. 2012. Songs from the Edge of Japan: Music-making in Yaeyama and Okinawa. Farnham: Ashgate. Gillan, Matt. 2015. “Ryukyuan Languages in Ryukuan Music.” In Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages: History, Structure, and Use, edited by Patrick Heinrich, Shinsho Miyara, and Michinori Shimoji, 685–702. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Hokama, Shuzen 外間守善. 2017. “Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku ga dekiru made” 沖縄県立芸術大学ができるまで. In Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku kaigaku 30-shūnen kinenshi 沖縄県立芸術大学開学３０周年記念誌, edited by Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku, 118–123. Naha: Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku 沖縄 県立芸術大学. Keegan-Phipps, Simon. 2007. “Déjà Vu? Folk Music, Education, and Institutionalization in Contemporary England.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 39: 84–107. Kumada, Susumu 久万田晋. 1998. “Kyūjū nendai Okinawa poppu ni okeru minzokusei hyōgen no shosō” 90年代沖縄ポップにおける民族性表現の諸相. In Okinawa kara geijutsu o kangaeru 沖縄から芸術を考える, edited by Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku-in Geijutsu Bunka-gaku kenkyū-ka 沖縄県立芸術大学大学院芸術文化学 研究科, 134–162. Ginowan: Yōju Shorin 榕樹書林. Kumada, Susumu 久万田晋. 2011. Okinawa no minzoku geinō-ron 沖縄の民俗芸能論. Naha: Border Ink. Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 日本放送協会, ed. 1989–93. Nihon min’yō taikan: Okinawa Amami 日本民謡大観:沖縄奄美. 4 vols. Tokyo: Nippon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai 日本放送出 版協会. Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku 沖縄県立芸術大学, ed. 2017. Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku kaigaku 30-shūnen kinenshi 沖縄県立芸術大学開学30周年記 念誌. Naha: Okinawa Kenritsu Geijutsu Daigaku 沖縄県立芸術大学. Ōwan, Kiyoyuki 大湾清之. 2002. Ryūkyū koten ongaku no hyōsō: Yōshiki to riron 琉球古 典音楽の表層:様式と理論. Naha: Adobaizā アドバイザー. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Chapter 19

Koto Modernities in the Twenty-First Century Henry JOHNSON 1

Introduction

This chapter discusses koto 箏・琴 (thirteen-string zither) modernities in the twenty-first century. To provide contextual background, the first main section is an overview of other koto modernities across time, exploring distinct moments in the koto’s history in Japan where the instrument impacted on the creation of musical tradition. This is followed by two sections looking at koto performance in the twenty-first century. The first explores mediatized modernity where intervention by a national broadcaster showcases collaborations between Japanese and (primarily) Western instruments, and the second studies the rise of neo-traditional modernity with new types of performance groups who use the koto and its variants to perform in non-traditional ways while crafting new cultural traditions in the present. Such settings showcase new styles of music and performance practices. The examples discussed in this chapter illustrate how one might “conceive of difference in music” (Born and Hesmondhalgh 2000, 1) with wagakki 和楽器 (Japanese musical instruments) taking on the idea of “domestic exoticism” (Mitsui 1998), foregrounded as culturally distinct and different. 2

Modernities through Time

In a culture with “multiple musical modernities” (Janz 2019), the koto has experienced a number of distinct moments of change that have stressed its contemporaneity (Johnson 2004b). The instrument’s introduction to Japan from China as the sō 箏 (sō no koto 箏の琴) or gakusō 楽箏 during the Nara period, and its use within gagaku 雅楽 (court music) and the Imperial household, was an example of localizing an instrument with non-Japanese roots. The koto subsequently moved to other cultural settings, each of which offered a sense of difference (in context and music) (Johnson 2004a). A distinct Buddhist performance tradition, the Tsukushigoto 筑紫箏, was known by the early seventeenth century, and soon after Yatsuhashi Kengyō 八橋検校

© Henry JOHNSON, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_021

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(1614–85) transformed koto music into an everyday tradition, soon branching into further performance schools led by such exponents as Ikuta Kengyō 生田 検校 (1656–1715) and Yamada Kengyō 山田検校 (1757–1817). By the early twentieth century and following the disestablishment of the guilds that controlled the transmission of koto performance, further modernities were emerging as a result of the national adoption of Western music in compulsory education in the late nineteenth century. The composer and performer Miyagi Michio 宮城道雄 (1894–1956) was especially significant (Prescott 1997). Having been inspired by the sounds of Western music and the different layers of sound produced in ensemble music, Miyagi embarked on modernizing koto music by devising new instruments for use in his compositions. He developed the jūshichigen 十七弦 (fig. 19.1), a seventeen-string bass koto for use in ensemble music. His other innovations included smaller koto, a large shamisen 三味線 (three-string lute), and an eighty-string koto (hachijūgen 八十弦), although the latter two instruments were never popularized. The post-Second World War era saw further Western influence on Japan and subsequent change and the development of new musical traditions. This was a period that witnessed much recontextualization and cultural hybridity within and between musical styles and settings. In this era, the koto was found in an array of cultural traditions, some maintaining perceived musical practices from the past, and others actively creating new forms of musical expression, but each contributing to differing perceptions of Japanese music. More recent developments have seen the production of further types of koto, including twenty-, twenty-five- (fig. 19.2), and thirty-string versions, each adding more range and offering further opportunities for performers and composers alike (Johnson 2003; Katsumura 1986; Regan 2006, 2008; Wade 1994). There are also new koto designed for use in school education, which has in the last few decades re-discovered traditional Japanese music as a result of government intervention (Johnson 2011). Added to this, other types of koto aim to capture a more modern look, such as the Doremi Pop-Corn (ドレミ・ポップコー ン) design, which is brightly coloured. A new type of performance school emerged in the late 1970s: the Sawai Koto Institute (SKI; Sawai Sōkyokuin 沢井箏曲院), founded by Sawai Tadao 沢 井忠夫 (1938–97) and his wife, Sawai Kazue 沢井一恵 (b. 1941) (Falconer 1995; Lande 2007). SKI embodies much that connects the koto to modern Japan, creating “a bridge between Michio Miyagi and avant-garde modern Japanese music” (Sawai Sōkyokuin n.d.a), yet maintains and extends the instrument’s traditional roots. Tadao studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and had already established himself as a performer and teacher

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in the 1960s and 1970s, and Kazue studied koto with Miyagi Michio. SKI has done much to help shape tradition (Falconer 1993, 86), with Kazue described as an “experimental diva” (Clark 2012, 106), and, as the school reflects, it is “always looking for new possibilities and working towards the future” (Sawai

Figure 19.1

Left: jūshichigen; right: koto Photo courtesy of Sawai Hikaru

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Figure 19.2

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Left: koto (thirteen strings) on high stand; right: nijūgogen (the instrument is angled for playing when the performer is standing) Photo courtesy of Ibukuro Kiyoshi

Sōkyokuin n.d.b; my translation). Key to this statement is the school’s mission to work beyond purely traditional music, operating in a space between the old and the new. SKI’s modernity includes a global presence of organizational cultural flows. The school has nine regional branches across Japan’s four main islands and two international branches, one each in Hawai‘i and Sydney. A composer of over ninety works and a recording artist of over one hundred releases, Tadao has made a huge impact on the modern world of koto music. His legacy has continued with Kazue and their eldest son, Sawai Hikaru 沢井比河流 (b. 1964) (fig. 19.3). Hikaru’s modernity is reflected in his diverse musical influences, with his musical career in rock music starting in 1985 when, as a guitarist, he formed the rock band Mephistopheles (メフィストフェレス). Notably, his “defiant hair dyed red, heavy metal style clothing, [and] long fingernails” extend Sawai’s points of difference (Falconer 1995, 202). Such is SKI’s difference in the world of koto performance that it creates a dynamic between old and new, or, as Lande explains, between “continuity and change” (2007, 1), which is a juncture that exudes hybridity. That is, “the Sawai Koto School is, no doubt, a more extreme example of ‘tradition-in-flux’ among the [seemingly unchanging] koto schools in Japan” (Falconer 1995, 333). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 19.3

3

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Sawai Hikaru playing a koto Photo courtesy of Sawai Hikaru

Mediatized Modernity

Placing the koto into the mediatized sphere of state-sponsored broadcasting to a global audience, NHK World (Japan) has produced a number of documentaries on Japanese music in modern Japan, including Cool Japan (NHK 2005–), J-Melo (NHK 2005–), Japanology Plus (NHK 2014–), and Blends (NHK 2016–17). Of these programmes, Blends showcases koto modernity in a setting of cultural convergence in terms of a synthesis of Japanese musical instruments used to play Western music. The episodes, which are each about five minutes long, feature small ensembles of Japanese performers, with traditional Japanese instruments foregrounded as a way of introducing them to non-Japanese and in an experimental way using familiar tunes that are intended to capture the attention of the targeted non-Japanese audience. As the programme’s synopsis notes, “No vocals, just instruments. With the fusion of Western and Japanese music we want viewers to enjoy a different style of the original” (NHK n.d.). Blends uses Japanese musical instruments as objects of hybridity to portray an idea of “Cool Japan,” which was a prominent cultural policy at the time the programme was made (Cabinet Office 2023).1 In this way, Blends embodies a 1 While my emphasis is on the koto, there are many other examples in the programme that illustrate musical hybridity and the place of Japanese music in modern Japan. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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“process of value production” (Valaskivi 2016, 10), where top-down intervention is culturally branding a sense of “cool” Japanese culture. In its thirty-five shows, the series mostly involves traditional Japanese musical instruments playing Western popular music, but there are also three pieces of Western classical music, two pieces of non-Japanese traditional music, one movie theme tune, and one jazz piece (Table 19.1). Even within the Western popular music category, a range of musical styles is evident, including soul, disco, rock, and pop. Most episodes have a format in which the featured Japanese instrument is introduced succinctly with an example of its sound and form, with English subtitles, followed by an instrumental arrangement of one song. Table 19.1 Blends: Content of episodes

Episode

Instruments

Song

Artist/composer

1.

Koto 箏, bass, percussion

“September”

2.

Kokyū 胡弓 (upright fiddle), piano Shō 笙 (mouth organ), cello Shinobue 篠笛 (flute), accordion, percussion Shakuhachi 尺八 (end-blown flute), shamisen 三味線 (three-string lute), wadaiko 和太鼓 (Japanese drum), bass Shamisen, jūshichigen 十七弦 (seventeen-string koto), hōgaku 邦楽 (traditional Japanese music) percussion Ōkrauro オークラウロ (flute), violin, guitar, bass Tsugaru shamisen 津軽三 味線 (three-string lute) Kokyū, nijūgogen 二十五弦 (twenty-five-string koto) Koto, Tsugaru shamisen, steel pan

“Nocturne”

Earth, Wind & Fire Secret Garden

“Dancing Queen” “Time after Time”

ABBA Cyndi Lauper

“Superstition”

Stevie Wonder

“Change the World”

Eric Clapton

“Imagine”

John Lennon

“El Cant dels Ocells” “Misirlou”

Pablo Casals Jean Pierre Danel

“Africa”

Toto

3. 4. 5.

6.

7. 8. 9. 10.

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Koto Modernities in the Twenty-First Century Table 19.1 Blends: Content of episodes (cont.)

Episode

Instruments

Song

Artist/composer

11.

Shakuhachi, koto, jūshichigen Nijūgen 二十弦 (twenty-[one-]string koto), jūshichigen, shakuhachi (×2) Kagurabue 神楽笛 (flute), shinobue, marimba, guitar, drums Kotsuzumi 小鼓 (drum), wadaiko, clarinet, accordion

“Smooth Criminal” “Stairway to Heaven”

Michael Jackson

12.

13.

14.

15. 16. 17. 18.

19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

25. 26. 27. 28.

Biwa 琵琶 (lute), violin, cello Shamisen, koto, shakuhachi (×2) Shakuhachi, guitar, percussion Nōkan 能管 (flute), dengaku-bue 田楽笛 (flute), accordion Tsugaru shamisen (×5) Hichiriki 篳篥 (oboe), keyboard, percussion Nijūgogen, shakuhachi, guitar, percussion Koto Wadaiko, shakuhachi, Tsugaru shamisen, bass Jiuta shamisen 地唄三味線 (three-string lute), shakuhachi, koto Shakuhachi, koto, jūshichigen Okedōdaiko 桶胴太鼓 (drum), shinobue, shakuhachi, guitar Ryūteki 竜笛 (flute), violin, cello Taishōgoto 大正琴 (zither), shakuhachi, guitar

Led Zeppelin

“Isn’t She Lovely”

Stevie Wonder

“James Bond Theme”

Monty Norman (arranged for film by John Barry) The Beatles Claude Debussy

“Let It Be” “Rêverie” “Rainy Days and Mondays” “Libertango”

The Carpenters Astor Piazzolla

“Bolero” “Georgia on My Mind” “Layla”

Maurice Ravel Ray Charles

“Like a Prayer” “Englishman in New York” “Shake It Off”

Madonna Sting

“Welcome to the Jungle” “Take Me Home, Country Roads” “Oblivión” “Cleopatra’s Dream”

Eric Clapton

Taylor Swift

Guns N’ Roses John Denver Astor Piazzolla Bud Powell

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Table 19.1 Blends: Content of episodes (cont.)

Episode

Instruments

Song

Artist/composer

29. 30.

Kokyū, koto, tabla Gottan ゴッタン (three-string lute), shinobue, jūshichigen Shamisen (electric Tsugaru shamisen), shakuhachi, bass Jūshichigen, shakuhachi, Tsugaru shamisen, wadaiko Ōtsuzumi 大鼓 (drum), nōkan, kotsuzumi, taiko 太鼓 (drum), bass, guitar Shime-daiko 締め 太鼓 (drum), nijūgogen, shakuhachi Nagauta shamisen 長唄三 味線 (three-string lute), shakuhachi, guitar

“Csárdás” “Message in a Bottle” “21st Century Schizoid Man” “Led Boots”

Vittorio Monti The Police

“Beat It”

Michael Jackson

“Back in Black”

AC/DC

“Livin’ La Vida Loca”

Ricky Martin

31. 32. 33.

34.

35.

King Crimson Jeff Beck

Note: Koto and new koto-type zithers are shown in bold.

The koto, or an enlarged version of the instrument, is used in fifteen episodes and is the most represented of the wagakki showcased, followed by the shamsien (especially the Tsugaru shamisen). Four types of koto are used: the traditional thirteen-string version (eight pieces); the seventeen-string jūshichigen (six pieces); the twenty-one-string nijūgen (one piece);2 and the twenty-five-string nijūgogen (three pieces). The different types of koto take on varying roles in the music: some as melodic instruments, and others as accompanying instruments. An example of a song with each type of koto helps show the instrument’s function in the song. In the first episode, the video foregrounds the koto player with electric bass and percussion to the rear. Each performer is male, with the koto player wearing what appears to be a leather suit with white shirt and neck tie. The video opens with a characteristic right-hand technique for the instrument, a sararin サラリ tremolo on the highest string. At the bottom of the 2 The twenty-one-string koto is also known as nijūgen (twenty strings), having its roots in the twenty-string koto.

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screen, a very brief history of the instrument and a description of its structure is given in subtitles. This is followed by an arrangement of “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire with the koto, played by Ichikawa Shin 市川慎, taking the melody.3 The koto is placed on a high stand, and the performers are moving with the rhythm of the music. Ichikawa uses Ikuta-type (rectangular) plectra. With Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” the jūshichigen is the featured instrument. The video opens with the jūshichigen being played across all the strings, along with a summary of the instrument in subtitles. It then shows a small all-female group of three instrumentalists performing the song: Watanabe Yūko 渡辺由布子 ( jūshichigen), Tsujimoto Yoshimi 辻本好美 (shakuhachi), and Itō Erina 伊藤江里菜 (koto). The players exude modernity in this video and in their other performance affiliations. Itō is a Miyagi school koto player but also plays in the likes of the Wagakki Orchestra (和楽器オーケストラ), which comprises graduates from the Tokyo University of the Arts.4 The group “performs old traditional pieces along with original orchestrations, modern tunes and unexpected arrangements of well-known songs” (AIOI 2019). Tsujimoto plays in the Bamboo Flute Orchestra, which performs contemporary favourites. A profile of Tsujimoto notes how the group originated: “In 2015, a video cover of a famous pop song played by Tsujimoto and other performers using traditional Japanese instruments went viral on social media, leading to the formation of her solo project, ‘Bamboo Flute Orchestra’” (Group of 100 Devotees of Koyasan and Kumano n.d.). As well as learning traditional Ikuta-style koto, Watanabe studied contemporary koto music under Ishigaki Kiyomi 石垣清美 of the SKI. The jūshichigen opens the song, with Watanabe playing to the right of the strings and fixed bridge, producing a pizzicato sound. The instrument’s role throughout is mainly to provide accompaniment to the shakuhachi. The shakuhachi player is standing, while the koto and jūshichigen players are sitting on chairs with their instruments on high stands. All players are dressed in kimono and appear in a traditional-style building. The nijūgen (actually having twenty-one strings in this example) is the featured instrument in “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin and the only instrument of this type included in Blends. The performers are Hisamoto Keiko 久本 桂子 (nijūgen), Watanbe Masako ( jūshichigen), Motonaga Hiromu (shakuhachi), 3 Ichikawa performs with contemporary wagakki groups, including Soemon 箏衛門 (formed in 1994 and consisting of Sawai koto players), Radentai 螺鈿隊 (formed in 1997 with four koto players performing traditional, contemporary, and crossover styles), and WASABI (formed in 2011). 4 This name replaced the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

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and Kawamura Kizan 川村葵山 (shakuhachi). Wearing kimono and in the traditional hall setting in Happō-en 八芳園 gardens in Tokyo, the two female players are seated at their koto, which are placed on stands; the two male shakuhachi players sit behind them. The shakuhachi take the melody with the koto playing mostly arpeggios as an accompanying instrument, and as the piece progresses the koto play more percussive techniques. The nijūgen player uses left-hand plucking. Hisamoto’s inclusion in such a hybrid performance reflects her contemporary music interests, having learned koto in the Yamada tradition and playing in the forward-thinking music group Nihon Ongaku Shūdan 日本音楽 集団 (Pro Musica Nipponia) and in the multidisciplinary group Shonorities, which “aims to show the potential of … cross cultural collaboration in … contemporary music creation” (Shonorities 2013). While the shime-daiko is the featured instrument in the all-female rendition of “Back in Black,” the song opens with the nijūgogen. The player of the twenty-five-string koto places her left hand over the lower strings of the instrument to the right side of the bridges and then plucks the strings with her right hand to produce a muted sound. This koto is then played as an accompanying instrument to the shakuhachi’s melody and the shime-daiko’s rhythmic background. Filmed at Shibamata Taishakuten 柴又帝釈天 temple in Tokyo, the nijūgogen is played by Tada Ayako 多田彩子, who studied the instrument under Nosaka Sōju 野坂操壽 II. Tada also performs in Kou 虹, a group that comprises five female graduates of Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music (桐朋学園芸術 短期大学) playing koto and nijūgogen and was formed in 2011 on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the production of the nijūgogen (Kou 2023). Blends demonstrates that each of the four types of koto featured can function in different musical roles in crossover settings. The top-down mediatization of these hybrid musical episodes exhibits the cultural policy-driven heuristic objective of showcasing Japanese musical instruments through an international musical lens, which is a type of local transculturalism or domestic exoticism that embodies “performing hybridity” (May and Fink 1999). While such performances display a “disproportionate influence of the West as a cultural forum” (Bhabha 1994, 21), it is important to note that Western music has been a part of Japanese culture for more than one hundred years. In this setting, Blends uses Western music as a conduit to a global audience through which “cool” Japanese musical instruments are exhibited as part of modern Japan. Such blending of instruments and cultures mediates a disjuncture between tradition and modernity (Appadurai 1996).

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Neo-Traditional Modernity

Koto performance with music and an audience that are very different to the predominant hōgaku framework offers a new space—a third space (Bhabha 1994; Soja 1996)—for neo-traditional practice. Instead of perpetuating the traditional canon, some players extend koto performance to distinctly modern or neo-traditional ensemble settings that challenge perceptions of traditional continuity by extending the instrument’s creative reach. Moving beyond the contemporary conventions of the SKI and other schools, such practice is exemplified by non-traditional groups playing new music or covering popular tunes in a context of expressed hybridity, much in the same style as the music in Blends, but instead of taking place in a mediatized context, the contemporary practice transforms tradition.5 Such neo-traditional groups offer a point of difference to traditional practice and often use the koto (or a modern version of it). Utilizing the idea of “différance” in these neo-traditional settings (Derrida 1976), the koto’s hybridity stands for modernity and at the same time is discordant to the instrument’s traditional setting. This section illustrates this idea by examining several representative groups, showing how a new generation of koto players builds on traditional practices and seeks to exude modernity and create new culture for an instrument that signifies heritage at its core. One individual who moved wagakki into new performance spheres in the post-Second World War era was Miki Minoru 三木稔 (1930–2011). In 1964, he founded a new type of performance group, Nihon Ongaku Shūdan, comprising leading instrumentalists and composers as part of a larger orchestral style of new music. In collaboration with Nosaka Keiko 野坂恵子 (1938–2019), Miki devised a larger, twenty-string koto, which was later modified with further strings. This era laid the foundation for extending the koto’s range and performance practices; as shown below, it included other groups working in diverse fields of music, with each aiming to blend tradition with modernity. In the mid-1990s, one group that extended the koto’s potential in creating new music and musical practices was Kokoo (コクー). Formed in 1995, it was led by Nakamura Akikazu 中村明一 on shakuhachi in combination with SKI koto performers Yagi Michiyo 八木美知依 and Isogai Maki 磯貝真紀. Offering a new musical style and utilizing koto of various sizes, Kokoo “creates a contemporary sound world hard to imagine” (Nakamura 2023a). Such is Nakamura’s influence that, as well as continuing traditional practice, he performs with Kokoo “a wide range of musical genres including rock, jazz, contemporary classical 5 Compare Rivel’s (2020) study of shakuhachi performers working in a similar style.

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music, improvised music and cross-genre collaboration” (Nakamura 2023b). Like similar groups outlined below, Kokoo offers difference within a contemporary framework that moves beyond tradition, extending the koto to a space that signifies the modern while at the same time showing différance in relation to practices that are not explicitly apparent. Since the early 2000s, many other neo-traditional groups have been formed. From 2003, Waon 和音, comprising three koto, has maintained an acoustic sound, performing new music and well-known songs. In Waon, Ibukuro Kiyoshi 衣袋聖志 (b. 1983) on nijūgen has been pivotal in popularizing the koto in more modern settings, playing in other groups, including Hanafugetsu 華風 月 and Wagakki Band 和楽器バンド (both formed in 2013), that have a popular music style. Similar but larger groups of the same era have created a denser sound; for example, Wagakudan Koh 和楽団煌 consists of koto and shamisen and aims to create a new Japanese culture (Wagakudan Koh n.d.). There is also the AUN J Classic Orchestra, whose objective is to create new music— “enjoyable and easy to comprehend for everyone”—for instruments that are not normally combined in such a diverse way (AUN J Classic Orchestra n.d.). Along similar lines is the group WASABI, which was formed in 2011 and includes Yoshida Ryōichirō 吉田 良一郎 (of the Yoshida Brothers duo). Embracing koto, shamisen, shakuhachi, and wadaiko, WASABI combines instruments that are not usually played together when traditional Japanese music is performed. These and similar groups move beyond traditional music practices and operate in a sphere that aligns more with popular culture, commodification, and consumerism as key points of difference, which are very distant from traditional practices. The term “wafū” 和風 describes a subgenre of rock music that includes traditional cultural imagery and the use of wagakki (Steponaviciute 2011).6 With props such as traditional Japanese costuming and imagery, such bands often embrace a visual-kei (ヴィジュアル系) or glam style and sometimes use the koto. One such visual-kei group from the twenty-first century is Kagrra 神楽. This group intends to connect to Japan’s cultural past within popular music, adding a distinct sense of “Japaneseness” or Japanese uniqueness (see Yoshino 1992), and it includes the koto (the standard type) as part of its pop music identity. Even the group’s name refers to kagura 神楽 (music for the gods), a Shinto ritual in which the koto is sometimes found, which adds a layer of cultural symbolism to the group’s image. It is with this purpose that the koto 6 The term “angura-kei” アングラ系 (underground style) is used to describe a gothic sub-genre of Japanese visual-kei (visual style) rock that draws on imagery from traditional Japan and sometimes includes wagakki.

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performs a dual role: it is a symbol of cultural heritage, and it is recontextualized with culturally nationalistic meaning in contemporary popular music (Johnson 2004c, 2011). More recent visual-kei groups have helped even more to popularize the koto, using the instrument to stand for cultural heritage and at the same time for cultural difference in modern Japan. For example, Kiryū 己龍 (from 2007) has occasionally included wagakki sounds, primarily by collaborating with artists such as Ichikawa Shin on koto; Ichikawa is active in a number of neo-traditional groups and performed in Blends. There are a number of distinctly Japanese wagakki visual-kei bands, including Zangetsu 斬月 (from 2007) and Crow x Class 黒鴉組 (formed in 2010), the latter of which prides itself on being the first such group (Crow x Class 2013). Crow x Class’s line-up comprises vocals, wadaiko, Tsugaru shamisen, koto, and shakuhachi, and the band notes that its “combination of styles has created a new image for instruments such as the koto and shamisen and has made their sound accessible to a new generation” (ibid.). While the group disbanded in 2015, several members joined Wagakki Band, including the koto player, here known as Shion 紫音 (Ibukuro Kiyoshi) (fig. 19.4).

Figure 19.4

Ibukuro Kiyoshi with a nijūgogen Photo courtesy of Ibukuro Kiyoshi

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Wagakki Band is a pop-style rock band whose eight members play a mix of wagakki and yōgakki 洋楽器 (Western musical instruments), including wadaiko, shakuhachi, koto, and Tsugaru shamisen. Such is their unique rock sound in Japanese popular music that Billboard Japan calls Wagakki Band “nouvelle rock entertainment” (Billboard Japan 2020). In 2014, the band’s first hit was a cover of the Vocaloid (voice synthesizer) song “Senbon Zakura” 千本桜 (One Thousand Cherry Trees), a song originally performed in 2011 by virtual idol Hatsune Miku 初音ミク using Vocaloid software. This was a significant moment in Wagakki Band’s rise to fame. In this release, several layers of signification stand for tradition and modernity, entangling wagakki in a myriad of “affective media” (Hibino, Ralph, and Johnson 2021, 3–8). Firstly, the song’s title has a historical and performative link to the kabuki play of a similar name, Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura 義経千本桜 (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees; 1747).7 Secondly, the song connects with the symbolism of spring and the cultural importance of sakura 桜 (cherry) blossoms, as sakura are a powerful signifier of the start of spring and of renewal and they are associated with celebration on a national level. The release was popular, with Billboard noting that The group’s rendition of “Senbonzakura” using Japanese and Western instruments helped publicize the existence of vocaloid music domestically and the existence of traditional Japanese performing arts abroad. Eight years after its release, the video has logged more than 150 million views. Billboard Japan 2022

On the level of popular music covers, the band recontextualized an already unconventional song, linking to a virtual form of popular music and emblems of Japanese cultural identity, including sakura, the band members’ kimono, and the koto, albeit in a modern form. 5

Conclusion

Koto performance has moved through various stages of distinct modernity over its long history in Japan. Since its localization in Imperial court music thirteen hundred years ago, there have been moments of change when innovations in performance practice, cultural transmission, and instrument form have brought the koto into contemporary culture of the time. 7 Referring to the military leader Minamoto no Yoshitsune 源義経 (1159–89) of the Minamoto clan. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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In a world of koto performance where change can foreground contemporaneous performance, the impact of Yatsuhashi Kengyō in the seventeenth century serves as a point of reference for the foundation of everyday koto performance. Other ingenious schools of performance soon followed, with key individuals being responsible for moving the koto’s tradition forward. By the twentieth century, innovators such as Miyagi Michio and the SKI had contributed to the inventiveness, modernization, and contemporaneity in koto performance, with each innovator leading the way at their point in that century. Miyagi was inspired by Western music and devised new instruments, paving the way for further innovations to the instrument decades later, and the SKI was innovative in composition, dissemination, and performance practice. In the twenty-first century, a number of neo-traditional performance groups have emerged that are creating new cultural traditions for the koto. Reflecting the inherent hybridity of this movement and its acts of recontextualization, the mediatized modernity of NHK’s Blends shows how contemporary practice is different from established traditional norms of koto performance. In modern Japan, the koto has a plethora of cultural traditions. The new types of koto devised in the twentieth century (e.g., jūshichigen, nijūgen, and nijūgogen) have emerged in the new millennium with their own identities, contributing to modern group performance and moving performance practice to an extended soundscape reflecting tradition and modernity. In popular music settings, visual-kei and other hybrid bands are consolidating and extending the instrument’s meaning in modern Japan, creating tradition in a context of difference and signifying the present while reinforcing cultural heritage in a distinct sound world of modernity.

Acknowledgements

I express my deepest gratitude to Ibukuro Kiyoshi 衣袋聖志, Matsunobu Kōji 松信浩二, Sawai Hikaru 沢井比河流, and Tanaka Takafumi 田中隆文 for their assistance in accessing and providing the photos included in this chapter. References AIOI. 2019. “Wagakki Ōkesutora AIOI” 和楽器オーケストラあいおい. Accessed 2 April 2023. https://orchestra-aioi.com/profile.html. Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. AUN J Classic Orchestra. n.d. “AUN J Classic Orchestra.” Accessed 2 April 2023. https:// www.aunj.jp/eng/member/profilejp/all.html. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge. Billboard Japan. 2020. “Japan’s Wagakki Band Talks New Concept EP & Global Deal: Interview.” Billboard, 6 January. https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news /japan-wagakki-band-new-concept-ep-react-global-deal-interview-8547431/. Billboard Japan. 2022. “WagakkiBand’s ‘Vocalo Zanmai 2’ Cover Album Reflects Evolution of J-Pop Vocaloid Music Scene: Interview.” Billboard, 26 August. https:// www.billboard.com/music/music-news/wagakkiband-interview-vocalo-zanmai-2 -cover-album-1235131693/. Born, Georgina, and David Hesmondhalgh. 2000. “Introduction: On Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music.” In Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music, edited by Georgina Born and David Hesmondhalgh, 1–58. Berkeley: University of California Press. Cabinet Office. 2023. “Cool Japan Strategy.” Accessed 2  April 2023. https://www.cao .go.jp/cool_japan/english/index-e.html. Clark, Jocelyn Collette. 2012. “Searching for a Niche without a Genre: The Case of the Multi-National East Asian Traditional New Music Ensemble IIIZ+.” The World of Music, new series, 1 (1): 103–119. Crow x Class. 2013. “Official Website.” Accessed 2 April 2023. http://www.crowclass.jp /index.html. Derrida, Jacques. 1976. Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Falconer, Elizabeth. 1993. “Sawai Kazue: Avant-Garde Kotoist.” Japan Quarterly 40 (1): 86–91. Falconer, Elizabeth. 1995. “Koto Lives: Continuity and Conflict in a Japanese Koto School.” PhD diss., University of Iowa. Group of 100 Devotees of Koyasan and Kumano. n.d. “Yoshimi Tsujimoto.” Accessed 2 April 2023. https://koyasan-kumano100.jp/english/members/detail/1145.html. Hibino, Kei, Barnaby Ralph, and Henry Johnson. 2021. “Introduction.” In Music in the Making of Modern Japan: Essays on Reception, Transformation and Cultural Flows, edited by Kei Hibino, Barnaby Ralph, and Henry Johnson, 1–9. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Janz, Tobias. 2019. “Multiple Musical Modernities? Dahlhaus, Eisenstadt, and the Case of Japan.” In Decentering Musical Modernity: Perspectives on East Asian and European Music History, edited by Tobias Janz and Chien-Chang Yang, 279–312. Bielefeld: Transcript-Verlag. Johnson, Henry. 2003. “Traditions Old and New: Continuity, Change, and Innovation in Japanese Koto-related Zithers.” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 29: 181–229. Johnson, Henry. 2004a. “The Koto and a Culture of Difference: Musical Instruments and Performance Identity in Japan.” Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theater and Folklore 144: 225–261. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Johnson, Henry. 2004b. The Koto: A Traditional Instrument in Contemporary Japan. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing. Johnson, Henry. 2004c. “The Koto, Traditional Music, and an Idealized Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Music Performance and Education.” In Japanese Cultural Nationalism: At Home and Abroad, edited by Roy Starrs, 132–164. Folkestone: Global Oriental. Johnson, Henry. 2011. “‘Sounding Japan’: Traditional Musical Instruments, Cultural Nationalism and Educational Reform.” Perfect Beat 12 (1): 11–32. Katsumura, Jinko. 1986. “Some Innovations in Musical Instruments of Japan During the 1920s.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 18: 157–172. Kou. 2023. “About Us.” Accessed 2  April 2023. https://kou-nijinokakehashi.com /about-us/. Lande, Liv. 2007. “Innovating Musical Tradition in Japan: Negotiating Transmission, Identity, and Creativity in the Sawai Koto School.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles. May, Joseph, and Jennifer Natalya Fink, eds. 1999. Performing Hybridity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Mitsui, Toru. 1998. “Domestic Exoticism: A Recent Trend in Japanese Popular Music.” Perfect Beat 3 (4): 1–12. Nakamura, Akikazu. 2023a. “Kokoo.” Accessed 10 March 2023. https://akikazu.jp /english/kokoo/. Nakamura, Akikazu. 2023b. “Profile.” Accessed 10 March 2023. https://akikazu.jp /english/akikazunakamura/. NHK. n.d. “Blends.” Accessed 2  April 2023. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv /blends/. Prescott, Anne. 1997. “Miyagi Michio, The Father of Modern Koto Music.” PhD diss., Kent State University. Regan, Martin P. 2006. “Concerto for Shakuhachi and 21-string Koto: A Composition, Analysis, and Discussion of Issues Encountered in Cross-cultural Approaches to Music Composition.” PhD diss., University of Hawai‘i. Regan, Martin P. 2008. “Composing for the 21-String Koto.” In Music of Japan Today, edited by E. Michael Richards and Kazuko Tanosaki, 156–167. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Rivel, Charly. 2020. “Wagakki and Japanese Popular Music: The Perception of Music and Cultural Identity.” MA diss., Stockholm University. Sawai Sōkyokuin 沢井箏曲院. n.d.a. “Profile.” Accessed 1 April 2023. http://sawai-tadao .jp/profile_e/index.html. Sawai Sōkyokuin 沢井箏曲院. n.d.b. “Sawai Sōkyokuin to wa” 沢井箏曲院とは. Accessed 2 April 2023. https://sawaisoukyokuin.com/about. Shonorities. 2013. “About.” Accessed 2  April 2023. https://shonorities.com/?page _id=4306. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Soja, Edward. 1996. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Steponaviciute, Agne. 2011. “Vijuaru-kei ni okeru Nihon-tekina imēji no hyōgen: Oni to sakura no hyōshō o megutte” ヴィジュアル系における日本的なイメージの表現:鬼と 桜の表象を巡って. Gendai Shakai Bunka Kenkyū 現代社会文化研究 52: 1–18. Valaskivi, Katja. 2016. Cool Nations: Media and the Social Imaginary of the Branded Country. New York: Routledge. Wade, Bonnie C. 1994. “Keiko Nosaka and the 20-stringed Koto: Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Music.” In Themes and Variations: Writings on Music in Honor of Rulan Chao Pian, edited by Bell Yung and Joseph S. C. Lam, 231–259. Harvard/Hong Kong: Department of Music, Harvard University/The Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Wagakudan Koh 和楽団煌. n.d. “Wagakudan Kou Official Site.” Accessed 2 April 2023. http://wagakudan.hotcom-web.com/wordpress/. Yoshino, Kosaku. 1992. Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan: A Sociological Enquiry. London: Routledge.

