Introduction
This article investigates the dissemination of the violin in Japan as a medium for the transmission of Japanese musical culture from the late Edo period, before Japan opened its doors to the West in 1854, to the early decades of Westernisation (up to c. 1920).
For the last few decades, the introduction of Western music has been one of the most popular subjects among musicologists in Japan, and the introduction of Western musical instruments has been treated in this context since the 1990s. Without doubt, significant achievements have been made in this field. I would argue, however, that scholars have attached too much importance to the reception of Western music, without clarifying the way the musical culture of the late Edo period was reflected in the reception of Western musical instruments or the way the introduction of Western musical instruments influenced Japanese native music. Above all, a lack of understanding of Japanese indigenous culture may make it difficult to explain the history of the acceptance of the violin in Japan. During the period that Japanese scholars call the ‘reception period’,Footnote 1 many Japanese preferred to play koto and shamisen music on the violin rather than Western music. They often did this in an ensemble of Japanese and Western instruments, a practice known as wayō gassō [
],Footnote 2 which later came to be associated with the idea of ‘music in the home’ [katei ongaku,
].Footnote 3 There is currently very little written, even in Japanese, on this subject.
It is often claimed that the way the Japanese learned to play Western instruments was grounded in their own musical traditions. In particular, there is a suggestion that they learned through imitation rather than through interpretation or creation. To be sure, native Japanese music was transmitted almost exclusively by oral instruction. Some written notation was used, but it served as an aid to memory rather than as a way of learning new pieces. It was only after the Meiji Restoration that artists of traditional Japanese music started to make an effort to develop notation systems, and these tended to be specific to their various instruments and schools. According to Eta Harich-Schneider, writing in 1973, ‘the Japanese attempted to grasp the most pronounced manifestation of Western mental independence and originality – the classical music of the nineteenth century – by using the most pronounced Eastern method of learning: imitation.’Footnote 4 Although this stereotype has not been verified, it signifies how strong traditional culture appears to be. It is important, therefore, to investigate the attitude of the people who were compelled to accept Western culture or accepted it unconsciously, in order to shed light on the phenomenon of Japanese people playing Western instruments.
In this article I use the interaction between the dissemination of the violin and Japanese native musical culture as an means of studying this phenomenon. I analyse the events within a social, political, cultural and musical context. I also analyse the position of the violin as perceived by the pre-existing native Japanese musical culture of the time.
One difficulty is the dearth of documentation of the actual musical lives of the people of the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho (1912–1926) eras, especially those of non-professionals. Although little material is available, I have focused on the various types of music notation for the violin published domestically in Japan. Domestically printed sheet music became widely available in Japan from the end of the nineteenth century, as a result of the print boom, and it can still be found today.Footnote 5
The Dissemination of the Violin in Japan
The violin was disseminated through several routes, including by missionaries, some of whom played and taught the violin in churches and missionary schools after Japan opened its doors to the West in 1854. Music education in schools was probably the most influential route. The Japanese government set up the Institute of Music [Ongaku Torishirabe-gakari,
] in 1879, and this institute recommended the violin as an instrument to supplement singing classes. But the instrument's actual use in schools was quite low, since the reed organ was much more accepted.Footnote 6 The violin was used if the teachers preferred it, or if the school could not afford a reed organ. In addition to its use in singing classes, the violin gradually began to be taught at the normal schools and the missionary girls’ schools. The number of girls’ schools increased in the early twentieth century, and it is believed that the number of girls who learned the violin increased as a result, hastening the spread of the instrument.Footnote 7
After the Russo–Japanese War, in 1905, the violin became extremely popular, and this phenomenon was expressed as ryūkō [boom]. Margaret Mehl points out that the most remarkable feature of the violin boom was that many took up the violin in order to play traditional Japanese melodies.Footnote 8 But what kind of music exactly were these ‘traditional Japanese melodies’? To answer this question, I begin with domestically produced tutors for the violin.
