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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2011
‘Invasion from the Orient’; ‘Young Violinists from Asia Gain Major Place on American Musical Scene’; ‘Suzuki's Pupils Learn Music First’: in the 1960s, headlines such as these drew attention to how successfully Asians had made Western art music their own; violinists from Japan were among the first. Observers have speculated on the reasons, but few know enough about Japanese history to realize that the phenomenon had its roots in developments during the Meiji period (1868–1912).
1 ‘Invasion from the Orient’, Time, no. 3 (Nov. 1967), http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837457,00.htm (accessed 27 Nov. 2009); Donal Henahan, ‘Young Violinists From Asia Gain Major Place on Americal Musical Scene’, New York Times (2 Aug. 1968): 21; Theodore Strongin, ‘Japanese Tutors Young Violinists (Suzuki's Pupils Learn Music First)’, New York Times (28 Feb. 1964): 3. On Asian and Japanese musicians in America: Yoshihara, Mari, Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.
2 Among the best treatments in Japanese are Kôsuke Nakamura, Kindai Nihon Yôgaku josetsu (Western music in modern Japan: An introduction) (Tokyo: Tôkyô Shoseki, 2003); and Yasuko Tsukahara, Jûkyû seiki no Nihon ni okeru Seiyô ongaku no juyô (The reception of Western music in nineteenth-century Japan) (Tokyo: Taka shuppan, 1993). For a literature review and a thorough treatment of early foreign teachers see Rihei Nakamura, Yôgaku dônyûsha no kiseki: Nihon kindai Yôgakushi josetsu (The tracks of those who introduced Western music: An introduction to the history of Western music in modern Japan) (Tokyo: Tôsui Shobô, 1993). The most detailed treatment in English of early government policy and singing in schools is Eppstein, Ury, The Beginnings of Western Music in Meiji Era Japan (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1994).Google Scholar For recent overviews see Galliano, Luciana, Yôgaku: Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century, trans. Martin Mayes (Lanham, MD, and London: The Scarecrow Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Wade, Bonnie C., Music in Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)Google Scholar; Herd, Judith Ann, ‘Western-influenced “classical” music in Japan’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, ed. Hughes, David W. and Tokita, Alison M. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008)Google Scholar.
3 Yôko Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’ (Affairs of the violin in Kansai in the Meiji era), Ongaku kenkyû (Ôsaka ongaku daigaku hakubutsukan nempô) 20 (2003): 11–38, 24.
4 Watanabe, Hiroshi, Nihon bunka modan rapusodi (Japanese culture: A modern rhapsody) (Tokyo: Shunjusha, 2002).Google Scholar
5 Most of the following is based on Nakamura, Kindai Nihon Yôgaku josetsu, 291–402; for brief biographies of many foreign music teachers see Hiroshi Takeuchi, Rainichi Seiyô jinmei jiten (Dictionary of Westerners in Japan) (Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 1983).
6 Including the less well-known but significant activities of the Russian Orthodox church; Maria Junko Matsushima, ‘St Nikolai of Japan and the Japanese Church Singing’, www.orthodox-jp.com/maria/Nikolai-Japan.htm (accessed 13 Feb. 2006).
7 Nakamura, , Kindai Nihon Yôgaku josetsu, 588.Google Scholar
8 Yukiko Hagiya, Kôda Shimai: Yôgaku reimeiki o sasaeta Kôda Nobu to Andô Kô (The Kôda sisters) (Tokyo: Chopin, 2003); Margaret Mehl, ‘Land of the Rising Sisters’, The Strad 118 (May, 2007): 60–64.
9 Kochô, Hisako, Taki Rentarô (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kôbunkan, 1968): 7, 16–17.Google Scholar
10 Zenzô Matsumoto, Teikin Yûjô: Nihon no vaiorin ongaku shi (The sentient violin: A musical history of the violin in Japan) (Tokyo: Ressun no tomo sha, 1995): 4.; Anonymous, The Musical World (1854); ‘Amusements’, New York Times (27 Oct. 1855); J.H. Haan, ‘Thalia and Terpsichore on the Yangtze: A Survey of Foreign Theatre and Music in Shanghai 1850–1965’, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 29 (1989): 158–251, 212. As far as is known, Paganini had hardly any pupils. It has not been possible to verify that Robbio was one of them.
11 Shiotsu, , ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 12.Google Scholar
12 ‘Organ’ here means the American reed or parlour organ.