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Part 4 Hybridities

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Chapter 20

Navigating the Past, Embracing the Present: Japanese Compositional Hybridity in Theory and Practice Marty REGAN 1

Introduction

Traditional music in Japan thrived in the Edo period until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ushered in a new era in Japan’s history. Generally regarded as the beginning of Japan’s “modern” period, the Meiji Restoration triggered a chain of radical events that led to sweeping political, economic, and social changes in Japan, and its impact can still be felt today (Asia for Educators n.d.). Japan opened its doors to the West after nearly three hundred years of cultural isolation, and since then compositional approaches, playing techniques, performing practices, and aesthetics have been substantially influenced by European classical music. Music was one tool that Japanese leaders used to modernize the country. European music began to be taught in schools, and Japanese texts were harmonized with the Western tonal system to create choral music for textbooks. Embracing European classical music was a way to prove to the West that the Japanese were a cultured and sophisticated society. The cultural status of European classical music was high, hence it was a way for the Japanese to show that their country was civilized and prepared to participate in the global community as a modernized country. Even up to the present day, “Japanese” music largely remains secondary to Western music in society at large (Wade 2014, 17–28). While this modernization helped to open Japan’s trade doors and marked the road to economic prosperity on a global scale, it had a less positive influence on Japanese traditional arts. Even today, few Japanese universities offer traditional Japanese music instruction, and it was not until 2002 that the Ministry of Education of Japan decreed that all elementary schoolchildren should have hands-on exposure to traditional Japanese music. In 1933, the pre-eminent Japanese novelist Tanizaki Jun’ichirō 谷崎潤一郎 (1886–1965) published an essay entitled In’ei raisan 陰翳礼讃 (In Praise of Shadows), in

© Marty REGAN, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_022

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which he lamented the passing away of old Japan. Towards the end, he pleads with his fellow Japanese: I have thought there might still be somewhere, possibly in the literature or the arts, where something could be saved … perhaps we may be allowed at least one mansion where we can turn off the electric lights and see what it is like without them. 1977, 42

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, as Japan struggles to retain its cultural identity against the hegemony of westernization, a generation of Japanese composers has been rediscovering, recreating, and redefining their own heritage by taking an increased interest in traditional Japanese instruments. Composers such as Miki Minoru 三木稔 (1930–2011), Ifukube Akira 伊福 部昭 (1914–2006), Nīmi Tokuhide 新実徳英 (b. 1947), Nishimura Akira 西村朗 (1953–2023), Yoshimatsu Takashi 吉松隆 (b. 1953), Yuasa Jōji 湯浅譲二 (b. 1929), Ikebe Shin’ichirō 池辺晋一郎 (b. 1943), Sawai Tadao 沢井忠夫 (1937–97), Matsumura Teizō 松村禎三 (1929–2007), and Satoh [Satō] Sōmei 佐藤聰明 (b. 1947),1 in cooperation with performers such as Yoshimura Nanae 吉村な なえ (b. 1950), Nosaka Keiko 野坂惠子 (1938–2019), Nishigata Akiko 西潟昭子 (b. 1945), and Mitsuhashi Kifū 三橋貴風 (b. 1950), have created a genre of music that combines the most unlikely pair of words: gendai hōgaku 現代邦楽 (contemporary traditional Japanese music). These composers and performers are interested in both tradition and progress/renewal in the music of Japan. There has been a general trend away from the imitation of Western musical traditions popular in the post-Meiji decades to a more individualized expression that is attentive to the aesthetics of traditional Japanese music. These composers and performers are, in a sense, keeping the light off for Tanizaki. In this chapter, I will discuss the concept of “compositional hybridity” in the works of several representative Japanese composers. In each of these works, I will examine different ways in which the past is navigated and how the present is embraced through the medium of composition. To ground this discussion, I will briefly review Japan’s two distinct periods of cultural assimilation.

1 While elongated vowels in this chapter utilize the Hepburn system of romanization, the composer’s name is presented here as Satoh rather than Satō due to the composer’s preference.

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The Impact of Chinese Culture

Throughout its long history, Japan has oscillated back and forth between either embracing foreign cultures or self-imposed cultural isolation. The Nara period is historically regarded as Japan’s first period of assimilation, as Japan opened itself up to China. The country’s capital of Nara was architecturally modelled on the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907) capital of Ch’ang-an, Chinese kanji characters were adopted in the Japanese language, and, most importantly, Japan began to embrace Buddhism. In 752, a ceremony was held at Tōdaiji 東大寺 (temple) in Nara to celebrate the completion and consecration of a bronze statue of the Great Buddha. Fifteen metres tall, it remains the largest bronze statue of Buddha in the world. Japan invited diplomats from all over Asia to partake in the celebration, and as a final iconic gesture, pupils were carved into the statue’s eyes. Known as the “eye-opening ceremony,” this event is often heralded as the dawn of Japan’s awakening to the outside world. At the ceremony, music and dancing from mainland Asia were performed. Prototypes of many of the instruments from China used during these performances are currently stored in the Shōsōin 正倉院, a treasure house on the temple grounds. It is widely acknowledged that the music performed at the ceremony was a precursor—at least in terms of instrumentation—of what is now known as gagaku 雅楽 (court music). Characterized by a combination of aerophones (wind), chordophones (strings), and idiophones (percussion) that meld together into a fixed stratified texture, gagaku may be understood as the first pan-continental or, rather, hybrid genre in the history of Japanese music. In contrast to the modernist notion that the arts are autonomous and—for all practical purposes—unrelated to society, politics, and culture, I believe it is axiomatic that music both constructs and reflects social reality and global trends, largely because it is created by citizens who live at a certain point in time and are receptive to the changes around them. In this sense, gagaku is a hybrid form of cross-cultural musical expression that reflects the cultural intersection of Japan and mainland Asia at this point in Japan’s history. The Nara period was followed by the Heian period or Japan’s “Golden Age,” which witnessed a blossoming of art and architecture influenced by Buddhism. Religious paintings, mandalas, and sculptures provided practitioners with a means to contemplate Buddhist philosophy. Considered the classical Japanese painting style, Yamato-e 大和絵 developed in the late Heian period and was influenced by Tang dynasty Chinese landscape painting. The development of Yamato-e coincided with a period in the late 800s and 900s called the era of “Three Brushes” 三跡, named after three prominent calligraphers who helped develop a style of Japanese calligraphy distinct from its Chinese counterpart.

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Ono no Michikaze 小野道風 (894–966) is often attributed with founding the wayō shodō style 和洋書道, which is characterized by stylish and cursive script. What is important to note is the fact that, over time, calligraphy artists found a way to take the foundations of Chinese artistic practice and assimilate the techniques into a distinct Japanese style. This is a common thread that can be observed across artistic disciplines in Japan and will be especially relevant as we discuss compositional hybridity in theory and practice, as Japanese composers have found creative ways to navigate the past while embracing the present. The two aforementioned historical periods mark Japan’s first contact and engagement with a foreign country and its culture. Japan’s medieval period (1185–1603) followed, during which the samurai 侍 class replaced the aristocracy, feudal society was stratified into lords and vassals, and there was domestic unrest and civil war. In contrast, during the pre-modern or Edo period, Japan adopted a policy of cultural isolation from the rest of the world that allowed the performing arts to flourish. Many forms of artistic expression flourished during these time periods, including theatrical traditions such as noh 能 (nō), kabuki 歌舞伎, and bunraku 文楽, and the musical trio of shamisen 三味線 (three-string plucked lute), koto 箏 (thirteen-string plucked zither), and shakuhachi 尺八 (end-blown bamboo flute) known as sankyoku 三曲, among other genres. For the purposes of this chapter, however, I will focus on periods in Japan’s history when it actively engaged with foreign cultures. 3

The Impact of Western Culture

Japan’s second period of contact and engagement with foreign cultures may be marked by the Meiji Restoration of 1868, a political revolution that brought about the downfall of the military government and returned imperial rule under Emperor Meiji (1852–1912). The reforms enacted during the Meiji era resulted in the modernization and westernization of the country and paved the way for Japan to become a major power in the international landscape. Japan adopted a constitution and a parliamentary system of government based on the separation of powers, instituted universal education, built trains and railroads, connected telegraph lines, and established a strong army and navy. Not surprisingly, this period of modernization corresponds with the introduction of Western classical music to Japan’s shores. The Ministry of Education in the newly established Meiji government was given the task of deciding the type of music to include in the school curriculum. Izawa Shūji 伊澤修二 (1851–1971), a music teacher who had studied in the US, was asked to

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submit a statement of options to the Ministry of Education on 30 October 1879. He wrote, [First] that European music has almost reached perfection by means of the contemplations and experience of the last thousand years … and it surpasses very greatly oriental music in perfection and beauty, it will, therefore, be far better to adopt European music in our schools than to undertake the awkward task of improving the imperfect oriental music. Cited in Wade 2014, 17–18

In 1879, a new educational system was founded in several steps, primarily based on the concept of creating a renewed understanding and appreciation of music from both Western and Japanese perspectives. To enact this goal countrywide, teachers had to be retrained in Western music, and so began a national educational campaign or, rather, an obsession with Western classical music. Western orchestral instruments appeared more frequently in concert halls and salons, and the piano and violin replaced the koto as instruments of choice for the upper-class to place in the hands of their children or display in their homes as a sign of their social status. Together with the importing of Western fashion, dress, and clothes, this resulted in a marked difference in what was visually and aurally experienced in performance settings. In less than a decade, musical events went from small-scale performances featuring the

Figure 20.1

Yōshū Chikanobu 楊洲周延 (1838–1912), “Ōshū kangengaku gassō no zu” 欧州管絃楽合 奏之図 (1889) Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain

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trio combination of shakuhachi, shamisen, and koto accompanying sung classical poetry with all the musicians and audience members dressed in formal kimono, to concert hall and salon performances featuring tuxedo-clad men and polonaise-clad women performing works by Beethoven and Mozart on the piano and Western orchestral string instruments. In the woodblock print depicted in fig. 20.1, we observe Japanese musicians dressed in Western attire playing Western orchestral instruments in a salon setting. At the same time, with the full moon, lilting cherry blossom flowers, and bold colours, as a representative work of Meiji-era visual art, it is distinctively Japanese. This image poetically reflects the dual identity that Japan had at this point in its history. 4

Miyagi Michio and the Concept of Musical Hybridity

This fusion of Japanese and Western elements finds a musical allegory in the compositions of Miyagi Michio 宮城道雄 (1894–1956), whose works may be considered hybrid musical soundscapes. A blind composer, performer, and innovator in the design of new instruments, Miyagi was the first Japanese composer to combine compositional elements from European classical music with traditional Japanese aesthetics and aspects of traditional koto music. Known as “the father of modern koto music,” Miyagi was responsible for keeping the repertoire of the koto alive when traditional Japanese arts were slowly being forgotten. He composed over three hundred new works, invented the groundbreaking seventeen-string bass koto ( jūshichigen 十七絃), experimented with the creation of an eighty-string koto (hachijūgen 八十絃), created new playing techniques, advanced traditional musical forms, combined Japanese instruments in new ways, and, most importantly, increased the popularity of the koto. He performed extensively abroad and in 1929 composed the masterpiece “Haru no Umi” 春の海 (Spring Sea). Inspired by a springtime boat trip Miyagi took on the Inland Sea, this work has been transcribed for countless instrumental combinations. It is broadcast on New Year’s Day through public speakers in towns and cities throughout Japan. Regardless of whether one can identify the composer or name the work, the gentle opening provided by the koto and the soaring shakuhachi melody that enters soon afterwards are undoubtedly an important part of the national sonic consciousness of the Japanese people. The assimilation of Western instruments and the repertoire of European classical music into the musical soundscape of Japan during the Meiji era resulted in a dynamic and hybrid musical culture, poetically reflected in Miyagi’s iconic work. How may this work be understood as a hybrid musical

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mm. 1–7 of Miyagi Michio’s “Haru no Umi” Transcription by author

soundscape that combines elements of both Western compositional practice and traditional Japanese music? When one listens to a piece of music for the first time, the timbre of the chosen instrumentation is usually the easiest element to recognize. In this case, Miyagi scores the work for two traditional Japanese instruments: the shakuhachi and koto. The opening bars introduce an arpeggiated accompaniment cast in—using Western music theory terminology—E pentatonic mode 5 (E-G-A-B-D). In m. 6, the pitch F appears, creating the relationship of a ᵇ2, minor second, or half-step between scale degrees 1 and 2 (fig. 20.2). This single pitch, along with its subsequent appearances, transforms the mode from E pentatonic mode 5 to a subtle variation on the iconic miyako-bushi 都部首 scale or hirajōshi 平調子 tuning codified by Yatsuhashi Kengyō 八橋検校 (1614–85) and prevalent throughout traditional koto repertoire in works such as “Rokudan no Shirabe” 六段の調べ (fig. 20.3).2 From the Western perspective, these two elements pull the work towards a “foreign” or “Other” locale. 2 The effectiveness of pentatonicism lies in the deliberate avoidance of certain scale degrees. In “Haru no Umi,” the reference to the miyako-bushi scale or hirajōshi tuning is subtle precisely because Miyagi freely draws upon seven pitches of the diatonic scale. If one takes an inventory of all the pitches present, it may be more accurate to say that “Haru no Umi” is cast in Phrygian mode, which is also characterized by the interval of a minor second between scale degrees 1 and 2. Due to the pentatonic figurations in the shakuhachi and koto however, this theoretical analysis does not undermine the reference to Japanese pentatonic scales and tunings.

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The miyako-bushi scale or hirajōshi tuning (nuclear tone: E)

It may be easy to categorize the work as distinctively “Japanese” based on the surface elements described above, but careful listening reveals deeper layers of influence. One notes that the function of the koto in relation to the shakuhachi is consistently one of accompaniment. With rare exception, the shakuhachi assumes the melody. Further, while the koto rarely provides harmonic progression per se, one could argue that the arpeggiated accompaniment figure lays down a series of chords to provide a harmonic blanket for the melody above. Therefore the prevailing accompaniment in “Haru no Umi” is homophonic.3 To a modern listener, this feature may seem unremarkable. It is important to remember that prior to the Meiji Restoration and the arrival of European classical music in Japan, most ensemble music using traditional Japanese instruments tended to utilize heterophonic textures.4 So, from the perspective of a Japanese interpretation of this work in 1929, it must have seemed exotic. Further, if one listens to “Haru no Umi” in its entirety, one notices that the opening material returns towards the end of the work after an extended contrasting middle section. “Haru no Umi” is cast in a clearly defined A-B-A arch form. For listeners today, this may not seem so distinctive. However, considering that most genres of traditional music containing koto that thrived during the Edo period were through-composed,5 the use of A-B-A arch form harks back to the trios and minuets composed by German composers that flourished during the Classical period (1730–1820). This influence is not surprising as Miyagi was raised in the international port city of Kobe. Music creates meaning in subtle and often hidden ways. Despite claims that music is an international language because it does not signify in the same way that language does (i.e., semiotically), I would suggest there is a profound difference between appreciating a piece of music and understanding it if time is taken to inform oneself of historical, social, and cultural contexts. With this knowledge, one gains the ability to listen to a work like “Haru no Umi” and 3 A musical texture consisting of several parts where one melody predominates while the remaining parts tend to be based on chordal accompaniment. 4 A musical texture consisting of several parts performing a simultaneous variation of a melodic line. 5 In the general sense, “through-composed” refers to a piece of music composed from beginning to end with little to no repetition of material.

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recognize that it can be “read” just like a book or text. The listening experience can therefore be elevated from simple appreciation to being able to hear how various cultural influences are interacting with each other in subtle ways. Once critical listening skills are elevated to this level, “Haru no Umi” can be experienced as an aural document that sonically reflects the conditions of life and the profound influence of European classical music in Japan in 1929 at the height of major cultural and social transformation. 5

The “East Looking East”

The next group of composers I examine fall under a rubric I refer to as “East Looking East.” This rubric includes Japanese composers who celebrate their national and cultural identity by composing for traditional Japanese instruments and drawing upon Japanese aesthetics and the gestural vocabulary found in traditional genres of Japanese music. They share with Miyagi the idea of hybridity in relation to navigating the past while embracing the present in the development of their compositional voice and identity. These composers were all active after the Second World War and found themselves in the position of having to renegotiate their compositional identity amidst the conflicting values and aesthetic priorities of the past, celebrating their cultural heritage and national identity through the genre of gendai hōgaku. They are interested in combining tradition with progress and renewal, and in contrast to people in previous historical periods, they do not view these concepts as conflicting. Matsumura Teizō is known for his operatic setting of Endō Shūsaku’s (1923–96) literary masterpiece Chinmoku 沈黙 (Silence). He spent five years in and out of hospital in his early twenties recovering from tuberculosis, during which time he began to write haiku and compose music. He was deeply influenced by his mentor Ikenouchi Tomojirō 池内友次郎 (1906–91). Ikenouchi was trained at the Paris Conservatoire and used Maurice Ravel’s music as a model to train many pupils who would become distinguished composers in their own right, including Bekku Sadao 別宮貞雄 (1922–2012), Yashiro Akio 矢代 秋雄 (1929–76), Mayuzumi Toshirō 黛敏郎 (1929–97), Mamiya Michio 間宮 芳生 (b. 1929), Miki Minoru, and Miyoshi Akira 三善晃 (1933–2013). Perhaps because of Matsumura’s respect for Ravel, he titled one of his most frequently performed and well-known works in French rather than in Japanese or English. Scored for shakuhachi and koto, Poeme 1 pour shakuhachi et koto 詩曲一番 (1970) was Matsumura’s first work for traditional Japanese instruments. It was composed for Nosaka Keiko and National Living Treasure Aoki Reibo 青木

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鈴慕 (1935–2018) and premiered in the Matsushita Exhibition Hall at the Osaka

World Exposition. Evidently, Matsumura listened to recordings of traditional koto and shakuhachi music by these two artists and composed the work in less than three days. The work is based on the presentation, combination, and recombination of melodic phrases with a distinct Japanese identity, which are influenced by but not necessarily direct quotations from classical koto repertoire. The pentatonic tuning (D-Eb-A-C-D-Eb-G-A-C-D-Eb-G-A) of the koto retains traditional configurations for the most part, although with only two octaves situated five strings apart, while melodic movement in the shakuhachi demonstrates an organic development of classical shakuhachi honkyoku.6 In this work, Matsumura navigates and reconciles the past by drawing upon melodic patterns and figurations from traditional koto and shakuhachi repertoire in a way that is not derivative or borrowed from any specific work but rather is based on Japanese aesthetic principles such as ma, free metre, and breath rhythm.7 The result is a dynamic and deeply expressive musical work that pays homage to the past yet is firmly rooted in the present. Satoh Sōmei lived in New York city in the early 1980s under the auspices of an Asian Cultural Council grant and developed a unique style that is a synthesis of Asian and Western aesthetics influenced by Zen Buddhist philosophy and American minimalism. Scored for violin and piano, Birds in Warped Time II (1982) is a germane example of how he creates a hybrid musical soundscape by combining compositional traits found in minimalism with traditional Japanese aesthetics. The “iridescent shimmerings of the piano provide an impressionistic backdrop through subtly shifting tremolo figurations repeated in a minimalist fashion” for sustained tones in the violin (Tan 1988, liner notes). Extensive use of ornamentation, wide vibrato, microtones, portamento, and pentatonic melodic patterns create a soundscape that references shakuhachi honkyoku, while the piano part could easily be mistaken for a piece composed by Philip Glass (b. 1937) or Steve Reich (b. 1935). What is fascinating about the work is the way that Satoh “masks” the disparate musical influences by juxtaposing them in a stratified texture. In other words, if the violin were playing the melodic line indicated in fig. 20.4 without the piano accompaniment, a listener familiar with shakuhachi honkyoku might recognize the reference. Even for listeners who are unfamiliar with this

6 The repertoire of sacred pieces that have been passed down within the last five hundred years in the context of Zen Buddhism. 7 Often defined as a pause in time, interval, and emptiness in physical space, in music ma refers to the absence of sound. It is often heralded as one of the defining features of traditional Japanese aesthetics and can be found across a wide range of genres. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Figure 20.4

Satoh Sōmei’s Birds in Warped Time II (1982) Reprinted with permission by Ongaku no Tomosha

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traditional genre of Japanese music, the violin part clearly references some musical “Other” by means of the senza misura (i.e., without metre) approach to musical time. In contrast, the repetitive hocket pattern in the piano part is firmly fixed in clock-based musical time. By itself, it may not be particularly engaging, but the juxtaposition of two contrasting approaches to musical time creates a surprising composite that immediately engages the senses. Satoh’s compositional thought reveals a degree of sophistication quite distinctive from, for example, operatic works of the nineteenth century that utilize “exotic” musical elements, such as Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904), Saint-Saëns’s La princess jaune (1872), and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado (1885), which adopted Western approximations of East Asian scales in their harmonic and melodic language. In the nineteenth century, “it was not the structural principles of oriental music that composers adopted so much as melodic details, which when transplanted to a different compositional context, turned into picturesque allurements” (Dahlaus 1989, 304). Satoh avoids such “picturesque allurements” by deliberately masking the disparate musical influences, creating a hybrid musical soundscape that subconsciously reflects his national identity and the impact of his experience living abroad upon his compositional style. Exoticism in music of the late nineteenth century can be viewed as a social text that aurally documents the colonialist mentality of the time; the musical culture of the Orient was to be appropriated as composers liked, with little attempt to specify which cultural tradition the borrowed materials came from or to be accurate and faithful in their representation. As Carl Dahlaus argues, “without a picture to pinpoint a milieu, or a caption to suggest the country of origin, the ethnic elements inserted into a European art composition are seldom distinct enough to be pinned down to a particular locale, except in the case of certain dances” (1989, 306). By adopting surface elements or superficial phenomena such as pentatonicism, asymmetrical metres, drones, ostinati, and other musical elements typically associated with non-Western music without actively specifying which culture they are borrowing from, late nineteenth-century opera composers exoticized and essentialized difference as a sensationalist technique to keep their audiences enthralled. In Satoh’s Birds in Warped Time II however, we witness a composer who is not manipulating superficial or surface-oriented elements to create an exotic soundscape but a consummate artist who identifies underlying structural principles of disparate musical languages to create a compositional hybrid. I would argue that this distinctive element gives this work the potential to contribute to the circulation of ideas across cultures and to stand the test of time.

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Kuwabara Yu 桑原ゆう (b. 1984) is an emerging composer who consciously celebrates her Japanese identity.8 She has collaborated with numerous artists who use traditional forms of cultural expression, such as noh (nō) theatre actors and rakugo 落語 (comic story) performer Kokontei Shinsuke 古今亭志 ん輔 (b. 1953), and has composed many works for Japanese instruments such as the koto and shamisen. Most notably, to date she has composed eight works for shōmyō 声明 (Buddhist chant). Commissioned by Shōmyō no Kai: Voices of a Thousand Years (声明の会・千年の聲), a Japanese Buddhist chanting group composed of monks from both the Tendai and Shingon sects, the piece Spiral Mandala: Wind Chant and Night Chant (螺旋曼荼羅:風の歌・夜の歌) of 2015 is particularly extraordinary in scope and vision. Lasting over a hundred minutes, it is based on a Japanese translation of Native American poetry. Equally as ambitious, Moonlight Mantra (月の光言) of 2017 uses several waka poems written by the priest Myōe Shōnin 明恵上人 (1173–1232) about the moon, specifically the Mantra of Light (光明真言), in which Myōe discovered Buddhist blessings. Additionally, the work utilizes an excerpt from Essays in Idleness (徒然草), a classic work of medieval Japanese literature by the Japanese monk Kenkō Yoshida 吉田兼好 (1283–1350). Regarding the issue of identity and cultural roots, Kuwabara writes, “The composer must continue to ask themselves the unanswerable question, ‘Who am I?’ For a composer, the only way to know oneself is to listen to yourself, that is, listening to the depths of your being” (pers. comm., 30 March 2023).9 Commissioned by the gagaku ensemble Reigakusha 伶楽舎 in 2022, Kuwabara’s Garden of Onomatopoeias (歌虚言の場) received its world premiere at the 16th Reigakusha Concert on 28 January 2023. The work is scored for gagaku (ryūteki 竜笛, hichiriki 篳篥, gakusō 楽箏, and gaku-biwa 楽琵琶 in pairs, as well as three percussionists), but the performers are also called upon to sing during performance. The opening text is based on onomatopoeic sounds and words by Nakahara Chūya 中原中也 (1907–37), a Japanese poet who was influenced by European experimental poetry and the avant-garde. In the work, Kuwabara draws upon a mnemonic system used when learning gagaku known as shōga 唱歌, which consists of phonetically uttering a sequence of vocables to imitate the movement of the sound and relay specific performance techniques. Pedagogically, shōga is a method used to teach prior to playing an instrument. Through this method, the phonetic sequence of uttered sounds, the physical embodiment of the performer, and the sounds produced by the 8 A macron is not shown on the “u” in Kuwabara’s given name due to the composer’s preference. 9 This quotation and others that follow are translated into English by the author.

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instruments are linked together. In the opening of Garden of Onomatopoeias, Kuwabara asks the performers to utter Nakahara’s onomatopoeic text: “Yua-n, yuyo-n, yuyayuyon.” Her setting draws out the inherent musical line embedded in the text. Throughout the work, the uttered musical line morphs and is slowly and imperceptibly transferred to the instruments, clearly marked by the instructions koe 声 (voice) and gakki 楽器 (instrument) in the score (see measures 3 and 8 in fig. 20.5). As Kuwabara writes, “Words become sounds, and sounds become words, and I hope that the ‘space’ between these sounds will become an audible ‘garden’.”10 Kuwabara is part of an emerging generation of composers who are proud of their national identity and seek to express it through their music. As she comments, I believe that the Japanese language is the sole medium that still retains the ancient thought of the Japanese people. My creative foundation is to explore the relationship between the Japanese language and its sounds. In [Garden of Onomatopoeias], therefore, I have dealt with subjects that approach the structure of the Japanese language, such as shōga and onomatopoeia. In addition, as part of my creative approach, I intentionally avoid globalization and the creation of new music. Rather, I think that exploring our roots as Japanese people as deeply as possible and thoroughly investigating the local will lead to globalization. I also believe that going back further to the origin of sound will lead to the discovery of new sounds for the twenty-first century. Pers. comm., 30 March 2023

In this work, Kuwabara navigates the past by consciously drawing upon a mnemonic device that has traditionally been used to teach applied technique, applying the practice to an onomatopoeic text, and transplanting this into a musical field. The outcome is a new realm of creative expression for gagaku. 6

Towards an “Ethics of Appropriation”

How is national and cultural identity expressed through the medium of music composition? Miki Minoru addresses this question in a distinctive way. In 1964, Miki founded Pro Musica Nipponia, a large ensemble that combined 10

Programme notes for Garden of Onomatopoeias, provided courtesy of the composer.

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Figure 20.5

Kuwabara Yu’s Garden of Onomatopoeias (2022) Reprinted with permission by the composer

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traditional Japanese instruments in an orchestral-like formation, and led them in over 180 concerts abroad in the 1960s and 1970s to increase global awareness of traditional Japanese instruments. Following a tradition established by Miyagi Michio, he invented the twenty-one string koto in collaboration with koto virtuoso Nosaka Keiko in 1969. This led to subsequent experiments with zithers all over Asia to the extent that having twenty-one strings on a zither is now considered the pan-Asian standard. In 1996, he wrote an orchestration manual, which is widely considered the authoritative text in the field and was subsequently translated into Chinese and English. Miki is one of the few composers who deliberately appropriates gestural vocabulary from traditional genres, and, as a result, his works for Japanese instruments are idiomatic and have been embraced. Composed in 1976, Hote 巨火 (Giant Flame) has a striking moment when Miki appropriates Chichibu yatai-bayashi 秩父屋台囃子, the folk drumming tradition performed during festivals in the mountain town of Chichibu, 97 km northwest of Tokyo. What does a composer accomplish by appropriating folk traditions? If one considers the recent attention paid to issues of cultural appropriation in postcolonial discourse, one could argue that works for non-Western instruments composed by Westerners run the risk of being invariably castigated as artistically or culturally objectionable, resulting in artworks that are somehow not as authentic as those free of exotic stimuli of a particular land or alien culture, and—following from all these objections—as inhabiting a lower plane than other varieties of music (Bellman 1998, xiii).11 Therefore composers like Miki who choose to appropriate in their work have a formidable and daunting task in front of them. How does one appropriate with cultural integrity? In short, what does an “ethics of appropriation” entail, and what does ethically informed and responsible cultural borrowing resemble? One could argue that Miki made a sincere attempt to elevate or, rather, recontextualize a folk music tradition so that it could be appreciated by a larger demographic. After all, how many people would be familiar with the folk drumming tradition of Chichibu yatai-bayashi unless they had an opportunity to hear it when attending a local festival? Artistic paradigms that appropriate other traditions and freeze music into an imagined nostalgic past deny the fluid and dynamic nature of cultures. Yuasa Jōji writes, “the inheritance of my tradition implied a way of thought and perception rather than simply the adoption of superficial [my emphasis] 11

The basic argument in postcolonial discourse is that exoticized or flawed depictions of the “Other” result in what is referred to as “cultural degradation” (Ziff and Rao 1997, 8–20).

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phenomena such as the pentatonic scale, or the simple usage of traditional instruments such as the shakuhachi, biwa, and koto” (1989, 177). For Yuasa, it seems like a cross-cultural approach to composition involves a reevaluation of what many people might consider to be the most characteristic, enticing, and novel elements of a foreign musical culture. This means that when one combines two or more distinct musical traditions, aesthetics, or instruments in a composition, one might attempt to search for and emphasize common ground between the foreign and host culture instead of treating the non-native element as distinctively foreign and highlighting essential differences as a primary aesthetic goal. This type of approach promises concrete and diverse results, and I would argue that it could lead to a new way of musical expression that more accurately reflects the phenomenon of multiculturalism that characterizes our lives in the twenty-first century. It is an approach that gives composers expressive and artistic licence to freely incorporate aspects of their own culture and background into their work and to create music that has a strong and positive social message rather than composing works that are merely derivative and exoticize difference. I would argue that Miki’s appropriation of folk traditions demonstrates a sincere engagement with his chosen musical materials. One of the most common themes that runs through discourse in the composition community is our endless search for a universal musical language, a compositional voice that crosses geographic, language, and cultural boundaries. Composers are historically in a unique position. Unlike the modernist agenda that was forced on young composers in the 1950s and 1960s, we are now in a postmodern transition period, a time when everything and anything is possible and when composers are free to draw inspiration from musical cultures all over the world and from the past and present. In the 1980s, Miki began to devote considerable thought to “konketsu” (ethnic mixture, or ethnic diversity). The Japanese are close to being a single ethnic group. This parallel to the Nazis was one of the causes which led to the tragedies of the last war. Even after World War II, throughout the world we continue to witness the endless tragedy and conflict between nation and nation, people and people. All this has led me to the conviction that only through “konketsu” can we guarantee peace. Art cannot exist in isolation from society. Even in the field of serious music, ethnic mixture should be an important theme. Of course, if the ethnic mixture is not one of kindred spirits, each of equal artistic merit, the resultant union will be little more than a meaningless exercise. 1989, 167

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Miki’s concept of “ethnic mixture” and the importance of integrating disparate elements of “equal artistic merit” resonate in the works of many contemporary Japanese composers. 7

Conclusion

In each of the works examined in this chapter, we observed composers who negotiated their compositional identity amidst the conflicting values and aesthetic priorities of the past and present. These composers adapted to broad changes in Japanese society, changes reflected in the evolution of their compositional style through to the present day. In a sense, we can “read” their musical works as aural documents that sonically reflect Japan’s gradual transformation through history as a country negotiating its relationship with the past and present. As the world becomes smaller and smaller because of advances in communication technology, the notion of musical hybridity may become a salient feature of compositional expression worldwide. In the case of Japan, a country with a deep and rich musical history, this process may be exciting to observe. How does one express identity and negotiate the past and the present through the medium of musical composition? How do composers respond to changes in society at large, and how are these changes reflected in their music? Can musical hybridity, with its emphasis on “kindred spirits” of “equal artistic merit,” work to bring us together as a global community and be harnessed to imagine a society that encourages partnership and cooperation as a basic premise as Yuasa and Miki have suggested? These are questions for consideration in these unprecedented times, and the creative work of Japanese composers provides fertile ground for possible artistic responses. References Asia for Educators. n.d. “The Meiji Restoration and Modernization.” Accessed 20 October 2022. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm. Bellman, Jonathan. 1998. “Introduction.” In The Exotic in Western Music, edited by Jonathan Bellman, x–xiii. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Dahlaus, Carl. 1989. Nineteenth-Century Music. Translated by J. Bradford Robinson. Berkeley: University of California Press. Miki, Minoru. 1989. “The Role of Traditional Japanese Instruments in Three Recent Operas.” Perspectives of New Music 27 (2): 164–175.

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Tan, Margaret Leng. 1988. Margaret Leng Tan Plays Somei Satoh. New Albion Records, NA008 (CD). Tanizaki, Jun’ichirō. 1977. In Praise of Shadows. Translated by Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker. New Haven, CT: Leete’s Island Books. Wade, Bonnie. 2014. Composing Japanese Musical Modernity. London: University of Chicago Press. Yuasa, Jōji. 1989. “Music as a Reflection of a Composer’s Cosmetology.” Perspectives of New Music 27 (2): 176–197. Ziff, Bruce, and Pratima V. Rao, eds. 1997. Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

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Chapter 21

The Innate Hybridity of the Shamisen within Contemporary Music: The Physical, Musical, and Socio-Cultural Colleen C. SCHMUCKAL 1

Introduction

When the shamisen 三味線, a Japanese three-string lute, arrived from Okinawa in the sixteenth century, Japan’s musical identities were at a crossroads. Upon its introduction, the shamisen branched off into varying performance and regional styles that covered a wide range of social and musical needs (Tanaka 2009). These styles were clearly distinguished by the shamisen’s physical construction and playing devices, which helped create distinct timbres.1 As each shamisen genre became more defined, two major categories were formed: utamono 歌物, or lyrical shamisen genres that focus on the expression of the “music”; and katarimono 語り物, or narrative shamisen genres that focus on the expression of the “words.” As the genres developed around the same time in similar locations, there was fluidity between them—sharing musical materials and inspiring new performance techniques as well as new genres. However, because the actual performance styles of each genre differ greatly, it was rare for players to move between genres. This still holds true today. In 2007, I began to study the lyrical style of nagauta shamisen, later extending my study to jiuta (lyrical), Itchū-bushi (narrative), and modern shamisen music, and became fascinated by the shamisen’s complex “sound.”2 While this fascination led to years of struggling to comprehend how to hear and tune this instrument correctly, I came to understand that this cultivated hybrid “sound” was the key to understanding the shamisen’s musical uniqueness and potential, both historically and in modern Japan. 1 Variations in neck and body thicknesses are frequently divided into three categories: hosozao (thin neck), chūzao (medium neck), and futozao (thick neck). Variations are also found in the size, shape, and construction of the bachi 撥 (plectrum) and the koma 駒 (bridge). 2 In modern shamisen music, new compositions are written in Western notation and sometimes in a number (cypher) notation. The performance style is not defined but is often inspired by the nagauta or jiuta style of shamisen performance.

© Colleen C. SCHMUCKAL, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_023

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The Innate Hybridity of the Shamisen

To explore the uniqueness and contemporary potential of this shamisen “sound,” this chapter examines the instrument’s innate hybridity from three perspectives: physical, musical, and socio-cultural. The physical perspective focuses on the hybrid sound created from the unique construction and placement of the three strings and how composer Takahashi Kumiko 高橋久美子 (b. 1965) has taken advantage of this physical construction to create new shami­ sen sounds within her modern compositions. The musical perspective concentrates on the mixing of shamisen music and performance styles and how performer/composer Nakajima Katsusuke 中島勝祐 (1940–2009) used this to develop a modernized, original shamisen genre that invokes a personal history of movement between artistically different locations. The socio-cultural perspective focuses on the shamisen’s embodiment of these developments—its physical construction, performance styles, and cultural soundscapes—within particular locations and how, in the case of the Hanawa-bayashi 花輪ばやし festival, this causes the sound of the shamisen to evolve depending on the “time” and “place.” Looking at each perspective through my own personal experience as a composer, performer, and researcher of shamisen music will reveal the musical potential of the shamisen’s inherent hybrid “sound.” 2

Physical: Takahashi Kumiko’s “Yojigen Zahyō”

What makes the shamisen unique among the three-string lutes found throughout Asia and along the Silk Road is that it was created to have three contrasting sounds within the one instrument. These three distinct sounds are produced through the construction of the strings and their use during performance. The lowest and thickest (first) string, made of twisted silk or nylon, has a distinct “buzzing” sound, called sawari サワリ.3 This buzzing effect is created traditionally by placing the top of the first string over a groove and slight ridge—rather than on a nut—below the tuning pegs, causing it to vibrate at three different lengths (Sakata 1966, 141). This interference causes a metallic-like inharmonic drone that is juxtaposed with the string’s natural pure tone. The middle (second) string is made of twisted silk or nylon and rests on the nut at the end of the neck. This construction results in a physical texture like the first string but without the buzzing, creating a duller and sombre timbre in comparison to the clear harmonic overtones of the first string. However, 3 The shamisen isn’t the only Asian lute to create such a buzzing effect by placing the string in a groove (see also the sitar from India and the biwa 琵琶 from Japan). However, most lutes that use this effect add it to every string, not just to one string as on the shamisen.