Playing Zokkyoku on the Violin
Among the imported violin tutors, the Practical Violin School,Footnote 9 by Christian Heinrich Hohmann (1811–1861), was the most respected, at least before World War II, because they considered that it allowed one to acquire an orthodox Western playing method. However, it was not easy for Japanese to learn the violin using this material, and it seems that many people gave up soon gave up.Footnote 10 Domestic material for the violin started to appear from around 1888.Footnote 11 The 35 domestically produced tutors published between 1892 and 1926 that I have been able to consult can be classified into two periods – before and after the Russo–Japanese War – according to the choice of musical types. The first type is Western music, which is found in most tutors. The second type is newly composed Japanese songs, for example the national anthem ‘Kimigayo’ [
] and Shukujitsu Daisaijitsu Shōka [
, Songs for National Holidays and Grand Festivals].Footnote 12 The third type is native music of Japan, in other words the ‘traditional Japanese melodies’, which started appearing in violin tutors in 1905. At the time, these native melodies were usually called zokkyoku [
] or zokugaku [
]. Zokkyoku indicates the music of common Japanese people: for example, sōkyoku [
], music for koto, voice and shamisen (koto [
or
] is a thirteen-string zither; shamisen [
], is a three-string plucked lute), shamisen-gaku [
], musical genres performed on the shamisen, and so forth. We will limit our discussion to shamisen-gaku and sōkyoku; it is appropriate to exclude other kind of zokkyoku and Nō [
] as the latter seldom appeared in either performance records of violin or music notations for the instrument, and we may assume that these genres had little impact on the dissemination of the violin. Most important here is that it was zokkyoku that became the target of restrictions by the Meiji government, since its sometimes-obscene texts were considered as corrupting of public morals.
In 1884, the Institute of Music presented to the government a document called Ongaku torishirabe seiseki shinpōsho [
] summarizing the results of their survey of music. This document includes a chapter about the improvements of zokkyoku which states that the members of the institute would try to improve first sōkyoku and second nagauta [
], long songs accompanied by shamisen, flutes and percussion.Footnote 13 Although neither a definition nor concrete names of music genres of zokkyoku are given there, it is obvious that this proposal is based on the assumption of zokkyoku as described above. Koto was the second most popular instrument of the Edo period while shamisen was the most widespread. The Institute of Music's reform of the texts of some sōkyoku proceeded quickly, and the Ministry of Education published Sōkyoku shū [
; English title: Collection of Japanese Koto Music] in 1888. In fact, koto was recommended as an instrument to supplement singing classes along with the reed organ and the violin, while shamisen, the most widely used instrument for song accompaniment during the Edo period, was not. Shamisen music became the main target of the reform, because it tended to be regarded with contempt as the instrument of geisha. It is reported widely that shamisen makers suffered poverty after the Meiji Restoration.Footnote 14
In contrast to zokkyoku, gagaku [
] – usually translated ‘court music’, though it was also played in Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and, since the Meiji era, also by secular amateur and professional groups – was highly regarded, as were new compositions by Japanese. Since there are no specific terms for newly composed Japanese songs, we will use the provisional name ‘Japanese compositions’. Japanese compositions first showed up in Yamada Gen'ichirō's (1869–1927) Vwaiorin shinan, published in 1892, and they appeared regularly in later violin tutors as well.Footnote 15 A change happened in 1905, with the end of the Russo–Japanese War. Ōtsuka Torazō's Tsūzoku vaiorin hitorimanabi, issued in 1905, was the first violin book to contain zokkyoku, and more than half of the succeeding violin tutors include them.Footnote 16
Out of 36 domestic violin tutors published between 1888 and 1926, 21 books were for self study, 11 to be used under an instructor, and four just ‘books for the beginner’. Two best-selling books, Ōtsuka's Tsūzoku vaiorin hitorimanabi (first published in 1905) and Tsūshin kyōju vaiorin kōgiroku [Correspondence course violin lecture notes] by the Great Japan Home Music Society [Dainihon Katei Ongakukai,
] were among those for self-study.Footnote 17 Obviously, there was a significant demand for tutors intended for self-study. Some authors of the early 1920s claimed that this was caused by the dearth of violin teachers, especially in local areas, and warned readers of the danger of self-study.Footnote 18 According to a statistical survey of the number of music instructors in the city of Tokyo in 1908, there were only seven instructors of Western music, while there were over 300 instructors each for sōkyoku and nagauta.Footnote 19 This shows that the main route to learning the violin was self-study, and few had a chance to receive a teacher's guidance.
Chronological division of the dissemination period
After the acquisition of basic technique – or even without it – many violin enthusiasts seem to have relied on published sheet music, often well-known pieces published individually (in their entirety or as long extracts, unlike the shorter extracts included in violin tutors). Most of these were self-published by an editor or a group of editors who often published several pieces, so that it seems appropriate to speak of a series. There was a great variety of publications and, in some cases, the same piece was published by different editors. Some editions had striking cover illustrations.
