Means of Preservation and Diffusion of Traditional Music in Japan

Author(s): Shigeo Kishibe

Source: Asian Music , 1971, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1971), pp. 8-13
Published by: University of Texas Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/833807

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Asian Music

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 MEANS OF PRESERVATION AND DIFFUSION OF

TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN JAPAN*

Shigeo Kishibe

The subject of this paper should be discussed from several aspects, that is,
the present condition of performers and their organizations for preservation,
institutions for training musicians, specific establishments for diffusion and
introduction in foreign countries. These aspects should be discussed from two
dimensions, that is,
1. preservation and diffusion by each individual musician who is in charge of
teaching and performing traditional music, and
2. specific organizations and institutions which are established by scholars,
governmental officers, as well as musicians with the specific aims of preservation
and diffusion of the traditional music.

The aspects mentioned above will be discussed in terms which differ from
those generally used by foreigners, i. e. those who are not Japanese. In Europe
and America, means of preservation of the traditional music of Asia deal with
collecting tapes, gramophone records, slides, films, scores, literary sources,
and so on. On the other hand, in the country concerned, for instance in Japan,
live performances by musicians are the most important means of preservation.

For this reason we shall first describe the present condition of musicians
and then the organizations in charge of collecting musical documents and making
records.

I. Performers

As mentioned in my article in the second issue of "The World

the IMC, entitled "Conflict or Synthesis", life in Japan today is mainly orientated
towards Western music. However, a fair number of people take an interest in
the traditional music and the number of amateur and professional musicians in
the traditional style is still quite large, although the exact number is difficult to
estimate. Taking a concrete example, the NHK Broadcasting Corporation, a
half-governmental Radio and Television station, allots thirty per cent of its
music transmissions to traditional music against seventy per cent to Western

*This paper was presented at a Conference held in Berlin, June 12-17, 1967,
by the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation
in cooperation with the International Music Council, and is published here by
the kind permission of Alain Danielou, Director of the Institute.

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classical music. Quite a number of professional musicians can live by teaching
and performing, and some of them are fairly rich. They are in fact in a much
better financial position than university professors. This shows that traditional
music still has a place in Japanese musical life today.

Players of Koto, Shamisen, Shakuhachi and Biwa music, which are rather
recent styles of music compared with the many kinds of traditional music handed
down from ancient times, can maintain their profession on the basis of their
private activities. On the other hand, Gagaku musicians can maintain their
activity only by belonging to specific organizations, such as the imperial court,
Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. N8 musicians or actors can maintain their
activity by organizing their specific societies or schools which have been firm-
ly controlled by the old lemoto system since the fifteenth century. The lemoto,
the head of a school, is all-powerful in regard to financial and social matter;s,
and even artistic activities. This lemoto system has been adapted to organizations
for other traditional musics, Shamisen, Koto etc. The lemoto also means self-
protection for and mutual aid between the various schools or genres of traditional
music, and also protects the traditional musicians in general against the strong
tendency of Western music to predominate in present-day Japan.

II. Specific organizations or institutions for preservation

In spite of the endeavour of self-defence against the influence of Westernizations,

the traditional music has gradually been dying out since the Meiji era, the period
when Japan opened its doors to the outside world. A governmental committee,
the "National Committee for the Protection of Cultural Properties" was established
in 1950 with the aim of protecting the traditional arts. A section of the committee
is concerned with music, dance and theatre. This section consists of several
specialists and businessmen. One important project of the section is to record
music by making films and tapes. Another noteworthy project of the section
is to give some selected artists the distinction known as "National Property" and
to give annuities to these artists. The aim of this annuity is mainly to assist
these artists in their training of pupils. To be a "Cultural Property", popular
named "Human National Treasure", is the highest honour paid to an artist.
Around twenty artists have been appointed "Human National Treasure". An
institute called the "Tokyo National Institute of Cultural Properties" has a
section for music, dance and theatre. The main project of this section is to
record the traditional arts and to investigate how to preserve them. The section
consists of about ten researchers.

Parallel to the activity of the committee, the National Academy of Arts,

main function is to honour the most distinguished artists, also contributes to
the preservation of the traditional arts, although indirectly. To be a memb
of the Academy is a very high distinction for an artist. Only a few musicia
including some who play Western music, are honoured by the title. This sy
encourages musicians. Two further institutions which bestow distinctions u
artists also contribute towards the encouragement of traditional musicians.

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 The National Festival of Arts, which is held every autumn and is sponsored
by the Ministry of Education, also gives musicians chances to be honoured with
prizes. This also serves the preservation of the traditional music to a great
extent.