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depending on which specific nodes are depressed, some pitches on the second string activate the first string’s sawari, thereby creating a deep resonance. The highest and thinnest (third) string is made of thin silk or nylon. Because of its bright, piercing timbre and range of volume, this string most commonly carries the melody. Like the second string, the third string can invoke the first string’s sawari, though it isn’t as strong or distinct as the second string. The third string can also, at times, take on a percussive “snap”-like sound when the plectrum strikes the skin covering the instrument’s sound table. From the perspective of construction and timbre, the shamisen can be viewed as a hybrid instrument based on the three distinct sonorities produced by each of its strings. This aspect alone gives the shamisen its broad traditional musical range. So what might a modern shamisen composition that aims to expose the untapped potential of each individual string sound like? Takahashi Kumiko explored this very question in a composition for solo shamisen, “Yojigen Zahyō” 四次元座標 (Four Dimensions; 2019).4 Takahashi is a classically trained composer of Western music who engages in compositional practices that aim to transcend traditional musical categories. She is a representative of the Hōgaku Composers Alliance 2010 (作曲家 グループ＜邦楽２０１０＞) and a member of Pro Musica Nipponia (日本音楽 集団), and she won the Prize in Excellence in the recording division of the 73rd Bunkachō Arts Festival (文化庁芸術祭) (Shakuhachi Hack 2022). I met Takahashi in 2012 at the premiere of my composition for solo shamisen, “The Ethereal Wind Dance” (風舞千尋). Since I joined the Hōgaku Composers Alliance 2010, we have spent much time discussing the role of Japanese instruments within contemporary music. Takahashi’s compositional method is to learn to play every instrument she writes for, especially Japanese traditional instruments, giving her works a performer’s point of view and unique compositional voice. However, just as many composers are biased to the soundscapes they are most familiar with, performers might be biased towards performance methods that lead to the most effective and familiar performances. Therefore, in 2019, Takahashi asked me, as a Western classically trained composer and traditional/modern shamisen performer, to perform in the premiere of her experimental composition for solo shamisen, “Yojigen Zahyō.” Surprisingly, the piece wasn’t an experimental jumble of unnatural and ineffective techniques, instead it was an example of solo shamisen music that explores the expressive potential of the instrument. In an interview with the author, Takahashi commented that “Yojigen Zahyō” aims to reveal the unique timbre of each string and inspire a “fourth dimension” of sound (2 June 2022). She lamented that shamisen melodies were 4 On Takahashi, see https://k-takahashi7.wixsite.com/website/. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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always played on the third string, saying: “I just wanted to hear the melody on the first string. I thought, what a unique tonal difference just the first string has! Therefore, one dimension became the first string, dimension two was the second string, and so forth, and the fourth dimension should go beyond all the strings and should give birth to a new, hybrid music.”5 By focusing on each string in its own “dimension,” Takahashi recognized the potential of the second string. The second string is the most overlooked string on the shamisen because it is harder to perform second-string techniques without causing a reaction from another string. However, because it is impossible to strike two strings simultaneously with the plectrum on the shamisen without touching the second string, the second string naturally establishes the instrument’s overall timbre, tuning, and musical mode. After realizing this, Takahashi’s excitement for the second string grew. She said, “If you use the second string skilfully, I think the [shamisen’s] possibilities will greatly expand.” The most interesting moments in “Yojigen Zahyō” are when the pitch is performed high on the second string while also pressing down or plucking the first and/or third strings, revealing a stunningly more vibrant and brighter second-string timbre. This can be heard in the climax of the 2nd Dimension, mm. 32–44, and 4th Dimension, mm. 94–152 (fig. 21.1). To create these otherworldly tonal soundscapes, Takahashi relies on the second string’s unusual timbre, which is always influencing and influenced by the other strings. The entire composition is a mixture of hybrid sounds based on the second string, creating a unique musical expression that sounds less “traditional” but completely idiomatic of the instrument physically. Takahashi wrote “Yojigen Zahyō” for my preferred shamisen style: hosozao shamisen (thin-neck instrument) with a tall, hollow ivory bridge and light ivory plectrum. However, just by changing to a different type of shamisen, bridge, and plectrum, the same score’s pitches would take on new, transformative timbres. But the shamisen’s hybridity is not limited to its physical construction. Through the fluidity historically heard between genres, it is possible to mix different techniques, performance styles, and musical interpretations from a variety of shamisen genres to create new sound identities. For instance, such hybridity, in combination with a personal journey of moving between culturally distinct shamisen performance settings, gave birth to Sōsaku Kamigata-jōruri 創作 上方浄るり (hereafter SKJ), a modern, “creative” genre, as discussed in the next section.6

5 The interviews were in Japanese, and the translations are my own. 6 Kamigata is a colloquial term for the Kansai region. This term is used particularly when discussing Edo-period culture. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Score for “Yojigen Zahyō” Copyright © Crossroads Publishing

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Figure 21.1

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Musical: Sōsaku Kamigata-jōruri and Nakajima Katsusuke

Nakajima Katsusuke was raised in Osaka and immersed in Kansai culture.7 Learning Tokiwazu-bushi narrative performance from a very young age, he later moved to Tokyo to study nagauta shamisen performance, graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1964 and receiving the performance name Tōon 東音.8 Thoroughly engaged in Edo performance practices, he composed over one hundred shamisen pieces (Nakano 2010, 12–17).9 Nakajima’s path briefly crossed mine in April 2009 at his last student recital.10 While my attendance was purely coincidental, I walked away bursting with inspiration and new ideas after experiencing the raw beauty, relatability, and expression in Nakajima’s shamisen playing. This introduction led to a friendship that has carried on with his family and students as I continue to analyse his compositions for personal and professional inspiration. Part of Nakajima’s musical appeal is his mastery of “word painting” through a variety of compositional methods and relatable melodies (Schmuckal 2013, 25). As a member of the Nakajima Katsusuke Memorial Group (中島勝祐記 念会) explained to me, it was typical of Nakajima to spend long spans of time reading texts until he fully understood the nuances of the lyrics (pers. comm., 2 August 2022). Furthermore, he always wanted to add at least one memorable melody to every piece he wrote; this way the audience could enjoy listening to his music while comprehending the meaning of the lyrics through familiar “sounds” (ibid.). His desire to create such music, which was possibly tied to his own history of moving between locations and cultures, led him to fashion a new style of performance, SKJ, in 1995. While Nakajima’s main craft was Edo nagauta shamisen performance, he was still infatuated with the Tokiwazu-bushi style he knew from his youth, and his creation of SKJ gave him new-found compositional energy (Kubota 2010, 42). This creative vitality was channelled into expressing the unique nuances of the Kamigata dialect through modern compositions that were relatively short (i.e., lasted less than ten minutes) and easy to experience (pers. comm., 2 August 2022; Umewaka 2010, 31). Even though the style of his new genre is 7 Southern-central Honshū (Japan’s largest island). 8 Tokiwazu-bushi was founded in 1747 by Tokiwazu Mojidayū I 常磐津文字太夫 (1709–81). The ensemble includes two chūzao shamisen and three narrators (tayū). 9 Edo is the historical name for Tokyo. It is used particularly when discussing Edo-period culture. 10 Tōon Nakajima Katsusuke 50th Anniversary Nagauta Concert, the 32nd Onyū-kai (東音 中島勝祐　芸歴五十年記念　長唄演奏會　第三十二回　音祐会), 21 April 2009, at the National Theatre in Tokyo.

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firmly rooted in Kamigata, the shamisen part is inspired by lyrical Edo nagauta and narrative Edo Tokiwazu-bushi. While this genre uses an Edo hosozao shamisen, Nakajima replaced the bridge with one that is comparatively thick, short, and made of water buffalo horn with lead inlay, which is more typical of Kamigata jiuta shamisen. This change of bridge makes the bright, expressive shamisen sound warmer, more lyrical and sombre, giving this new genre its own distinct colour that feels like a traditional yet modern Kamigata narrative genre. The ensemble for SKJ is flexible, but it generally includes a hikigatari 弾き 語り (shamisen performer/narrator), solo shamisen, flutes (shinobue 篠笛 and nōkan 能管 played at different times by the same person), and off-stage hayashi 囃子 (Japanese percussion).11 Due to this genre’s inherent hybridity, the hikigatari needs to be able to move fluidly between all performance, cultural, musical, and locational styles. At first, Nakajima was hesitant to take on the main hikigatari role, even though he trained in Tokiwazu-bushi narration and grew up in Osaka. However, after commissioning the first SKJ composition and hearing Nakajima’s unprecedented sound, which could only be created by his embodiment of different performance traditions, dancer Yoshimura Yukio 吉村雄輝夫 insisted that Nakajima perform as hikigatari (pers. comm., 2 August 2022). SKJ’s scope was later expanded, crossing over with another traditional Osaka art form, bunraku 文楽 (puppet theatre). For example, the piece “Kakuregasa Kijo no Omokage” 隠れ笠鬼女面影 (Hidden Traces of a Female Oni; 2006), with music by Nakajima Katsusuke and libretto by Yamasaki Yūchirō 山崎有一郎 (1913–2016), was first produced as a solo dance piece called “Oniwa Soto e” 鬼は 外へ (The Oni is Outside; 1997). Based on Setsubun 節分, the kyōgen 狂言 play, “Oniwa Soto e” is the story of a female oni 鬼 (ogre) running into a town during the setsubun ritual and falling in love.12 With a story that is easy to relate to, a playful, cute character, and catchy melody, this composition was rearranged for bunraku and renamed “Kakuregasa Kijo no Omokage” (fig. 21.2). The piece became a mixture of SKJ and bunraku with a kyōgen narrative base, becoming the first puppet dance to be placed on the noh (nō) 能 stage (Yamasaki 2010, 20). As discussed below, the shamisen’s role within this piece is to seamlessly connect all of the contrasting musical and narrative styles: interlinking Kamigata and Edo in music. Furthermore, the sound of the shamisen links the performance of the hayashi flute and drums to the puppet’s dance movements. 11 Including kotsuzumi 小鼓 (shoulder drum), ōtsuzumi 大鼓 (hip drum), shime-daiko 締め 太鼓 (stick drum), and flutes (shinobue and nōkan). 12 Setsubun is the day before the beginning of spring, when beans are scattered outside to drive away evil from the previous year. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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“Kakuregasa Kijo no Omokage,” Tōon Nakajima Katsusuke Recital, National Theatre, Small Theatre, 1997. Hikigatari: Tōon Nakajima Katsusuke; puppeteer: Kanjyūrō Kiritake 桐竹勘十郎; art: Ikariyama Takayasu 碇山喬廉 Copyright © Hōgaku to Buyō

Therefore, this piece and genre rely on the shamisen’s history of mixing genres and sounds (Tanaka 2009, 29–122), naturally binding each musically contrasting element and building a personalized soundscape of story, location, and history. For example, some melodic phrases in “Kakuregasa Kijo no Omokage” require the shamisen performers to push the flat of their fingernails against the side of the string to create a percussive, scratch-like twang to make the music imitate the claws of the oni. Furthermore, many of these sound effects, including sliding the pitch up and down along a string, line up with how the narrator raises or lowers his voice while pronouncing particular words and the subtle movements of the puppet itself, thereby entangling shamisen performance techniques with the storytelling. This feature can be observed near the middle of the piece when the oni is peeking through a window to spy on her lover, only to get her eye pierced with holly. Here, the shamisen hikigatari performs a low arpeggiated chord that ends on a repeating plucked mid-tone, as if it is the sound of the oni crying while she tends to her sore eye. Then the shamisen player’s finger physically and audibly slides down a string, lowering the pitch, lining up with the puppet’s hand moving to the side and flicking the thorn to the ground. This slide leads to another tonal slide, this time to a higher pitch, which becomes the basis for the next dance-like melody and the entrance of the entire ensemble. During these moments, the puppet, voice, and entire instrumental ensemble clash with each other, creating an enjoyable,

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accessible, and musically rich composition of hybrid techniques and musical genres that spans traditions and locations. “Kakuregasa Kijo no Omokage” was performed three times before Nakajima’s passing on 24 December 2009. Today, when this composition is performed, a recording of Nakajima’s unique hikigatari performance is often used, because few performers can embody the hybridity of cultures that made up Nakajima’s identity and performance style. The six pieces that make up SKJ were not the first Nakajima had composed to explore the potential of new musical voices when combining different shamisen genres; this genre shows, not just the musical potential for the shamisen in contemporary music, but also how locations, music, and identities can be naturally pasted together through the shamisen’s innate hybridity. But when this hybridity is expanded beyond the traditional mixing of performance styles and sounds from different genres and includes aspects of societies and cultures that have been influenced by the historical movement of people between locations, the shamisen can take on a new, modern role. For instance, such hybridity, in close relation to a growing and changing society, gave birth to the continually evolving tradition of Hanawa-bayashi, as discussed in the next section. 4

Socio-Cultural: Hanawa-bayashi

First documented officially in 1765, Hanawa-bayashi is hayashi festival music from rural Hanawa, Kazuno city in Akita prefecture (fig. 21.3).13 Because of its copper mines, this location in the far north was known as the “mountain of gold” and became part of a major highway route for merchants, samurai, and nobles (Katsuno-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2013, 5). Hanawa-bayashi is performed every year from 19 to 21 August, and ten neighbourhood Shinto floats move the hayashi ensembles throughout the town in three parades: Otabisho 御旅所 (19 August, from 17:30–23:00), Asazume 朝詰 (20 August, 0:00–5:00), and Aka Torii Tsume 赤鳥居詰 (20–21 August, 19:00–4:00). Like Gion-bayashi 祇園囃子 in Kyoto and Kanda-bayashi 神田囃子 in Tokyo, hayashi festival music is traditionally made up of mostly percussive sounds in more ritualistic, rhythmic, and atmospheric music tied directly to a Shinto shrine. Because the Kazuno region has historical ties to the ancient noble 13 Hanawa-bayashi was first documented in a regulation concerning holidays for the Osarizawa copper mine (尾去沢鉱山). The music is associated with Shinto ritual; instruments include stick drums (ōdaiko 大太鼓, chūdaiko 中太鼓), bamboo transverse flutes (shinobue, nōkan), and hand gong (surigane 摺り鉦). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Figure 21.3

Group photo of a Hanawa-bayashi float from 1933 and photo from 2022 of the Asazume parade in Shinden neighbourhood at 4 am Left: Courtesy of Tozawa Masaei 戸澤正英; right: Photo by author, 2022

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culture of Kyoto and Nara, it has been theorized that Hanawa-bayashi is related to Kyoto’s Gion-bayashi (Katsuno-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2013, 72). While this theory explains the high artistry found in the floats’ designs and hand-performance techniques of the flute and drums, it overlooks the most unique aspect of Hanawa-bayashi: the shamisen. Records from 1905 show that the shamisen was included in Hanawa-bayashi, and the addition of the shamisen has influenced Hanawa-bayashi and transformed it into a unique hayashi festival genre (Katsuno-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2013, 72; Odagiri 2010, 69). Its uniqueness is partly due to a socio-cultural controversy over having a “prostitute’s instrument” (i.e., referring to the shamisen) performing with the religiously pure hayashi drums (Odagiri 2010, 13–14). In 2018, I was challenged to perform Hanawa-bayashi shamisen on the Funaba 舟場 neighbourhood float after memorizing all twelve standard compositions. As I am Edo-style trained, this challenge frightened me because I knew northern Japan was famous for another style of shamisen, Tsugaru shamisen. Tsugaru shamisen, from Aomori prefecture, is distinctive for performing folk melodies on a futozao (thick neck) shamisen with quick rhythms, loud percussive slaps of the plectrum striking the skin covering the sound box, and strong, dynamic sliding (Tanaka 2009, 111–112).14 This type of shamisen has become popular and a staple of the northern rural soundscape, and it is the standard shamisen used in Hanawa-bayashi. As Tsugaru shamisen contrasts physically, stylistically, and regionally with nagauta shamisen style, I was surprised to find that the shamisen of Hanawa-bayashi feels nostalgic and idiomatic of Edo. This is because Hanawa-bayashi’s music, especially the shamisen itself, embodies the naturally occurring movement of people and their music through the Kazuno region, becoming a sort of time capsule that links sound to place. The town of Hanawa started encapsulating its identities and sounds during the Edo period, when the Osarizawa and Shirane mines (present-day Komaki mine) became valuable sources of wealth, attracting merchants and nobles who brought with them high culture and luxury goods from Edo and Kamigata. The high culture from Edo can be directly observed in Hanawa’s Town Dance Festival (町踊り)—performed on shamisen, drums, and voice—which preserves the “Edo Spirit” (江戸情緒) from that time (Katsuno-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2013, 5). It is precisely this “Edo Spirit” that I recognized when I performed Hanawa-bayashi shamisen.

14

As well as having a thick neck, the Tsugaru shamisen uses a thin, tall, bone inlay bridge and a heavy, turtle-shell plectrum.

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While Hanawa-bayashi is performed on a modern Tsugaru shamisen, the performing style and sound is incongruously Edo.15 For example, instrumental slides are few, softer in volume, and have more nuance in their movement, and the techniques hajiki (left-hand plucking) and sukui (upward plectrum stroke) are used to emphasize important notes. This unique performance style can be observed in the composition “Gion” 祇園 (composer and composition date unknown). “Gion” has three distinct melodic phrases (fig. 21.4): “A” is played on the third string; “B” is played on the second string; and “C” is played on the first string (A’ is an extension of A). The shamisen’s range is expanded through each phrase’s lower octave, resulting in clear registral and timbral distinctions. Delicate techniques are added to accentuate important pitches, such as the last repeated note 6 of “A,” which is emphasized with a hajiki technique and the slow, jiuta-like slide on the second string between notes 2 and 4 of “B.” Only phrase “C” lacks the use of extended techniques. However, older recordings reveal a noisy, quick, violent slide on the repeated low note 2 on the first string, making this phrase more like that of Tsugaru shamisen.16 As the Tsugaru shami­ sen’s popularity is widespread in northern Japan, at least since the 1950s, its style has notably influenced Hanawa-bayashi’s music and its musicians, who all perform Tsugaru shamisen. For the delicate timbral techniques based on Edo-style music to be heard, the booming drums need to hold back to create musical space. Therefore, the role of the Hanawa-bayashi festival drums is transformed from being the centrepiece of the music, as seen in some other festival hayashi genres, to supporting and highlighting the shamisen’s sound. How the shamisen of Hanawa came to join the traditional Edo style with the more recent Tsugaru shamisen style can be attributed to the pioneering geinin 芸人 (performers) of Hanawa-bayashi. Since the Meiji era, geinin have been virtuosic performers of shamisen or flute and are paid for their involvement in Hanawa-bayashi (Katsuno-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2013, 83). They are credited with creating new performance techniques and writing new compositions for Hanawa-bayashi.17 Geinin have continued to transform the music to reflect the needs of each new generation. Today, many performance techniques have been simplified, and some scalic tones have been tuned higher to make the 15 The Tsugaru shamisen’s loudness in comparison to other shamisen is needed to compete with the hayashi drums. 16 See the recording Hanawa-bayashi to Machi-odori ko (1974). 17 Takasugi Zenmatsu 高杉善松 (1915–86) was a particularly influential blind geinin. He was a shamisen, voice, flute, and shakuhachi virtuoso, versed in many styles of shamisen performance, including Tsugaru shamisen, folk music, and Hanawa’s Town Dance Festival. Present-day shamisen geinin trace their performance lineage back to Takasugi.

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The three phrases of “Gion” in bunkafu notation Adapted from the notation of Kodama (2015b)

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overall tonal colour seem like it is in a major key, over the more traditional sounding minor sonority, to accommodate changing musical trends. As one geinin explained during fieldwork, “In our time, festival shamisen players had to compete for apprenticeships for several years to perform at festivals, and only then were they able to perform on the float itself. Nowadays, there are only a few people, and with the current situation where people can immediately participate in a small workshop, skills have declined” (pers. comm., 25 January 2022). In 2015, transcriptions of the Hanawa-bayashi’s shamisen part using bunkafu notation were made public (Kodama 2015a).18 These transcriptions included markings for the different performance practices in Hanawa over generations, resulting in notation that carefully shows the bodily gestures of the collected performance styles and the lineages from geinin. This work has revealed a modernized traditional shamisen style that is musically engaging on its own and creates a link between “time” and “place” through its socio-cultural hybridity. This hybridity can be observed in the history that has created this distinct shamisen sound and performances during the festival. During most of the festival, the piece “Hon-bayashi” 本ばやし (composer and date unknown)—an entertaining, swinging, drumming heavy, Tsugaru shamisen melody—provides the musical backdrop as the ten floats move around the town, eventually gathering in front of Kazuno-Hanawa Station where an impressive spectacle of lights, carvings, and hayashi music takes place. However, once the festival enters a spiritual time frame between dusk and dawn, the musical identity shifts from flashy entertainment to a solemn Shinto ritual. In the early morning of 20 August, the procession moves through the narrow streets of Shinden 新田町 neighbourhood, where Ubusunagami 産土神様 (guardian deity of one’s birthplace) from Sakiwai Inari Shrine 幸稲荷神社 waits for each neighbourhood’s commemorative piece of music.19 These dedication pieces tend to be slower, with extended shamisen performance techniques and specialized hand movements by the drummers. This sombre atmosphere reaches its peak around 3 am, when the morning mist is at its thickest. Here, each float performs the lyrical, tension-filled composition “Kiri-bayashi” 霧な やし (composer and date unknown) as they begin their march back to their associated neighbourhoods. This piece is unique for its long musical moments 18 Bunkafu is a numbered tablature notation based on fingerings. 19 See http://www.hanawabayashi.jp/hanawabayashi/gaiyo-midokoro/hbm-asadume/. Sakiwai Inari Shrine is the protecting shrine of Hanawa.

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when the drummers “suspend” time by freezing their beating, holding their sticks against the skin of the drums, and making space for the shamisen’s long, expressive pitch slides. The socio-cultural context is in constant flux depending on the “time” or “place” the festival is occupying. It is the performance style of the shamisen that transmits these deeper meanings: it connects with a multitude of traditional performance practices and interlinks the shamisen’s unique, hybrid sound between genres to better convey the dynamic identity of the town. 5

Conclusion

Examining my own musical journey with the shamisen, I am reminded of a statement made by cultural theorist Homi Bhabha, in his book The Location of Culture: What is theoretically innovative, and politically crucial, is the need to think beyond narratives of ordinary and initial subjectivities and to focus on those moments or processes that are produced in the articulation of cultural differences. These “in-between” spaces provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood—singular or communal—that initiate new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation, in the act of defining the idea of society itself. Bhabha 1994, 2

Relating these thoughts to my own experience with the shamisen (as a performer, composer, and ethnomusicologist), the hybridity—physical, musical, and socio-cultural—of this instrument, as well as its potential within contemporary music, is found in these unique “in-between” spaces. The shamisen acts as an audible musical glue, binding together many facets of Japanese identity, including past to present, southern to northern, Japanese to non-Japanese, and traditional to modern. These points exemplify how the shamisen has been able to express personalized musical voices and how, in modern music and Japan, it can continue to create new identities within contemporary culture.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Takahashi Kumiko, Nakajima Hisako, and the entire town of Hanawa for giving me insight into such amazing music.

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References Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. Hanawa-bayashi to Machi-odori ko 花輪ばやしと町踊りコ. 1974. CBS/Sony, YFSC-20 (LP). Katsuno-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 鹿角市教育委員会. 2013. Katsuno-shi bunkazai chōsa shiryō 105 shū “Hanawa matsuri” 鹿角市文化財調査資料第一〇五集「花輪祭り」. Kazuno: Katsuno-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 鹿角市教育委員会. Kodama, Tadahiro 児玉忠廣. 2015a. Akita no matsuri-bayashi: Shamisen kyōsokubon “kyōtsū-hen” 秋田の祭り囃子　三味線教則本《共通偏》. Akita: Akita Min’yō Kikaku 秋田みんよう企画. Kodama, Tadahiro 児玉忠廣. 2015b. Hanawa-bayashi: “Shamisen gakufu-hen” 花輪ばや し《三味線楽譜編》. Akita: Akita Min’yō Kikaku 秋田みんよう企画. Kubota, Satoko 久保田敏子. 2010. “Nakajima Katsusuke-shi o shinobu” 中島勝祐を偲 ぶ. Hōgaku to Buyō 邦楽と舞踊 61 (6): 38–44. Nakano, Yoshinori 中野義徳. 2010. “Tsuitō: Tōon Nakajima Katsusuke no shōgai” 追悼: 東音中島勝祐の生涯. Hōgaku to Buyō 邦楽と舞踊 61 (6): 11–17. Odagiri, Yasuto 小田切廉人. 2010. Hanawa-bayashi no rūtsu wa Ō shū Hiraizumi ni atta 花輪ばやしのル－ツは奥州平泉にあった. Tokyo: Bungeisha 文藝社. Sakata, Lorraine. 1966. “The Comparative Analysis of Sawari on the Shamisen.” Ethnomusicology 10 (2): 141–152. https://doi.org/10.2307/924695. Schmuckal, Colleen. 2013. “A Study of Contemporary Japanese Music Works with a Focus on Nagauta: Analysis of Works by Nakajima Katsusuke.” Master’s thesis, Yokohama National University. Shakuhachi Hack. 2022. “Kumiko Takahashi.” Accessed 9 August 2022. https://shaku hachihack.com/archives/author/kumiko_takahashi?page=profile. Tanaka, Yumiko 田中悠美子, Nogawa Mihoko 野川美穂子, and Haikawa Mika 配川 美加, eds. 2009. Marugoto shamisen no hon まるごと三味線の本. Tokyo: Seikyūsha 青弓社. Umewaka, Kanjirō 楳若勧二郎. 2010. “Nakajima sensei to no deai, soshite kazukazu no isaku o shinobu” 中島先生との出会い、そひて数々の遺作を偲ぶ. Hōgaku to Buyō 邦楽と舞踊 61 (6): 31. Yamasaki, Yūchirō 山崎有一郎. 2010. “Nakajima Katsusuke-shi o shinobu” 中島勝祐を 偲ぶ. Hōgaku to Buyō 邦楽と舞踊 61 (6): 20.

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Chapter 22

Rethinking the Evolution of Japanese Music: Kunimoto Takeharu and Katō Kinji’s Electric Shamisen Keisuke YAMADA 1

Introduction

In April 2018, I attended an evening musical event called Chito-Shan Tei ちとしゃ ん亭 at Shamisen Katō 三味線かとう, a shamisen 三味線 (three-string lute) store located in Arakawa ward, Tokyo.1 Katō Kinji 加藤金治 is a craftsman who specializes in kawabari 皮張り (a technique of stretching a dog or cat skin over the body of a shamisen) and in repairing other parts of the musical instrument.2 In 1989, Katō founded his store and, since then, has organized the Chito-Shan Tei concert. The shamisen, spatula-shaped shamisen plectra, instrument cases, and other related accessories usually displayed in the store were all removed temporarily for this event. The Japanese-style room of approximately fourteen tatami-mat size was turned into a small concert space (fig. 22.1).3 This was Shamisen Katō’s forty-fifth such event. The audience of around twenty could watch the musical performance from either inside or outside of the store. The concert consisted of two sets and was performed by shamisen players and singers, from professional to amateur, in a variety of styles. The first set included the performance of kouta 小唄 (short songs), min’yō 民謡 (folk songs), Tokiwazu 常磐津 (narrative music), and bluegrass (on shamisen). The second set featured Tsugaru shamisen 津軽三味線 performance. Tsugaru shamisen is a style of music developed in the performance tradition of Tsugaru min’yō 津軽民謡, folk songs from the Tsugaru district, which lies in the west of Aomori

1 In researching for this chapter, I conducted several periods of fieldwork on shamisen music culture in Japan, namely, from November 2012 to August 2014, in the summer of 2015, and from August 2017 to August 2018. All translations from Japanese sources, including ethnographic interviews, are my own, with the exception of those already available in English. On Shamisen Katō, see http://www.shamisen-katoh.com/en/. 2 For a comprehensive study of the shamisen, see Johnson (2010). 3 The standard size of a tatami mat—or one jō 畳—is approximately 182 cm × 91 cm.

© Keisuke YAMADA, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_024

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A concert space in Shamisen Katō Photo by author, 2018

prefecture, northeast Japan.4 Katō invited two professional Tsugaru shamisen players, Abe Kinzaburō 阿部金三郎 and Abe Ginzaburō 阿部銀三郎, as the main guest performers. The brother unit played their own arrangement of a folk song from Akita prefecture called “Nikata Matsuzaka” 荷方松坂, their original composition, and an instrumental piece featuring their own improvisatory solos modelled on “Tsugaru Jongara Shinbushi” 津軽じょんがら新節.5 During the event, my attention was particularly drawn to the tribute performance to Kunimoto Takeharu 国本武春, who was a shamisen player and rōkyoku 浪曲 (traditional narrative singing, also known as naniwa-bushi 浪花節) performer and died on 24 December 2015, at the age of fifty-five. Kunimoto was 4 On the history of Tsugaru shamisen music, see Groemer (1999) and Johnson (2006). For a comprehensive study of min’yō in general, see Hughes (2008a, 2008b). 5 “Tsugaru Jongara-bushi” 津軽じょんがら節 is one of the Tsugaru godai min’yō 津軽五大民 謡 (five great folk songs of Tsugaru). The other four folk songs are “Tsugaru Ohara-bushi” 津 軽小原節, “Tsugaru Yosare-bushi” 津軽よされ節, “Tsugaru Aiya-bushi” 津軽あいや節, and “Tsugaru Sansagari” 津軽三下り.

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the main guest performer in the first Chito-Shan Tei event, and he composed the song “Chito-Shan Tei’s Theme.” In the tribute performance, Shimo Tatsuya played the shamisen, and Kashima Kōhei played a snare drum. Influenced by the music of Kunimoto, Shimo combined rōkyoku with bluegrass music; he sang over a I-I-V-I power chord (root plus the fifth) progression played on his shamisen. Since the 1990s, Katō has been known for developing an electric shamisen named Mugen 21 夢絃２１.6 Katō drew inspiration from watching Kunimoto’s musical performance, and Kunimoto himself participated in the development of the Mugen 21. The electric shamisen facilitated musical collaboration, enabling musicians to perform with players of various Western musical instruments. This chapter explores Katō’s invention of the Mugen 21 in collaboration with Kunimoto and how such collaboration contributed to the development and generalization of Japanese music today. Rōkyoku is derived from street performance called chobokure ちょぼくれ during the Edo period (Inada 2017, 54). By the end of this period, chobokure took place in temporary huts. It had been a type of busking before the new Meiji government officially allowed those artists to perform on the stage of variety theatres. It was then named naniwa-bushi. Naniwatei Komakichi 浪花亭駒吉 (1842–1906) became a key figure in the development of naniwa-bushi; his students later formed various schools (ryūha 流派) of rōkyoku, including Azumaya 東家, Tamagawa 玉川, and Kasugai 春日井. There is a rich body of work on the history of rōkyoku, especially in Japanese-language scholarship (Inada 2017; Masaoka 2009; Shiba 1977, 1989; Yui 1999). Such scholarship focuses on listing the names of rōkyoku performers and repertoires and identifying the master-disciple relationships among these performers and their lineages from the Edo period to the present. The existing historiography of rōkyoku, in other words, has much emphasized the role of performers in the musical style’s development.7 Instead, this chapter argues that it is equally important to look at the work of craftspeople when thinking about the evolution of rōkyoku as well as other styles in Japanese music history. Elsewhere I have discussed the issue of discrimination against craftsmen in the shamisen instrument industry in contemporary Japan (Yamada 2020a). But in this chapter, drawing especially on the work of John Tresch and Emily Dolan (2013) and Chris Pearson (2015), I rather examine the extent to which musical 6 The first kanji (夢) means “dream,” while the latter kanji (絃) means “string.” 7 An important exception is Yui Jirō’s Jitsuroku rōkyoku shi (A Documentary Record of the History of Rōkyoku; 1999), which analyses the influence of related associations, radio and record companies, war, and other factors on the music’s development in modern Japan.

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instruments as “nonhuman agents” can effectively be incorporated into historical narratives. This attempt may contribute to a more inclusive writing and nuanced understanding of key aspects of Japanese music history. 2

Kunimoto Takeharu

Kunimoto Takeharu was born into a family of rōkyoku performers. But his father soon afterward retired from the world of rōkyoku and began a new job to provide financial stability for the household. Because his mother, Kunimoto Harumi 国本晴美, was mostly travelling around the country performing rōkyoku, Kunimoto had not had opportunities to listen to rōkyoku at home (Themis 2008, 98). Instead, when he was a junior high and high school student, he listened mainly to Western music (yōgaku 洋楽), such as bluegrass and rock music, and played the guitar and mandolin in a band called Kotobuki Brothers. Kunimoto was particularly influenced by the music of American mandolinist and singer-songwriter Bill Monroe, who was considered the pioneer of bluegrass music. Kunimoto also learned Tsugaru shamisen. After graduating high school, Kunimoto studied drama at a professional training college (senmon gakkō 専門学校) and later learned the shamisen from Azumaya Misako 東家 みさ子. In 1981, Kunimoto officially became a pupil of Azumaya Kōraku, the rōkyoku performer and Misako’s spouse. In the following year, he made his debut as a rōkyoku performer at a theatre called Honmokutei 本牧亭, located in Ueno, Tokyo. Before 1981, there had been no newcomers in the field of rōkyoku for about fifteen years; rōkyoku was a declining and dying musical tradition in Japan.8 Yet Kunimoto made several innovative attempts to revitalize rōkyoku. He developed the technique of hikigatari 弾き語り, in which he recited to his own shamisen accompaniment. This technique was uncommon in rōkyoku at that time because a singer had always employed a shamisen accompanist onstage. In the recital entitled Shamisen Sekai Ryokō 三味線世界旅行 (The Shamisen Travelling the World), Kunimoto used the shamisen to mimic several different musical styles, such as flamenco, blues, rock, Okinawan folk music, and Tsugaru shamisen. In his own contemporary rōkyoku composition entitled “Za Chūshingura” ザ・忠臣蔵 (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), he recited to his so-called “rock shamisen” along with funk rhythm patterns, which emphasized 8 According to Morita (2007, 63), as of 2007, there were approximately fifty rōkyoku performers in Tokyo and forty in the Kansai region, but only half of them were professionally active, frequently performing on stage.

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off-beats.9 Kunimoto sang over a basic “rock ’n’ roll” 12-bar blues chord progression based on I (tonic), IV (subdominant), and V (dominant) as well as a pre-recorded backing track. As Kunimoto put it in a 2009 interview, Rōkyoku is essentially a free art, and there should be no rules that govern its performance. It constitutes a form of storytelling in which one sings and recites a story with a shamisen accompaniment. People perform rōkyoku very free. Sad stories generated urei-bushi 愁い節 [tunes of sorrow], while pleasant stories generated ukare-bushi 浮かれ節 [merry tunes]. In today’s interpretations, the urei-bushi can be a ballad or blues, and the ukare-bushi can be funk or rap. Even though I have constantly changed the form of musical expression, the core intention of reciting and singing stories that reach people’s hearts remains the same as it was in the past. Cited in Kamata 2009, 33; my translation

Kunimoto also performed bluegrass music on shamisen. Bunkachō 文化 庁—the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan—once selected Kunimoto as a Japan Cultural Envoy (文化交流使), and from 2003 to 2004, he studied bluegrass music at East Tennessee State University in the US.10 In 2004, together with American bluegrass performers, he formed a band called The Last Frontier and released an album entitled Appalachian Shamisen (2005) in both Japan and the US.11 The idea of “individual agency” might well explain those innovations made by Kunimoto, especially given the fact that traditional Japanese performing arts in general have been under the control of strict iemoto 家元 headmaster systems over time (Yamada 2017). But here I highlight the ways in which the work of the craftsman Katō Kinji as well as his electric shamisen technically 9 Chūshingura 忠臣蔵 is an eighteenth-century tale of the forty-seven rōnin 浪人 (masterless samurai). It has been one of the most famous dramas in Japan; different versions of the tale appeared in classical bunraku 文楽 puppet theatre and kabuki 歌舞伎 theatre as well as contemporary Japanese TV drama series and movies. 10 Since 2003, Bunkachō has been selecting individuals committed to cultural activities such as fine art, music, and choreography as “Japan Cultural Envoys,” with the aim of “deepen[ing] the international community’s understanding of Japanese culture and  … build[ing] and strengthen[ing] networks between Japanese and foreign artists and experts.” For more on the Japanese government’s cultural project, see Bunkachō (2022). 11 For more on Kunimoto Takeharu, see, for example, Kamata (2009); Kunimoto (2012); Kunimoto, Sawamura, and Kodama (2013); Themis (2008); Morita (2007).

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supported Kunimoto’s musical performance and became an important factor in the development and generalization of Japanese music. 3

Katō Kinji and the Electric Shamisen

I first came to know about Kunimoto Takeharu through Katō Kinji when I visited him for an interview in August 2017. Katō has been known for the invention of the electric shamisen, Mugen 21. The instrument contains a piezoelectric pickup inside the body; this system electronically picks up sound vibrations that are amplified through a loudspeaker. “The motivation of this invention,” Katō said to me, “stemmed directly from Kunimoto” (pers. comm., 9 August 2017). When he watched a performance of Kunimoto’s band for the first time, he noticed that the shamisen sound was buried under that of the guitar and keyboards onstage. The impetus for the development of the electric shamisen by Katō was thus due to the weakness in the volume of the (acoustic) shamisen, especially when it is played in a band that includes Western musical instruments (yōgakki 洋楽器), such as electric keyboards, the guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Shamisen players commonly use a microphone that is positioned just in front of the body of the instrument. This setting works well with other Japanese traditional musical instruments (wagakki 和楽器), such as the taiko 太鼓 (drum) and the shakuhachi 尺八 (end-blown flute), in the performance of Japanese folk songs in larger venues. However, in Katō’s view, with Western musical instruments, particularly electric ones, the shami­ sen’s sound easily gets weaker when the microphone in front of the shamisen unwittingly captures those sounds electric musical instruments produce. Katō is also critical of the sharp attack sounds that are produced as a result of the tip of a shamisen plectrum contacting strings. These sharp attack sounds tend to be emphasized particularly in the sound setting of Tsugaru shamisen performance today. Around 1990, Katō invented the first prototype of the Mugen 21. He encouraged Kunimoto to use it onstage; Kunimoto participated in this project as a tester. On 27 July 1990, Katō organized a concert by Kunimoto and his band at the Nippori Sunny Hall 日暮里サニーホール in Tokyo. This musical event was entitled Tobu Shamisen 翔ぶ三味線 (The Flying Shamisen). The second set of the concert featured the Kunimoto Takeharu Band, including Matsuura Motoyoshi 松浦基悦 on keyboard, Natori Toyohiro 名取豊広 on guitar, and Kunimoto on shamisen and vocals. Besides Kunimoto, Honjō Hidetarō 本條 秀太郎, a composer of shamisen music as well as a shamisen player, used the

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Mugen 21 in a concert (Amateru 海照) held in Gotanda, Tokyo on 13 January 1992; six electric shamisen—two futozao (or Tsugaru) shamisen, three shortnecked chūzao shamisen, and a regular chūzao shamisen—were used in the performance.12 Katō helped organize this musical event as well. When Katō showed me the latest version at the time of the Mugen 21 in August 2017, I saw several components that were installed and embedded in the instrument. An output jack hole was drilled into one side of the body, and the usual dog or cat skin on the back was replaced with a plastic board, which enabled one to insert a nine-volt battery into the body and to install tone and volume controls (figs. 22.2 and 22.3). The piezoelectric pickup was attached to the reverse side of the front skin, so that I could not see it. Katō allowed me to play the Mugen 21 through an amplifier in the store; I did not hear those sharp attack sounds that a microphone usually captures in the conventional

Figure 22.2

The Mugen 21’s output jack hole Photo by author, 2017

12 Today, scholars as well as musicians classify the shamisen instrument into three types based on the size of the neck: hosozao 細棹 (thin neck) with a width less than 2.6 cm; chūzao 中棹 (medium neck) with a width of 2.6–2.8 cm; and futozao 太棹 (thick neck) with a width more than 2.8 cm. The measurements provided are approximate. The shami­ sen for the Tsugaru style is usually the futozao size, so the futozao shamisen is often called “Tsugaru.”

