About the Book

Focus: Music in Contemporary Japan explores a diversity of musics performed in Japan today, ranging from folk song to classical music, the songs of geisha to the screaming of underground rock, with a specific look at the increasingly popular world of taiko (ensemble drumming). Discussion of contemporary musical practice is situated within broader frames of musical and sociopolitical history, processes of globalization and cosmopolitanism, and the continued search for Japanese identity through artistic expression. It explores how the Japanese have long negotiated cultural identity through musical practice in three parts:

  • Part I: Japanese Music and Culture provides an overview of the key characteristics of Japanese culture that inform musical performance, such as the attitude towards the natural environment, changes in ruling powers, dominant religious forms, and historical processes of cultural exchange.
  • Part II: Sounding Japan describes the elements that distinguish traditional Japanese music and then explores how music has changed in the modern era under the influence of Western music and ideology.
  • Part III: Focusing In: Identity, Meaning and Japanese Drumming in Kyoto is based on fieldwork with musicians and explores the position of Japanese drumming within Kyoto. It focuses on four case studies that paint a vivid picture of each respective site, the music that is practiced, the pedagogy and creative processes of each group.

List of Figures                                                                                    

Musical Examples on Compact Disc                                     

List of Examples on Companion Website                                                     

About the Author                                                                                          

Series Foreword by Michael B. Bakan                                                          

Preface                                                                                                                       

Maps                                                                                                              

East Asian Historical Periods                                                                        

PART I Japanese Music and Culture                                                        

  1. Japanese Music in Geographical, Historical and Cultural Context 
  2. Japanese Cultural Identity and Musical Modernity                           

PART II Sounding Japan                                                                           

  1. Performing Music of the Pre-Modern Era                                         
  2. Making Music in the Modern Era                                                    

PART III Focusing In: Identity, Meaning and Japanese Drumming in Kyoto                                

  1. Taiko and the Marketing of Tradition in Kyoto                                
  2. Four Case Studies and Some Conclusions                                        

    Tosha Rōetsu and the Pontochō Okeiko                                

    Basara and the One-Room Schoolhouse                               

    Matsuri-shū and the Kyoto Taiko Center                              

    Murasaki Daiko and the Proper Dōjō                                    

  3. Conclusion: The Future of Japanese Music                                       

Appendices

  1. “Echigojishi” (Yoshizumi Kojūrō-fu for shamisen)                        
  2. “Echigojishi” (Kineya bunkafu for shamisen)                                
  3. “Echigojishi” (Japanese score for ko-tsuzumi and ō-tsuzumi by Tosha Rōetsu)
  4. “Echigojishi” (Western score for ko-tsuzumi and ō-tsuzumi by Yamauchi Reach)

Glossary                                                                                                         

Additional Resources                                                                                    

Index