The biggest organizations that serve the preservation of the traditional music
are broadcasting stations, especially Nippon H5s5 Ky5kai (NHK), the Japanese
Broadcasting Corporation. NHK, which has a broad network over the whole
country, help the diffusion as well as the preservation of traditional music. As
mentioned above, thirty per cent of the music programs, excluding popular
music, are devoted to traditional music. This percentage is rather noteworthy
when it is compared with the percentage alloted to traditional music in the
musical activities of schools where just a small part of music education is set
aside for traditional music. Another remarkable activity of NHK is the estab-
lishment of a music library which consists of a gigantic collection of gramophone
records and tapes. The records of Japanese music in the UNESCO collection,
which is edited by this Institute are based on tapes offered by NHK. The collec-
tions of films, tapes and records owned by the National Committee for Protection
of Cultural Properties and the Tokyo National Institute of Cultural Properties
are valuable, but not big. No large museum, library or institute for music has
yet been established. The Theatre Museum at Waseda University has a fairly
large collection of musical materials.

Scientific studies also contribute to the preservation. T6y6 Ongaku Gakkai,

the Society for Research in Asiatic Music, established in 1936, is the representa-
tive organization for the study of Japanese traditional music, as well as ethno-
musicology in general. The members, around four hundred, consist of scholars,
professional performers and amateur researchers who specialise in every genre
of traditional music. Some of them contribute to the preservation of musics which
have disappeared or are going to disappear, through their historical studies.
The Society issues a journal, normally one volume a year. A few other societies
which are mainly concerned with folkloric theatricals publish their journals
monthly or quarterly.

The publication of gramophone records of traditional music represents a big

contribution to the preservation of music. Five major record companies have
published a fair number of stereo long-playing records each month, Japan Victor
and Japan Columbia taking the leading part in this project. Japan Victor has
published over two thousand such records of traditional music; these, however,
occupy only a small part of the total number of records issued, including those
of popular music. Among the major genres of traditional music, Nagauta and
Kouta, both of which belong to the Shamisen repertoire, are represented by the
biggest number of records because they are the most popular forms of Shamisen
music nowadays. Nagauta is the accompaniment for the traditional dance and
Kouta are songs for drinking parties. These record companies participate in
the work of the record section of the National Festival of Arts mentioned above
by publishing large record-albums - with three to nine 10 or 12 inch stereo LP
records - of the traditional music including musics which are doomed to disappear.

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Most of these albums are devoted to particular subjects, for instance, "The
History of Koto Music", "Offstage Music for Kabuki" (Geza Ongaku), "The Buddhist
Chanting of the Tendai and Shingon Sects", and so on. They are well edited by
outstanding scholars specialising in each particular genre and are issued with
booklets containing scholarly comments which contribute to a great extent to the
study of music and help music lovers to understand it.

III. Training of musicians and scholars

The activity of professional musicians in the traditional styles has been main-
tained to some extent or, as we can indeed say, to a remarkable extent, against
the predominance of Western music. The only institution that has a programme
for training musicians in traditional music is the Tokyo Geijitsu Daigaku, or
Tokyo University of Arts, which is a national institution. The section for
traditional music in the University is much smaller than the other sections which
are concerned with Western music. This section provides for the study of Koto

music, Nagauta
courses and
are usually the N~_
ranked play. Theamong
as beginners musicians who have just
the professional finished
musicians. A their
fair number of young researchers are trained at several universities or colleges
which have been recognizing for the past ten years the importance of research
into traditional music. Every year new graduates from these universities join
the Society for Research in Asiatic Music and have the chance to participate in
the activity of studies under the direction of leading scholars and with the
assistance of leading performers in every genre.

To conclude these three chapters relating to preservation, one has to refer

to the content of what is to be preserved, that is, traditional music at the present
time. It is not necessary to say that what is here involved is the pure style of
the tradition which has been handed down through successive generations over
a long period. Most musicians in the different genres show the tendency to aim
at the preservation of the pure style of the tradition. Some musicians, who are
not only performers of classical pieces but also often composers creating new
styles by introducing Western idioms, introduce some modification or moderni-
zation into their performances of classical pieces. This is based on their idea
that the style of performance of the classical must be adapted to the taste of the
modern age which people will request. For instance, the sound of the Koto has
become louder and stronger to suit the requirements of the much bigger concert
hall in the modern style. This tendency has naturally been accepted by most
musicians. But the change to a faster tempo or the change of mood in a composi-
tion is not accepted by most musicians. However, a more important problem
in the preservation of the pure style of the tradition is met in the attitude of the
audience. Most Japanese today who have been educated in Western music at
school have lost the interest and ability to appreciate the traditional music. Only
a small number of Japanese, professional musicians and some music-lovers
who have good experience in traditional music, are qualified to criticize the
modernization of the traditional music.