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The back of the Mugen 21 Photo by author, 2017

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sound setting of Tsugaru shamisen performance. Katō encourages contemporary shamisen players to use their own volume and effect pedals, such as delay, reverb, compressor, and distortion. Most shamisen players I have met in Japan use these pedals whenever they utilize the electric shamisen onstage. On such occasions, the electric shamisen is usually joined by Western musical instruments; I have not seen Tsugaru shamisen players using their electric shamisen in min’yō (folk song) concerts or on other occasions where only those musical instruments categorized as “Japanese musical instruments” are employed. Since the Mugen 21 uses a natural skin on the front, one may use it as an acoustic shamisen without amplification onstage. Different types of the Mugen 21 are currently available at Shamisen Katō, including Tsugaru or futozao (thick neck), chūzao (medium neck), and hosozao (thin neck) (Shamisen Katō 2022). At the time when Katō created the Mugen 21, he expressed his view on the future of the shamisen instrument and its relation to other musical instruments, including both Japanese and Western musical instruments: The shamisen instrument has a long history, and its form is almost fully developed. Many musicians play the instrument skilfully, and that is all right. However, today it has increasingly become easier for various musical instruments from around the world to be mixed with each other and to produce something novel. In such an era, I want to help the shamisen get along with the world’s instruments. Cited in Hōgaku Jānaru 1991, 14; my translation

Katō was particularly aware of the increasing cultural impact of Western musical instruments on Japanese music (hōgaku 邦楽) in the late twentieth century. Tresch and Dolan’s idea of an instrument’s map of mediation can explain Katō’s own view on cultural changes. Tresch and Dolan have developed the concept of “ethics of instruments” for a thorough analysis of instruments’ modes of being, by drawing on Michel Foucault’s definition of ethics as an “aesthetics of existence” (2013, 282). In their analytical framework, the idea of an instrument’s map of mediation refers to the surroundings and contexts in which the instrument’s action takes place. For the shamisen, attempts to employ Western musical instruments in Japanese music and, reversely, the shamisen in Western music brought about changes to the instrument’s own map of mediation and, thus, the reconfiguration of its relationship with Western instruments. Increasing hybrid contexts of Japanese music-making prompted Katō to think that the transformation or adjustment of the physicality of the shamisen would be necessary for the future of Japanese music.

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On Historical Agency

The December 1991 issue of the magazine Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャーナル features Katō Kinji’s electric shamisen as well as comments by professional shamisen players, including Kunimoto Takeharu. In this context, Kunimoto mentioned Previously, I used the Tsugaru [shamisen with a thick neck and large body] to get the volume loud enough. It was OK because the band at that time consisted of the piano, acoustic guitar, and programmed drum tracks, which enabled flexible volume control. In general, the shamisen sound can be buried under acoustic drum sounds. The Mugen 21 enabled me to initiate the current band formation including the drums, electric bass guitar, and keyboard for the first time. Thanks to this invention, I no longer need to use the Tsugaru with a large body [which can produce a loud sound]. I currently use the chūzao [shamisen with a medium-size neck], which, with a strap, enables me to move around on stage. With a wireless system, I can run about on stage during live performances from the beginning until the end. Cited in Hōgaku Jānaru 1991, 15; my translation

The comment here indicates that Kunimoto was indeed aware of certain technical issues and limits on his then mode of musical performance with the musical instrument. The electric shamisen enabled Kunimoto to gain a certain degree of physical mobility and technical freedom onstage. In this sense, instruments are “nonhuman agents” that enable human individuals to overcome certain technical limits. Environmental historian Chris Pearson (2015) has developed such perspectives, with the aim of capturing the diversity of animals and other environmental factors in historical narratives. “[N]onhumans … enable and allow human activities,” writes Pearson (2015, 710). Although Pearson has studied police rescue dogs in early twentieth-century Paris and other animal cases that are distinct from my case study here, the idea itself is relevant and indeed applicable to rethinking the existing historiography of Japanese music. The technical interactivity between a human and a musical instrument generates musical sounds and a piece of art. However, the music-making process is not the end toward which this technical interactivity is directed. As my study suggests, performance may bring about possibilities for transforming the physicality of the musical instrument in a way that fits with its player in the

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co-evolutionary process. Their relationship is therefore reciprocal in nature, and this process itself can be a work of art. Today, collaborations between the shamisen and Western musical instruments have become increasingly common in Japanese musical culture. For instance, Oyama Yutaka 小山豊—a Tsugaru shamisen player and the son of the current headmaster of the Oyama school, Oyama Mitsugu II 二代目小山 貢—recently collaborated with jazz trumpeter Shima Yūsuke 島裕介.13 They have released two albums: Oyama Yutaka Meets Shima Yūsuke (2016) and Oyama Yutaka Meets Shima Yūsuke, Vol. 2 (2018). In these albums, they perform their own arrangements of both jazz standard tunes—such as “’Round Midnight,” “So What,” “My Favorite Things,” “Autumn Leaves,” and “Caravan”—and Japanese folk songs—such as “Kokiriko-bushi” こきりこ節 (from Toyama prefecture) and “Donpan-bushi” ドンパン節 (from Akita prefecture). When I attended live performances of the group in December 2017 and June 2018, I recognized that Oyama Yutaka used the Mugen 21 along with his volume and effect pedals for the entire show. As another contemporary example, Tsugaru shamisen player Fujii Reigen 藤井黎元 actively collaborates with players of Western musical instruments. In March 2013, Fujii released his first album Verdancy, supported by a band called J-Project, which consisted of Yamahira Shunsuke 山平俊輔 on bass guitar, Hirayama Shigeo 平山惠勇 on drums, Arisaka Shūichi 有坂秀一 on piano and keyboard, Kinoshita Shigeru 木下茂 on guitar, and Wada Akira 和田アキ ラ on guitar. Released by the label South to North Factory, this album includes Fujii’s solo performances of Japanese folk songs (“Tsugaru Jongara-bushi,” “Yasaburō-bushi” 弥三郎節, and “Tsugaru Ohara-bushi”—all from Aomori prefecture) and jazz pianist Chick Corea’s instrumental jazz composition “Spain” as well as ensemble versions of “Autumn Leaves” and Fujii’s original instrumental composition entitled “Verdancy.” Fujii described this album as a collaboration between Tsugaru shamisen and jazz fusion and rock. One evening in June 2018, I watched a performance by Fujii and his new band called Ethnic Vanguard. In addition to Fujii on electric shamisen (not the Mugen 21, but his own), the band consisted of Matsushita Naoki 松下尚 暉 on shakuhachi, Sano Shunsuke 佐野俊介 on electric bass guitar, and Ōtawa Masaki 大多和正樹 on percussion. The setlist mostly consisted of their original instrumental compositions; each member contributed a few tunes to the band to be performed in its first live concert. During the concert, Fujii said to the audience that the main objective of the band was to play Western music 13

For an ethnographic study of musicians associated with the Oyama school, see Yamada (2017).

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with Japanese musical instruments. The setlist included pieces that incorporated a variety of musical stylistic elements and techniques, such as jazz, funk, and Latin rhythms, odd meter (e.g., 5/4), and even diatonic scales and chord voicings with seventh and ninth chords. More importantly, those Japanese musical instrument players in the band remodelled their instruments for the performance of Western music. As a shakuhachi craftsman as well as player, Matsushita modified his regular five-hole shakuhachi by opening an additional (sixth) hole in order to more easily play diatonic scales by himself. Fujii invented a four-string electric shamisen, which enabled him to play chord accompaniments and fast phrases and scale runs and, thus, to achieve a certain degree of technical freedom onstage, as Kunimoto did a few decades before.14 5

Conclusion

In this chapter, I explore the work of the craftsman Katō Kinji, especially his invention of the electric shamisen, Mugen 21. In the late twentieth century, Katō saw an increasing number of musical collaborations between performers of Japanese musical instruments and those of Western musical instruments. Katō then decided to modify the material body of the standard acoustic shami­ sen, with the aim of technically enhancing such collaborations in the future of this musical instrument and its performers. As the case of Kunimoto Takeharu shows, government-supported cultural exchanges (as in the case of Bunkachō’s Japan Cultural Envoys project), the global circulation of people and cultural products, and their increasing impact on local musical traditions and practices can bring about changes to the map of a musical instrument’s own mediation. I further suggest that looking closely at more-than-textual sources and human-instrument technical interactivity is meaningful for revisiting the history and historiography of Japanese music. The existing historiography of rōkyoku has more-or-less emphasized the role of human individuals in the development of Japanese music. Instead, I discuss the extent to which musical instruments can affect, enable, and maintain the intentions and activities of musicians across time. Such historiographical awareness and perspectives may help shed new light on the work and activities of craftspeople, blur the boundary between “instrument makers” and “musicians,” and, thus, create more nuanced understandings of key parts of Japanese music history and the making of Japanese music in the modern day. 14

For more on Fujii’s four-string electric shamisen, see Yamada (2020b, 198–210).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation endowment; the Japan Studies Faculty Research Award provided by the Asian Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh; and the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship and research grants provided by the University of Pennsylvania. References Bunkachō 文化庁. 2022. “Japan Cultural Envoy.” Accessed 16 July 2022. https://www .bunka.go.jp/english/policy/international/cultural_envoy/. Fujii, Reigen 藤井黎元. 2013. Verdancy. South to North Factory, SNF-160 (CD). Groemer, Gerald. 1999. The Spirit of Tsugaru: Blind Musicians, Tsugaru-Jamisen, and the Folk Music of Northern Japan, with the Autobiography of Takahashi Chikuzan. Warren: Harmonie Park Press. Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャーナル. 1991. “Erekutorikku shamisen: Mugen 21” エレクトリック 三味線:夢絃21. Hōgaku Jānaru 邦楽ジャーナル 59: 14–15. Hughes, David W. 2008a. Traditional Folk Song in Modern Japan: Sources, Sentiment and Society. Folkestone: Global Oriental. Hughes, David W. 2008b. “Folk Music: From Local to National to Global.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes, 281–302. Aldershot: Ashgate. Inada, Kazuhiro 稲田和浩. 2017. “Rōkyoku, haranbanjō no sono rekishi: Tōchūken Kumoemon kara Kunimoto Takeharu made” 浪曲、波瀾万丈のその歴史:桃中軒雲 右衛門から国本武春まで. Tōkyōjin 東京人 380: 54–59. Johnson, Henry. 2006. “Tsugaru Shamisen: From Region to Nation (and Beyond) and Back Again.” Asian Music 37 (1): 75–100. Johnson, Henry. 2010. The Shamisen: Tradition and Diversity. Leiden: Brill. Kamata, Junji 鎌田淳司. 2009. “Kunimoto Takeharu” 国本武春. Squet スケット 235: 32–34. Kunimoto, Takeharu 国本武春. 1998. Za Chūshingura ザ・忠臣蔵. Bandai バンダイ, APCA-258 (CD). Kunimoto, Takeharu 国本武春. 2012. Mattemashita meichōshi 待ってました名調子！. Tokyo: R’s Shuppan アールズ出版. Kunimoto, Takeharu, and the Last Frontier. 2005. Appalachian Shamisen. Now and Then Records, TBR130-086-031M (CD). Kunimoto, Takeharu 国本武春, Toyoko Sawamura 澤村豊子, and Makoto Kodama 児 玉信. 2013. “Kunimoto Takeharu ga kataru rōkyoku no ima, mukashi” 国本武春が語 る浪曲の今、むかし. Geinō 藝能 19: 7–15.

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Masaoka, Iruru 正岡容. 2009. Nihon rōkyoku shi 日本浪曲史. Edited by Nobuyuki Ōnishi 大西信行. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten 岩波書店. Morita, Komi 守田梢路. 2007. “Kunimoto Takeharu: Horobiyuku koten, kyūseishu no jirenma” 国本武春:滅びゆく古典 救世主のジレンマ. AERA, 2 July: 62–67. Oyama, Yutaka 小山豊, and Shima Yūsuke 島裕介. 2016. Oyama Yutaka Meets Shima Yūsuke. Todoroki Jazz Records 等々力ジャズレコーズ, ATHO-4011 (CD). Oyama, Yutaka 小山豊, and Shima Yūsuke 島裕介. 2018. Oyama Yutaka Meets Shima Yūsuke, Vol. 2. Todoroki Jazz Records 等々力ジャズレコーズ, ATHO-4014 (CD). Pearson, Chris. 2015. “Beyond ‘Resistance’: Rethinking Nonhuman Agency for a ‘MoreThan-Human’ World.” European Review of History 22 (5): 709–725. Shamisen Katō 三味線かとう. 2022. “Erekutorikku shamisen: Mugen 21” エレクトリック三 味線:夢絃21. Accessed 21 July 2022. http://www.shamisen-katoh.com/mugen/. Shiba, Kiyoshi 芝清之. 1977. Rōkyoku jinbutsu shi: Sono keizu to boshiroku 浪曲人物史: その系図と墓誌録. Osaka: Kamigata Geinō Henshūbu 上方芸能編集部. Shiba, Kiyoshi 芝清之. 1989. Nihon rōkyoku daizenshū 日本浪曲大全集. Tokyo: Rōkyoku Henshūbu 浪曲編集部. Themis テーミス. 2008. “Kunimoto Takeharu hikiiru ‘naniwa-bushi’ ga minato de ōuke” 国本武春率いる「浪花節」が港で大ウケ. Themis テーミス 188: 98–99. Tresch, John, and Emily I. Dolan. 2013. “Toward a New Organology: Instruments of Music and Science.” Osiris 28: 278–298. Yamada, Keisuke. 2017. “Rethinking Iemoto: Theorizing Individual Agency in the Tsugaru Shamisen Oyama-ryū.” Asian Music 48 (1): 28–57. Yamada, Keisuke. 2020a. “The Political Economy of Nonlife: Biopower, Ontosecurity, and the Shamisen Skin Trade in Japan.” In The Oxford Handbook of Economic Ethnomusicology, edited by Anna Morcom and Timothy D. Taylor. New York: Oxford University Press. Advance online publication. Yamada, Keisuke. 2020b. “Ecologies of Instrumentality: The Politics and Practice of Sustainable Shamisen Making.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania. Yui, Jirō 唯二郎. 1999. Jitsuroku rōkyoku shi 実録浪曲史. Tokyo: Tōhō Shobō 東峰書房.

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Chapter 23

Japanese Popular Songs in the Twentieth Century: Adaptation, Hybridity, and Creativity Minako WASEDA 1

Introduction

In Grove Music Online, popular music scholar Richard Middleton (2015) introduces three elements that have been linked historically to the notion of popular music. These elements are 1) scale of consumption/popularity, 2) dissemination with mass media, and 3) a mass audience or a particular class (most often, though not always, the working class). However, Middleton’s analysis also suggests problems and limitations in defining popular music with just these three elements, pointing out the fluidity of the term. Popular music should be considered in a broader cultural context, including internal distinctions and hierarchies. Thus, in this chapter, I will combine these features to outline the conditions and contexts specific to Japanese music in the modern era. In this chapter, I first will introduce the Japanese concept of popular music in the late nineteenth century in relation to the keen awareness of class divisions at the time. Then I will discuss the rise of Jazz Song and ryūkōka 流行歌/ kayōkyoku 歌謡曲 as westernized Japanese popular songs widely disseminated and consumed through records. As a representative ryūkōka/kayōkyoku composer, Hattori Ryōichi 服部良一 (1907–93) is featured, with analyses of his hit songs. “Japanese” Hawaiian, mūdo kayō ムード歌謡 (“mood” songs), Group Sounds, Idols, enka 演歌, J-pop, and City Pop are post-Second World War musical styles that will be summarized in terms of their musical characteristics, production systems, change, and global consumption. 2

The Rise of Popular Songs in Japan

With the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the national isolation policy of the Edo government was abolished, and rapid and large-scale westernization of Japan began. At the time, there were two contrasting concepts of Japanese music: zokugaku 俗楽 (popular music) and gagaku 雅楽 (court music). In an official Japanese government document prepared for the World Exhibitions in 1884,

© Minako WASEDA, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_025

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the term zokugaku was translated as “popular music” and gagaku as “classical music” (Isawa 1884a).1 This clear division of music closely related to class divisions at the time, and the document included a section that problematized the nature and negative effects of “popular music” as follows: The popular music of Japan has remained for many centuries in the hands of the lowest and most ignorant classes of society. It did not advance moral or physical culture, but was altogether immoral in tone. It is against the moral and social welfare of the community. It is against the progress of the education of society. It is against the introduction of good music into the country. Isawa 1884a, 61

Given that the Meiji government enthusiastically adopted Western music as part of its modernization of Japan, “good music” in the quotation could reasonably be interpreted as Western music. As the quotation reveals, “popular music” of the time—that is, virtually anything but gagaku—was considered inappropriate by the Japanese government, even though it was the music that Japanese people had enjoyed for centuries. Further, zokugaku included what is generally considered to be traditional Japanese music today, that is, music for shamisen 三味線 (three-string plucked lute), koto 箏 (thirteen-string zither), and shakuhachi 尺八 (end-blown bamboo flute), in addition to folk songs and children’s songs. Considering that traditional Japanese music is for the most part vocal music with instrumental accompaniment (Tanaka 2003, 28), what had been considered as “popular music” was in fact predominantly popular “songs.” With the rise and diffusion of westernized Japanese music, the recognition of Japanese traditional instruments, such as shamisen, koto, and shakuhachi, has shifted from “popular” to “traditional” then to “classical.” Thus, zokugaku has become a historical category no longer applicable to Japanese music today. Western instruments were first introduced to Japan by the missionaries of the Society of Jesus in the mid-sixteenth century, but the prohibition on Christianity and the subsequent policy of isolation in the early seventeenth century interrupted further developments. It was with the rise of Western-style 1 These exhibitions were the International Health Exhibition, London, May to October 1884, and the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, New Orleans, December 1884 to June 1885 (Hirata 2006, 5). This document was based on Ongaku Torishirabe seiseki shinpōsho (Isawa 1884b). It was translated into English by the Institute of Music and edited by William Douglas Cox (1844–1905), an English teacher who resided in Japan at the time (Hirata 2006, 8).

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Japanese military bands in the Meiji era that Western instruments were officially adopted in Japan. One of the earliest such bands was formed in 1869 by the Satsuma 薩摩 clan in present-day Kagoshima prefecture, under the direction of John William Fenton (1828–90), an English military band leader stationed in Japan. Another important route for the introduction of Western instruments to Japan was the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari 音楽取調掛 (Music Investigation Committee), founded in 1879 by the Meiji government to advance music research and education. In 1880, Isawa Shūji 伊澤修二 (1851–1917), the first director of the institute, invited an American music educator, Luther Whiting Mason (1818–96), to Japan. Mason taught Western instruments to the students at the institute as well as to the court (gagaku) musicians, who were required by the Meiji government to perform on Western instruments to greet foreign guests at banquets. In 1907, the first private music school in Japan, Tōyō Ongaku Gakkō 東洋音楽学校 (present-day Tokyo College of Music 東京音楽大 学), was founded. As pioneers of Western instruments in Japan, military band musicians and students at music schools later became the earliest performers of Western-style popular music in Japan. 3

The Rise of Jazz Song

Jazz Song ( jazu songu ジャズ・ソング) refers to a group of Western-style Japanese popular songs recorded in pre-Second World War Japan. The term was coined and first used in 1928 by the Japanese record label Nipponophone ニッポノホン, which was founded in 1910 for domestic recordings and from 1927 began releasing records in Japan for Columbia. By 1929, the term “Jazz Song” was adopted by other foreign record companies that had established production companies in Japan, such as Victor and Polydor (Mōri 2010, 71–72). “Jazz,” as used in Japan at the time, encompassed a wide variety of foreign popular music, including not only jazz but also tango, rumba, chanson, and Hawaiian (ibid., 14, 70). These genres were first brought into Japan as commercial recordings purchased by Japanese elites and cruise ship musicians who visited the US and Europe. Particularly since the 1920s, recordings have played a significant role in introducing these “foreign” musical genres to Japanese audiences. At the time, “Jazz Song” was an inclusive musical category referring mostly to foreign popular songs sung by Japanese singers in Japanese lyrics. With the rise of Jazz Song, Western-style popular music began to rival what had been popular in Japan until then, such as the shamisen musical genres nagauta 長唄 and gidayū-bushi

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義太夫節, biwa 琵琶 (pear-shape lute), and naniwa-bushi 浪花節 (also called rōkyoku 浪曲, storytelling with shamisen) (Kurata 1992, 59–60). One of the earliest Jazz Song releases was “Arabiya no Uta” アラビヤの唄 (original title, “Sing Me a Song of Araby”), recorded by Futamura Teiichi 二 村定一 (1900–48) and Amano Kikuyo 天野喜久代 (1897–1945) in 1928. It was

originally a little-known Tin Pan Alley song with words and music by Fred Fisher (1875–1942), not even recorded in the US. Nonetheless, sung in Japanese with newly written lyrics by Horiuchi Keizō 堀内敬三 (1897–1983) (not a direct translation of the original) along with the exotic image evoked by the word “Arabiya” (Arabia) in the title, it was a smash hit in Japan, selling over 200,000 copies (Mōri 2010, 56).2 Until then, jazz in Japan had mainly been music to accompany dance for the upper class. However, with the emergence of Jazz Song, jazz and other foreign popular music became more widely consumed for general listening. Indeed, this was a strategy of Horiuchi Keizō, a Japanese composer-lyricist-critic, who added Japanese lyrics to Western popular songs to appeal to broader Japanese audiences. As noted by Hosokawa Shūhei, “instrumental music has always been marginal to the popular music scene in Japan, where singers are spotlighted” (1994, 57). Jazz became popular in Japan, but only when sung in Japanese. Hawaiian music was another foreign musical genre introduced to Japan in the pre-Second World War era. Hawaiian hapa haole songs, characterized by predominantly English lyrics with some references to Hawai‘i and the Hawaiian language, achieved international popularity with the development of Hawaiian tourism. Tin Pan Alley composers soon followed the trend and began to write their own versions, which also became a repertoire of Jazz Song. The song “Ukurere Bebī” ウクレレ・ベビー (Ukulele Baby), recorded in 1930 by Futamura with lyrics by Horiuchi, is one such example. Jazz Song was initially accompanied by ad-hoc jazz bands composed of musicians from Western-style orchestras and college jazz bands, but record companies eventually organized their own jazz bands for recording, such as the Columbia Jazz Band formed in 1929. Early Jazz Song singers such as Futamura sang in a rather crisp and clear manner, unlike typical jazz singers of the time who were called “crooners.” Jazz Song nonetheless widely appealed to

2 “Arabiya no Uta” was first released by Nipponophone (16855) in May 1928, then re-recorded by Futamura alone and released as “Arabia no Uta” by Victor (50460) in October 1928. The original recording by Futamura and Amano was re-released by Columbia (25303) in November 1928.

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Japanese audiences because of its modern melody and jazz instrumentation combined with Japanese lyrics. 4

Ryūkōka/Kayōkyoku and Records

Japanese record companies soon began to produce original songs modelled after Jazz Song. The first “Japanese” Jazz Song hit was “Kimi Koishi” 君恋し (Longing for You), recorded by Futamura in October 1928, only five months after he released “Arabiya no Uta.” Jazz Song, both songs adapted from abroad and Japanese originals, was the earliest kind of Japanese popular song produced by record companies aiming at large-scale dissemination and consumption. Until then, recordings were made only of what had already been popular, such as naniwa-bushi standards by well-known performers. The terms “ryūkōka” and “kayōkyoku,” both translated as “popular songs,” began to be used interchangeably by record companies around this time to categorize such commercially produced songs. This was a time when record companies had become vehicles for popular song production and distribution in Japan. Ryūkōka and kayōkyoku were in a sense “recorded popular songs” (rekōdo kayō レコード歌謡), produced and promoted by record companies. The Japanese system of popular song production centred on record companies was starkly different from the Tin Pan Alley process in the US. In Japan, singers, lyricists, composers, and instrumentalists were all under an exclusive contract with a specific record company, while Tin Pan Alley lyricists and composers were under an exclusive contract with a specific music publisher, to which record companies paid royalties. The Japanese contract system was responsible for the mass production of Japanese popular songs until at least the mid-1960s (Wajima 2010, 30). 5

Ryūkōka Composer Hattori Ryōichi

One representative ryūkōka composer is Hattori Ryōichi. He received his first music training as a member of a boys’ band sponsored by a restaurant in Osaka. From the 1910s, it had become popular for well-known department stores to organize boys’ bands modelled after military bands as a means of promotion. The boys’ band to which Hattori belonged was a variation on such bands. In 1926, he became a flautist in the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra. He had the privilege of taking private lessons in Western music theory, composition, and

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conducting from Emmanuel Leonievich Metter (1878–1941), a Ukrainian exile who was the conductor of the orchestra. Around this time, Hattori began to play jazz saxophone at dance halls. His talent for composition and sense of jazz gained him a contract with Columbia in 1936. Thus, he began his career as a ryūkōka composer. 5.1 “Wakare no Burūsu” Hattori’s compositions are characterized by his unique interpretations of foreign musical styles. “Wakare no Burūsu” 別れのブルース (Blues of Parting), recorded by Awaya Noriko 淡谷のり子 (1907–99) in 1937, is one of many hit songs composed by Hattori. Although he was familiar with the blues form and scale, he consciously aimed at creating “Japanese” blues by expressing the essential blues qualities of sadness, soulfulness, and sobbing in his own way (Hattori 1993, 140). “Wakare no Burūsu” employs, not the blues scale, but a minor pentatonic scale, C-D-E♭-G-A♭-C, which can be interpreted as the Japanese miyako-bushi 都節 scale starting on G (G-A♭-C-D-E♭-G).3 It is not in the twelve-bar AAB blues form but in a somewhat unusual twenty-four-bar ABC form. This form might be due to the lyrics by Fujiura Kō 藤浦洸 (1898–1979), in which each verse consists of three lines of 7-7-7-5 syllable phrases as follows: First verse of “Wakare no Burūsu” (A melody: 4 phrases in 8 bars) Mado o akereba (7) Minato ga mieru (7) Meriken hatoba no (7) 窓を開ければ 港が見える メリケン波止場の Hi ga mieru (5) 灯が見える

Opening the window, I see the harbour. I see the light of the Meriken Wharf.

3 In 1958, the Japanese ethnomusicologist Koizumi Fumio 小泉文夫 proposed four principal scales in Japanese music, which are still widely accepted among Japanese scholars: miyako-bushi (C-D♭-F-G-A♭-C), ritsu 律 (C-D-F-G-A-C), min’yō 民謡 (C-E♭-F-G-B♭-C), and ryūkyū 琉球 (C-E-F-G-B-C) (Koizumi 1982, 1556).

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(B melody: 4 phrases in 8 bars) Yokaze shiokaze (7) Koikaze nosete (7) Kyō no defune wa (7) 夜風潮風 恋風のせて 今日の出船は Doko e yuku (5) どこへ行く

With night wind, sea breeze, and love wind, where is today’s ship departing for? (C melody: 4 phrases in 8 bars) Musebu kokoro yo (7) Hakanai koi yo (7) Odoru burūsu no (7) むせぶ心よ はかない恋よ 踊るブルースの Setsunasa yo (5) せつなさよ

My sobbing heart, fleeting love. How heart-aching to dance to the blues. Seven and five syllable patterns are typical in traditional Japanese poems, such as haiku 俳句 (5-7-5) and tanka 短歌 (5-7-5-7-7). The unit of 7-7-7-5 syllables is typical in Japanese folk songs. In “Wakare no Burūsu,” Hattori sets eight bars over four phrases for each of the three 7-7-7-5-syllable groupings. As a result, each verse has a total of twelve phrases over twenty-four bars. Fujiura is said to have composed the lyrics by taking into account the number of bars and length of blues (Hattori 1993, 143). That is probably why each verse consists of twelve phrases divided into three units, simulating the twelve-bar form. The song is after all not in the twelve-bar blues structure, but its sorrowful melody with melancholic lyrics about the sad parting of lovers at a port does express the blues “feeling” while uniquely combining blues and Japanese elements. 5.2 “Tokyo Boogie Woogie” Another representative hit song by Hattori is “Tokyo Boogie Woogie” (東京ブギ ウギ), recorded by Kasagi Shizuko 笠置シヅ子 (1914–85) in 1947. Boogie-woogie is a style of piano blues that emerged in the 1920s, usually in the twelve-bar AAB form and characterized by ostinato rhythmic patterns in the bass. Although “Tokyo Boogie Woogie” is not in the twelve-bar AAB form but in a thirty-two-bar AABA form, as typically found in Tin Pan Alley songs, it constantly employs “blue” notes (i.e., an occasional flat added to the 3rd, 5th, and 7th scale degrees). The song includes a rhythmic ostinato, consisting of a dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note both in the vocal line and big band-style accompaniment. This rhythmic pattern corresponds to the honky-tonk-style bass line of boogie-woogie as heard in “Honky Tonk Train Blues” by Meade

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Lux Lewis (recorded in 1927 and released in 1929). “Tokyo Boogie Woogie” is lively, up-tempo blues in sharp contrast to “Wakare no Burūsu.” At the time, Japan was still in the process of recovering from the loss in the Second World War, and Hattori’s intention was to create a song that would revitalize people, brighten up the world, and glorify peace, as clearly reflected in the lyrics by Suzuki Masaru 鈴木勝 (1916–71). 東京ブギウギ　リズムうきうき 心ずきずき　わくわく 海を渡り響くは東京ブギウギ ブギの踊りは世界の踊り 二人の夢の　あの歌 口笛吹こう　恋とブギのメロディー 燃ゆる心の歌　甘い声の歌声に 君と踊ろよ　今宵も月の下で 東京ブギウギ　リズムうきうき 心ずきずき　わくわく 世紀の歌　心の歌　東京ブギウギ（ヘイ）

Tokyo boogie-woogie, a cheerful rhythm Makes the heart throb and excited Resounding across the ocean, Tokyo boogie-woogie The boogie dance is the world’s dance That song of our dreams Let’s whistle the melody of love and boogie The burning heart’s song in a sweet singing voice of love Dancing with you tonight again, under the moon Tokyo boogie-woogie, a cheerful rhythm Makes the heart throb and excited This era’s song, the heart’s song, Tokyo boogie-woogie (Hey)4

The lyrics characteristically employ rhyming mimetic words, which add to the groove of the song: Tōkyō bugi ugi, rizumu uki uki, kokoro zuki zuki waku waku. Such rhyming was Hattori’s idea, added to the lyrics by Suzuki (Hattori 1993, 224–225). With Kasagi’s powerful singing and lively dancing, “Tokyo Boogie Woogie” was a great hit, encouraging people recovering from the war as a symbol of peace. After this success, Hattori wrote close to thirty boogie-woogie songs. They were mostly sung by Kasagi, who thus earned the title “Queen of Boogie-woogie” (bugi no joō ブギの女王).

4 This translation is from https://misachanjpop.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/tokyo-boogie -woogie-kasagi-shizuko/.

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Emergence of “Japanese” Hawaiian and Mūdo Kayō

The Hawaiian music “boom” in Japan dates from the 1930s, when hapa haole songs became a part of Jazz Song. The boom was further stimulated by the Hawai‘i-born (nisei 二世: second-generation) Japanese musicians Buckie (Bakkī) Shirakata バッキー白片 (1912–94) and brothers Haida Haruhiko 灰田晴 彦 (later Yukihiko 有紀彦; 1909–86) and Haida Katsuhiko 灰田勝彦 (1911–82), who began their professional musical careers in Japan in the 1930s. They were pioneers of “Japanese” Hawaiian songs (Wasei Hawaian 和製ハワイアン), composing their own blend of hapa haole songs. For example, “Koryasa no Ondo” こりゃさの音頭 (Ondo of Koryasa) was composed by Haruhiko and recorded by Katsuhiko in 1940 (Victor 40041).5 Unlike typical “Japanese” Hawaiian songs, this song is sung in English by Katsuhiko, yet it represents a new direction for the nisei musicians, who created an original repertoire by freely combining hapa haole and Japanese musical elements. In this song, hapa haole elements are heard in its big band jazz arrangement with the sound of the steel guitar and some blues notes, while a Japanese vocal call (kakegoe 掛け声), “sore sore,” by the chorus, a short shamisen phrase with the kane 鉦 (small gong), and occasional use of the Japanese miyako-bushi scale engender a distinctive Japanese flavour (fig. 23.1). The lyrics are a combination of English lines with a nonsense Japanese vocal refrain (also a type of kakegoe), “korya sano sano sa.” Hear the Japanese singing (chorus: sore sore) And other ones swinging (chorus: sore sore) They all go singing, while we’re swinging Korya sano sano sa There’s a furisode [long-sleeved kimono] coming (chorus: sore sore) With her shamisen strumming (chorus: sore sore) When she hears you humming, she’ll start strumming Korya sano sano sa For in the land of Fuji where everyone like[s] sushi They all make hoops singing Yakkora sano sano yoi yoi yoi In 1944, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (警視庁) issued restrictions on popular music performance, including a ban on the use of steel guitars, ukuleles, and banjos as the instruments of the enemy (Hayatsu 1982, 165–166). 5 “Ondo” refers to a Japanese folk song form consisting of call and response between a solo singer and a chorus. “Koryasa” is a type of vocal call used to time or encourage activity.

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Figure 23.1

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Transcription by the author of “Koryasa no Ondo”

After the war, however, the Hawaiian music boom was quickly revived, and numerous Hawaiian bands appeared, out of which developed a unique blend of the hapa haole style represented by Wada Hiroshi and Mahina Stars (和田弘とマ ヒナスターズ; fig. 23.2). Formed as a Hawaiian band in the mid-1950s, they played an important role in the establishment of a particular style of ryūkōka/kayōkyoku (hereafter kayōkyoku) in the 1960s called mūdo kayō (“mood” songs), characterized by a smooth male chorus typically singing about melancholic

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Figure 23.2

Sleeve cover of “Nakanaide” 泣かないで and “Suki Datta” 好きだった by Wada Hiroshi and Mahina Stars. Victor, SV-3005-M (n.d.)

romance set in the city at night. Wada Hiroshi and Mahina Stars had appeared in the NHK Kōhaku Utagassen 紅白歌合戦 (the nation-wide New Year’s Eve song gala) for nine consecutive years from 1961 to 1969, which demonstrates their great popularity in the field of kayōkyoku. One of their representative songs is “Nakanaide” 泣かないで (Please Don’t Cry), released in 1958. Its distinctive sound derives from the steel guitar played by Wada, strumming of ukulele, and falsetto voice by Sasaki Kan’ichi 佐々木敢一 (1934–2012) combined with the melancholic male chorus in a minor key, which together make their music uniquely “Japanese” Hawaiian.

