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USC Project for Premodern Japan Studies

  • About
  • Members
    • Scholars
    • Graduation Memories
  • Kambun Workshop
    • About the Kambun Workshop
    • KW Translations
  • Resources
    • Translation Archive
    • USC-Meiji University Exchange Archive
    • Ôbe Estate Research Project
    • Ritsuryô Translation Project
    • Reassessing the Shôen System Conference
    • Japanese Law
    • Useful Online Tools and Databases
    • Japan in East Asia
  • Events
  • Apply
    • Graduate Studies
  • Contact
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USC Meiji University Exchange

The Records of the Meiji University-USC Exchange

Since 2008, scholars and graduate students from Meiji University and throughout Southern California have met annually to share research on Premodern Japanese History at the University of Southern California . This is an archive of abstracts, papers, and materials presented at the exchanges.

Ujitaka Itō: Japonism and Music—Why Japanese Music Was Not Well Accepted

December 30, 2018 Emily Warren
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Japonism was the cultural movement by which Japan’s culture came to be understood and accepted in the West from ca. 1850 to ca. 1910. It included the Japanese crafts, furniture, cloth, literature, theatrical arts, and especially art. Japanese music, however, had very little impact in the West. When Japan met the West, Japanese art was accepted but Japanese music was not. Why was that? As a partial explanation, the Tokyo University of the Arts originated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Tokyo School of Music. While Japanese art was only taught at the former since it began, Western music was only taught at the latter. And at the former, Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (1853- 1908) and his disciple Okakura Tenshin (1863~1913) were more concerned about art than education; while at the latter, Luther Whiting Mason (1818 - 1896) and Isawa Shūji伊澤修二(1851- 1917) were more interested in education than music. Beyond that, what else was going on—what is different about Japanese music? Very few analyses of Japanese music in the movement known as Japonism have been done. In this paper, I want to consider what happened when Japan met the West such that Japanese music was little accepted.

「音楽のジャポニスム序論―なぜ日本の音楽は受け入れられなかったか」

ジャポニスムとは、1850年頃から1910年頃まで西洋を吹き荒れた日本ブームのことであり、美術を中心に、工芸、家具、服飾、文学、演劇など多岐に亘る広がりを見せたが、こと音楽に限っては、西洋に与えた影響は極めて限られている。たとえば美術と比較するなら、現在の東京藝術大学は東京美術学校と東京音楽学校をその前身とするが、それぞれ発足してしばらくの間、美術学校では日本画だけを教えたのに対し、音楽学校では洋楽だけを教えるという正反対の状況が生じていた。これは一つに、美術教育を担ったのが、フェノロサ―岡倉天心という、教育よりも藝術に関心、造詣の深い者たちだったのに対し、音楽教育はメイソン―伊沢修二という教育者たちが中心となったという、教育方針の違いにもよるだろうが、それ以前に、西洋と出会ったときに、美術は受け入れられ、音楽は受け入れられなかったという差が大きい。ジャポニスム運動において、音楽が与えた微々たる影響の分析もまだきちんと行われてはいないが、その前に、日本の音楽が西洋の耳に受け入れられず、今や日本人にとっても異質なものとなってしまった理由をさぐるべく、出会いに際して何が生じたのかを考える。

Presentation Handout

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