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IV. Diffusion of the traditional music of Japan

Means of diffusion have often been referred to in the former chapters relating
to the preservation of music. The means of diffusion to be discussed here are
mainly concerned with the education of amateur musicians and music-lovers in
general.

Since the Meiji era the traditional music had been neglected to a great extent
in the music education in primary schools and junior high schools. Recently the
Ministry of Education began to recognize the importance of the traditional music
and started the policy of setting aside a small part of the curriculum for the
appreciation of traditional music, only six representative compositions, however,
are to be studied during the six-year course, and the most of the teachers who
were educated in Western music suffer from their poor ability to analyse these
compositions.

Far larger contributions to diffusion have been made by radio and gramophone
records, and later television. It is noteworthy that radio broadcasting, which
began in 1924, has enlarged the circulation of the traditional music. People
living in the country, who had never had a chance to listen to performances of

by a virtuoso,
certain aretraditional
genres of able to enjoy broadcasts
music, of these.
for instance In addition
Gagaku and N_, aorspecial pro-
a performance
gramme of NHK is devoted to teaching how to appreciate traditional music. This
year a programme for music education is concentrating on traditional music.
I am in charge of these programmes as lecturer.

The record had the same effect earlier, but to a much smaller extent because
of the limited circulation. Most of the records were of popular music, Japanese
and Western, and children's songs. The number of records of traditional art
music was much smaller than that of records of Western classical music. This
is true even after the Second World War. The demand for the traditional art
music is limited, except for Kouta and Nagauta. In spite of its popularity,
a few LP records of Koto music were issued until the last three years.

The basic and most important element in diffusion is to maintain or increase

interest in and respect for the traditional music. The activities of the Academy
of Arts and the National Committee for Protection of Cultural Properties are
effective not only in encouraging professional musicians but also in awakening
the interest of the people in general.

In spite of these endeavours towards diffusion, the decay of the traditional

music in Japan has hardly been halted. Here in Japan we need advice from abroad
telling us how the tradition of each nation is necessary for the creation of the new
music of that nation and for the music of the whole w orld. I myself feel ashamed
of this situation in Japan. One might recall the case of Ukiyoe, a precious woodcut
painting, the value of which was recognized in Japan only upon the suggestion of
foreigners. I am afraid that other non-Western nations have often made the
same mistake.

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 The diffusion or introduction of Japanese traditional music in foreign countries
could be discussed under two aspects, that is, sending Japanese musicians and
scholars abroad and inviting foreign investigators from abroad. Leaving aside
the financial problem, the most important point here is that both, Japanese and
foreigners should cooperate in finding the most suitable persons to be sent abroad
or invited from other countries. In most cases the Japanese musicians must be
those who have been honoured with the highest distinctions and are possessors
of the pure tradition. As mentioned above, famous musicians are not necessarily
possessors of the pure tradition. Also the modification of performances and
programmes to suit the taste of foreigners should be avoided as much as possible.
The selection of Japanese musicians with such qualification could be done on the
basis of advice given by Japanese authorities in this field.

The exchange of artists and scientists, which is one of the important projects
of our Institute, should be organized with the cooperation of representatives of
the countries and the staff of the Institute.

In addition, exchanges between countries of the non-Western world should be

further promoted.

V. Conclusion

I would like to emphasize the meaning and purpose of the preservation and
diffusion of the traditional music of each country. Preservation and diffusion
should not only maintain the tradition but also contribute to the creation of a
new contemporary music peculiar to each nation but having also a world audience.
The new music of each nation should be national as well as universal in appeal.
As I said at the first conference of our Institute, a real appreciation of the
tradition which reaches to the depths of an art can be attained only by someone born
in that tradition. But of course, observations and studies by foreigners also
contribute to the understanding of a traditional art, especially in the case of the
music of ancient times which is as distant from the mind of contemporary Japanese
as it is exotic to foreigners. For instance Gagaku, an ancient court music which
originated in the eighth century, hardly lives in the mind of the modern Japanese,
and also appears strange to foreigners. However, the Koto and Shamisen musics
with sung texts are much closer to the atmosphere of modern life in Japan and
much harder for foreigners to understand than for the Japanese.

"Foreigners" in this case mean all peoples other than the Japanese. Indian
people have so far shown very little interest in the Shamisen music of the Kabuki
theatre. Also, a Japanese can hardly understand the real value of a performance
on the vfni. An urgent necessity in Japan is the diffusion of musics other than
Japanese and Western.

The biggest problem seems to be the mutual understanding between all nations
in a real and broader sense with the sim of creating the new music of each nation.
And I believe that this is the final purpose of our project in this Institute.

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