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Mūdo kayō were soon combined with Latin music. One example of this is the song “Komo esuta Akasaka” コモエスタ赤坂 (“¿Cómo está Akasaka?”; Spanish, meaning “How is Akasaka?”), recorded by Los Indios ロス・インディオス in 1962. Employing Latin instruments such as the arpa (harp), conga (drum), and quena (vertical flute), the song maintains mūdo kayō characteristics: the smooth male chorus in minor keys, with melancholic lyrics set in the city at night. 7

Group Sounds, Idols, and Enka (1960s–1980s)

7.1 The Rise of Freelance Songwriters with Group Sounds and Idols In the 1960s, Japanese popular music categorized as “Group Sounds” (GS), pronounced grūpu saunzu グループ・サウンズ in Japanese and often abbreviated to “GS,” was relatively short-lived. However, the style was important as it marked the beginning of the rise of freelance professional songwriters replacing those of record companies, which had dominated mass production of popular songs until then through their exclusive contract system (Wajima 2010, 30). GS reflects the influence of visiting rock bands in the 1960s, such as the Ventures (1965), the Animals (1965), and the Beatles (1966). Numerous Japanese bands modelled themselves after such bands. Their music was distinctly different from earlier kayōkyoku and was characterized by the sound of the electric guitar, electric bass, and drums. Representative pioneer GS bands include the Tigers (ザ・タイガース), the Spiders (ザ・スパイダース), Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets (ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ), and the Golden Cups (ザ・ゴー ルデン・カップス). Many of the highly popular bands were gradually absorbed into the mainstream music industry and managed by entertainment companies. Freelance professional songwriters began to provide songs for these bands, leading to the further popularization and commercialization of GS. Intervention by the mainstream music industry also led to the idol-like status of major GS musicians, as exemplified by Sawada Kenji 沢田研二 (also called Julie ジュリー), the lead vocalist of the Tigers, who became a solo singer after the band broke up in 1971 (fig. 23.3). The legacy of GS was evident in the teenage-oriented Idols, who dominated Japanese popular music scenes from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Their songs were also provided by freelance professional songwriters, including those, such as Tsutsumi Kyōhei 筒美京平 and Aku Yū 阿久悠, who used to write songs for GS bands. Some iconic Idols from the 1980s are still active in the 2020s, including Matsuda Seiko 松田聖子 and Gō Hiromi 郷ひろみ. The early 1970s saw the rise of singer-songwriters, who were distinguished from Idols as self-controlled, creative artists. Although their musical styles Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Sleeve cover of Essential Best (2007) by the Tigers. Sawada Kenji is in the centre. Universal Music, UPCY-9124

varied, ranging from the folk-style, guitar-accompanied music of Sada Masashi さだまさし and Matsuyama Chiharu 松山千春 to the sophisticated pop music of Matsutōya Yumi 松任谷由実 and Yamashita Tatsurō 山下達郎, they were grouped together as “New Music” (nyū myūjikku ニュー・ミュージック). Some of the New Music musicians also wrote songs for teenage Idols, crossing over to kayōkyoku. 7.2 Enka as a Postwar Invented Tradition Although enka is often considered traditional music containing premodern Japanese musical elements and expressing the “heart of the Japanese” (Nihon Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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no kokoro 日本の心), Wajima (2010) rejects this stereotype as a false notion of postwar invention. He maintains that with the rise of GS, Idols, and New Music, earlier kayōkyoku, mass-produced by professional composers and lyricists under exclusive contracts with record companies, began to look old-fashioned and be associated with the concepts of premodern, indigenous, and traditional (2010, 290–291). Although the term enka itself emerged in the 1880s to refer to a type of protest song of the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement (Jiyū Minken Undō 自由民権運動), its use in the 1960s and 1970s was in a totally different context. What was called enka or enka-like at the time included a wide variety of songs with influences ranging from min’yō 民謡 (folk song) and naniwa-bushi to Latin and Hawaiian (as in mūdo kayō). Regardless of such differences, they were grouped together as enka to distinguish them from new types of music independent of the control of record companies, that is, GS, Idols, and New Music. The typical characteristics of enka include the use of kobushi こぶし (vocal ornamentation) and unari 唸り (growling vocal timbre), feelings of sorrow and melancholy, lyrics expressing traditional values, and Japanese-style attire, typically kimono 着物 (fig. 23.4). Wajima maintains that kobushi and unari were introduced into kayōkyoku by former naniwa-bushi singers who had become kayōkyoku singers in the late 1950s, while feelings of sorrow and melancholy were added because of the popularity of kayōkyoku singers in the 1960s, such as Mori Shin’ichi 森真一 (fig. 23.5) and Aoe Mina 青江三奈. Although these singers were associated with enka, their musical background was actually in Western music. The husky and raspy vocal characteristics of Mori and Aoe were in fact quite new to kayōkyoku and similar to blues. Although the attire of enka singers in the 1960s and 1970s was predominantly Western (i.e., tuxedos for men and dresses for women), kimono had become standard by the late 1970s through the process of conceptualizing enka as “traditionally” Japanese. Thus, although enka was originally an inclusive category to refer to various types of kayōkyoku that had appeared before the rise of freelance songwriters, it was gradually associated with certain singing styles, moods, and images, which were not necessarily traditional yet were often described as such. The enka stereotype is therefore, so to speak, an “invented” tradition (Wajima 2010). 8

Post-Shōwa-Era Japanese Popular Songs: J-Pop and Beyond

The term “J-pop” was first used by the Japanese radio station J-wave in 1988, in the title of its programme “J-pop Classics.” It featured Japanese popular songs that were considered as trendy and fashionable, such as music by Southern All Stars (サザンオールスターズ), Matsutōya Yumi, Yamashita Tatsurō, and Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Enka singer Kawanaka Miyuki 川中美幸 (b. 1950) PR Times, 3 February 2021, https://prtimes.jp/main/html /rd/p/000000685.000022498.html

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Figure 23.5

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Sleeve cover of “Onna no Tameiki” (1966) by Mori Shin’ichi. Victor, SVC-308

Ōtaki Eiichi 大瀧 詠一・大滝 詠一. Excluded from J-pop were enka, Idols, and folk-style New Music as exemplified by Alice (アリス) and Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi 長渕剛 (Miyairi 2015, 6–7). The concept of J-pop, however, has changed overtime. As Miyairi (2015, 32–33) reports, Japanese college students in the 2010s associated J-pop with a variety of Japanese popular music, including music by Idols (e.g., AKB 48 and similar girl groups produced by Akimoto Yasushi 秋元 康 and boy groups from the agency Johnny and Associates ジャニーズ事務所)6 and anison アニソン (anime songs). Miyairi thus defines J-pop as an all-inclusive 6 The company was renamed SMILE-UP in October 2023. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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category for post-Shōwa-era (from the 1990s) Japanese popular songs not restricted by specific musical characteristics. J-pop now includes music by Japanese rock bands, such as B’z (1988–), RADWIMPS (2001–), and ONE OK ROCK (2005–) (Miyairi 2015, 32–33). Japanese rock bands emerged in the 1960s with the GS boom, yet they fully developed only in the 1970s. Earlier bands include Happy End (はっぴいえん ど; 1969), Sadistic Mika Band (サディスティック・ミカ・バンド; 1972), RC Succession (ＲＣサクセション; 1968), Carol (キャロル; 1972), Down Town Boogie Woogie Band (ダウン・タウン・ブギウギ・バンド; 1973), Yellow Magic Orchestra (イエロー・マジ ック・オーケストラ; 1978), and BOØWY (1981), covering a wide range of musical styles from folk rock, psychedelic rock, and rock ’n’ roll to hard rock and techno pop. Their self-produced music is distinguished from mass-produced mainstream popular music by professional songwriters, even when they occasionally cross over to kayōkyoku by writing songs for Idols and appearing on TV programmes featuring this genre. With the diffusion of the term “J-pop” and expansion of its meaning, Japanese rock is now conceived as a part of this category. With the rising popularity of K-pop (Korean pop) in the 1990s, J-pop seems to have been further perpetuated as an all-inclusive category of Japanese popular music. The early twenty-first century saw the mass-produced revival of “City Pop” シティ・ポップ, which largely overlaps with J-pop as defined by the J-wave radio station in the late 1980s and is represented by the music of Yamashita Tatsurō, Takeuchi Mariya 竹内まりや, and Ōnuki Taeko 大貫妙子. The “boom” was triggered by the emergence of a musical genre called Vaporwave and its subgenre Future Punk, in which digitized musical data are sampled, remixed, and mashed up as new works to be shared almost solely on the Internet (Blistein 2019; Takahashi 2021). The (often anonymous) artists of these genres discovered City Pop from the enormous musical data available on the Internet and used them as material for their creative output. Although City Pop is highly westernized, international listeners have found it uniquely different, attractive, and “Japanese” (Fujiterebyū!! Henshūbu 2021). It is difficult to pin down what makes these listeners feel this, but the nostalgic sound of the 1980s combined with the sound of the Japanese language might have stimulated their interest in something different and exotic. This exoticism is certainly different from the Orientalism criticized by Edward Said (1978) as the viewpoint of colonizers toward the colonized as backward, uncivilized, and mysterious. With the global popularity of Japanese anime アニメ, manga マンガ, games, etc., Japanese popular culture began to be recognized as something “cool” and advanced. The City Pop revival might be indirectly influenced by such a renewed view on Japanese popular culture from outside Japan. It is also suggested that the international popularity of City Pop relates to a retrospective longing for the city, particularly Tokyo, in the 1980s as a Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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utopia of capitalist society or an idealized future (Takahashi 2021). Although the consequences of the City Pop boom are yet to be seen, it’s worth paying attention to what might evolve through this new relationship between Japanese popular music and international community. 9

Conclusion

This chapter traced the history of Japanese popular music from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. When social class divisions were still severe in the late nineteenth century, the Japanese government regarded anything but court music as popular music with very negative connotations, that is, as immoral music of the lowest and most ignorant classes. With the introduction of Western music and instruments, the rise of Western-style Japanese popular music, and its diffusion through records, the notion of popular music changed to something modern and fashionable. With the maturation of popular song writing, musicians, and productions, various styles and genres of Japanese popular music evolved. Some of them, such as Group Sounds and mūdo kayō, might be associated with certain musical characteristics, while others, such as Jazz Song, enka, ryūkōka/kayōkyoku, New Music, and J-pop, involve various musical styles and sometimes overlap with each other. The genre-concept of Japanese popular music has changed over time along with the rise of new styles and categories. It is necessary to comprehend them within their historical contexts and in relation with each other. Through a rough overview of Japanese popular music of the twentieth century, this chapter revealed how Japanese popular music has evolved by adapting foreign musical genres and instruments and combining them with certain Japanese musical and literal characteristics in various creative ways. Although it began as an effort to westernize Japanese musical culture, Japanese popular music has not only been westernized but developed as uniquely hybridized music, as might be seen in other non-Western cultures. In the age of the Internet, Japanese and other popular music from around the world is now being discovered, heard, and exchanged. Let’s keep an eye on where such global interactions will lead us. References Blistein, Jon. 2019. “Nihon no shiti poppu wa, naze sekaijū no risunā o toriko ni shite iru no ka?” 日本のシティ・ポップは、なぜ世界中のリスナーを虜にしているのか？ Rolling Stone Japan, 12 August. https://rollingstonejapan.com/articles/detail/31716/7/1/1. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Fujiterebyū!! Henshūbu フジテレビュー！！編集部. 2021. “Naze ima, kaigai de ninki? Gaikokujin mania ni kiku 40-nen mae no Nihon no shiti poppu ga bazuru riyū” なぜ今、海外で人気？外国人マニアに聞く４０年前の日本のシティ・ポップがバズ る理由. Fujiterebyū フジテレビュー, 21 August. https://www.fujitv-view.jp/article

/post-360055/. Hattori, Ryōichi 服部良一. 1993. Boku no ongaku jinsei ぼくの音楽人生. Tokyo: Nihon Bungeisha 日本文芸社. Hayatsu, Toshihiko 早津敏彦. 1982. Bakkī Shirakata Hawaian paradaisu バッキー・白片 ハワイアン・パラダイス. Tokyo: Sankurieito サンクリエイト. Hirata, Yūji 平田諭治. 2006. “‘Ongaku Torishirabe seiseki shinpōsho’ (1884-nen) Eiyaku kō” 『音楽取調成績申報書』（１８８４年）英訳考. Eigakushi Kenkyū 英学史研究 39: 1–17. Hosokawa, Shuhei. 1994. “East of Honolulu: Hawaiian Music in Japan from the 1920s to the 1940s.” Perfect Beat 2 (1): 51–67. Isawa, Shūji 伊澤修二. 1884a. Extracts from the Report of S. Isawa, Director of the Institute of Music, on the Result of the Investigations Concerning Music, Undertaken by Order of the Department of Education. Tokyo: The Institute of Music. Isawa, Shūji. 1884b. Ongaku Torishirabe seiseki shinpōsho 音楽取調成績申報書. Tokyo: Monbushō 文部省. Koizumi, Fumio 小泉文夫. 1982. “Tetorakorudo” テトラコルド. In Ongaku Daijiten 音楽 大事典, edited by Kishibe Shigeo 岸辺成雄, et al., 3: 1554–1556. Tokyo: Heibonsha 平凡社. Kurata, Yoshihiro 倉田喜弘. 1992. Nihon rekōdo bunkashi 日本レコード文化史. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki 東京書籍. Middleton, Richard. 2015. “I. Popular Music in the West.” Grove Music Online. Updated and revised 13 January. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.43179. Miyairi, Kyōhei 宮入恭平. 2015. J-pop bunkaron Ｊ–ＰＯＰ 文化論. Tokyo: Sairyūsha 彩流社. Mōri, Masato 毛利眞人. 2010. Nippon suwingu taimu ニッポン・スウィングタイム. Tokyo: Kōdansha 講談社. Said, Edward W. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books. Takahashi, Kōji 高橋幸治. 2021. “‘Shiti poppu’ wa naze hakkutsu sarete shimatta no ka? Retorotopia to shite no mirai” 「シティ・ポップ」はなぜ発掘されてしまったのか？レト ロトピアとしての未来. Kokusai Fasshon Senmon-shoku Daigaku Kiyō FAB 国際ファッシ ョン専門職大学紀要 ＦＡＢ 2: 37–60. Tanaka, Kenji 田中健次. 2003. Hitome de wakaru Nihon ongaku nyūmon ひと目でわか る日本音楽入. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha 音楽之友社. Wajima, Yūsuke 輪島裕介. 2010. Tsukurareta “Nihon no kokoro” shinwa: “Enka” o meguru sengo taishū ongakushi 創られた「日本の心」神話:「演歌」をめぐる戦後大衆音楽史. Tokyo: Kōbunsha 光文社.

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Chapter 24

Misora Hibari in Kōhaku Utagassen: From Modernity to Immortality Shelley BRUNT and Amane KASAI 1

Introduction

This chapter focuses on Misora Hibari 美空ひばり (1937–89), one of Japan’s central figures of postwar music culture, and traces her live performances and recent posthumous memorialization in the long-running television show Kōhaku Utagassen 紅白歌合戦 (Red and White Song Contest; hereafter Kōhaku). In doing so, the discussion provides a historical overview of Hibari’s relationship with Kōhaku and NHK (the public broadcaster that produces the show) and recounts how Hibari’s image has been presented during her lifetime and after her death. In particular, this chapter showcases technological advancements in performance staging in modern times, from a “posthumous duet” to a 3D holographic image of Hibari known as “AI Hibari.” Ultimately, this chapter accounts for the reimagining of Hibari from a postwar star to a “modern” icon in the twenty-first century. Born Katō Kazue 加藤和枝, she later adopted the stage name Misora Hibari, meaning “lark in a beautiful sky.” Hibari, as she is more commonly called, is a household name across Japan. Her career began when she debuted at age nine, and she quickly became a child star in both acting and singing realms—on the movie screen and in live performance settings. Her recording career is impressive, having released 1,500 songs in total, 517 of which were original songs (Hibari Purodakushon 2012). She performed a variety of genres throughout her decades-long career—from kayōkyoku 歌謡曲 to jazz, boogie-woogie, Latin pops, French chanson, and more—yet Hibari is known today as the “queen of enka 演歌,” a genre often lauded as “the soul of Japan” and linked to tradition, Japaneseness, and emotion (Yano 2002, 121).1 Given Hibari’s status, broad skillset, long career, and connection to the image of Japan, she has been the 1 Wajima (2018) provides a counter-perspective in his monograph about enka. He challenges the often accepted notion that “enka is the soul of Japan” and instead argues that it is a fabricated myth. Using Hibari as a case study, he suggests that during her child-star years, she was regarded by some as a “precocious child” (and not a beloved icon) who was singing songs that were not regarded as enka at the time but were retrospectively reimagined as enka during the 1960s and “given new status as ‘True Japanese Culture’” (Wajima 2018, 10). © Shelley BRUNT and Amane KASAI, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_026 Henry

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subject of a variety of scholarly writings, as well as, at least in Japan, gracing countless pages of magazines, newspapers, and other types of popular press. In addition to her autobiography (Misora 1971), many Japanese-language publications on her have been biographical (Honda 1987; Ōshita 1989; Saito 2009), often praising Hibari’s excellence and contributing to her deification. Furthermore, as in the works of Takenaka (2005) and Yamaori (2001), she has been referred to as the symbol of traditional Japan, a veneration the background of which has also been well-documented (Wajima 2010, 2011). In English-language texts, Hibari has been examined as a national symbol in postwar collective memory (Bourdaghs 2012; Yano 2000, 2004) and a performer of patterned forms of detailed, theatrical expression or kata 型・形 (Yano 2002, 2005).2 Her femininity has also been analysed (Tong 2015) as has her sexualized image as a young girl on stage and screen (Shamoon 2009) and the “homo cultural sensibility” of this image (Mackintosh 2012, 138), not to mention her personal/private life within a narrative of “the diva” (Yano 2018) and within the broader context of Kōhaku Utagassen history (Brunt 2006). It is within this context of Kōhaku that we approach our short study of Hibari’s song performances. Today, Kōhaku is a long-running annual television programme, filmed live in a concert hall and held on New Year’s Eve. The first Kōhaku, however, was broadcast on radio on 3 January 1951 as part of a suite of new music programming to suit the postwar era of the US Occupation (1945–52) and to showcase the talents of the Japanese music industry (Brunt 2014, 39). The show’s format consists of two “battling” teams—red for women (aka-gumi 紅組) and white for men (shiro-gumi 白組)—of professional Japanese singers and bands, alternating their performances until a single team is declared the winner by a panel of judges, the in-house audience, and the voting public at home.3 Importantly, it is NHK that curates the performer line-up, rendering it an invitation-only event, sometimes with noticable omissions. Today, Kōhaku aims to be representative of Japan’s important songs or artists in a given year but may also be seen as a forum for nostalgic reflection on the hits of the past. Hibari falls into both categories. 2 “Pattern” is a convenient term in English to describe the stylistic elements of song performance for the purpose of this short chapter. However, we encourage readers to seek out Yano’s publications, which make a strong case for the relevance of the Japanese term “kata” in relation to enka, including her observation that it best expresses “the smallest nuance of breathiness, the lifting of a heel, and the streaming of tears, as well as the sounds, sights, and situations that evoke those tears” (2002, 25). 3 The programme’s duration has changed over the decades. The 1st Kōhaku, for example, was only one hour long, while the most recent 73rd Kōhaku in 2022 ran for over four and a half hours. For a detailed history of Kōhaku, including its origins, development, performers, songs, and cultural context, see Brunt (2006). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Kōhaku Song Performances during Misora Hibari’s Lifetime

Hibari’s relationship with Kōhaku has spanned decades. She occupied various important roles beyond being a competing singer: she was leader of the aka-gumi as well as the prestigious “final singer” or “headliner” in the contest (tori トリ). In this section, we shed light on just a few of Hibari’s performances in Kōhaku amidst the broader context of Japan’s shifting tastes in music, while Table 24.1 summarizes data about her Kōhaku songs and performances during her lifetime.4 Hibari’s Kōhaku debut was the 5th edition of the contest, held in 1954 at the Hibiya Theatre. Here she performed “Hibari no Madorosu-san” (Hibari’s Sailor ひばりのマドロスさん) alongside classical, folk, chanson, and Latin singers who encapsulated the modern landscape of postwar Japanese music. The following year, NHK struggled to secure Japan’s top stars, including Hibari. She had signed an exclusivity contract with a competing programme, which forbade her from appearing in Kōhaku (NHK 2002, 163). When this contract lapsed, she arguably became Kōhaku’s most prized performer and appeared in sixteen consecutive shows from 1957 to 1972, presenting songs such as “Nagasaki no Chōchō-san” (Nagasaki Butterfly 長崎の蝶々さん), “Hibari no Sado Jōwa” (Hibari’s Sado Love Story ひばりの佐渡情話), and “Yawara” (Softness 柔). She also held the tori position for ten years from 1963, solidifying her status as an integral part of Kōhaku. This association abruptly ended when she, like several other long-serving performers, was dropped from NHK’s 1973 invitee list to make way for a new generation of singers to represent the cultural and musical era of change in Japan. There were other factors at play: a widely publicized scandal surrounding Hibari’s brother’s association with yakuza (organized gangsters) and his subsequent arrest and the family falling into disrepute were rumoured to be the real reasons for NHK’s rejection of Hibari. She never again competed in the contest but did return for the landmark 30th edition in 1979 in what was labelled a “Special Appearance.” Wearing an extravagant and expensive kimono that was custom-made for her comeback, she sang a medley of signature songs—including “Hibari no Madorosu-san” from her Kōhaku debut—and was introduced as a “Kōhaku first-generation singer” during an entertainment segment outside of the regular competition. It was to be her final Kōhaku appearance before her death. 4 It is challenging to find footage or audio recordings of all of Hibari’s Kōhaku song performances online. Her record label, Nippon Columbia, has, however, produced a DVD and audio box set of all of her existing Kōhaku performances; these are available for purchase. We refer to these resources when discussing her performances in this chapter. See https://columbia .jp/artist-info/hibari/discography/COZP-1296-1303.html. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Table 24.1 Misora Hibari’s chronological song performances in Kōhaku during her lifetime

Appearances

Song title

Kōhaku edition

Year

Prestigious Hibari’s place in order of song status as performances final singer of Kōhaku

Debut

“Hibari no Madorosusan” ひばりのマドロスさん (Hibari’s Sailor) “Nagasaki no Chōchōsan” 長崎の蝶々さん (Nagasaki Butterfly) “Shiroi Ranchi de Jūyon Notto” 白いランチで十四 ノット (White Launch at Fourteen Knots) “Gozonji Benten Kozō” ご存知弁天小僧 (Don’t You Know Benten Kozō?) “Aishū Hatoba” 哀愁波止 場 (Quay of Sorrow) “Hibari no Watari Dori da yo” ひばりの渡り鳥だ よ (Hibari’s Wandering Bird) “Hibari no Sado Jōwa”

5th

1954

13th out of 15

8th

1957

25th out of 25

✓

9th

1958

25th out of 25

✓

10th

1959

25th out of 25

✓

11th

1960

14th out of 27

12th

1961

14th out of 25

13th

1962

6th out of 25

14th

1963

25th out of 25

15th 16th 17th

1964 1965 1966

25th out of 25 25th out of 25 25th out of 25

18th

1967

23rd out of 23

2nd

3rd

4th

5th 6th

7th

ひばりの佐渡情話

8th 9th 10th 11th 12th

(Hibari’s Sado Love Story) “Aishū Defune” 哀愁出船 (Sorrowfully Setting Sail) “Yawara” 柔 (Softness) “Yawara” 柔 (Softness) “Kanashii Sake” 悲しい酒 (Sad Cup of Sake) “Geidō Ichidai” 芸道 一代 (Devoted My Life to Art)

✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

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Table 24.1 Misora Hibari’s chronological song performances in Kōhaku during her lifetime (cont.)

Appearances

Song title

Kōhaku edition

Year

Prestigious Hibari’s place in order of song status as performances final singer of Kōhaku

13th

“Inori” 熱祷 (Devout Prayer) “Wakaretemo Arigatō”

19th

1968

23rd out of 23

20th

1969

23rd out of 23

✓

21st

1970

24th out of 24

✓

22nd

1971

25th out of 25

✓

23rd

1972

23rd out of 23

✓

30th

1979

Billed as a “Special Appearance” and not part of the contest

14th

別れてもありがとう

15th

16th

17th

18th

(Though We Part, Thank You) “Jinsei Shōgi” 人生将棋 (Life is Like a Game of Shogi) “Kono Michi o Yuku” この道をゆく (Take This Path) “Aru Onna no Uta” ある女の詩 (A Woman’s Song) “Misora Hibari Memoriaru Medorē” 美空ひばりメモリアルメ ドレー (Misora Hibari

Memorial Medley)

✓

Source: Hibari Purodakushon (2012) and Kōhaku Utagassen Dētabēsu (n.d.)

3

After Death: Cover Songs and Other Performances in Kōhaku

Hibari’s passing prompted NHK to underscore her as a key figure in Kōhaku history, perhaps as a retrospective gesture of (one-sided) reconciliation. For example, a “Misora Hibari Retrospective” video montage was presented at the landmark 40th Kōhaku (1989), which traced her contributions to Kōhaku and postwar Japanese music in general. That year heralded the start of major changes for the show, and, in a sense, her death signalled the end of a significant chapter in Kōhaku history itself with the knowledge that the star would Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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never again sing live on the programme. What followed was a series of cover songs from Hibari’s repertoire (see Table 24.2), including most recently the 2021 cover of “Uta wa Waga Inochi” 歌は我が命 (Songs are My Life) and “Omatsuri Manbo” お祭りマンボ (Festival Mambo) in 2022. These performances speak to the continued reverence of Hibari within modern Kōhaku. In this section, we provide detail on two other noteworthy covers: first “Kawa no Nagare no yō ni” 川の流れのように (Like the River’s Flow) as an example of tribute; then “Ai San San” 愛燦燦 (Love’s Light) as an example of a posthumous duet with Hibari. “Kawa no Nagare no yō ni” is regarded as Hibari’s final recording—her “swan song”—which was released posthumously. It has become a “benchmark of singing accomplishment,” such that anyone who chooses to cover it faces “tough scrutiny with inevitable comparison to the original” (Yano 2005, 201).5 Tendō Yoshimi’s 天童よしみ (b. 1954) cover of the song in 1999 was for the ten-year anniversary of Hibari’s death, and her rendition demonstrated musical and performative elements from Hibari’s original recorded version with acute attention to detail. Emulating Hibari’s trademark style, Tendō adopted a conversational, light and breathy vocal style for the opening of the song and proceeded to a full-bodied, powerful vocal timbre at the end of each stanza. Like Hibari, Tendō “dug” the note before making a glissando octave leap to sustain her note with the wide vibrato (yuri ユリ) that is characteristic of Hibari’s technique. Subtle variations are also evident. Tendō sang in a higher-pitched key, frequently connecting phrases where Hibari would pause for breath. Tendō’s stamp of originality is understandable given that she is a star in her own right, with her own signature timbre and embellishments. In this way, Tendō is “covering” rather than copying; it is an art that “takes imitation short of mimicry and allows subtle variation to take place by virtue of different performing bodies, voices and personalities” (ibid., 199), and she “maintains ties of form to content, making [her] performance ‘sincere’” (200). It can be argued that Tendō was evoking nostalgia for Japan’s and Kōhaku’s past through the song (which is well known and loved by older generations of Japanese people), but by taking a fresh approach, she is showing how the song can be carried over to the twenty-first century. Tendō’s Kōhaku costume on the night also referenced Hibari and the memorable black dress Hibari wore during her Fushichō Konsāto 不死鳥コンサート 5 The Misora Hibari Memorial Hall (Misora Hibari-kan), the now defunct tourist site in Kyoto, also highlighted this as her “memorial song.” It played on loop, accompanied by multiple screens displaying footage of flowing rivers and images of Hibari’s performances. Even though this venue has closed down, a similar site is currently operational; situated in Toei Kyoto Studio Park (Tōei Uzumasa Eigamura), it is known as the Hibari Misora Museum (Misora Hibari-za), and it displays her memorabilia.

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(Phoenix Concert) at the Tokyo Dome, held only months before her death. In an account of her dress that evening, Hibari was said to be bedecked in black and silver feathers swathing her body like a protective nest, a feathered glittering black headdress shooting four feet into the air, Hibari, her shoulders clad in armour, became a bird, a creature from another planet ready to take off, or be transformed, like Yamato Takeru [日本武尊], the mythological Japanese hero, into a white bird-god. Tansman 1996, 103

Today, the black dress holds significance and is on display at the Misora Hibari Memorial House in Tokyo, a public museum of artefacts from her career (see fig. 24.1). For the Kōhaku cover performance, Tendō was also enveloped in an ornate, multi-layered, feathered dress, and she wore a sparkling silver ornamental headdress adorned with long, protruding white feathers. Tendō wore “wings”

Figure 24.1

Misora Hibari’s black “Phoenix” dress Photo by KASAI AMANE, 23 March 2023

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of white feathers attached to the underside of each sleeve, like a bird. Unlike Hibari’s black “Phoenix” dress, Tendō’s dress was white to evoke Yamato Takeru or perhaps to draw attention to the anniversary of Hibari’s passing.6 Through Tendō’s performance, Hibari can be positioned as “an ‘immortal bird’” (Tansman 1996, 106)—in spite of her physical death, she remains “immortal,” or at least her image does via song, costume, and covering techniques. Another perspective is that Tendō was standing in place of Hibari in what Christine Yano would call an act of “migawari” 身代わり, meaning “shadow performance” in this context, such that the processes of covering would “augment the repetitions manifold by its own variants,” and migawari may “generate new popularity for the original song” (2005, 200). Although migawari is a common practice in enka, Tendō’s treatment of this song in Kōhaku is an important statement about memory, memorialization, and musical heritage. Kōhaku has used other staging techniques to memorialize Hibari; one example is from 1989, the year she died. In that edition—the 40th Kōhaku—Yukimura Izumi 雪村いづみ (b. 1937) sang “Ai San San,” a song representative of the latter years of Hibari’s repertoire. The cover was performed again in 2007—the seventieth anniversary of Hibari’s birth—this time by the song’s composer, Ogura Kei 小椋佳 (b. 1944). Most unusually, Hibari was included alongside him to sing the cover as a ‘posthumous duet’: a term that describes “the co-presence of one living and one dead singer in a new context” (Brunt 2015, 165). Using edited extracts from audio-visual footage of the aforementioned Phoenix Concert, the producers made Hibari appear in various ways on the Kōhaku stage. The cameras first showed her as displayed on a large screen behind Ogura, and then her video image was projected next to him. The edges of her video were blurred (probably due to the technical limitations of video editing in 1989), as if she were framed by light and she were luminous. For most of the duet, Hibari appeared unnaturally larger than Ogura (even though she was a diminutive figure when alive), to give the impression that she wasn’t quite there or singing live. The sonic recontextualization of Hibari’s recorded voice, and its interplay with Ogura’s live vocals, was also striking. Each performer took turns: Hibari sang the first verse, Ogura the second verse, and Hibari held the third verse’s melody with Ogura harmonizing. Ogura was singing a duet with her recorded voice, much like at karaoke, and perhaps because they could not match the pitch at which they sang, the arrangement had repeated modulations.

6 In this legend of Yamato Takeru, outlined in Kojiki 古事記 (Records of Ancient Matters) from the Nara period, Yamato avoids death by turning into a great white bird that flies to the heavens.

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Misora Hibari in Kōhaku Utagassen Table 24.2 Misora Hibari songs posthumously covered in Kōhaku

Song title

Performer covering the song

Kōhaku edition

Year

Occasion

“Ai San San”

Yukimura Izumi

40th

1989

愛燦燦

雪村いづみ

Performed by Hibari’s close friend in the year she died

58th

2007

62nd

2011

Kim Yonja

45th

1994

Tendō Yoshimi

50th

1999

56th

2005

67th

2016

Performed to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Hibari’s birth; a virtual duet; the first time a male singer has performed a Hibari song in Kōhaku Performed for the 23rd anniversary of Hibari’s death Song ranked 1st overall in two NHK public questionnaires: “A memorable song in the 50 years after the war” and “Songs you want to listen to in Kōhaku” Song ranked 1st overall in a NHK public questionnaire about the Kōhaku theme “Songs to convey to the twenty-first century” Song ranked 8th overall in a NHK public questionnaire for selecting songs for this Kōhaku For the Kōhaku theme “Let’s sing our dreams”

(Love’s Light)

Ogura Kei 小椋佳

Tendō Yoshimi 天童よしみ

“Kawa no Nagare no yō ni” 川の流れのよ うに (Like the

김연자

River’s Flow)

天童よしみ

Tendō Yoshimi 天童よしみ

Shimazu Aya 島津亜矢

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Table 24.2 Misora Hibari songs posthumously covered in Kōhaku (cont.)

Song title

Performer covering the song

Kōhaku edition

Year

Occasion

“Jinsei Ichiro” 人生一路 (The Road of Life)

Tendō Yoshimi

66th

2015

68th

2017

72th

2021

73th

2022

Included an excerpt from the Hibari song “Owari Naki Tabi” 終りなき旅 (Endless Journey), referencing how it was also performed at the end of Hibari’s famed Tokyo Dome Phoenix Concert in 1988; costuming mirrored Hibari’s outfit from this concert For the Kōhaku theme “Let’s sing our dreams” For the Kōhaku theme “Colourful”; the second time a male singer has performed a Hibari song in Kōhaku Performing with Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (Skapara SP)

天童よしみ

Ichikawa Yukino 市川由紀乃

“Uta wa Waga Inochi”

Hikawa Kiyoshi 氷川きよし

歌は我が命

(Songs are My Life) “Omatsuri Manbo”

Sakamoto Fuyumi 坂本冬美

お祭りマンボ

(Festival Mambo)

Source: Hibari Purodakushon (2012) and Kōhaku Utagassen Dētabēsu (n.d.)

4

AI Hibari in Kōhaku: A Virtual Resurrection

Our chapter now turns to a different kind of digital re-animation of Hibari: this time as a hologram in Kōhaku, performing a newly composed song that Hibari herself never sang during her lifetime, all made possible by the advances of modern technology. In 2019—to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Hibari’s death—Japan was introduced to “AI Hibari,” a term that is the name of both a 3D hologram and the project to “revive” Hibari’s unique voice, demeanour, clothing, performance style, and other physical attributes. This Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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was achieved via Vocaloid:AI, an artificial intelligence-based voice synthesis technology made possible with “deep learning,” developed by Yamaha.7 The AI learned Hibari’s voice via recordings from when she was alive by using a neural network. First, it processed the recordings of her songs stored at Nippon Columbia followed by the cassette tapes of her reading to her adopted son, Katō Kazuya 加藤和也 (b. 1971). Over the course of the analytical investigation, it was discovered that high-level harmonic overtones characterize Hibari’s singing voice. To faithfully reproduce her voice, four additional AI models specializing in timbre, vibrato, musical pitch, and timing were introduced beside the main AI model. AI Hibari was also designed to perform in concert settings, such as Kōhaku, so it was important that the physical attributes of Hibari’s body were faithfully replicated in the hologram. To ensure this, several of her former colleagues worked with the AI process. Concert footage of Hibari’s eyes and mouth movements during her singing was extracted and modelled and then choreographed by Tendō Yoshimi, who had a history of covering Hibari songs (as mentioned above). The (digital) clothing worn by AI Hibari also needed to replicate Hibari’s fashion style. A white dress was designed by Mori Hanae 森英恵 (1926–2022), who had worked with Hibari on several occasions and who, in Hibari’s later years, created the costumes for the aforementioned Phoenix Concert. The creation of AI Hibari relied on sonic and visual data from Hibari’s past so that it/she could sing—and sing new repertoire too. “Arekara” あれから (Ever Since Then) was a newly composed song for the AI, created by renowned Japanese music mogul Akimoto Yasushi 秋元康 (b. 1958). He had a history of working with Hibari, as the lyricist of “Kawa no Nagare no yō ni,” and became the project producer, choosing the music composed by Satō Kafū 佐藤嘉風 (b. 1981) through a public submission process and then writing the lyrics for it. The song “Arekara” debuted in a television special titled AI de Yomigaeru Misora Hibari ＡＩでよみがえる美空ひばり (Bringing Misora Hibari Back with AI) broadcast on 29 September 2019, where the life-sized 3D hologram sang and swayed to choreographed movements (NHK 2019b). The song then received online distribution and a CD single release (under both Misora Hibari’s and AI Hibari’s names), all leading to AI Hibari’s debut performance in December that year for the 70th Kōhaku. Television footage of “Arekara” on Kōhaku shows AI Hibari as a grand figure, large in size and occupying much of the camera frame (NHK 2019a). It/she emerged from the darkness into the light and wore a lavish, tiered white dress. This was a special event—not part of the contest itself—and AI Hibari was 7 Readers will be familiar with other Vocaloid performers in Japan that have been created using AI, most notably Hatsune Miku 初音ミク (from 2007). Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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the only digital performer on the night, but the performance staging needed to be in keeping with the existing aesthetics of Kōhaku. AI Hibari was framed as a solitary figure in the centre of the stage, standing on top of a white staircase that was used for other acts. Carefully considered camera angles were used to create the perception that this may very well be a real person on stage. For example, during the chorus, a wide overhead shot captured the release of countless digital lanterns inside the NHK Hall, which contributed to a sense of spaciousness and a magical atmosphere. We know that the experience would have been quite different for the audience on the night. Fig. 24.2, taken at AI Hibari’s rehearsals for this Kōhaku performance, shows how small AI Hibari is on stage, using the camera operator and size of the lanterns as reference points.8 In the hall, it/she looked like an ordinary projection on a video screen rather than the simulation of a living/breathing/singing being. Clearly, the visual elements of the AI are designed for the broadcast audience. The lyrics of “Arekara” are worth brief consideration here.9 The song is presented in the first person, where Hibari is positioned as “I” and the listener as “you.” The chorus in particular adopts this style of direct address: How have you been ever since then? I’m getting on in years, too. I still find myself Singing old songs. Looking back, those were happy times. If we infer that the song title means “Ever Since Then,” with the word “then” referring to Hibari’s death, and AI Hibari is meant to stand in for the real Hibari, then the lyrics “I’m getting on in years, too” are nonsensical. It is as if Hibari herself had grown older with her listeners, even though she had been dead since 1989, the first year of the Heisei era. Indeed, the 70th Kōhaku marked the thirty-year anniversary of Hibari’s death, and it was the first Kōhaku during the Reiwa era.10 In other words, Heisei—the era of Hibari’s absence—came to an 8 There are several days of Kōhaku rehearsals prior to the live New Year’s Eve show, where performers work with NHK staff to perfect the timing for the live event, and the rehearsals included AI Hibari. 9 All English translations in this chapter are by Kasai Amane. Due to copyright restrictions on the original Japanese-language song lyrics, we prefer to use an English translation. We also use English translations of phrases that are expressed in the Japanese-language television programmes referred to in this chapter. 10 The music video of “Arekara” was a retrospective of various events all over Japan and the world during the thirty years of the Heisei era, together with live footage of Hibari.