I have been able to identify 22 series, 13 of which were continuously issued. The earliest editions for violin appear to have been published by Nakao Tozan (1876–1956) of Osaka, the founder of the Tozan school of shakuhachi [
, end-blown flute],Footnote 20 starting in 1906. A year later, Machida Ōen (?–1928) of Tokyo followed Nakao's example. He continued to edit music for all kinds of popular instruments; there is no evidence that his series for violin was reprinted.
Initially, the most favoured type of violin piece was zokkyoku for an ensemble of koto, shamisen and/or violin(s). Among the most popular were Nakao's series and that of Kōga Musen (1867–?. His real given name was Ryōtarō; Musen was his professional name), a famous violin instructor of the Osaka area.Footnote 21 It was not until 1910 that a series of Western classical pieces appeared; Senō violin gakufu [Violin music collected by Senō] (Senō Kōyō (1891–1961)). However, zokkyoku remained more popular than Western classical music, judging from the number of pieces published. The balance between Western music and Japanese music started gradually to change around 1918, when the First World War ended. The clear tendency towards the selection of Western music can be observed in the publication of Senō's violin pieces: his series included only Western music and was the only series that was sold consistently with a part for piano accompaniment. According to the publication information included in Senō's violin pieces, the publication of new titles increased around 1920, but not earlier. This suggests that musical life and preferences had started to change around 1920.
I argue that the changes occurring during the ‘reception period’ can be divided into three phases. In the first phase, approximately to 1903, zokkyoku had not yet appeared in the violin tutors, and the music was not available. During the second phase, from around 1904 to 1917, the violin rose rapidly in popularity, and zokkyoku were preferred to Western music. The third phase began approximately 1920 and ended more or less with the beginning of the Second World War. Western art music rapidly spread during the 1920s,Footnote 22 when concerts by foreign musicians increased. Radio broadcasting began in 1925.Footnote 23 The change may well have been accelerated by the influence of the Russo–Japanese War and World War I, and the period between these two wars can be regarded as the transition period from a pluralistic style to a fully Westernized style.Footnote 24
Notation systems: pedagogy and reception
One special characteristic of the published violin pieces is that all of them used staff notation, in contrast to the violin tutors, which used various kinds of notation. To understand the significance of this, we must consider the general level of musical literacy at this time. Numerical solfège systems were common, since they were taught in the elementary education. Most tutors for accordion, which was the most popular Western instrument before the violin, were written in numerical solfège and accordion tablature.Footnote 25 In the case of the violin, tablature means the numbers placed on four lines representing the four strings of the violin (See Figure 1). The taishōgoto [
], a keyed zither invented in 1912 by a Japanese inventor, was one of the most popular instruments in Japan from 1912 through the 1920s. Printed music for taishōgoto used only the numerical solfège system, in order to reach a wide audience.Footnote 26 Thus, the numerical solfège system was the most widely accepted notation in Japan during the early twentieth century, and staff notation was not yet common. This suggests that the users of violin pieces had a better than average musical knowledge.
Numerical solfège system, staff notation and violin tablature indicated with numerical solfège system
The following is the result of my survey of tutors.Footnote 27 Although the proportion of tutors using staff notation diminished over this period, this does not necessary mean that violin learners, or Japanese people in general, became accustomed to a numerical solfège system rather than to staff notation. As imported music gradually became affordable, the ability to read staff notation presumably increased. I have also found a slight change in the numerical solfège system. Initially only moveable do was used, but fixed do became more prevalent after it appeared in Tsūshin kyōju vaiorin kōgiroku, of 1913. It was about this time that tutors with only numerical solfège systems were ceasing to appear. Tsūshin kyōju vaiorin kōgiroku may have been the forerunner of the tutor for violin that used numerical solfège system alongside staff notation, and this in turn may well explain why it adopted fixed do. In any event, we may assume that the diversification of tutors’ notation systems was intended to increase the opportunities for a wider range of people to start playing the violin – a sign of popularization of the violin. A contrasting reason is that the consumers of individually published violin pieces required more knowledge about music than average Japanese people had. Why is there inconsistency between the negative image of the content, zokkyoku, and the high expectations of users’ musical knowledge? To understand the intentions behind the publication of the violin pieces, we can compare with the cases of other instruments.