13 Kolneder, Walter, The Amadeus Book of the Violin: Construction, History, Music, trans. Reinhard G. Pauly (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1998): 457.Google Scholar
13 Matsumoto, Teikin Yûjô: Nihon no vaiorin ongaku shi, 7–8, 11–12.
14 The kokyû, Japan's only bowed instrument, became popular in the eighteenth century. Today the word kokyû is often used for the Chinese erhu and the Japanese instrument is sometimes called the ‘Japanese kokyû’.
15 Matsumoto, Teikin Yûjô: Nihon no vaiorin ongaku shi, 30–34; Shin’ichi Suzuki, ‘Nihon vaiorin shi’ (A history of the violin in Japan), in Suzuki Shin’ichi zenshû 1 (Tokyo: Sôshisha, 1985[1932]); Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 13–14; Yôko Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki no yôgakki seisaku’ (Production of Western musical instruments in the Meiji era), Ongaku kenkyû (Ôsaka ongaku daigaku kenkyûsho nempô) 13 (1995): 5–35.
17 Leonor Michaelis to Albert Einstein, 25 January 1927 (Einstein Archives, no. 47 – 618.00; microfilm copy at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ). Michaelis taught in Nagoya from 1922 to 1926, and may have introduced the Suzukis to Einstein. The Suzuki Violins website includes a letter by Einstein to Suzuki Masakichi thanking him and praising the violins, see www.suzukiviolin.co.jp/about/story3.html (accessed 27 November 2009).
18 Ongaku zasshi 28 (Jan. 1893).
19 For example, Ongakukai (Jun. 1908): after 50. Also, an advertisement by Miki Instruments Shop in Osaka lists categories ‘gôgai’ A, B, C, at 2, 3 and 4 yen respectively; see Umewaka Ôno and Tateki Ôwada, Tetsudô shôka (Railway song) (Osaka: Miki Sasuke, 1911).
20 Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 18. Suzuki's ‘No. 1’ is consistently listed at 5 yen, although it is not always clear whether this included the bow; the violin at 2 yen was not numbered.
21 Matsuyama, Iwane, ‘Nihon ni okeru vaiorin no seisaku 1’ (Violin-making in Japan), Ongakukai 3/1 (1910): 49–51, 50.Google Scholar
22 Sôroku Murata, Nihon no vaiorin seisakushi (History of violin making in Japan) (unpublished manuscript, Tokyo, n.d.).
23 Matsuyama, Iwane, ‘Nihon ni okeru vaiorin 2’ (The violin in Japan), Ongakukai 3/3 (1910): 44.Google Scholar
24 Ibid., 45. Indeed, another author writing at the same time even claimed that the Japanese market was saturated and that Japanese instruments makers should consider exporting to China and elsewhere (Chôkô Katô, ‘Gakki seizôka ni nozomu’ (A plea to makers of musical instruments), Ongakukai 3/1 (1910)).
25 Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 15–17.
26 Ongaku zasshi 11 (Jul. 1891): before 1.
27 Uehara, Rokushirô, ‘Gakkôyô gakki ni tuite’ (Musical instruments for schools), Dôseikai Zasshi 2 (1896): 22–30.Google Scholar
28 Yoneno, Kanosuke, ‘Hyôgo-ken shihan gakkô’ (The Hyôgo Prefecture Normal School), Ongaku no tomo 2/3 (1902): 21.Google Scholar
29 Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 17; Hôshintaku, , ‘Ongaku kôshûkai nikki’ (Diary of a music course), Ongakukai 3/9 (1910): 38–9Google Scholar.
30 The first journal dedicated to music was Ongaku zasshi, published from 1890. Literary and educational journals also carried items about music.
