Context and change in Japanese music

Although Japan is often portrayed as culturally and ethnically highly homogeneous, its music culture has long been extremely diverse, especially so with modernization and globalization. Thus we begin by problematizing the term ‘Japanese music’. We then aim to provide broad historical, cultural and theoretical contexts within which to understand the subsequent genre-specific chapters, by introducing a range of cross-cutting topics, issues and research perspectives - for example: Japan’s interactions with other cultures throughout history; sociocultural contexts of each genre, including issues of patronage, audiences, class and gender; social structures and mechanisms of transmission; music theory in Japan; aesthetic concepts; and research culture. We conclude with a view into the musical future, considering the impact of educational policies, globalization and so forth

Context and change in Japanese music

Although Japan is often portrayed as culturally and ethnically highly homogeneous, its music culture has long been extremely diverse, especially so with modernization and globalization. Thus we begin by problematizing the term ‘Japanese music’. We then aim to provide broad historical, cultural and theoretical contexts within which to understand the subsequent genre-specific chapters, by introducing a range of cross-cutting topics, issues and research perspectives - for example: Japan’s interactions with other cultures throughout history; sociocultural contexts of each genre, including issues of patronage, audiences, class and gender; social structures and mechanisms of transmission; music theory in Japan; aesthetic concepts; and research culture. We conclude with a view into the musical future, considering the impact of educational policies, globalization and so forth

Performed narratives and music in Japan

The disjunction of modernity has led to the reification of the premodern, now commonly called the traditional. Traditional has become a synonym for Japanese, native, non-Western, and pre-modern. A keyword in the performing arts and literary traditions is "transmission" (denshoo), which is congruent with the concept of oral tradition. In the postwar period, this concept has given way in official discourse to the concept of "tradition" (dentoo), which smacks of invented traditions.Not

アジア音楽と作曲家の形成 : アン・ボイドの場合

The appropriation of Asian music to form a contemporary musical voice can be observed in many countries. This study of the Australian woman composer, Anne Boyd (b. 1946), shows how Asian, particularly Japanese music was the essential stimulus for the creation of a personal, identifiably female musical idiom. Boyd\u27s style reflects her understanding of the importance of meditative qualities in Asian music. A key example of her meditative style is the unaccompanied choral piece ""As I crossed a bridge of dreams"", inspired by Sarashina Nikki. Its choral textures recreate the timbres of the shō in the gagaku ensemble. Ultimately, Boyd can be called an orientalist, since ,despite her love of Asian music and philosophy, she seems uninterested in contemporary Asia

日本音楽の研究の内と外

世界の中の日本研究 : 批判的提言を求めて, 国際日本文化研究センター, 2018年5月19日-21

Australia-Japan Relations and Japanese Studies in the Age of Globalization

Globalization, Localization, and Japanese Studies in the Asia-Pacific Region : Past, Present, Future, シドニー大学, 2003年11月10日-13

Mimesis stories: composing new nature music for the shakuhachi

Nature is a widespread theme in much new music for the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). This article explores the significance of such music within the contemporary shakuhachi scene, as the instrument travels internationally and so becomes rooted in landscapes outside Japan, taking on the voices of new creatures and natural phenomena. The article tells the stories of five compositions and one arrangement by non-Japanese composers, first to credit composers’ varied and personal responses to this common concern and, second, to discern broad, culturally syncretic traditions of nature mimesis and other, more abstract, ideas about the naturalness of sounds and creative processes (which I call musical naturalism). Setting these personal stories and longer histories side by side reveals that composition creates composers (as much as the other way around). Thus it hints at much broader terrain: the refashioning of human nature at the confluence between cosmopolitan cultural circulations and contemporary encounters with the more-than-human world