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Figure 24.2

AI Hibari at the 70th Kōhaku rehearsals Photo by Shelley Brunt, 30 December 2019

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end, and with the beginning of a new era, she returned because of the advent of novel technologies. These lyrics are designed to be heard as a message from the real Misora Hibari to her audiences through the conduit of AI Hibari. This idea is reinforced in the spoken word section of the song, revealing that it/she has been affectionately looking down on her audiences, presumably from heaven: It’s been a while. I’ve been watching over you ever since then. You did your best. Hang in there. Do it for me, from now on. This stanza encourages audiences to feel as if Hibari is speaking to them after a long time has passed (that is, after her death) although the AI speaks predetermined lines and does not improvise, both in terms of content and timing. The lines were so skillfully crafted that after witnessing the debut of AI Hibari (in the programme Bringing Misora Hibari Back with AI), one audience member remarked, “The lines encouraged me to live the rest of my life,” indicating the uplifting power of the words (NHK 2019b). Yet because of those very lines, some people challenged the manipulative nature of a third party speaking through the person’s voice without their consent, particularly for what (from their point of view) was seen as “profaning the dead.” Behind such criticism is a deep-rooted view that new technologies threaten existing music, from outside the music, which leads to an argument about whether we should introduce new technology to music at all (Taniguchi 2023, 36). The initial TV documentary, titled Bringing Misora Hibari Back with AI, showed studio audiences moved to tears by the so-called resurrection of Hibari. By contrast, the performance in the 70th Kōhaku sparked controversy among television viewers, which was amplified in media commentary and online discussion in the days following the programme. The furore prompted a spin-off TV documentary focusing on the extreme audience reaction. In this second show, titled AI Misora Hibari: How Do You Feel?, AI researcher Matsuo Yutaka pointed out that when it comes to technology, it is important to show the context—who created the technology and why—which was information Kōhaku didn’t provide (NHK 2020). The appearance of the hologram is clearly different from that of the living performers in the venue, but aurally recognizing the difference between humans and AI can be difficult, as living performers may lip-sync to a pre-recorded audio track. To the TV viewers, Hibari appeared the same as the living singers, but in reality, her holographic image was rather small (as explained above). Despite lacking stature, the image was still impactful enough to make one member of the audience declare, “It was Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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amazing. I feel that there are endless possibilities. I felt like I was looking at a god, and I was moved by its divinity” (NHK 2019b). Considering the audience’s opinion that AI Hibari is questionable or on a learning curve as an AI (NHK 2020), they seemed to be suspicious of the reproduction technology of the visual aspects (i.e., facial expression generation AI and 3D computer graphics) and the subordination of the audio aspect (i.e., singing voice synthesis AI) to human creators. That is, further reproducibility is expected with extra attention given to the visual aspect, which is currently at the stage of the “uncanny valley.”11 At the same time, autonomy and adaptability are desired in the audio aspect, which has secured a certain level of reproducibility, all with the aim of achieving seemingly complete autonomy and authenticity on the part of the hologram. In the first TV special, the creators enabled AI Hibari to sing “Let It Go” from the Disney film Frozen so technically en pointe that this AI proved that it could sing any song in the style of Hibari (NHK 2019b). Still, at present, “Arekara” is the only song officially being sung by AI Hibari, and the repetition of this single song and the high reproducibility of the singing voice using synthesis technology may have led to this case often being equated with a pre-prepared recording. 5

Conclusion

Hibari’s songs and her digital image have continued to re-circulate on the Kōhaku stage long after her death. Hibari has been present in Kōhaku in a number of ways: in real life, via “covered” songs, as a tribute performer, and as AI Hibari. In re-presenting Hibari in these various ways, NHK has controlled the narrative of its relationship with the famous singer, smoothing over the uncomfortable years when she was effectively blacklisted from the show. It has memorialized her through a particular lens and through use of technology. AI Hibari can be seen as the pinnacle of this re-shaping of history: NHK has taken its role to the extreme, by placing new words in Hibari’s mouth, making her devoid of agency. AI Hibari is a tool that, at best, can be used to commemorate and celebrate the dearly loved but departed singer; at worst, it is a tool that can be used to place new words in Misora Hibari’s mouth.

11 The term “uncanny valley” was originally coined by Mori Masahiro in 1970 in relation to human perceptions of robots that look and act like people. The term has since been employed in a wide range of popular culture contexts, such as in connection with computer generated “people” in film and television. See Mori, MacDorman, and Kageki (2012) for an English translation of Mori’s article. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Acknowledgements

Shelley Brunt would like to thank the Japan Foundation for her 2019–2020 Japanese Studies Fellowship to facilitate research at the 70th Kōhaku Utagassen rehearsals. References Bourdaghs, Michael K. 2012. Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical History of J-Pop. New York: Columbia University Press. Brunt, Shelley. 2006. “Performing Community: Japan’s Kōhaku Song Contest.” PhD diss., University of Adelaide. Brunt, Shelley. 2014. “‘The Infinite Power of Song’: Uniting Japan at the 60th Annual Kōhaku Song Contest.” In Made in Japan: Studies in Popular Music, edited by Tōru Mitsui, 37–51. London: Routledge. Brunt, Shelley. 2015. “Songs of the Living Dead: Performing Relationships in the Posthumous Duet.” In Death and the Rock Star, edited by Catherine Strong and Barbara Lebrun, 165–200. London: Ashgate. Hibari Purodakushon ひばりプロダクション. 2012. “Purofīru” プロフィール. Accessed 1 April 2023. http://www.misorahibari.com/?profile_list=profile. Honda, Yasuharu 本田靖春. 1987. “Sengo”: Misora Hibari to sono jidai 「戦後」:美空ひば りとその時代. Tokyo: Kōdansha 講談社. Kōhaku Utagassen Dētabēsu 紅白歌合戦データベース. n.d. “Rekidai tori, ōtori” 歴代ト リ・大トリ. Accessed 3 April 2023. http://kouhaku-data.main.jp/tori. Mackintosh, Jonathan. 2012. “The Homo Cultures of Iconic Personality in Japan: Mishima Yukio and Misora Hibari.” In Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture, edited by Patrick W. Galbraith and Jason G. Karlin, 131–149. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Misora, Hibari 美空ひばり. 1971. Hibari jiden: Watashi to kage ひばり自伝:わたしと影. Tokyo: Sōshisha 草思社. Mori, Masahiro, Karl F. MacDorman, and Norri Kageki. 2012. “The Uncanny Valley [From the Field].” IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 19 (2): 98–100. NHK. 2002. Broadcasting in Japan: The Twentieth Century Journey from Radio to Multimedia. Tokyo: NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute. NHK. 2019a. NHK Dai 70-kai Kōhaku Utagassen 第70回 ＮＨＫ 紅白歌合戦. Aired 31 December. Tokyo: Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 日本放送協会. NHK. 2019b. NHK Supesharu AI de Yomigaeru Misora Hibari ＮＨＫ スペシャル ＡＩ でよみ がえる美空ひばり. Aired 29 September. Tokyo: Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 日本放送協会.

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NHK. 2020. AI Misora Hibari: Anata wa dō Omoimasuka ＡＩ 美空ひばり:あなたはどう思 いますか. Aired 20 March. Tokyo: Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 日本放送協会. Ōshita, Eiji 大下英治. 1989. Misora Hibari: Jidai o utau 美空ひばり:時代を歌う. Tokyo: Shinchosha 新潮社. Saitō, Shinji 齋藤愼爾. 2009. Hibari den: Sōkyū rutaku ひばり伝:蒼穹流謫. Tokyo: Kōdansha 講談社. Shamoon, Deborah. 2009. “Misora Hibari and the Girl Star in Postwar Japanese Cinema.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 35 (1): 131–155. Takenaka, Rō 竹中労. 2005. Kanpon Misora Hibari 完本美空ひばり. Tokyo: Chikumashobō 筑摩書房. Taniguchi, Fumikazu 谷口文和. 2023. “Tekunorojī テクノロジー.” In Kuritikaru-wādo popyurā ongaku: “Kiku” o hirogeru, kōshinsuru クリティカル・ワード ポピュラー音楽: 〈聴く〉を広げる・更新する, edited by Nagatomi Mari, Chū Sōta, and Hidaka Ryōsuke, 32–40. Tokyo: Film Art フィルムアート社. Tansman, Alan M. 1996. “Mournful Tears and Sake: The Postwar Myth of Misora Hibari.” In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture, edited by John Whittier Treat, 103–136. Richmond: Curzon Press. Tong, Benny. 2015. “A Tale of Two Stars: Understanding the Establishment of Femininity in Enka through Misora Hibari and Fuji Keiko.” Situations 8 (1): 23–44. Wajima, Yūsuke 輪島裕介. 2010. Tsukurareta “Nihon no kokoro” shinwa: “Enka” o meguru sengo taishū ongakushi 創られた「日本の心」神話:「演歌」をめぐる戦後大衆音楽史. Tokyo: Kobunsha 光文社. Wajima, Yūsuke 輪島裕介. 2011. “Sengo Nihon ‘taishū’ ongaku gensetsu-shi josetsu” 戦後日本〈大衆〉音楽言説史序説. PhD diss., University of Tokyo. Wajima, Yūsuke. 2018. Creating Enka: The “Soul of Japan” in the Postwar Era. Translated by Kato David Hopkins. Nara: Public Bath Press. Yamaha Corporation. 2019. “Misora Hibari VOCALOID:AI” 美空ひばり VOCALOID: AI. Accessed 1 April 2023. https://www.yamaha.com/ja/about/ai/vocaloid_ai/. Yamaori, Tetsuo 山折哲雄. 2001. Zōhoban Misora Hibari to Nihonjin 増補版美空ひばり と日本人. Tokyo: Gendaishokan 現代書館. Yano, Christine. 2000. “The Case of the Deviant Diva: Singer Misora Hibari as Symbol of Postwar Japan.” Paper presented at the Society for Ethnomusicology 45th annual meeting, Toronto, 3 November. Yano, Christine. 2002. Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center. Yano, Christine. 2004. “Misora Hibari and the Controversies of Collective Memory in Contemporary Japan.” Paper presented at the Nikkei Bruin Conference on Japanese Popular Music, Los Angeles, 3 March.

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Yano, Christine. 2005. “Covering Disclosures: Practices of Intimacy, Hierarchy, and Authenticity in a Japanese Popular Music Genre.” Popular Music and Society 28 (2): 193–205. Yano, Christine. 2018. “From Child Star to Diva: Misora Hibari as Postwar Japan.” In Diva Nation: Female Icons from Japanese Cultural History, edited by Rebecca Copeland and Laura Miller, 95–114. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Chapter 25

Japanese Rap: A History of Style Noriko MANABE What is Japanese hip hop? This answer is complicated. It is a new verbal art, a musical aesthetic, a community, an identity marker, and a mode of political expression that cannot be neatly summarized in well-worn narratives of globalization or imitation. Instead, this chapter gives a snapshot of the development of rap style in Japan through vignettes provided by selected tracks spanning the forty-year history of Japanese hip hop. 1

Origins: Itō Seikō, “Tokyo Bronx” (1986)

The growth of Japanese hip hop has often been tied to the premiere of Charlie Ahearn’s movie Wild Style in Tokyo in 1983. While the film undoubtedly inspired many key hip hoppers (like DJ Krush), Japanese hip hop is also part of a long history of adaptation of Black music in Japan, including jazz from the early twentieth century, Latin dance music, rockabilly, blues, soul, reggae, disco, and R&B. Indeed, many Japanese music fans were aware of hip hop before 1983.⁠1 This is evidenced by technopop group Yellow Magic Orchestra’s (YMO) “Rap Phenomena” (ラップ現象; 1981), whose lyrics, about the “rap phenomenon” (the Japanese term for the psychic phenomenon of hearing sounds), are performed in rap style. Japanese rap pioneer Itō Seikō いとうせいこう (b. 1961) first heard the Sugar Hill Gang on Far East Network, a radio station operated by the US Armed Services. The son of a parliamentary leader, a graduate of prestigious Waseda University, and now an award-winning novelist, Itō was attracted to hip hop by the rhythmicity of the sound and the citational aspects of the music (pers. comm., January 2009).⁠ In “Tokyo Bronx” (1986), he gives a vivid account of early hip hop clubs during Japan’s prosperous bubble era (1986–91), in “crumbling buildings” with a wall spray-painted “NO FUTURE IS MY FUTURE” and “no roof, pillars, booths, mirror balls, laser beams, cash registers, cloaks, radio, or telephones,” but with the audience happily dancing all night to breakbeats. 1 Among other works, see Atkins (2001) on jazz and Sterling (2010) on reggae.

© Noriko MANABE, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004687172_027

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Itō told me of the challenges of rapping with flow in Japanese. Traditional poetry in Japanese is based on alternating lines of five and seven morae (short syllables, spoken evenly); in the context of hip hop’s usual four-measure phrases, this lyrical structure leads to awkward silences at the end of phrases (Itō Seikō, pers. comm., January 2009). Itō plays with enjambment (letting the line flow to the next line), timing of lines, and exaggerated intonation to vary his flow. Rapper K Dub Shine would further explore the issues of rapping in Japanese. 2

Rhyming in Japanese: “A Star Is Born” (スター誕生; 1996)

K Dub Shine (Kagami Kōta; b. 1968) was raised by a single mother in Shibuya, Tokyo. He spent eight years in the US, living in Orlando, Florida; Nevada city, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during which he began to rap. In 1993, he and his crewmates from the newly formed King Giddra, Zeebra and DJ Oasis, lived in Oakland, where they honed their craft. K Dub initially rapped in English because he thought it was too difficult to rap in Japanese. In Japanese syntax, sentences end with auxiliary verbs, which form tenses and voices, like “do” and “have” in English; such Japanese endings, like -desu or -masu, are few in number. This syntax made end-rhymes—a key component of English-language rap—difficult to form without becoming trivial. Nonetheless, his American compatriots encouraged him to rap in Japanese as a way of representing himself. K Dub analysed the flow of US rappers (such as Eric B. and Rakim’s Paid in Full) and noticed that line-ending words not only rhymed but also presented a key concept in the lyrics, whose meaning was augmented by the rhyme. He therefore formulated a method that broke Japanese syntax to put key words at the end of lines. For example, in “A Star Is Born,” he takes the sentences 話が少女の夢と違うね Hanashi ga shōjo no yume to chigaune カメラの向こうで胸を痛めてる Kamera no mukō de mune o itameteru

It’s a different story from the girlhood dream, isn’t it? On the other side of the camera, her heart is aching. The words yume (dream) and mune (heart, conscience) rhyme: they have the same vowels and similar consonants, as both “n” and “m” are nasal consonants. K Dub moves them to the end of the line:

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The end position not only makes the rhyme audible but enhances the resonance of the lyric. The track is about a teenager who moves to Tokyo with dreams of becoming a singer, meets a “talent scout,” and goes to a supposed meeting, only to be forced into performing for a pornographic film.⁠2 The rhyme of yume and mune highlights the contrast between the protagonist’s girlhood dream and the deep shame she feels in her heart. As a lifelong resident of Shibuya, where the story takes place, K Dub witnessed many young women in distress. As key words could be verbs, adjectives, nouns, or adverbs, which are infinite in number, this method created a bounty of rhyming possibilities while making the lyrics poetic and open to interpretation. K Dub taught it to Zeebra, his fellow MC in the hip hop group King Giddra. Together, they released the album Strength from the Skies (空からの力; 1995), which became the “textbook for rap technique” (Kreva, pers. comm., July 2005).⁠3 Once this technique had been adopted, rappers exploited many aspects of the Japanese language to form rhymes. Below I quote a few examples from “A Star Is Born,” noting the technique. In each case, the rhymes underline the meanings behind the lyrics. The examples are presented in the order they appear in the lyrics to give a sense of the story. Plays on Japanese idiomatic constructions: -Nai is a negation, as in tomannai (no stopping) and owaranai (not ending). In nannai and yannai, -nai is a common form of invitation, meaning “won’t you?” These lines describe the protagonist’s meeting with the scout. タレントなんない？ＣＤ 出してドラマとかもやんない？

Tarento nannai? CD dashite dorama toka mo yannai? [The agent:] “Don’t you want to become an entertainer? Won’t you put out CD s and do a drama series?” 名刺差し出し終わんない話　通行人達の止まんない足

2 Such situations are common in the Japanese porn industry. See AFP (2016). 3 For more on the development of rhyming technique by Japanese rappers, see Manabe (2006).

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Meishi sashidashi, owannai hanashi, tsūkōjintachi no tomannai ashi He hands her his card and talks endlessly while pedestrians’ feet don’t stop Japanese constructions: The ending -sare indicates that something is done to someone. K Dub uses this construction to describe what happens when the protagonist keeps her appointment with the scout. This passive-voice construction signals her lack of agency in the sexual violence that happens next. 部屋に通され　紅茶だけ出され　「ちょっとここで」と待たされ

Heya ni tōsare, kōcha dake dasare, “chotto kokode” to matasare She is taken to a room, given only tea, “a little while here,” made to wait (Near) homonyms provide a striking way to express contrasts: 夢と有名　困難な混乱

Yume to yūmei, konnan na konran Dreams and fame, a difficult confusion Sino-Japanese compounds, which have Chinese etymologies, are a rich source of rhymes. This set of rhymes draws a connection between body, death, and angel. 二十歳前なのに痩せ過ぎ全身

Hatachi mae na no ni yasesugi zenshin, Although she wasn’t even twenty, her whole body had become too thin 独りで変死のリモコン天使

Hitori de henshi no rimokon tenshi Alone, she died an unnatural death, the remote-control angel Through these contrasting internal and end-rhymes, K Dub paints a poignant picture of the exploitative sex industry in Tokyo. To address the idea of flow, let us turn to a classic track by Rhymester. 3

Flow in Japanese: Rhymester, “B-Boyizm” (1998)

Rhymester is considered one of the foundational groups in Japanese hip hop. Formed in 1989 by students in a soul-music circle at Waseda University, it features two MC s, Utamaru (Sasaki Shirō; b. 1969) and Mummy-D (Sakama Daisuke; Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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b. 1970), along with DJ Jin (Yamamoto Jin; b. 1973). Using the broken-syntax method of rhyming observed in King Giddra, Rhymester illustrates additional techniques that create flow in Japanese: aspirated, percussive pronunciation; syncopated vocal rhythm; and exaggerated intonation. All these elements are present in Rhymester’s classic track, “B-Boyizm” (1998). The track celebrates Japanese hip hop while acknowledging the complicated relationship between its practitioners and Black culture. Mummy-D declares, 俺の名前は黄色いＢ-ＢＯＹハンパなくナンバー・ワン

Ore no namae wa kiiroi b-boy, hanpa nak’ nanbā wan My name is yellow b-boy, no holds barred, number one いかにも俺が Ｂ- ＢＯＹ のなかの Ｂ- ＢＯＹ ただの Ｂ- ＢＯＹ 自分が自分であることを誇る

Ikanimo ore ga b-boy no naka no b-boy, tada no b-boy Jibun ga jibun de aru koto o hokoru. I’m just a b-boy in a b-boy, just a b-boy I am proud to be myself. Utamaru is more explicit about being a Japanese person who has an affinity with another culture: または決して屈せざる奴らの国歌 生まれ育ち国籍は違え この旗のもと忠誠を誓え ドロに まみれつつ生きてく技術と知恵 身につけ約束の土地へ

The national anthem of those who never give in, [our affinities are] different from the nationality where we were born and raised Pledge allegiance under this flag. While covered in mud, we acquire the skills and wisdom to live and head for the promised land In this and other passages, Utamaru’s flow is punctuated by his enunciation. Japanese morae are typically a vowel, or a consonant and a vowel; there are no consonant clusters or terminal consonants that can sound percussive. Utamaru drops many i’s and u’s (indicated by an apostrophe), creating clusters (e.g., ko-ku-se-ki becomes kok’sek’). He also aspirates consonants k, t, ts, and ch, pronouncing them with larger bursts of air than is usual in Japanese speech; he sounds as if he is spitting out these consonants. These techniques give his flow a percussive sound:

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matawa kessh’te kussezaru yatsura no kokka umare sodach’ kok’sek’ wa chigae kono hata no moto chūsei o chikae Doro ni mamiretsuts’ ik’tek’ gijutsu to chie mi ni tsuke yak’sok’ no tochi e The hook celebrates hip hop culture in Japan—its singular aesthetic, its community, and its subcultural capital: I’ll never give up this aesthetic, refining myself without grovelling to anyone, The roaring bass only reaches the wonderful good-for-nothings What makes this hook so joyous is the syncopated placement of the rap. In fig. 25.1, note that the first and third bars leave the downbeat empty. In the third measure, the rhymes rash’, nash’, and tach’ are all in syncopated positions avoiding the beat and are accented by higher vocal pitch. Similarly, in the fourth measure, the rhymes to-dok’ and [to-]do-rok’ are placed in syncopated positions. These syncopations give the hook its bounciness, making it eminently danceable. This kind of syncopated delivery is somewhat unnatural in the Japanese language, which lacks stress accents so that all morae are spoken evenly with similar duration and loudness. The MC s of Rhymester create syncopation by pronouncing what would normally be two morae as one, by dropping i’s and u’s or by pronouncing two consecutive vowels as one syllable. In the third measure of fig. 25.1, for example, “su-ba-ra-shi-ki” is contracted as “su-ba-rash’-ki,” creating a rest or skip on the second beat. Exaggerated intonation is another way Rhymester enhances flow. Japanese words have pitch accents, spoken at a higher pitch, which Japanese rappers often exaggerate. In fig. 25.2, Mummy-D exaggerates the natural pitch accent

Figure 25.1

Rhymester, “B-Boyizm,” hook (0:23)

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Figure 25.2

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Rhymester, “B-Boyizm” (2:09). [a figure in the background of a television drama. For the companions we couldn’t find, Kick the verse, kick the lyrics, get rid of stress like a whirlpool.]

on “NA-ka” in the first measure, then uses higher pitch to highlight the rhymes su-ga-ta, na-kat-ta, and na-ka-ma-tach’. However, his higher pitches don’t always correspond to the pitch accents of the words; in the figure above, circles indicate pitch accents that Mummy-D does not render in higher pitch. In the first measure, in “sugata,” the pitch accent is on “SU,” not “ga.” By raising the pitch on “ga” rather than “SU,” Mummy-D preserves the pitch pattern (of four sixteenth notes followed by a raised pitch) that was established at the beginning of the measure, making for a playful interaction between pitch and rhyme patterns. Hence, by the mid- to late 1990s, Japanese rappers had developed techniques to create rhyme and flow in a language quite different from English. But hip hop is more than technique: it is an expression of society. 4

Political Protest: Dengaryū Feat. ECD, “Straight Outta 138” (2012)

Most Japanese musicians stay out of politics because of broadcasting and recording industry rules and practices that discourage the airing of controversial opinions (Manabe 2015). Nonetheless, some hip hop musicians have engaged with political issues. After the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster of 2011, woman rapper Coma-chi (b. 1984) released the antinuclear song “Say No!” (2011), while another woman rapper, Rumi (Rumi Arai; b. 1978), performed in demonstrations that quickly began to occur. Veteran rapper ECD (Ishida Yoshinori 石田義則; 1960–2018) was a frequent performer in demonstrations. In 2003, he participated in the first so-called sound demonstrations—protest marches with a truck on which sound equipment was piled and musicians performed—in the movement against the Iraq War. At one demonstration, he overheard a protester yelling, “Yūkoto kikuyō na yatsura ja naizo” 言うこと聞くような奴らじゃないぞ (We’re not the kind

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of guys who’ll listen to what you say), as the police were arresting him. ECD developed this outburst into a full-length track; it became the anthem of the anti-war movement.⁠4 That refrain was reworked in the third verse of “Straight Outta 138” by Dengaryū 田我流 (2012). Dengaryū (Tamura Takashi 田村隆; b. 1982) is a rapper from the former town of Ichinomiya, which was merged with other municipalities in Yamanashi prefecture as a government cost-cutting measure; his group’s name, stillichimiya, defiantly memorialises the ancient town’s identity. Dengaryū and stillichimiya have frequently opined on the economically depressed state of this region, famous for Mt. Fuji; “Ice City” (2008) describes its hollowed-out cities, while “Peach Orchard” 桃畑 (2009) mourns the disappearance of peach orchards as farmers struggle with old age and worsening finances.⁠5 The title “Straight Outta 138” contains multiple references: NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” (1988); National Highway 138, which runs through Yamanashi prefecture; and Dengaryū’s hometown Ichimiya, represented as a Japanese reading of the number 138. Dengaryū’s verses outline everything that angered him about the Japanese system: the lack of opportunities, self-serving politicians, the media serving as propaganda, the outdated entertainment law that was shutting down nightclubs, the inflexibility of the educational system, and the dependent posture toward the United States. His refrain begins with a harsher version of ECD’s: “Yūkoto kikuyō na omeko ja nēzo” 言うこと聞くような おめこじゃね〜ぞ (We’re not the kind of pussies who’ll listen to what you say). Given the homage, Dengaryū invited ECD to provide the third verse. ECD fashioned his verse as a call to action for the antinuclear movement. This stance is made clear in his revision of his original refrain: “Yūkoto kikaseru ban da, oretachi ga” 言うこと聞かせる番だ、俺たちが (It’s our turn to make them listen to what we say). ECD’s verse is crammed with urgent, provocative appeals (“If we stay silent, we’ll be killed”). Referring to the radiation from the Fukushima accident that had made areas of northeastern Japan uninhabitable, he echoes many Japanese citizens’ fears that radiation will eventually compromise people’s health and that another accident could happen elsewhere. He expresses his anger toward the disdain conservative factions show to antinuclear protesters, quoting the hikokumin (traitor) insult they hurl at demonstrators. ECD underlines his alarm by tying the nuclear situation to the 4 See Manabe (2018) on ECD’s life and legacy. 5 See Manabe (2013) on Dengaryū and stillichimiya. Parts of this section are based on this article.

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Second World War, suggesting that nuclear energy feeds the power fantasies of older politicians. But he also indicates that he is drawing a parallel between the war and the nuclear crisis. During the Second World War, the media, which was controlled by the military government, disseminated daihon’ei happyō 大 本営発表 (official announcements from Imperial Headquarters) that minimised reported damage and even reported military defeats as victories. Today, the term means a completely untrustworthy official announcement; many Japanese, including ECD himself, used it to describe the official announcements from the government and Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) on the nuclear crisis. Hence, ECD is saying that the officials’ obfuscation of the dangers of nuclear power and the accident mirror the military’s handling of information during the Second World War. Most of all, ECD calls for citizens to make their voices heard—“sign petitions, vote, demonstrate.” From late 2013 onwards, activists shifted their attention to controversial security-related legislation backed by prime minister Abe Shinzō. This legislation included a state secrets law that was widely seen as having a chilling effect on investigative journalism and security bills that allowed for Japanese troops to be sent overseas, which had been prohibited under the postwar constitution. Demonstrations organised by the student-led group SEALD s featured the student rapper UCD rapping ECD’s refrain in a call-and-response with protesters. It became the chant that defined this movement. 5

Working-Class Identity: Kohh, “I Don’t Care If I’m Poor” (貧乏なんて気にしない; 2014)

Yamanashi was hardly the only prefecture suffering from economic decline. Since the financial bubble burst in the 1990s, Japan has seen a widening of wealth difference, and hip hop is the music for many disadvantaged youths. Around the time of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the Great Recession of 2008, this wealth divide became more evident in Japanese hip hop, with the scene taking a decided turn from the more poppy styles of RIP Slyme to the hardcore stories about the Kyoto projects by Anarchy or temporary workers living rough in Osaka by Shingo Nishinari. Kohh (Chiba Yūki 千葉雄喜; b. 1990) was raised in a housing project in Ogi, northeastern Tokyo, by a single drug-addicted mother. His father, who was ethnically Korean, died when he was two years old. Inspired by King Giddra as a grade schooler, he began writing lyrics as a junior high school student, posting them on Internet bulletin boards. Since making his first recording as

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an eighteen-year-old, he has been heralded as the leader of a new generation of rappers, engaging in visual and fashion arts and collaborating with artists globally, including Mariah Carey, Frank Ocean, and Utada Hikaru. Interviews of Kohh picture the projects as rife with gangs, substance abuse, and suicides, with residents struggling to make a living; nonetheless, Kohh also stresses the warmth and community that the residents feel among themselves. It is this camaraderie that he expresses in “I Don’t Care If I’m Poor” (2014): 貧乏なんて気にしない 目の前にお金が無くても幸せな事がいっぱい あるから大丈夫　色んな事もっとしたい 大金持ちでも心の中が貧乏じゃ意味無い わざわざ見栄張って値段が高いルイ　グッチ　ヴェルサーチ 本当に必要な物以外全く必要じゃない 何かあったら周りのいい友達が助けてくれたり

… みんな言う　お金よりも愛 だから貧乏なんて気にしない

I don’t care that I’m poor Even if I don’t have money in front of me, there’s so much to be happy for so it’s all right. There’s so much more I want to do. Even if you’re rich, it doesn’t mean anything if your heart is empty. Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Versace are attractive on the outside and expensive I don’t need anything other than what I really need. If something happens, good friends around me will help me … As everyone says, love is more important than money. So I don’t care that I’m poor In the second verse, he admits that he’d like to ride in a luxury car one day and party with his friends, but he quickly refocuses on those friends, imagining buying gifts for others and looking forward to a great future from a good today. Written in straightforward language that an elementary school student can understand, the lyrics have only the most basic of rhyme schemes (based on the a-i vowels). But it avoids the dictionary-requiring Sino-Japanese compounds on which many of King Giddra’s rhymes are based. Instead, Kohh focuses on flow: he pitches most of the rap on a major-seventh interval from the first chord (a Bb vocal note over a Cb major seventh chord), giving it a plaintive feel, and places important words on musical stresses; for example, “nak’temo,” meaning “don’t have [money],” falls on a downbeat and a higher

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pitch. As a result, the rap sounds natural, authentic, and heartfelt, resonating with those with sociocultural capital and those without it. 6

Awich, Queendom (2022)

While women in Japanese hip hop have tended to gravitate toward dance and fashion, women rappers have been on the scene from at least the 1990s, with East End x Yuri, Coma-chi, and AI having scored hits. One of the most successful female rappers to emerge in the late 2010s is Awich (Urasaki Akiko 浦崎亜 希子; b. 1986), who performed her first solo show at Budōkan in March 2022. Awich hails from Okinawa, giving her a complicated identity pitted against the hegemonic power of the US, the bases of which take up 20 percent of Okinawa’s land.⁠6 As she describes, “The presence of the US is so huge … that we constantly have to take detours around it” (Shibusawa and Kai 2022). While she was warned off the bases as dangerous places, she saw the shopping centres, housing, and parks with playground equipment beyond the fences; they filled her with jealousy that turned into admiration (akogare) of the US (BlackfilesTV 2017). She started learning English from the age of ten through a woman and her family at the base. At the same time, she said, “whenever there was an incident or problem, I also remember feeling hatred. I was born from this love-hate relationship. I always had this feeling that something big would definitely be waiting for me if I went to the US” (Shibusawa and Kai 2022). She began writing while in elementary school, filling diaries with her thoughts and feelings. Her poems began turning into raps when, as a fourteen-year-old, she got a copy of Tupac Shakur’s All Eyez on Me and was captivated by his voice, energy, and heart—“to give back to the people around him—that was the most attractive part of him” (VladTV 2022). She was equally enamoured with Okinawa Actors School J-Pop musicians Amuro Namie and Speed and jazz-influenced group Ego-Wrappin’. Awich began to make her poems rhyme and deliver them out loud in ways that mimicked rappers. She gained experience performing while she was a high school exchange student in Missouri, US, and won MC battles upon her return to Okinawa (Futatsugi 2022). By the time she graduated from high school, she had a record deal in Japan. But she left the country in 2006 to pursue a degree in business in Atlanta, which was then growing as 6 See https://thediplomat.com/2015/11/beyond-futenma-okinawa-and-the-us-base-conundrum /#:~:text=Nearly%2020%20percent%20of%20the,of%20any%20prefecture%20in%20 Japan.

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a major hip hop centre. There, she met and married an African American man and gave birth to a daughter. As he had been in and out of jail, she was in the process of looking for a job in Japan with plans for a more stable family life when her husband was shot and killed. She moved back to Okinawa with her daughter in 2011, launching Cipher City, her own company that markets Okinawan products. But her old dreams of becoming a rap star were revived when she met producer Chuck Zulu in August 2016; he helped to open the floodgates of her creative output. When “Who R U” (2017), a collaboration with the star rapper Anarchy, became a viral hit with over 12 million views, it gave her the momentum to release two albums, 8 (2018) and Partition (2020). She was thus just reaching stardom when she was over thirty, a feat in a music industry that has traditionally fawned on young women. A striking moment in Awich’s performance at the Budōkan in 2022 was when she, looking glamorous in evening attire, said, “Even a widow with a child like me can star in such a place as this. … You can do anything.” Her story, charisma, and message of female empowerment resonate with her audience. As female fans at the Budōkan said, “You can’t help but support her. I admired the way she was saying things so assertively; she has a different kind of power. It really moved me. … In this short time, we laughed a lot and cried a lot” (Shibusawa and Kai 2022). As her friend Grace’s mother recounted, “When you’re having a bad day, and you hear a song or you hear an artist’s life story, it gives you strength. … Especially for Japanese women, listening to her story—being on her own living in the United States, everything that happened to her, being her age, and here she is, her dreams are coming true—she’s powerful” (BlackfilesTV 2017). This female assertiveness is part of the idea behind the title of her 2022 album, Queendom. To her, being “the queen doesn’t mean … that I look cute or beautiful. It means to care for people. In my queendom, you can be yourself. … Everybody can really listen to their hearts, find out what they want to do, and then be allowed to do it” (VladTV 2022). By understanding different ways of living or being, the queendom can form a better society (Kobayashi 2022, 24). The title track gives voice to her life story and her complex feelings toward Okinawa, which she describes as a love-hate relationship: “Daikiraidatta Okinawa is my home” (The Okinawa I hated is my home; Awich 2022a). In this line, she blends Japanese and English with ease to semantic and rhythmic effect, the slower delivery of the English lending weight to “home” as a punchline. That word is also underlined by placing it on the downbeat of the next measure—a contrast to the previous lines that ended before the fourth beat—and a change in the bass, from E to A. She mentions a helicopter

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flying overhead—a symbol of the US military and the dangers it imposes on Okinawans, given numerous accidents, including one in the elementary school that her daughter, Yomi Jah, was attending. Yet Awich recounts her youthful desire to fly away from the “heavy karma of this island.” The conflicting nature of her emotions is illustrated by the harmonies, which either miss the tonic (D major) or have a weak one (B minor): like her feelings, there is no strong cadence, no pat resolution. The vision of Okinawa also changes throughout the video, mirroring Awich’s changing feelings about her origins. The first images are of Awich alone at the back of Gate Street, the centre of musical performance in Koza where she first started performing. Shot in dark blue shadows with Awich dressed in black, they look lonely and foreboding. As she talks about reassessing her dreams after her husband’s death, the scene shifts to an uninhabited beach in Okinawa, the darkness of the streets replaced by the bright blue of the water and the sky, with Awich and Yomi Jah dressed in pure white. The scene then shifts to Awich dancing with friends by the embankment as the hook resounds (in English), “This is my Queendom!” Awich’s personal favourite track is “Kuchi ni Dashite” 口に出して (2022b). Journalists have concentrated on the metaphorical meaning of the phrase, to say what one is thinking; Quick Japan (vol. 159) even titled its feature on Awich as “Kuchi ni daseru kuni” 口に出せる国 (A country where you can say what you want). But a more obvious interpretation is of a woman goading a man into oral sex. This interpretation is supported not only by the lyrics but also by the video, which shows women working out at a gym, looking strong and sexy. According to Awich, the message is that women can ask for what they want and express their desires, including sexual desire. Despite being blocked on YouTube Japan from showing up on recommended lists, the video has garnered 3.2 million views; in live performances, the song gets a strong response from females in the audience (Watanabe 2022). Awich doesn’t only question women’s roles; she also questions the fixity of gender. The dancer Riehata describes her as powerful and sexy in a way that doesn’t fit neatly into “male” or “female” categorizations (Shibusawa and Kai 2022). Awich uses both the typically male pronoun “ore” and the usually female pronoun “watashi” to refer to herself, in performances and in interviews. She has a fluid view of gender as being not a simple binary but a range of possibilities and believes that sexual preference should be a free choice to individuals (Watanabe 2022). These views are expressed in “I Got Options” (どれにしようかな), in which she muses on, among many other desires, whom she wants to sleep with, including potentially women. In an interview with Quick Japan (Kobayashi 2022;

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Watanabe 2022), Awich said that the song is about people having the freedom to choose how they live, including whether or not they marry; she points out that women are taught that marriage is their only goal and are discouraged from having goals beyond it, but men have no such restrictions. She highlights this point in the pre-chorus, mimicking what women hear in the media in a thin, girly voice: “Women must be womanly” (女は女らしくとか), “Cute is the only way to be” (「可愛い」だけが正義とか). She responds, “Shut the fuck up!,” smashing the laptop with her heels (Awich 2022c). 7

Conclusion

Japanese rapper Gaku-MC of East End once told me that hip hop is like a dandelion: it easily spreads to other areas, but as it is nourished by different soil and warmed by a different sun, it changes with the locale. In Japan’s case, rap’s end-rhyming and flow are substantially different from traditional poetry, and new techniques had to be developed; thereafter, they flourished. Subsequently, rap became not only music for the club scene but also an integral part of social commentary; it gave voice to protesters at demonstrations, and it provided an expressive outlet for the underclass, minorities, and women. As of the 2020s, local hip hop history is sufficiently established, and tracks that reference the history of Japanese hip hop are not unusual. An established aspect of the Japanese music scene, one could expect future Japanese hip hoppers to keep reflecting the newest trends in the US while forging their own unique ground.