31 ‘Niigata-ken no ongaku’ (Music in Niigata Prefecture), Ongaku zasshi 48 (1894): 21.Google Scholar
32 Irie, Kôjirô, ‘Niigata-ken ni okeru ongaku’ (Music in Niigata Prefecture), Ongaku no tomo 1/4 (Feb. 1901): 8–10.Google Scholar
33 ‘Niigata Nagano [Nagaoka?] no kyôikuteki ongaku ni tsuite’ (Educational music in Niigata and Nagaoka), Ongaku no tomo 6/2 (1904): 24–6.Google Scholar
34 ‘Nagoya tsûshin’ (Report from Nagoya), Ongaku zasshi 54 (1895): 18–19.Google Scholar
35 ‘Nagoya ongaku rengôkai’ (The Music Association of Nagoya), Ongaku zasshi 55 (1895): 17.Google Scholar
36 ‘Nagoya no ongakukai’ (The musical world in Nagoya), Ongakukai 1/3 (1908): 50.Google Scholar
37 ‘Nagoya Aigen ongakukai’ (Concert of stringed instrument lovers in Nagoya), Ongakukai 2/12 (1909): 43.Google Scholar
38 ‘Nagoya dai ongakukai’, Ongakukai 1/6 (1908): 46–8, 46–7.Google Scholar
39 Gakudô, Kyôshi, ‘Kôbe yori’ (From Kôbe), Ongakukai 5/7 (1912): 50–52;Google ScholarTakatsuka, Kôji, ‘Nagasaki-ken ni okeru ongaku’ (Music in Nagasaki Prefecture), Ongaku no tomo 2/1 (1902): 16–17Google Scholar.
40 Taizen Imano, ‘Fukui-ken ongakujô no ichi, ni’ (One or two points about the state of music in Fukui Prefecture), Dôseikai Zasshi 4 (Dec. 1896): 59–60.
41 Hongenshi, ‘Nara tsûshin’ (Report from Nara), Ongaku zasshi 60 (Aug. 1996): 35–7.
42 Hisao Tanabe, Meiji ongaku monogatari (The story of music in Meiji Japan) (Tokyo: Seiabô, 1965).
43 Keiko Takii, Sôseki ga kiita Beethoven (The Beethoven Natsume Sôseki heard) (Tokyo: Chûô Kôronsha, 2004); Kôsuke Nakamura, Seiyô no oto, Nihon no mimi: Kindai bungaky to seiyô ongaku (Western sounds, Japanese ears: Modern Japanese literature and Western music) (Tokyo: Shunjûsha, 2002[1987]).
44 ‘Sendai tsûshin’ (Report from Sendai), Ongaku zasshi/Omukaku 60 (Oct. 1896): 38–41; ‘Sendai no gakukyô’ (The situation of music in Sendai), Ongakukai 1/2 (Feb. 1908): 45–6Google Scholar.
45 Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 21, 34–5.
46 Ibid., 21, 35.
47 Torazô Ôtsuka, Tsûzoku vaiorin hitorimanabi, shiyôhô no bu, jisshû no bu (A popular violin self-study book: Method section: practical section), 7th ed. (Kyoto: Jûjiya Gakkibu, 1909).
48 Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 14.
49 Gen’ichirô Yamada, Vwaiorin shinan (Violin instruction) (Osaka: Miki Sasuke, 1892); Teishû Namikoshi, Vaiorin dokushû no shiori (A guide to self-study for the violin) (Osaka and Tokyo: Yajima Seishindô, 1906).
50 Yamada actually mentions the work on which his tutor is based: ‘Berusorudo, tômasu’ (Berthold Thomas??, Ebersold?), ‘The Violin’ (no further information available).
51 Waterhouse, David, ‘An Early Illustration of the Four-Stringed Kokyû’, Oriental Art 16/2 (1970): 162–8.Google Scholar
52 Tsukahara, Jûkyû seiki no Nihon ni okeru Seiyô ongaku no juyô; Malm, William P., ‘Chinese Music in the Edo and Meiji Periods in Japan’, Asian Music 6/1–2 (1975): 147–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
53 Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 14–15. Shiotsu states that the word ‘teikin’ for ‘violin’ (written with Chinese characters) was rarely used before the 1920s and 1930s. The Meiji texts discussed here all use ‘violin’ in varying phonetic spellings.
54 The decline should not be overstated. Books on how to play the instruments of minshingaku continued to be published.
55 Margaret Mehl, Private Academies of Chinese Learning in Meijji Japan: The Decline and Transformation of the Kangaku Juku (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2003): 29.
56 Watanabe, Nihon bunka modan rapusodi, 164–7.
57 Ôsaka Ongaku Daigaku Ongaku Bunka Kenkyûsho, ed., Ôsaka ongaku bunkashi shiryô: Meiji/Taishô hen (Ôsaka: Ôsaka Ongaku Daigaku,1968), 232.
