8. Playing Modern

Chapter 8, ‘Playing Modern: Blending Japanese and Western Music’, examines the widespread, albeit short-lived, fashion for performing Japanese music (chiefly koto and shamisen genres) on Western instruments, particularly the piano or organ and the violin; a practice known as wayō setchû (mixing Japanese and Western elements), wayō chōwa gaku (music harmonizing Japanese and Western elements), or wayō gassō (Japanese-Western ensemble playing). The propagators of the practice can be categorized loosely as ‘reformers’ and entrepreneurs.’ The former group consisted largely of graduates from the Tokyo Academy of Music. Their arguments about the importance of music reform were similar to those of the older Meiji elite, but in practice, their musical training resulted in their privileging Western music in the long run. More persistent was a grass-roots trend, promoted by enterprising musicians, often performers of indigenous music. They published sheet music in Western staff notation. This marked a departure from studying Japanese music in the traditional way of direct transmission from teacher to student, because it enabled independent study without a teacher. Wayō setchû, although frowned upon by the contemporary musical establishment in the capital, is regarded as having facilitated the assimilation of Western music. Another aspect, however, are the changing practices within traditional Japanese music. The practice suggests that the strict separation between Western and Japanese music (which from around 1900 began to be called hōgaku), was not a foregone conclusion, despite the privileging of Western music by the government.