Acknowledgement

A version of parts of this chapter was published in The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century (Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2023), the catalogue of the hip hop exhibition co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM). References AFP. 2016. “I could only Cry: Japanese Actor on how She was Tricked into Porn Industry.” Hindustan Times, 5 October. https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-cinema /i-could-only-cry-japanese-actor-on-how-she-was-tricked-into-porn-industry/story -oo3Iu7SwgDMfyhG0kP4DUI.html. Atkins, E. Taylor. 2001. Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Awich. 2022a. “Queendom.” Track 1 on Queendom. Universal Japan. YouTube video, 3:26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zUq_5ia1sI. Awich. 2022b. “Kuchi ni Dashite” 口に出して. Track 7 on Queendom. Universal Japan. YouTube video, 3:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWrIDzz9jEU. Awich. 2022c. “Dore ni Shiyō ka na” どれにしようかな. Track 8 on Queendom. Universal Japan. YouTube video, 2:51. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO3-7jXDWqA. BlackfilesTV. 2017. “INTERVIEW FILE: Awich.” Black File #286. YouTube video, 21:41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWNAK2jOKKs. Dengaryū 田我流. 2012. “Straight Outta 138 feat. ECD.” Track 10 on B-kyū eiga no yōni 2 Ｂ級映画のように. Mary Joy Recordings. Spotify, 4:37. https://open.spotify.com /track/1lC4Wm8PZbNHRl44X3Pn8t?si=850cc4eea0424a7b; and https://youtu.be /X4FoXDMNZU0. Futatsugi, Shin 二木信. 2022. “Awich Interview.” Music Magazine, June: 67–71. Itō, Seikō いとうせいこう and Tinnie Punx. 1986. “Tokyo Bronx.” Track 8 on Kensetsuteki 建設的. Pony Canyon Records. Spotify, 5:00. https://open.spotify.com/track/0fuk CeAuKaawGLEJ2oLOQd?si=750288e8ea8f49b6; video, https://www.nicovideo.jp /watch/sm1829624. King Giddra. 1995. “Sutā Tanjō” スター誕生. Track 11 on Sora kara no chikara 空からの力. P-Vine Records. Spotify, 4:31. https://open.spotify.com/track/5AzIJwBmIrrUpq NHH45Mbz?si=2b610457f9694ce5. Kobayashi, Shō 小林翔. 2022. “Kuchi ni dashite ii kuni: Mazu wa jibun o harakedashite sorega insupirēshon ni nareba” 口に出していい国:まずは自分をはらけ出してそれが インスピレーションになれば. Quick Japan 159: 17–27. Kohh. 2014. “Binbō nante ki ni shinai” 貧乏なんて気にしない. Track 6 on Monochrome. Gunsmith Productions. Spotify, 3:42. https://open.spotify.com/track/5q1i PdNMLA5H9yFoZn583B?si=4b2743edc461483d. Manabe, Noriko. 2006. “Globalization and Japanese Creativity: Adaptations of Japanese Language to Rap.” Ethnomusicology 50 (1): 1–36. Manabe, Noriko. 2013. “Straight Outta Ichimiya: The Appeal of a Rural Japanese Rapper.” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 11 (5/1). https://apjjf.org/2013/11/5/Noriko -Manabe/3889/article.html. Manabe, Noriko. 2015. The Revolution will not be Televised: Protest Music after Fukushima. New York: Oxford University Press. Manabe, Noriko. 2018. “‘It’s Our Turn to Be Heard’: The Life and Legacy of RapperActivist ECD (1960–2018).” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 16 (6/3). https://apjjf .org/2018/06/Manabe.html. Rhymester ライムスター. 1998. “B-Boyizm” B-BOY イズム. Next Level Recordings, NLCD025 (CD). Shibusawa, Masanori, and Kai Michitarō, dirs. 2022. “[my Name Is] #14: Awich (ラッパー).” Abema TV video, 39:00. https://abema.tv/video/episode/243-97_s10_p24.

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Sterling, Marvin D. 2010. Babylon East: Performing, Dancehall, Roots Reggae, and Rastafari in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. VladTV. 2022. “Awich on Being Queen of Japanese Hip-Hop, Husband Killed, Face of Nike Japan (Full Interview).” Interview by Shirley Ju. YouTube video, 1:05:47. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyDtGMkpnik. Watanabe, Shiho 渡辺志保. 2022. “Kuchi ni dashite ii kuni: Ano … saishūteki ni wa ‘nankurunaisā’ desu” 口に出していい国:あの。。。最終的には「なんくるないさー」 です. Quick Japan 159: 38–43. Yellow Magic Orchestra. 1981. “Rap Phenomenon” ラップ現象. Track 3 on BGM. Alfa Records. Spotify, 4:32. https://open.spotify.com/track/41YgVZhNWyyVtm59sn JYXZ?si=e9f9ff9004484c84.

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Index Page references for illustrations are italicized. Abe Ginzaburō 373 Abe Kinzaburō 373 absolute pitch training 289, 289n5, 297 adaptation 3–4, 164, 386, 388–390, 391–397, 399, 402–403, 423 aesthetics 89, 91, 212–213, 337, 353, 354 in modern Buddhist music 38, 40, 44–45, 46 in naniwa-bushi 158–159, 169 Japanese aesthetic principles 175, 338, 342, 345, 346, 346n7 affect 38, 44, 51 Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō) 30, 32, 33 festivals and programmes 57, 66, 66n29 funding and subsidies 29, 32, 60, 83 Cultural Envoys and Internship System 77, 376, 376n10, 383 Ai Kyōka 23 Ainu 95–96, 101–105, 112, 113–114 their culture as lived experience 101– 102, 105, 112–114 their dance 101, 104–105, 106, 108, 112–113, 114 their history and identity 8, 101–105, 112–113 their instruments 103n, 108–111, 113–114, 151, 152 their music and musical practices 3, 8, 10, 101, 102, 105–111, 112–114 Ainu Art Project 110, 113–114 Akaishi 313 Akasaka Yōgetsu 41, 42, 43–44, 50, 51 Akashi Kakuichi 72 Akimoto Yasushi 401, 415 All Japan Band Association (AJBA) 243, 250, 251 All Japan Early Childhood Education Association 291 Amami 97, 151, 152, 301n, 302 Amano Aiko 279, 280 Amano Kikuyo 389, 389n amateur performers 9, 72, 75, 249, 261, 267, 283, 311, 372

of gagaku 59–60 of taiko 209, 213 ancestor rituals 44, 88, 90, 207, 303, 313 Andō Kō (née Kōda) 273, 274, 275–276, 276, 278, 279 anime 7, 120, 131, 186, 237–238, 239, 249, 401, 402 antinuclear movement 429–431 Aoe Mina 399 Aoki Reibo 201, 345–346 Appropriation. See cultural appropriation “Arabiya no Uta” 389, 389n Arakaki Megumi 306, 307n, 310–312, 315 Arakaki Toshimichi 307–310, 315 Araki Kodō V 199 Aranūji 97 art 113, 339–340, 342 Asahina Takashi 260, 264 Asakura Gyōsen 40–41, 42, 43–44, 45, 46–47, 48, 50 “Shinshū Shūka” 45 assimilation 104 Ainu 101, 103–104, 106 Okinawan 89–90, 93–94, 95, 97 See also cultural assimilation Atkins, E. Taylor 244, 247 audiences declining numbers and changing demographics 56, 70, 159, 166–169, 266 in eisā 86, 88, 91, 93 reaching wider and new ones 31, 46, 51, 93, 113, 123, 156, 166, 169, 196, 266, 326 their interaction with performers 86, 130, 146, 151, 159, 167, 171 their knowledge and expectations 24, 63, 230 AUN J Classic Orchestra 328 authenticity 83, 93, 102, 352, 419 Autumn Festival 26, 33–34 Awich 433–436 “I Got Options” 435–436 “Kuchi ni Dashite” 435 “Queendom” 434–435 Azumaya Uratarō 167 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

440 ballet 254, 264 Bamboo Flute Orchestra 325 Ban Hikoshirō 177 “Banshiki Sangun” 56, 56n5 Batchelor, John 101, 102, 104, 105 Bhabha, Homi 326, 327, 370 biwa 2, 9, 10, 65, 81, 158, 173, 174, 357n3 biwa-hōshi 71, 71, 74 bridges, plectra, and playing techniques 174, 177, 181, 183 Chikuzen-biwa 177–178 gagaku-biwa (or gaku-biwa) 174, 349 mōsō-biwa 174 Nishiki-biwa 177–178 See also Heike-biwa; Satsuma-biwa Biwagaku Kyōkai 178 Blends 321–326, 329, 331 blind musicians and entertainers 9, 71, 72, 73–74, 76, 82, 189, 342, 367n17 bosama 140, 142 mōsō 174, 179 bluegrass 167, 372, 374, 375, 376 blues 375–376, 391, 392–393, 394, 423 Bon festival 88, 89, 91, 92, 207, 313 Bon dances 86, 127, 165, 196, 303 Bon-drumming contests 207–208, 212 boogie-woogie 392–393, 405 branding 261 brass bands 251, 283 Buddhism 37–38, 50, 339 experimental Buddhism 42–43 public image and institutional tensions 38, 40–41, 43, 45, 46–50, 51 rituals 38, 44–45, 51, 174, 189 Shin Buddhism (New Western Pure Land Buddhism) 38, 45, 50 Temple Buddhism 43, 44, 46, 50, 51 Tendai sect 42, 179, 189 See also Zen Buddhism Buddhist music 4, 9–10, 37, 174 modern Buddhist music 37–40, 50–51 music-making priests 37n, 38, 40–51 praise songs 38–40, 43, 44–45 shōmyō (chant) 38, 42, 43–44, 45, 47, 51, 179, 184, 189, 349 sutras 40, 43–44, 45, 50, 51, 184, 189 Tsukushigoto 317 Bunkachō. See Agency for Cultural Affairs

Index bunkafu notation 142, 143, 356n2, 368, 369, 369n18 Bunkazai Hogo-hō. See Cultural Properties Protection Law bunraku 205, 213, 224, 309, 340, 362–364 buraku 210 burakumin 95, 210–211 Cage, John 62n21, 198, 199–200 calligraphy 293, 293n, 339–340 Cavaye, Ronald 292 ceremonies 44, 51, 72, 74, 103, 106, 112, 339 Chiba Gakuto 10, 137, 138, 139–145, 147, 152 Chiba Tadasaku (Roman) 270 Chichibu yatai-bayashi 352 China 256 and the Ryukyu Kingdom 85, 87–88, 301, 302–303 imported culture from 4, 188–189, 192, 194, 317, 339–340 shakuhachi players in 201–203 Chinese instruments 58, 58n12, 188–189, 303, 317 Chito-Shan Tei 372, 373–374 chobokure 160, 374 Christianity 37, 387 hymns 38, 255, 255n1, 257–258 missionaries 102, 254, 257, 260, 387 Chūshingura 161, 375–376, 376n9 class 8, 9 Japanese popular music and 386–387, 389, 403 lower and working classes 95, 160, 168, 273, 278, 386, 431–433, 436 upper and warrior classes 54, 75, 158, 174, 175, 189, 275, 278, 303, 309, 340, 341, 389 collaborations 8–9, 43, 57n10, 74, 151, 185, 224–225, 228, 267, 329, 349 between Japanese and Western instruments 153, 317, 321–326, 374, 382, 383 cross-genre 167, 171, 327–328 in theatrical kagura 22–23, 32, 33n on vocal works 125, 432, 434 colonialism 8, 104, 164, 254, 348, 402 Columbia 388, 389, 389n, 391, 407n, 415 Coma-chi 429, 433

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Index commercial music 3, 6, 166, 168, 177, 266, 388, 390, 397 communities 127, 129, 132, 179, 244, 258, 353, 387, 423, 432 Ainu 102, 103, 105, 106, 112, 113–114 diasporic 96, 164, 197, 206, 214–215 of musicians 224, 248–250, 311 of singers 123, 132, 428 Okinawan 85, 88, 91, 93, 96 taiko’s relationship to 206, 208, 209–215 competitions 90–91, 178, 202, 207–208, 212, 248, 258, 266, 310 national competitions 128–130, 144–145, 243, 249, 250 sight vs. sound in judging 145, 148–150 song contests 3, 11, 122, 123, 127–130, 132, 147, 148–151, 153, 405, 407 complexity (in music) 226, 231 composers 38, 56–57, 61, 62n21, 223, 231, 256, 260, 265, 266 of contemporary traditional Japanese music (gendai hōgaku) 224–227, 338, 345–354 of hybrid soundscapes 194–195, 318, 338, 342–350, 357, 358 of popular songs 386, 389, 390–393, 399 Western composers 198, 226, 255–256, 264, 266, 266n9, 348 composition 266, 272, 331, 338, 353 conductors 258, 260, 263, 266, 283, 390–391 consumption of music 7, 8, 9, 54, 87, 93, 97, 112–113, 132–133, 167–169, 240–241, 266–267 of popular music 3, 6, 7, 386, 389, 390 “Cool Japan” 321–322, 326 costumes 85–86, 91, 96, 112, 125–127, 152–153, 209, 227, 341–342, 399, 411–412 in theatrical kagura 22, 22n3, 25, 26, 31–32 kimono 125, 144, 153, 157, 159, 163, 325, 326, 330, 342, 399 worn by Hibari 407, 410–411, 411, 415 court music. See gagaku covering 410, 412, 413–414, 415 COVID-19 pandemic connecting online 42, 119–120, 124, 125, 127, 133, 145 disruption of school music 241, 250–251 impact on live events 41, 127, 128, 129–130, 202, 230, 266n8

441 Cowell, Henry 198, 199–200 craftspeople 113, 287, 290, 372, 374, 376–377, 380, 383 Crane, Nora 219 creativity 12, 85, 98, 194–195, 209, 224, 241, 251, 403 Crow x Class 329 cultural appropriation 7, 92–93, 96, 98 348, 350–354 cultural assimilation 4, 89, 93–94, 112, 338 of Chinese culture 4, 339–340 of Western culture 340–342 cultural change 3, 6, 7, 37–38, 89–90, 194, 337, 340, 380, 407 cultural exchanges 3, 93, 112, 113, 383 cultural flows 1, 7, 9, 188–189, 199, 200, 203, 320 cultural heritage 6, 29, 104–105, 122n8, 141, 242, 251, 329, 331, 338, 345 cultural identity 1, 330, 338, 342, 345, 349, 350, 354 cultural isolation 270, 337, 339, 340, 387 cultural nationalism 1, 5, 93 Cultural Properties Protection Law 29, 30 Curran, Beverley 104 Dahlaus, Carl 348 dance 96, 98, 123, 205, 227, 228, 242–243, 264 Bon dances 86, 127, 165, 196, 303 kumiudui and other Ryukyuan dances 302, 303, 305, 308–309, 310, 311 min’yō 121, 123, 130 See also Ainu, their dance; dengaku; eisā; kagura Date Masamune 23, 23n5 dengaku 189 Dengaryū 430 “Straight Outta 138” 429–431 digitization of music resources 122, 133 discrimination 94, 95–96, 105, 210, 211, 273, 374 dissemination of eisā and other Okinawan performing arts 91–93, 96–97, 304, 312 of gagaku 8–9, 10, 55–62 of Japanese popular songs 7, 386, 388–389, 390, 403 of music 7, 9, 10, 153, 254, 331 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

442 distribution 6, 153, 266–267, 287, 390, 415 Dittrich, Rudolf 272–273, 282 DJ Jin 426–429 DJ Oasis 424, 425 Doizaki Masatomi 74, 79, 83 Dolan, Emily 374, 380 domestic exoticism 8, 92, 93, 317, 326 drums (Japanese) ōdaiko 23, 92, 213, 226, 364n shime-daiko 88, 207, 219, 223, 226, 227, 324, 326, 362n11 See also taiko; wadaiko ECD 429–431 Eckert, Franz 255–256 Edo (place) 361n9, 366 Edo period xv cultural developments in the 4, 194, 340 music in the 72, 75, 77, 140, 141, 158, 160, 271, 273, 283, 374 Egi Yūya 23–24, 25, 26, 27 eisā 10, 85–87, 303, 313, 313n competitions and festivals 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95 in mainland Japan and beyond 10, 92–97, 98 modern eisā 89–92, 98 Sonda eisā 87, 90 sōsaku eisā 91–92, 96–97 taiko-odori eisā (drum dance) 86, 88, 89, 91 teodori eisā (hand dance) 86, 86, 88 tourism and 87, 90, 92, 93 traditional eisā 87–88, 90, 98 Eisā Matsuri 94, 95 emigration 93, 196, 258 empowerment 40, 87, 214, 434 enka 164, 165, 386, 398–399, 403, 405, 405n, 412 Ennin 189 Eno, Brian Music for Onmyōji 59, 59n ensemble taiko drumming 7, 10–11, 205–206, 209 and communities 206, 209–215 and gender 212–213, 214, 214 beginnings of 207–209 bodies and choreographed movements 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 212, 213

Index global scale of 10–11, 205–206, 208–209, 214–215 ensembles 7, 9, 109, 194, 198–199, 278, 321, 327 gagaku ensembles 7, 8–9, 10, 54n1, 55–56, 57, 59–60, 61–67, 349–350 hayashi ensembles 362–364, 366–367, 369–370 school music ensembles 237, 238–240, 241–250, 251 using traditional Japanese instruments 56, 223, 227, 350, 352 See also ensemble taiko drumming; wadaiko epic poetry 106, 113 “Esashi Oiwake” 33, 147, 148, 150–151 ethnic tourism 102, 112–113 Ethnic Vanguard 382–383 ethnicity 93–95, 97, 104, 206, 214 ethnic diversity 113–114, 153, 353–354 European music. See Western music exoticism 348, 402 See also domestic exoticism Fenton, John William 388 film and music 3, 164, 256, 266, 283 Fisher, Fred 389 folk music 304, 315 See also Japanese folk music folk performing arts (minzoku geinō) 25, 122n8, 137, 303 See also eisā; “Futago Onikenbai”; kagura, Iwami kagura folk songs. See min’yō folk traditions 242–243, 316, 352–353 Fuji Michiko (also Azumaya Sanraku V) 167 Fujii Reigen 382–383 Verdancy 382 Fujii Seishin 79, 83 Fujimura Kazuhiro 25n7, 30, 31–32 Fujio Rokubon 147 Fujioka Yoshinobu (a.k.a. Zennen) 43, 50 Fujiura Kō 391–392 Fujiwara Yoshie 262 Fuke 192, 193, 193n Fukushima 40, 41, 77, 429, 430–431 Fumon Yoshinori 173, 177, 178, 179–185 Fumonkan 243 Funabori Elementary School 250–251 Furyūdagaku Matsuri-shū. See Matsuri-shū Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Index Fusions. See Blends; hybridities “Futago Onikenbai” 227, 227n Futamura Teiichi 389, 389n, 390 Future Punk 402 gagaku (court music) 2, 7, 8–9, 10, 51, 54–55, 189, 317, 339, 386–387 diversification of 8–9, 10, 54–67, 349–350 educational programmes 63, 66–67, 290 history of 4, 6, 8, 54, 55–60, 66 professional ensembles 8–9, 54n1, 55–56, 57, 57n8, 59, 60, 61–67 recordings of 54, 55–56, 57, 59, 62 shōga 349–350 Gagaku dayori 60 gagaku drama 66–67 Gagaku Shigen-kai. See Tōkyō Gakuso gaichi 256, 264 Gajimaru no Kai (Banyan Tree Club) 94, 96 Gakushin 193, 194 gaming music 3, 7, 23, 24, 32, 119, 121, 125, 266 Geijutsusai. See National Arts Festival geinin 283, 367, 369 gendai hōgaku 5 gendai Nihon ongaku 5 gender 11, 90, 435 and musical instruments 8, 9, 197, 212–213, 244, 248, 270, 278, 283, 310–311, 315 and the history of the violin 270–284 gender identities 214, 220 gender roles and social norms 91, 274–276, 278, 279, 282–284, 306, 436 Genki Spark 214 genres (musical) 2, 10, 54, 220, 242, 266, 388–389, 403 Gibo Kazuya 306, 313–315, 316 “Heso no O” 314 “Gion” 367, 368 “Gion Shōja” 74, 77, 80, 81 Gishiden pieces 161, 163, 165, 168 globalization and Japanese music 131, 151, 350, 423 Gotō Yukihiro 185, 186 Great East Japan Earthquake 40, 41, 77, 146 Gurlitt, Manfred 263–264

443 Haebaru High School 308–309 Haida Haruhiko (later Yukihiko) 394 “Koryasa no Ondo” 394, 395 Haida Katsuhiko 394 Hanawa 364, 366 Town Dance Festival 366 Hanawa-bayashi 357, 364–367, 369–370 Haniwa All Stars 125, 127 Hara Zen’ichirō 262 Harada Kenji 176 “Chiki” 176, 184 “Haru no Umi” 294n13, 342, 343, 343n, 344–345 Haruno Keiko 167 Haruno Yuriko II 163, 167 Hasegawa Takeya 22 Hasegawa Gekidan 22–23 Hashimoto Toshie 75, 76 Hattori Ryōichi 260, 264, 386, 390–393 “Tokyo Boogie Woogie” 392–393 “Wakare no Burūsu” 391–392 Hawai‘i Hawaiian music 386, 388, 389, 394–396, 399 Japanese migrants and music in 164, 196–197, 199, 320, 394 hayashi 362, 362n11 hayashi festival music 364–367, 369–370 Heart Sutra 40, 43, 44, 45, 50, 51 Heian period xv, 339–340 music in the 56n3, 57 Heike 10, 70, 70n Heike mabushi text-score 72–73, 74, 75, 78, 79–81, 82, 83–84 Heike transmission project 70, 76–83, 84 its historical development 70, 71–74 kudoki 82, 82n4 Nagoya tradition of 70, 73–74, 76–84 The Tale of the Heike 70, 70n, 71–72, 73, 74, 75, 82, 174, 175, 185 Tsugaru tradition of 74, 75–76, 82 “Heike Brothers” 77–79, 81–83, 84 Heike Gatari Kenkyūkai 77, 81–82 Heike-biwa 71–72, 74, 75, 76–77, 78–79, 81, 174 Hellier, Ruth 220 heritage 1, 7, 10–11, 12, 327, 338, 412 See also cultural heritage; transmission

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444 Hibari 405–406 AI Hibari 405, 414–419 “Ai San San” 405, 410, 412, 413 “Arekara” 415–418, 419 her singing style 410, 414–415, 419 “Kawa no Nagare no yō ni” 410, 412, 413, 415 live performances on Kōhaku 405, 407–409, 419 memorialization of her on Kōhaku 405, 409–414, 419 Hibari Misora Museum 410n Hibike! Yūfoniamu 238 Higa Yasuharu 309, 310 Higanda Bon 38n, 40, 41, 44–45 hikigatari 362, 363, 364, 375 hip hop (or rap) 48, 49, 151, 376, 436 Japanese hip hop 11, 423–436 origins of Japanese rap 423–424 political, social, and gender issues in 11, 423, 429–436 rhyme and flow in Japanese rap 11, 424–429, 432, 433, 436 Hirosawa Torazō 164 Hirota Ryūtarō 293 Hisamoto Keiko 325–326 historical periods 8, 345 See also Edo period; Heian period; Meiji era; Nara period Hiyoshi Shōgo 77–79, 81–83, 84 hōgaku 1–2, 2n, 5 See also Japanese (traditional) music “Hōhai-bushi” 124–125, 228 Hokama Shuzen 304 Hokkaido 8, 102–103, 110 homogeneity 101, 104 “Hon-bayashi” 369 Honda Yasuji 21, 21n, 22n2 Honjō Hidetarō 377–378 honkyoku 192, 200, 203, 346, 346n6 Horiuchi Keizō 389 Hosokawa Toshio 57n10, 62n21, 63, 265, 266 Hughes, David 132, 133, 139, 146, 151, 153 human rights 112, 210, 211 hybridity 5, 6, 11, 12, 167, 195–196, 247, 318, 339, 380, 382 compositional and musical hybridity 338, 340, 342–354

Index in Buddhist music 12, 38, 40, 41–42, 43–45, 48, 50–51 in Japanese popular music 330, 388–390, 391–397, 399, 403 in min’yō 121, 124, 125, 151 the koto’s hybridity 318–320, 321–326, 327–331 the shamisen’s hybridity 356–370 Hynson, Meghan 220 Ibukuro Kiyoshi 328, 329, 329, 331 Ichikawa Shin 325, 325n3, 329 Ichinomiya 430 identity 206, 209, 211–212, 220, 244 gender and sexual 97, 214, 220 See also Ainu, their history and identity; cultural identity; Okinawans, their identity Ifukube Akira 338 Iguchi Motonari 288, 289n5 Ijūin Kakujō 177, 181 Ikebe Shin’ichirō 62n21, 338 Ikenouchi Tomojirō 345 Ikkyū Sōjun 190–191, 193, 199, 203 Ikuta Kengyō 318 Imai Tsutomu 74, 76, 77, 79, 81, 83–84 imitation 79, 146, 147, 182, 267, 295, 338, 410, 423 Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties 26, 29, 30, 32 Indigenous people 31, 101, 101n, 104, 112, 114 See also Ainu; Okinawans Indigenous studies 114 innovation 6, 11, 91–92, 113, 306, 330–331, 370 in Buddhist music 38, 46–50 in instrument construction 5, 6, 318, 331, 342, 352 in naniwa-bushi 163–164, 169, 171, 375–376 in taiko and wadaiko 205, 206, 207–209, 211–212, 217, 224–227, 228–231 in the Satsuma-biwa 10, 173, 179–186 Inogawa Kōji 74, 79, 83 institutions 11, 12, 37–38, 122, 200, 215, 245–246, 256, 301, 315 Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) 29, 104–105, 122n8, 132

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Index Isawa Shūji 240, 255, 386–387, 387n, 388 Ishii Maki 56n3, 62n21, 64 Ishikawa Kō 64 Ishizuka Takatoshi 32 Isogai Maki 327 isolation 94 See also cultural isolation Itchū-bushi 356, 362, 372 Itō Erina 325 Itō Seikō 423–424 “Tokyo Bronx” 423 Itō Takeo 289n5 Iwami Baikyoku 198–199 Japan economic decline in 430, 431, 432–433 its period of isolation 270, 337, 339, 340, 386, 387 Japan Association of Student Jazz Education (JAJE) 248 Japan Cultural Envoys 376, 376n10, 383 Japan Emergency Folk Song Survey 122–123, 127 Japanese (language) 339, 350, 424–426, 427–429 Japanese Folk Song Database 122n9, 127 Japanese Lounge Night 151 Japanese music history and historiography 271, 374–375, 381, 383 Japanese popular music 2n, 3, 6, 11, 386–403 as hybridized music 330, 388–390, 391–397, 399, 403 Buddhism and 9–10, 38, 40–48, 50, 51 dissemination and consumption of 7, 386, 388–389, 390, 403 enka 164, 165, 386, 398–399, 403, 405, 405n, 412 Group Sounds (GS), Idols, and New Music 386, 397–398, 399, 401, 402, 403 “Japanese” Hawaiian and “mood” songs (mūdo kayō) 386, 394–397, 399 Jazz Song 386, 388–390, 394, 403 J-pop and City Pop 3, 7, 386, 395–397, 399, 401–403 ryūkōka/kayōkyoku 165, 386, 390–393, 395–396, 397, 398, 399, 402, 403, 405 use of traditional instruments in 328–330, 331 zokugaku 386–387, 403

445 Japanese folk music 1–2, 10, 137–139, 153 diversification and evolution of 10, 137–140, 147, 148, 151–153 performance of 10, 137–138, 139, 144–145, 147–151, 152–153 standardization of 10, 150, 151–153 transmission of 141–144, 145, 146–148, 150, 151–153 See also min’yō; Tsugaru shamisen Japanese (traditional) music (hōgaku) 1–2, 2n, 5, 8, 200, 240, 257, 290, 305, 337 and the Suzuki method 286, 292–295, 297, 298 decline of 230, 286, 287n, 297 evolution of 3–6, 11, 56–57, 153, 221, 224–227, 231, 318–320, 327–330, 331, 338, 342–354 hōgaku clubs and associations 11, 54n1, 239, 242, 248–250, 358 impact of Western music on 260, 286, 289, 297, 318, 337, 341–342, 380 preservation and continuation of 4, 10–11, 54, 59–60, 153, 196–197, 250, 297–298, 318 jaw harps 108–109, 113–114, 151, 152 jazz 7, 200, 241, 264, 388, 389–390, 423 jazz education 11, 241, 244–248, 250, 251 jazz fusions 121, 151, 185, 327–328, 382–383 Jin Nyodō 197 jiuta 72, 146, 158, 356, 356n, 362 jiuta-sōkyoku 72, 74, 76, 77–78, 82, 258 K Dub Shine 424–426 kabuki 7, 213, 223, 226, 273, 309, 330, 340, 376n9 kaco 110 Kagrra 328 kagura 21–22, 30, 32, 32n, 34, 242, 328 Hōnō kagura 26, 27, 33–34 Iwami kagura 22–24, 25–27, 28, 30, 30n15, 31, 31n18, 33 Izumo kagura 28, 29, 30–31, 33 Miko kagura 22, 27, 30, 33 Ōmoto kagura 26, 27, 33–34 shishi-mai 22, 30 Yudate kagura (or Ise-ryū kagura) 22, 22n2, 27, 30 Kamakura Shogunate 72

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446 kami 21, 26, 33–34, 213 Kamigata 175, 359n6, 361–362, 366 Kamisangō Yūkō 1–2 Kanazawa Akiko 125, 125n14 Kanno Kōzan 141, 142, 143, 153 Kanō Oki 110, 110n, 113 Kanzaki Ken 202–203 karaoke 3, 167, 240 Kasagi Shizuko 392–393 Katō Kinji 372–373, 374, 376–380, 383 Katsu Kaishu 176 “Shiroyama” 176, 176n Kawakami Gen’ichi 288, 289, 290, 290n7 Kawamura Kizan 325–326 Kawanaka Miyuki 400 Kawano Yūichirō 31 kawara kojiki 273 Keegan-Phipps, Simon 304, 315 keiko 141–142, 144, 147–148, 295, 297n Kengyō rank 74, 74n Kenkō Yoshida 349 Keonguk High School 242–243 Kichiku 193–194 Kikuo Yūji 77–79, 81–83, 84 Kina Shōkichi 97, 303 Kindaichi Haruhiko 75, 76, 184, 184n Kineya Rokushirō 293 King Giddra 424–426, 431, 432 “A Star Is Born” 424–426 Kinsui-kai 176 “Kiri-bayashi” 369–370 Kiryū 329 Kishimoto Yoshio 305–306, 306n Kitamura Hatsuko (née Amano) 278–279, 279n, 280, 281 Kitamura Sueharu 279 Kitauji High School Marching Band 238 Kitsu Shigeri 125, 127 Kiyokawa Ranshū 178 Kō Itten 167 kobushi 121, 129, 146, 147, 150, 153, 399 Kōda Nobu 270–271, 272–275, 275n5, 276, 283 Kodama Tennan 177 kōdan 156, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 166, 167, 171 Kodō 208–209, 213, 220

Index Kodomo, Yume, Āto, Akademi programme 66 Kodomo no tame no Ongaku Kyōshitsu. See Music School for Children Kōhaku Utagassen 11, 396, 405, 406, 406n3, 407, 409, 419 Hibari’s performances on 405, 407–410, 412, 414–419 Kohgen (Kōgen) 41 Kohh 431–433 “I Don’t Care If I’m Poor” 432–433 Koizumi Fumio 137, 304, 391n Kōji Yuki 110, 113–114 Kojiki 21, 23n4, 412n Kokoo 327–328 Kokufū Ongaku-kai 74 kokyū 72, 199n, 271 Komaki Masahide 264 Komoda Haruko 72, 74, 76–79, 81, 82, 83 Kono Oto Tomare (anime) 239, 249 Kono Oto Tomare (manga) 238–240 Konoe Hidemaro 262, 263 Korean music and dance 3, 242–243, 402 koto 2, 7, 292, 294, 319, 320, 343–344, 345–346 contemporary practice in Blends 11, 317, 321–326, 331 in schools 239–240, 241, 242, 248–250, 271, 318 its history in Japan 9, 72, 82, 164, 278, 317–320, 330–331, 340, 342, 352 jūshichigen 11, 318, 319, 324, 325, 331, 342 neo-traditional performance 11, 317, 327–330, 331 nijūgen 11, 324, 324n, 325–326, 328, 331 nijūgogen 11, 320, 324, 326, 329, 331 performance schools 11, 56, 317–320, 325, 327, 331 sankyoku 54, 54n1, 194, 199n, 340 See also sōkyoku jiuta Kotobuki Brothers 375 Kou 326 Kreutzer, Leonid 263 kumi-daiko. See ensemble taiko drumming Kunaichō Gakubu 54n1, 55–56, 60 Kunimoto Takeharu 167, 373–374, 375–377, 381, 383

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Index Kunimoto Takeharu Band 377–378, 381 Kusumi Taiso 75 Kuwabara Yu 349–350 Garden of Onomatopoeias 349–350, 351 Moonlight Mantra 349 Spiral Mandala: Wind Chant and Night Chant 349 kyōgen 362 Kyotaku denki kokujikai 192–194 Kyoto Taiko Center 219, 223 Kyōyama Kōshiwaka I 165–166 Kyōyama Kōshiwaka II 167 Lake Akan Ainu Kotan 102, 106, 112–113 languages (musical) 221, 344–345, 348, 353 Laska, Joseph 260 Li, Cain 202 lineages 110, 161, 200, 305–306, 367n17, 369, 374 in Heike 70, 73–84 in Satsuma-biwa 177–178, 179, 182 See also ryūha Ling, Lun 61 local government and cultural programmes 29, 30, 31, 54, 60, 91, 211 localization 4–5, 6, 7, 11, 270, 330 Los Indios 397 lyrics 8, 106, 121, 147, 302, 361, 424, 425 ma 144, 144n, 153, 346, 346n7 manga 59n, 120, 237–240, 402 MAREWREW 113 martial themes 71, 165, 174, 175, 176 Mashiro no Oto 120 Mason, Luther Whiting 240, 255, 272, 388 Masumi Reijin-kai 60 Matsue city local government 29, 30, 31 Matsue Tourist Association 30 Matsueda Savage, Sawa 145–146 Matsumura Teizō 265, 338, 345–346 Poeme 1 pour shakuhachi et koto 345–346 Matsunaga Tatsuo 150, 153 Matsuo Yutaka 418 Matsuri-shū 219, 223, 225, 225–226, 231 Matsushita Naoki 382–383 Matsutoyo-kai 131 Matsuura Shirōwaka 167

447 Mayama Hayato 165 Mayama Ichirō 165, 167 media 7, 93, 266–267, 386 accessing min’yō through 10, 119–120, 121, 123–127, 131–133 and modern Buddhist music 40, 41, 42, 43, 48–49, 51 and the dissemination of music 7, 10, 40, 41, 42, 51, 55, 58, 311, 312 and the transmission of folk music 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 151, 153 naniwa-bushi’s use of 156, 157, 163–164, 165–166, 169 negative media 274–275, 430–431, 436 See also social media mediatized settings 9, 11, 317, 321, 331 See also Blends; Kōhaku Utagassen medieval period 340 culture in the 49, 71–72, 74, 76, 192–194 Meiji era xv adoption of Western music in the 1, 3–4, 6, 140–141, 194, 254, 255–256, 270, 271, 283, 287, 297, 386–388 music in the 175–176, 184, 271, 278 Meiji Restoration 3, 21, 37–38, 73, 103, 174, 194, 254, 266, 287, 337, 340 Meiji shinkyoku 5, 8 Menuhin, Yehudi 265 Metter, Emmanuel 258, 260, 390–391 microphones 164, 169, 377, 378, 380 Middleton, Richard 386 migration 93, 103, 147, 196, 215, 258 Mikami, Kay Kazue 196 Mikami Kōgai 196 Miki Minoru 327, 338, 345, 350, 352, 353–354 Hote 352 military bands 255, 256, 283, 387–388, 390 Mimata Hachimangū Shrine 26, 27, 33–34 Minami Haruo 165 Minamoto no Hiromasa 59 Minatoya Koryū 167 minimalism 346 min’yō 2, 10, 119–123, 131–133, 137–139, 145–146, 165, 224, 399 contests and competitions 122, 123, 127–130, 130n20, 134, 147, 148–150, 153, 242