58 Gakuhôsei, , ‘Kansai no ongaku’ (Music in Kansai), Ongakukai 3/6 (1910): 5–6.Google Scholar
59 Mutsuko Ishihara, ‘Meijiki Kansai ni okeru vaiorin juyô no yôsu: wayô setchû genshô ni tsuite’ (Aspects of the violin in the Kansai region during the Meiji period: On the East–West Bridge Phenomenon), Ongaku kenkyû (Ôsaka ongaku daigaku ongaku kenkyûsho nempô) 11 (1993): 101–10, 106–8.
60 Watanabe, , Nihon bunka modan rapusodi, 171, 176.Google Scholar
61 Entire programme in Ongakukai (Jun. 1909): 44–5; notes about styles (in brackets) in the programme as quoted.
62 Nagauta Echigojishi, Harusame, Shôjô tsuru,Chidori, Kokaji, andHagi no tsuyu; see Ongakukai 5/12 (1912): 64–5.
63 Kuranosuke Yarita, Sôkyoku hanagatami (A flower basket of koto pieces) (Tokyo: Kyôeki shôsha, 1911).
64 Ôen Machida, Zokukyoku gakufu (Sheet music of zokugaku), vols 1–3 (Tokyo: Seirindô, 1909).
65 Ishihara, ‘Meijiki Kansai ni okeru vaiorin juyô no yôsu: wayô setchû genshô ni tsuite’, 105.
66 Watanabe, , Nihon bunka modan rapusodi, 173.Google Scholar
67 Nakao, Tozan, Shakuhachi onpu kaisetsu (An explanation of shakuhachi notation) (Osaka: Chikurinken, 1908): 1.Google Scholar The digital collection of the National Diet Library does not include works by Kôga and only shamisen works by Nakao Tozan. Okada Takuji and Ômura Josaburô do not appear in the index either, although Ômura's name does appear in publications by other authors.
68 Yûko Chiba, Doremi o eranda Nihonjin (When the Japanese chose ‘do re mi’) (Tokyo: Ongaku no tomo sha, 2007).
69 Yôzô (Chôkô) Katô, Nihon ongaku enkakushi (A history of music in Japan) (Tokyo: Matsushita gakki, 1909): 79. The author also named Kitamura Sueharu, Maeda Hisahachi, Akaboshi Kunikiyo, Ono Asahina and Ôta Kanshichi.
70 ‘Shizuoka juppei ongakukai’ (Concert in Shizuoka in support of the soldiers in the field), Ongaku no tomo 7/2 (1904): 34.Google Scholar
71 ‘Wayô chôwa juppei ongakukai’ (Concert of wayô chôwa music in support of the soldiers in the field), Ongaku no tomo 7/2 (Dec. 1904): 38–9.
72 Ibid., 35.
73 Katô, , Nihon ongaku enkakushi, 81.Google Scholar
74 Masui, Keiji, Nihon opera shi – 1952 (A history of the opera in Japan – 1952) (Tokyo: Suiyôsha, 2003).Google Scholar
75 According to the online catalogue of the National Diet Library. The titles are available through the digital collection; some of them appear on Shiotsu's list of violin tutors and sheet music, which does not include any new titles (Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 26–30). A similar concentration of titles occurs between 1922 and 1933, with 12 titles; they include two translations of Leopold Auer's work in 1922 and another title by Yamada Gen’ichirô, who was one of the first to publish a violin tutor, in 1892.
76 Shôka in the nineteenth and early twentieth century refers to Western-style songs for use in schools or to music as a school subject.
77 Namikoshi Teishû, Vaiorin dokushû no shiori (A guide to self-study for the violin) (Ôsaka and Tokyo: Yajima Seishindô, 1906); Machida Ôen, Vaiorin dokushû jizai (Learning the violin in free self-study) (Seirindô,1908); Vaiorin kôgiroku (Violin lecture notes) (Seirindô, 1913).
78 Namikoshi's work, moreover, includes errors in his description of the position of the fingers and notes on the fingerboard.
79 Biô (Shûichi) Takaori, ‘Gengaku shûgyô no hiketsu: Baiorin kenkyûsha no shiranebanaranu koto’ (Hidden areas in the study of string playing: What students of the violin need to know), Ongakukai 4/11 (1911): 24–5; ‘Vaiorin shûgyô ni tsuki taika no suikun’ (Teachings from the great masters regarding the study of the violin), Ongakukai 4/12 (1911): 13–15;Google Scholar‘Baiorin taika no suikun: Dai san sho: kashitsu kyôseihô’ (Teachings from the great violin masters: Chapter 3: Correcting errors), Ongakukai 5/3 (1912): 16–18Google Scholar.
