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: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST
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<div>The question of traditional music in modern Japan is a thorny one
and there are all sorts of reasons to be disheartened by what's
happened, not only to the shakuhachi, but to all kinds of traditional
Japanese music.<br>
</div>
<div>Lots of problems started with the Meiji government's
misunderstanding of what it was to be modern. In their quite
understandable desire to stand up against the incursions of Westerners
in East and South Asia, they tried to become just another member of
the Imperialist's Club and went through a period of indiscriminate
borrowing of Western technologies and ideologies. Some kinds of
music fell victim to their desire to produce a "modern"
(i.e., Western) culture for themselves. The nineteenth and
particularly the twentieth century were particularly destructive for
musics associated with the Licensed Quarter. I thiink personally
that the most serious damage in this case was to Shinnai, a gutsy and
erotic form of<u> jôruri.</u><br>
</div>
<div>Some of the problems, though, relate simply to institutional
change. Noh had a very rough passage from the Edo period to the
Meiji period because the institutions which supported it in the 17th
through mid 19th century, the shogunate and the feudal domains, ceased
to exist. There went the noh actors' salaries and performance
venues. Fortunately, they made a comeback by finding new
means of support and new audiences.<br>
</div>
<div>Other problems are to be found in the institutional structures of
traditional Japan itself. It would seem (although there is
unfortunately little contemporary documentation to prove it) that the
musical cultures from which we derive the shakuhachi<u> honkyoku</u>
existed in a different kind of context in medieval Japan (before the
seventeenth century) than was the case after the establishment of the
Tokugawa Shogunate. As the apparently largely
improvisational and widely diverse religio-musical traditions of Zen
shakuhachi performance from Muromachi and Momoyama were
institutionalized as Fuke-shû, various kinds of controls and
privileges were exerted over them by the shogunate. This kept
them going through the 18th and 19th centuries, but made them sitting
ducks for the kind of indiscriminate Westernization that I mentioned
earlier. The interesting exception to this, the Kinko School,
found a way of institutionalizing itself according to the<u>
iemoto</u> model of the arts which was the most successful way to
survive in Tokugawa Japan. That model has also worked well in
modern Japan -- witness the success of Tozan School.<br>
</div>
<div>It's important to recognize that the Japanese Ministry of
Education did a great deal of damage itself in the 1960s and 1970s by
excluding traditional music from the public school curricula in Japan
in favor of Western classical music. Although the Ministry is
now somewhat more enlightened in its policies regarding music
education in Japanese schools, the effects it had on a couple
generations of Japanese school children are not easily to be undone.
Just go to any of the big CD emporia in Japan and look for traditional
music. You'll be lucky to find even one bin full of
"Jun-hôgaku" as it's called (and that will include
everything from Gagaku to folk songs). Meanwhile there are scads
of CDs of J-pop, Western pop, superb Western classical selections,
excellent blues, jazz, -- even Gamelan and Indian classical
music are often better represented than traditional Japanese music.
What a bummer!<br>
</div>
<div>The consolation in all this is that however blind many modern
Japanese may be to the wonder of traditional Japanese music, the fact
is that in many cultures, really old music like<u> honkyoku</u>,
noh,<u> gagaku</u>,<u> shômyô</u> and the like, no longer exist at
all. China provides the most immediate example. There are,
to be sure, things going back a couple hundred years still performed
in a continuous tradition, but if you try to get back before, say,
Ming, you won't find much of anything. The great traditions of
Yuan drama, for instance, are now, as I understand it, totally lost,
except for the texts of some plays and a few visual representations
(correct me if I'm wrong.)<br>
</div>
<div>Sorry to go on so long,<br>
Tom Hare<br>
</div>
<div>Stav Tapuch wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>From this last letter I understand that
it is a tired topic to talk about<br>
why shakuhachi music is such a neglected art in Japan - but I, as
a<br>
newcomer, would be very interested in hearing why this is so.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Is it merely because the western, modern
flute is just more efficient at<br>
making music, or is the shakuhachi just a victim in a greater cultural
war?<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>But any student of person above the age
of 30 will tell you that peoples'<br>
cultural tastes are very cyclical. One day there will be a
dramatic<br>
rennaisance of traditional arts in Japan<br>
</blockquote>
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