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448 min’yō (cont.) diversification of 139, 148–150, 152–153 fusions and shin-min’yō (new folk songs) 121, 123, 124–125, 151, 303 “Hōhai-bushi” 123–128, 228 mago uta 128–130 Okinawan min’yō 85, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96, 303, 306, 312, 315, 316 online 119–120, 122, 122n9, 123–125, 127, 130, 132–133, 153 standardization and classicization of 150, 151–152, 153 transmission of 121, 145, 146–148, 150, 151–152 Tsugaru godai min’yō 373n5 Tsugaru min’yō 372–373, 380 Minyo Crusaders (MinCru) 120, 124, 124, 125n12, 151 Minyo Station 131 minzoku geinō. See folk performing arts Mishina Masayasu 74, 79, 83 Misora Hibari. See Hibari Misora Hibari Memorial Hall 410n, 411 Mitsuhashi Kifū 338 Miura Tamaki 262 Miyagawa Hideyasu 30 Miyagi Michio 5, 195, 318–319, 331, 342–344, 345 “Haru no Umi” 294n13, 342–345 Miyairi Kyōhei 401–402 Miyata Mayumi 57, 61, 61n18, 64 Mizushima Yuiko 77, 185 mōashibi 89, 89n Mochizuki Chōnosuke 293 modality 160, 164, 179 modern era, definition of 3 modernism Japanese modernism 5–6 Taishō modernism 256 modernity 1, 5, 6, 7, 156 the koto’s modernities 317–320, 321–331 modernization 3, 4–5, 174, 220, 287, 290, 331, 337, 340, 387 modes 63, 64, 183, 343–344, 359 Mogilevsky, Alexander 258, 260, 293 Mori Hanae 410–411, 411, 415 Mori Shin’ichi 399, 401

Index Motohashi Senshū 178 Motonaga Hiromu 325–326 Mugen 21 374, 377–380, 381, 382, 383 mukkuri 103n, 108, 108–109, 109, 113–114, 151, 152 multiculturalism 243, 353 Mummy-D 426–429 music (ongaku) 2, 2n, 37, 106 music education 230, 240, 256, 286–288, 297–298 in early childhood 289, 289n4, 291, 294, 297 Western music education 141, 254, 255–256, 257, 258, 260, 261, 265, 266, 271, 286, 297 See also Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari; school music; Suzuki Method; Yamaha Music School music festivals 61–62, 113, 151, 265, 266 music lessons 132, 182–184, 199, 219 in folk music 141–142, 144, 146–148, 150 in Heike 77–78, 79, 81 in Western music 260, 271, 273, 286, 288, 289, 292, 295, 297, 297n music pedagogy 173, 237, 286 See also Suzuki Method Music School for Children (later Toho Gakuen School of Music) 263, 289n5 musical biography 219–221, 230 musical hybridity 342–345, 354 musical instruments 227, 228–229, 260, 291 Ainu 103n, 108–111, 113–114, 151, 152 an instrument’s map of mediation 374– 375, 380, 383 as nonhuman agents 374–375, 381–383 gender and 8, 9, 212–213, 244, 248, 270, 278, 283, 310–311, 315 in Japanese schools 237, 240–241, 243, 244, 248–251, 287–288, 290 makers and suppliers of 110, 142, 202, 210–211, 275n6, 286, 287, 287n, 288, 290–291, 383 Okinawan 2, 85, 92, 130, 139, 301, 302–303, 306, 308 See also traditional Japanese musical instruments; Western musical instruments

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Index musical roots 6, 8, 139, 179, 201, 209 musical theatre 256 musical time 348 Nagahama Nanjō 176 Nagai Kōji 257–258, 259, 263 Nagata Kinshin 177, 177n3 Nakahara Chūya 349, 350 Nakajima Katsusuke 357, 361–362, 364 “Kakuregasa Kijo no Omokage” 362, 363, 363–364 Nakamura Akikazu 327–328 Nakanoshima Kin’ichi 293 Nakao Tozan 195 Naniwa ward 210, 211 naniwa-bushi (or rōkyoku) 10, 156–159, 169, 171, 260, 374, 374n7, 375, 376, 383, 388–389, 399 contemporary performances and audiences 159, 166–171 fushi and tanka 159–160, 161, 168 golden age of (1930s) 156, 163–164, 169 Kansai-bushi and Kantō-bushi 161, 163, 166, 167, 169 kayō rōkyoku (or enka rōkyoku) 165 Kunimoto Takeharu’s innovations 167, 373–374, 375–378, 381, 383 origins of and early stars 159, 160–163, 169 patriotic rōkyoku and postwar reinvention 158, 161, 164, 165–166 recordings of 156, 163–164, 166, 168, 169, 390 shamisen accompanist (kyokushi) 158, 159, 160, 160n, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 171 singer-narrator (rōkyoku-shi) 156, 158, 159, 161, 163, 164, 165, 168, 171 staging, narrative, and musical form 156, 157, 157, 158, 159–160, 161, 163, 164, 169 Naniwatei Komakichi 160–161, 374 Nanto Gakuso 59–60 Nanto Taira High School 242 Nara period xv, 339, 340 culture in the 6, 56n3, 188–189, 317, 339, 340 Narita Unchiku 127, 127n

449 narrative musical genres 10, 372 Naruse Shōhei 131, 132, 134 National Arts Festival 56–57, 57n7, 62 National Theatre of Japan (NTJ) 56, 56n3, 62n21 National Theatre Okinawa 11, 309–310, 311, 315 nationalism 5, 158, 161, 165, 178 Nelson, John 42–43, 51 New National Theatre 265 newspapers and cultural programmes 54, 54n2, 60, 127, 129, 132, 163n, 309 NHK 56–57, 57n7, 62, 129, 147, 166, 167, 196, 321 See also Blends; Kōhaku Utagassen Nico Video (NicoNicoDōga) 40, 41, 44 Nico Video Super Convention (NicoNicoChōKaigi) 41, 42, 51 Nihon dentō ongaku 2 Nihon koten ongaku 2 Nihon Kyōdo Min’yō Kyōkai 122, 138 Nihon min’yō kinkyū chōsa. See Japan Emergency Folk Song Survey Nihon Min’yō Kyōkai 122, 138 Nihon min’yō taikan 122, 122n9, 127, 304 Nihon ongaku 1, 2–3 Nihon Ongaku Shūdan. See Pro Musica Nipponia Nihon Rōkyoku Kyōkai 158, 166, 166n, 167–169, 170 Nihon shoki 21, 23n4 Nīmi Tokuhide 338 Nipponophone 388, 389n Nishigata Akiko 201, 338 Nishihira Ume 110 Nishimura Akira 62n21, 338 Nishino Katsuaki 288 Nishio Ryūki 281–282 Nishiyama Shifū 292 nō-bayashi 217, 223, 224 noh (nō) 7, 21, 175, 189, 213, 242, 265, 309, 340 shinnō 21n, 29, 30–31, 33 nōkan 362, 362n11, 364n Nosaka Keiko 327, 338, 345–346, 352 notation (musical) 144, 147, 150, 151–152, 157, 221, 247–248, 288

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450 notation (musical) (cont.) bunkafu 142, 143, 356n2, 368, 369, 369n18 for Heike 70, 75, 79, 81, 83 for Satsuma-biwa 179–182, 182 kunkunshī 306, 307, 310, 313 Western staff notation 75, 79, 81, 240, 295, 356n2 NPR Music 151 (Home) Concerts 119–120, 124, 124 Obama Akihito 185 Occupation (Allied) 90, 165, 178, 185, 406 Oda Kinmu 177 Oda Kinwa 177 Ogino Kengyō 72, 73, 78, 83–84 Ogino Kengyō Kenshō-kai 83–84 Ogita Shūsei 147, 153 Oguchi Daihachi 207, 212 Ogura Kei 412, 413 Okano Reiko 59n Okano, Thomas 199 Okinawa 85, 85n1, 301n, 302, 434–435 its history and relationship with Japan 8, 85, 85n1, 87–88, 89–90, 92, 93, 96, 98, 301 US Occupation and military bases 85, 90, 91, 92, 93, 433, 434–435 Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts 301, 304–307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314–316 Okinawa Zentō Eisā Konkūru (OIWEC) 91, 92 Okinawa Zentō Eisā Matsuri (OIWEF) 91, 92 Okinawans 85, 85n1, 90, 93–94, 98, 210, 315 diasporas 85, 85n1, 92–97, 98 the “Okinawa Boom” 92–93, 96, 97, 98 their cultural distinctiveness and activism 85, 85n1, 92–94, 95–96, 98 their identity 85, 85n1, 87, 88, 91, 93–97, 98, 433 their min’yō and songs 85, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96, 302, 303, 304, 306, 312, 314–315, 316 their music and performing arts 3, 85–98, 301–316, 433–436 Okinoerabu Island, its eisā tradition 97 Okuda Satoshi (now Utanoichi) 77

Index Ōkura Kishichirō 195, 196 ōkurauro 195, 195–196 Ondekoza 208–209, 212–213, 220, 223, 226 ongaku 2, 37, 106 Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari 141, 255, 256, 271, 272, 272n, 388 Ongaku Zasshi 279, 281 “Oniwa Soto e” 362 online classes 153, 202 Onmyōji 59, 59n Ōno, Hisayori 272 Ono no Michikaze 340 Ōnogi Kichibē 290 opera 256, 260–261, 262–264, 265–266, 345, 348 opera houses 262, 263, 265 oral literature 71, 72, 106, 113, 156 oral transmission 180–181 of Ainu music 105, 108, 112 of Heike 70, 72, 74, 75–76, 78–79 of min’yō and Tsugaru shamisen 121, 142, 144, 147, 148, 150, 151–152 of naniwa-bushi 156, 157, 160 orality 72–73, 78–79, 157–158, 159, 169, 171 orchestras 7, 258, 260, 261–262, 263, 264, 265–267, 273, 283, 325 studio orchestras 164, 165 organ 255, 255n1, 255n2, 257, 258, 259, 260, 271, 278, 290 oriental music 341, 348 Orientalism 402 originality 165, 205, 410 ornamentation 79, 107, 121, 129, 146, 147, 150, 168, 346, 399 Osaka 254–255, 257, 258, 264 Ōsaka Ongaku Gakkō (later Ōsaka Ongaku Daigaku) 257, 258, 260, 263, 265 Osaki Tomohiro 250–251 Oshio Satomi 249 Osuwa Daiko 207, 208, 209, 212 Ōtawa Masaki 382 Ōtsu Kagura Dan 22, 23–24, 25, 26, 32, 33–34 Ōwan Kiyoyuki 306 Ōyama Hideo 247 Oyama Yutaka 382 Ozawa Buchō 251

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Index patronage 72, 73 Pearson, Chris 374–375, 381 percussion 227, 228, 231, 339 as accompaniment 121, 129, 223, 226, 362, 362n11 performance schools 11, 56, 176–178, 185, 318–320, 331 performance settings 8–10, 21–22, 26, 33–34, 54, 55–56, 59–60, 112, 159, 341–342, 359 Persession 228, 231 piano 7, 164, 244, 260, 283, 287, 288, 290, 307, 341–342 music for 346, 348, 392 piano teaching 260, 271, 275, 287 pitch 61, 81, 108, 188, 189, 207, 257, 297, 311, 343, 343n absolute pitch training 289, 289n5, 297 in contemporary shamisen performance 359, 363, 367, 370 in Satsuma-biwa notation and performance 181–182, 183 in vocals 428–429, 432–433 the sanshin’s 302, 311, 311n11, 311n12 place significance of 8–9, 12, 33, 51, 357, 366, 369, 370 See also performance settings; regions poetry epic poetry 106, 113 Japanese poetry 121, 189, 190–191, 349, 392, 424 popular culture 6, 59, 87, 93, 186, 237, 267, 328, 402–403 See also anime; manga popular music 7, 93, 102, 106, 242, 254, 266, 386, 403 Hawaiian hapa haole songs 389, 394–395 See also Japanese popular music; Western popular music preservation societies and groups 29, 30, 31, 76–77, 122, 123, 129, 242 Pringsheim, Klaus 263 Pro Musica Nipponia 56–57, 223–224, 227, 326, 327, 350, 352 production 9 of commercial and popular music 3, 6, 386, 388, 390, 397

451 professional musicians and performers 9, 74, 75, 121, 213, 257, 264, 283, 309, 312 of gagaku 55–59, 60–63 Pronko, Michael 244, 248, 251 Radentai 325n3 radio 260, 264, 311, 312, 312n, 406 naniwa-bushi and 156, 163–164, 166, 260, 374n7 Western music and 256, 260, 262, 265 rakugo 156, 159, 160, 167 rap. See hip hop Ravel, Maurice 227, 266n9, 345 reconstructed works 56, 56n3, 56n5, 60, 63, 65, 74, 77, 82 record companies 56–57, 388, 389, 390, 397, 399 recordings 142, 144, 177, 196, 203, 207, 240–241, 249, 346, 364, 367 of gagaku 54, 55–56, 57, 59, 62 of Heike 70, 75, 77, 78–79, 83 of Hibari’s songs 405, 407n, 410, 412, 415 of min’yō 127, 146, 147, 312 of naniwa-bushi 156, 163–164, 166, 168, 169, 390 of popular music 386, 388–389, 390, 391–393, 394, 397, 403 of Western music 256, 260, 261 reed organ. See organ regions 121 and musical styles 8, 10, 122, 124, 139, 174, 224, 356, 357, 361–364, 366–367, 372–373 and types of musical instruments 8, 174, 366, 366n Reigakusha 8–9, 54n1, 55, 55, 60, 61–62, 67, 349 their concerts 62–66 their educational programmes for children 66–67 their recordings 57, 59, 59n, 62 resilience 214, 251 Rhymester 426–429 “B-Boyizm” 427–429 ritual music 54, 56, 59–60, 72, 74 rōkyoku. See naniwa-bushi Rōkyoku Shinyū Kyōkai 166, 166n, 167, 168–169 Rosenstock, Joseph 263

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452 Rumi 429 Russian Grand Opera Company 260–261 Rutin, Alexander 258, 260 ryūha 303, 305–306, 310, 311, 315 Ryukyu 8, 87–88, 96, 97, 301, 301n, 302 Ryukyuan language 302, 303, 306, 315, 316 Ryukyuan music classical (koten) 301, 302, 303, 305–308, 310–312, 313, 314, 315–316 folk performing arts (minzoku geinō) 303, 312, 313, 313n, 314 min’yō 303, 306, 312, 312n, 314–315, 315, 316 Okinawa Pop 303, 314, 315 Ryukyuan performing arts 301, 302–303, 305–307, 309, 310–312, 313, 315 Ryūkyūkoku Matsuri Daikō (RMD) 91–92, 96–97 ryūteki 56, 57, 58, 61n17, 323 Sada shinnō 29, 30, 31–32, 33 Sada Shinnō Preservation Society 29, 31 Sada Shrine 21n, 29, 30, 31 Sagara Shijō 177, 179, 181, 183 Sainō Kyōiku Kenkyūkai. See Talent Education Research Institute Saitō Hideo 263, 289n5 Saitō Kenrō 245, 247–248, 251 Sakiwai Inari Shrine 369, 369n19 “Sakura no Chūon” 77 samurai 73, 158, 161, 257, 273, 309–310, 340, 376n9 “Sankan” 28 sankyoku 54, 54n1, 194, 199n, 340 Sankyoku Kyōkai 54n1 Sano Shunsuke 382–383 sanshin 85, 301, 302, 303, 306 Sanshū Club 184 sanxian 139, 302 sarugaku 189 Sasaki Kan’ichi 396 Sasaki Yūji 25 Satoh (Satō) Sōmei 65, 338, 338n, 346–348 Birds in Warped Time II 346–348 Satsuma domain 87–88, 88n, 179 Satsuma-biwa 8, 77, 173–174, 185 biwa songs (biwa uta) 174, 175–176, 177, 178–179, 180, 182, 184, 185 Fumon’s innovations, tuition, and legacy 173, 179–185 history of 174–179

Index Kinshin-ryū 177–178 seiha Satsuma-biwa 177, 178–179, 182, 185–186 Satta Kotoji 293 Savage, Patrick E. 10, 137, 138, 145–151, 152, 153 Sawa Takako 167 Sawada Kenji 397, 398 Sawai Hikaru 320, 321, 331 Sawai Kazue 318, 319, 320 Sawai Tadao 56, 318–319, 320, 338 Sawai Koto Institute (SKI; Sawai Sōkyokuin) 56, 318–320, 327, 331 Sawamura Sakura 165 sawari 76, 357–358 scales 8, 76, 181, 255, 297, 348, 383, 391, 391n min’yō 160, 391n miyako-bushi 160, 343, 343n, 344, 391, 391n, 394 pentatonic 110, 121, 151, 163, 164, 343–344, 348, 391, 391n ritsu 160, 391n ryūkyū 302, 391n school music 11, 141, 230, 241–243, 255, 266, 273, 297, 337, 340–341 clubs 11, 240, 241, 242–243, 244, 245, 246, 251 hōgaku classes and clubs 11, 141, 230, 237, 239, 239–240, 241, 242, 248–250, 290, 297–298, 318, 337 impact of COVID-19 pandemic on 241, 250–251 in anime and manga 237–240, 249 instruments used in 141, 230, 237, 240–241, 251, 271, 278, 287–288, 290, 298, 318 jazz education 11, 241, 244–248, 250, 251 music teachers 141, 221, 230, 245–246, 249, 255, 274, 288, 297–298, 307, 341 school songs (shōka) 37, 255, 255n2, 256, 256n, 258, 271, 272, 287 wind and brass bands 11, 221, 240, 241, 243, 244, 251, 283 SEALDs 431 security-related bills 431 Seiden Shifū Satsuma-biwa Shigen-kai 185 Sekiya Teruo 145–146 Senba Kiyohiko 125, 127 Senzoku Gakuen College of Music 245–247 setsubun 362, 362n12 sexual identity 97, 214 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Index shakuhachi 2, 7, 188, 196–197, 203, 342, 387 accompaniment for min’yō and naniwa-bushi 121, 127, 128, 129, 164 history of in early Japan 188–194 in modern Japan 194–196, 327–328, 329, 330, 382–383 international festivals 200–202 its sound and effects 188, 190–191, 192, 193–194 its transnational appeal 10, 197–203 music for 173, 343–344, 345–346 performing Western popular music 322, 323–324, 325–326 sankyoku 54, 54n1, 194, 199n, 340 Tozan-ryū 195 shamisen 2, 7, 9, 72, 140–141, 158, 260, 271, 278, 293, 387 accompaniment for min’yō 121, 129, 130 chūzao shamisen 356n1, 378, 378n, 380, 381 electric shamisen 374, 376–380, 381, 382–383 futozao shamisen 160, 356n1, 366, 378, 378n, 380 Hanawa-bayashi shamisen 357, 366–367, 369–370 hosozao shamisen 356n1, 359, 362, 378n, 380 hybrid performance styles and genres 322, 323, 328, 356, 357, 359, 361–364, 366–367, 369, 370, 372, 374, 375–376, 394 Itchū-bushi 356, 362, 372 its future 380, 383 its physical construction and hybrid sound 81, 356–359, 362, 366, 366n, 318, 370, 380, 381–382 jiuta 72, 146, 158, 356, 356n, 362 katarimono 159, 356 nagauta 158, 196, 292–293, 307, 356, 356n2, 361–362, 366, 388 playing techniques 356, 359, 363–364, 366, 367–368, 369, 370 sankyoku 54, 54n1, 194, 199n, 340 Sōsaku Kamigata-jōruri (SKJ) 359, 361–364 Tokiwazu-bushi 361–362 utamono 356 See also naniwa-bushi; sōkyoku jiuta; Tsugaru shamisen Shamisen Katō 372, 373, 380

453 Shanghai 254, 261, 262, 264 Shanghai Ballet Russe 264 Shen Xingong 256 Shiba Sukeyasu 55, 58, 60–61, 66, 67 his pieces and recordings 56, 57, 57n7, 59, 61, 61n17, 62n22, 63, 64, 65, 66–67 Shibata Minao 289 Shihora 311, 311n13, 312 Shii no Kai 309–310 Shiina Yutaka 247 Shikama Fujiko 282 Shikama Kunie 281, 281, 282 Shikama Ranko 279, 281, 281, 282 Shikama Seiko 281, 282 Shikama Totsuji 279, 281, 282 Shikama family 281, 282 Shima Yūsuke 382 Shimazu Shigehide 175 Shimazu Tadashi 174, 175, 176 Shimizu Satsuki 130, 130n21, 131, 134 “Sentō Ondo” 130, 131 Shimo Tatsuya 374 Shin Kōkyō Gakudan 262, 262n, 263 shin-Nihon ongaku 5, 195 shinobue 242, 249, 322, 323, 324, 362, 362n11, 364 Shinohara Minoru 28, 29n12 Shinran 46–47 Shinto 8, 21, 37, 212, 213, 369 Shinto music 9–10, 212, 328, 364, 364n See also kagura Shiotaka Kazuyuki 77 Shirakata, Buckie/Bakkī 394 Shiroma Tokutarō 305–306, 306n7, 309, 310 shō 57, 57n10, 65, 322 shōka 37, 255, 255n2, 256, 256n, 258, 271, 272, 287 Shonorities 326 Shōonji 47, 51 Shōsōin 188–189, 339 shrines 8, 21, 32, 54, 55, 59–60, 213 Silk Road 188–189, 201, 357 singer-songwriters 397–398 Sirota, Leo 263 Sōbun 241–243 social bonding hypothesis 146 social change 6, 21, 43, 121–122, 337 social media and social networking 3, 51, 153 and the dissemination of music 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 120, 325 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

454 Soemon 325n3 “Sōkaku Reibo” 203 sokki 163n sōkyoku clubs 242, 248–250 songs 72, 121, 228, 242, 387, 406 Ainu songs (upopo) 106–108, 109, 112, 113–114 biwa songs (biwa uta) 174, 175–176, 177, 178–179, 180, 182, 184, 185 Buddhist praise songs 38–40, 43, 44–45 Hawaiian hapa haole songs 389, 394–395 Hibari’s songs 405, 405n, 406, 407–409, 410, 412–419 Japanese popular songs 386, 388, 390, 391–398, 399, 401–403 Jazz Song 386, 388–390, 394, 403 kouta 189–190, 372 warabeuta 137 See also enka; hip hop; min’yō; shōka; uta-sanshin songwriters 397, 402 “Sōrōkodatsu” 56, 56n5 Sōsaku Kamigata-jōruri (SKJ) 359, 361–364 sound, sense of 257 sound demonstrations 429 sound recordings. See recordings status systems 72, 141, 210, 273, 274, 283 steel guitar 394, 396 stillichimiya 430 Strok, Awsay 260–261, 262, 262, 263, 265 Suda Seishū 178 Sugii Kunihito 25, 25n6, 26, 34 Suitō Kinjō 177, 177n4, 185 Sukeroku Daiko 207–208, 209, 212 Sun Yongzhi 202 Sunazawa Bikki 113 Susanoo no Mikoto 23, 23 sustainability 10, 83, 120, 153, 231, 250 Suzuka Mago Uta Zenkoku Taikai 128–130 Suzuki Fujie 197 Suzuki Koson 282 Suzuki Masaharu 292 Suzuki Masakichi 287, 287n, 290–291, 292, 293 Suzuki Masaru 393 Suzuki Shin’ichi 286n, 287, 291, 292–297 Suzuki Takatsune 82 Suzuki Method 237, 286, 286n, 288, 290–291, 297, 298

Index Suzuki Violin Seizō (SVS) 11, 286, 290–291, 297, 298 Swing Girls 244, 245 Tachibana Nankei 174, 184 Tada Ayako 326 Tado Gagaku-kai 60 taiko 2, 205–206, 207–208, 209–210, 211, 213, 221, 249, 303, 377 See also ensemble taiko drumming Taiko Ikari 210–211, 212 Taiko Road 211, 212 Taisei Yokusan-kai (Imperial Rule Assistance Association) 294, 294n12 Taishō Okinawa Kodomo-kai (TOCC)  94–95, 97 Taishō ward, Osaka 94 taishū engeki 22 Takahashi Kumiko 357, 358–359, 370 “Yojigen Zahyō” 358–359, 360 Takasaki Masakaze 175 Takasugi Zenmatsu 367n17 Takemitsu Tōru 2, 56n3, 61, 62, 62n21, 63, 186, 266 November Steps 173, 198 “Shūteiga” 56, 56n4, 61–62 Taki Dōnin 179, 184 Taki Rentarō 119n2, 274 Tale of the Heike 70, 70n, 71–72, 73, 74, 75, 82, 174, 175, 185 talent 288–289, 291 Talent Education Research Institute (TERI) 286n, 291, 291n9, 294, 295, 297, 298 Tamada Kitarō (also Nyohyō) 197–198, 199–200 Tamagawa Fukutarō 166 Tamagawa Nanafuku 158, 167, 171 Tamura Kōji 179 Tanabe Hisao 1, 292, 294 Tanaka Naoichi 77–79, 81–83, 84 Tanaka Shōhei 292 Tanaka Sumiko 288 Tanaka Takafumi 240, 249, 250, 331 Tanizaki Jun’ichirō 337–338 Tanomogi Genshichi 275n6 Tanomogi Keikichi 276 Tanomogi Koma 275–276, 277, 278 Tariki Echo 40, 41, 42, 44 Tateyama Kōgo 75, 76 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Index Tateyama Zennoshin 75 Tatsumi Akinobu 37, 40, 42, 47–49, 50, 51 Tatsuyama Ippei 40, 44, 46–47, 50 Te Kapa Kuru Pounamu 228, 229 teaching 141, 195, 202, 255, 273, 297–298 biwa 177, 182–184 See also Suzuki Method; transmission techno 38, 44, 121, 125, 402 Techno Hōyō 42, 45, 47, 48, 50, 51 Techno Hōyō x Kohgen 41, 43 technology 132–133 new technologies 41, 51, 54, 57, 144, 163– 164, 166, 169, 266–267, 405, 414–419 technological change 37–38, 133 See also radio; recordings; social media television 165, 166, 186, 239, 314 temples 46, 51, 54, 59–60, 267 Tendō Yoshimi 410, 411–412, 413, 414, 415 “Tenjin” 33 Tennōji Gakuso Garyō-kai 59–60 Terada Sōichi (Omodaka) 125, 125n14, 126, 134 Terrell, Ilán 131, 132, 134 text-scores for Heike 72–73, 74, 75, 78, 79–81, 82, 83–84 for Satsuma-biwa 181–182 textures (musical) 113, 339, 346 heterophonic 106, 107, 344, 344n4 homophonic 344, 344n3 monophonic or unison 106–107 polyphonic 106 theatrical kagura (or Izumo-ryū kagura) 21, 22, 27, 30, 32 institutional interventions in 29–32 Iwami kagura 22–29, 30, 30n15, 31–32, 33–34 “Jinrin” 28–29, 29n12 “Ōrochi” 23, 24, 26 Those Snow White Notes 120 through-composed 175, 344, 344n5 Tigers 397, 398 timbre 144, 189, 195, 224, 226, 343, 356, 357–358, 359 vocal 146, 399, 410, 415 Tin Pan Alley 389, 390, 392 Tōchūken Kumoemon 161, 162 Tōdō 72, 73, 74, 76 Tōdō Ongaku Hozonkai 76–77

455 Tōgi Hideki 8–9, 58–59, 59 Togi + Bao 58, 58n12 Tōgō Shigeatsu 177, 179 Tōkai Minami High School 238–239, 239, 240, 249 Tokita, Alison 81, 166 Tokiwazu 372 Tokiwazu-bushi 361, 361n8, 362 Tokugawa Ieyasu 23n5 Tokugawa Yoshichika 292 Tokugawa Shogunate 23n5, 37, 270 Tokumaru Yoshihiko 292, 292n Tokyo and Western music 254–256, 261, 263–264 Tokyo Academy of Music 255, 256, 272–273, 274–278 Tōkyō Gakuso (formerly Gagaku Shigenkai) 57, 57n8 Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkō. See Tokyo Academy of Music Tomita Tomoko 110 Tomomitsu Gashin 40, 41, 42 Ton’ami 190–191 tones 144, 174, 181, 297, 357, 378 the shakuhachi’s tones 188, 189, 190–191, 193, 194 tonkori 108, 110, 111, 113–114 Tōno Tamami 64, 65 Tōsha Roetsu 219, 223 tourism 8, 87, 92, 93, 102, 105, 109, 112–113, 150–151, 389 Toyotomi Hideyoshi 29, 96 tradition 4, 112, 113, 217, 230, 231 and innovation 217, 221, 224–227, 229–230, 231 traditional Japanese musical instruments (wagakki) 2, 7, 8, 9, 240, 267, 380 composing for 5, 61, 63, 231, 338, 343–344, 345–346, 349, 358 hybrid performances of on Blends 11, 317, 321–326, 331 in new performance spheres 11, 58, 125, 195, 223, 227, 278, 327–330, 331, 350, 352, 377, 382–383 in schools 141, 230, 237, 241, 242, 249, 290, 298, 318 innovations in design 5, 6, 318, 331, 342, 352, 377 transcriptions 33, 75, 79, 83, 107, 304, 307, 313, 369 Henry Johnson - 978-90-04-68717-2 Downloaded from Brill.com 04/07/2024 09:56:58PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

456 transmission 4, 10, 11, 83, 173, 242, 251, 330 See also oral transmission Tresch, John 374, 380 Trimillos, Riccardo D. 292 Tsugaru music 122, 124 Tsugaru shamisen 8, 120, 137, 138, 139–145, 151, 152, 153, 366, 366n, 372–373, 377–378 in fusion 151, 153, 322, 323, 324, 329–330, 375, 382 in Hanawa-bayashi 366, 367, 369–370 Tsuji Seigō 177, 178 Tsujimoto Yoshimi 325 tsukinamikai 292, 295, 297 Tsuruta Kinshi 173, 178, 185–186 tuning 76, 110, 257, 346, 359 hirajōshi 343–344, 344 Ueno Music School for Children (Ueno Jidō Ongaku Gakuen) 289n4 ukulele 394, 396 UNESCO 30, 31 See also Intangible Cultural Heritage United Nations 104–105, 112 United States (US) 194, 430 performances of Japanese music in the 61–62, 131, 195, 197–198, 200 postwar Occupation of Japan 165, 178, 185, 406 US presence in Okinawa 85, 90, 91, 92, 93, 433, 434–435 Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park 105, 112–113 Utamaru 426–429 uta-sanshin 301, 302, 305–313, 315 Uzawa Kanako 113, 114 Vaporwave 402 violin 7, 260, 270, 271, 341, 346, 348 domestic production of 260, 271, 287, 287n, 290–291 its gender orientation 270, 271, 278, 283 professional female violinists 270–271, 272–284 violin teachers 260, 274–278, 279 violin teaching 286, 286n, 291, 293n visual-kei 328–329, 331 vocaloid songs 330, 414–415, 415n

Index VOWZ Band 40, 43 Voyager 2 203 Wa San Bon 219, 228, 229, 231 Wada Hiroshi and Mahina Stars 395–396, 396 “Nakanaide” 396, 396 wadaiko 217, 220, 224, 225, 227–228, 230, 231, 242 accompaniment for min’yō 121, 127 compositions for 224–227, 228 neo-traditional performance 220–221, 224, 328, 329, 330 See also ensemble taiko drumming Wade, Bonnie 2, 4, 5 “wafū” rock 328–329 Wagakki. See traditional Japanese musical instruments Wagakki Band 328, 329–330 “Senbon Zakura” 330 Wagakki Orchestra 325 Wagakudan Koh 328 Wajima Yūsuke 399, 405n, 406 Wako Masashizu 292, 294 Waon 328 War, Pacific 90, 93, 98, 165, 264 WASABI 325n3, 328 Watanabe Yūko 325 Watanbe Masako 325–326 Western music (yōgaku) 1, 2, 3, 37–38, 156, 254–267, 286, 293, 305, 337, 341, 382–383, 387 hybrid music 5–6, 11, 56, 195, 224–231, 318, 321–326, 342–344, 346–348, 358–359 in compulsory education 6, 37, 141, 255, 266, 287, 297, 318, 337, 340–341 its effect on Japanese music 4–6, 11, 56, 156, 230, 231, 286, 289, 297, 337, 380 Western classical music 247, 260, 263, 266–267, 286, 297, 337, 340–342, 345 Western music education 141, 254, 255–256, 257, 258, 260, 261, 265, 266, 271, 286, 297 Western musicians 254, 255–256, 258, 260–262, 263–264, 265 Western staff notation 75, 79, 81, 240, 295, 356n2

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Index Western musical instruments 256, 287, 293, 294 collaborations with 153, 317, 330, 374, 377, 380, 382, 383 introduction and adoption of 7, 141, 164, 270, 271, 341–342, 387–388 See also organ; piano; violin Western popular music 2n, 58–59, 322–326, 388–389 westernization 3, 5, 140–141, 256, 338, 340, 386 Wheeler, David Kansuke 201, 203 Wild Style 423 wind bands 7, 11, 221, 240, 241, 243, 244, 251 women 177n4, 214, 425, 434 female music teachers 274–278, 279, 282 gender barriers and restrictions 90, 91, 212–213 professional female violinists 270–271, 272–284 social position of 270, 274–276, 278, 279, 282–284, 435–436 world music 7, 8, 93, 119, 205 xuetang yuege 256, 256n Yaeyama 303, 306, 313 Yagi Michiyo 327 Yakushiji Kanhō 41, 42, 43–44, 51 Yamada Kengyō 318 Yamada Kōsaku 256, 260, 262, 263 Yamaguchi Gorō 198, 199, 201, 203 Yamaha Torakusu 287, 287n, 290 Yamaha Corporation 11, 286, 287–288, 290, 297, 298, 415 Yamaha Method 288, 289 Yamaha Music School (YMS) 244–245, 286–287, 288–290, 290n7 Yamamoto Hōzan 198, 201 Yamano Big Band Jazz Contest 248 Yamato Takeru 411, 412, 412n Yamato-e 339 Yamauchi, Reach/Riichi 217, 218, 221–224 his compositions 217, 219, 224–230, 231

457 his expansion of wadaiko 217, 227–228, 230 his intersectional identity 217, 220–221, 223, 224–225, 229–230, 231 his musical projects 217, 219, 223–224, 225, 226, 228, 229, 231 “Hōhai” 228 “Inspiration” 227 “Shimen-soka” 225, 226 yang 21 Yano, Christine 406, 410, 412 Yasukawa Kazuko 288, 289n5 Yatsugatake Kōgen Music Festival 61, 61n19 Yatsuhashi Kengyō 317–318, 331, 343 Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) 402, 423 yin 21 yōgaku. See Western music Yokomichi Mario 76–77, 305 Yokoyama Katsuya 198, 200, 201 Yomi Jah 435 Yoshida Hidekazu 289n5 Yoshida Naramaru 163 Yoshida Ryōichirō 120, 328 Yoshida Seifū 195 Yoshimatsu Takashi 338 Yoshimizu Tsunekazu 175, 176–177 Yoshimura Gakujō 177 Yoshimura Nanae 338 Yoshimura Yukio 362 Yuasa Jōji 62n21, 266, 338, 352–353, 354 Yukimura Izumi 412, 413 Zampa Ufujishi Daiko 210–211 Zeami 21 Zeebra 424–426, 431, 432 Zen Buddhism 190, 346 and the shakuhachi 190–191, 192, 193, 197–198, 199–200, 203, 346, 346n6 Fuke sect (Fuke-shū) 192–193, 193n, 194, 195, 200 komusō 192, 192–193, 194, 199 Zen Ōsaka Min’yō Taishō 127, 128 Zenkoku Yōji Kyōiku Dōshikai. See All Japan Early Childhood Education Association

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v

HdO

japan

Edited by m. blum . r. kersten . m.f. low

Henry Johnson is a professor of music at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research interests are in ethnomusicology, Asian studies, and island studies, and he has carried out field research in Asia, Europe, and Australasia. His books include The Koto (Hotei, 2004), Asia in the Making of New Zealand (co-edited, Auckland University Press, 2006), Performing Japan (co-edited, Global Oriental, 2008), The Shamisen (Brill, 2010), and The Shakuhachi (Brill, 2014).

isbn 978-90-04-52401-9

*hIJ0A4|VSUQRz

handbook of oriental studies handbuch der orientalistik

Exploring an array of captivating topics, from hybridized Buddhist music to AI singers, this book introduces Japanese music in the modern era. The twenty-five chapters show how cultural change from the late nineteenth century to the present day has had a profound impact on the Japanese musical landscape, including the recontextualization and transformation of traditional genres, and the widespread adoption of Western musical practices ranging from classical music to hip hop. The contributors offer representative case studies within the themes of Foundations, Heritage, Institutions, and Hybridities, examining both musical styles that originated in earlier times and distinctly localized or Japanized musical forms.

Handbook of Oriental Studies, a careful selection of scholarly reference works of lasting value, under the editorship of major scholars in the field

Volume 18

brill.com/ho5 issn 0921-5239

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