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The Ashgate research companion to Japanese music
Edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes
Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT, USA : Ashgate, c2008
ISBN: 9780754656999
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Book description
Music is a frequently neglected aspect of Japanese culture.
It is in fact a highly problematic area, as the Japanese actively introduced
Western music into their modern education system in the Meiji period
(1868-1911), creating Westernised melodies and instrumental instruction for
Japanese children from kindergarten upwards. As a result, most
Japanese now have a far greater familiarity with Western (or Westernised)
music than with traditional Japanese music. Traditional or classical
Japanese music has become somewhat ghettoized, often known and practiced
only by small groups of people in social structures which have survived
since the pre-modern era. Such marginalisation of Japanese music is
one of the less recognized costs of Japan's modernisation.
On the other hand, music in its westernised and modernised forms has an
extremely important place in Japanese culture and society. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example, being so widely known and performed that
it is arguably part of contemporary Japanese popular and mass culture.
Japan has become a world leader in the mass production of Western musical
instruments and in innovative methodologies of music education (Yamaha and
Suzuki). More recently, the Japanese craze of karaoke as a musical
entertainment and as musical hardware has made an impact on the leisure and
popular culture of many countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
This is the first book to cover in detail all genres including court music,
Buddhist chant, theatre music, chamber ensemble music and folk music, as
well as contemporary music and the connections between music and society in
various periods. The book is a collaborative effort, involving both
Japanese and English speaking authors, and was conceived by the editors to
form a balanced approach that comprehensively treats the full range of
Japanese musical culture.
About the author
Alison Tokita is Associate Professor in the School of
Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University.
David Hughes is Senior Lecturer in Ethonomusicology, Department
of Music, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London,
UK.
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