80 Yamai, Motokiyo, ‘Baiorin sôhô oyobi gakushû hô’ (How to play and study the violin), Ongakukai 5/1 (1912): 32–5.Google Scholar
81 Ibid., Ongakukai 5/2 (1912): 39–40.
82 Ibid., Ongakukai 5/4 (1912): 42–3.
83 Haikara (literally ‘high collar’) described people superficially aping Western ways, mainly by displaying Western apparel and gadgets, often implying contempt by those using the term.
84 ‘Baiorin sôhô oyobi gakushû hô’, Ongakukai 5/5 (1912): 27–30, 28.Google Scholar
85 Ibid., Ongakukai 5/1, 33–4.
86 Ibid., Ongakukai 5/12 (1912): 38–9.
87 Tajima, , Norie, , Saishin vaiorin kyôhon (The latest violin tutor) (Keiseisha, 1906).Google Scholar
88 Mizohata, Inosuke, Vwaiorin no shiori (A guide to the violin) (Osaka: Kyôwadô gakki, 1908).
89 The catalogue lists further editions in 1907 (1st), 1911 (8th) and 1912 (10th).
90 Ôen, Machida, (Hôgaku sokusei) Vaiorin tebiki (A violin guide: intensive hôgaku) (Tokyo: Seirindô, 1913).Google Scholar
91 Fukushima, Takurô, Vaiorin dokushû no tomo (The violin: A companion to self- study) (Tokyo: Jûjiya gakkiten, 1910).Google Scholar
92 Ibid., 26–9.
93 Ôen, Machida, Vaiorin kôgiroku, p. 17.Google Scholar
94 The digital version of this tutor has no separate section of practice pieces; whether they are missing as are some pages of the text or were not included in the first place is not clear.
95 Iwamoto, Shôji, ‘Yûgeiteki ongaku to bijutsuteki ongaku’ (Music as an accomplishment and music as art), Ongaku no tomo 6/1 (1904).Google Scholar
96 Ôen, Machida, Vaiorin sokusei yôgaku tebiki (Tokyo: Seirindô, 1917).Google Scholar
97 Shiotsu, , ‘Meijiki Kansai vaiorin jijô’, 25.Google Scholar
98 See Chiba, Doremi o eranda Nihonjin.
99 Seidensticker, Edward, Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: How the Shogun's Ancient Capital Became a Great Modern City, 1867–1923 (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1983): 163–4;Google ScholarLewis, Michael, ed., A Life Adrift: Soeda Azembô, Popular Song, and Modern Mass Culture in Japan (London: Routledge, 2009): xxi, 136–7.Google Scholar
100 Mitsui, Toru, ‘Interaction of Imported and Indigenous Music in Japan: A Historical Overview of the Music Industry’, in Whose Master's Voice: The Development of Popular Music in Thirteen Cultures, ed. Ewbank, Alison J. and Papageorgiu, Fouli T. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997): 152–74, 154.Google Scholar
101 Tamagawa, Yûko, ‘Das Mädchen am Klavier: Entstehungsgeschichte eines Klischees in Japan’, in Geschlechterpolaritäten in der Musikgeschichte des 18. bis 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Grotjahn, Rebecca and Hoffmann, Freia (Herbolzheim: Centaurus, 2002).Google Scholar The title page of one of the violin tutors has a picture of an exotic-looking semi-nude with flowing hair playing the violin; Ishino, Gi, Vaiorin renshûkyoku (Practice pieces for the violin) (Tokyo: Kôseikan, 1907)Google Scholar.
102 ‘Anne Akiko Meyers’ (27 Jan. 2009), www.kochentertainment.com/artists/detail/ ?Artist=Anne+Akiko+Meyers (accessed 22 April 2009).
103 About the reception of the piece at the time see Chiba, Doremi o eranda Nihonjin, 5–6; Watanabe, Nihon bunka modan rapusodi, 37–43.
104 Watanabe, Nihon bunka modan rapusodi, 41–3.
105 For example, Genroku Chushingura (The Loyal 47 Ronin of the Genroku Era), directed by Mizoguchi Kenji (1898–1956), 1941, music by Fukai Shirô, 1907–1959). The music accompanying Asano's contemplation of the falling cherry blossoms and his receiving a final obeisance from his loyal retainer as he walks to his death resembles what we might hear in a similarly emotional scene in a Western film.