While domestically published sheet music for violinists was plentiful in the Meiji era, music for other Western instruments, such as reed organ or wind instruments, was rarely published domestically. Why is this so? It is probably an indication of the violin's route to acceptance in Japan, which differed from that of other instruments. Wind and percussion instruments were first adopted as a military tool, and they were the first Western instruments that were officially accepted to Japan. They were first taken up by band-musicians in the streets, who used wind and percussion instruments for advertising purposes; later, many neighbourhood music bands were established.Footnote 28 However, pieces were generally published for use by solo players or small ensembles. For the learner of the accordion – the first Western instrument to gain popularity among the populace – quite a few tutors and self-tutors were available, but no separately published pieces are known to exist. This may be because the accordion's popularity seems to have reached a peak between 1891 and 1894, before the domestic publication of sheet music began.Footnote 29 In the 1900s, although many girls owned reed organs or violins, very few pieces for the reed organ were issued. Two converted Western instruments, the reed-pipe [suifūkin,
] and pennywhistle [ginteki,
], were popular from around 1898 into the early 1910s. Both instruments were very cheap and easy to play, and they appealed to both children and adults who might have modest or no musical background.Footnote 30 The cheapest suifūkin was 40 sen, and the price of three self-tutors of suifūkin issued between 1908 and 1914 was from 8 to 20 sen.Footnote 31 By contrast, the price of five violin self-tutors issued between 1908 and 1913 ranged from 25 sen to 1 yen 50 sen and the most popular of Nakao's pieces for violin ‘Chidori no kyoku’ [‘Plover's melody’], issued in 1906, cost 15 sen.,Footnote 32 This may explain why the music for suifūkin and ginteki has not been studied. Even if sheet music for suifūkin had been issued, it might have been too much a luxury item for the users of this instrument. We can conclude that there was a higher demand for sheet music for the violin, because the violin was popular with middle or upper classes.
Reception of the violin started to change around 1904, the beginning of the second phase. Violin pieces became available, and most of the pieces published during the second phase were zokkyoku for small chamber ensemble. The front covers of these publications were decorated with artwork, often colour printed on superior paper (See Figure 2). This indicates that the violin began to function in earnest as more than an educational tool in everyday life.Footnote 33
Violin sheet music
The popularity of the violin was made possible by the availability of domestically produced violins at an affordable price. I accessed six statistical reports on the production of violins and two statistical reports on the money involved. Although the numbers shown in those reports seem to be inconsistent, it is still possible to discern general trends.Footnote 34 The violin boom seems to have peaked in around 1909, since the report of the output of the Suzuki Violin Co., Ltd. shows the highest number in this year.Footnote 35 Another significant tendency is the fluctuations in the numbers of all data, which occur very rapidly, with popularity fluctuating within single years And while there were temporary declines, over the long term the violin became increasingly popular with a widespread range of people. According to the Chōki juyō dōkō chōsa kekka [Result of the survey of long-term demand], from 1897 to 1926 there was an overall increase domestic demand.Footnote 36 Although the waning of the violin boom is reflected in the data, the declining popularity of the violin was only temporary. Not only the statistic reports, but also the results of all the surveys suggest that the violin continued to gain popularity, and that it was disseminated among a wide range of people. This distinguishes the violin from other instruments popular during the period under discussion.
Musical Tradition and the Social System of Early Modern Japan
The following discussion looks at four aspects of violin reception in Japan: (1) changes in attitudes towards and criticism of zokkyoku, (2) regional differences, (3) changes in musical sensibilities and (4) the role of gender. To better contextualize those points, I begin with a discussion of music culture of the Edo era.
It is thought that during the Edo era, one's preference for an instrument depended on one's status in a feudal society (a hereditary four-status system consisting of warrior-rulers, peasants, artisans and merchants). Daughters of samurai and wealthy merchants played the koto, while the shamisen is generally thought to have been the instrument for the people of the artisan and merchant class, or even of lower classes. If warriors appreciated the performing arts, they were expected to prefer yōkyoku [
], the singing of nō, because nō was acted as ceremonial music by the Tokugawa Shogunate.Footnote 37
Although shamisen performance of zokkyoku invited severe criticism and was despised by many members of the upper classes, shamisen remained the most popular instrument during the Edo era and an integral part of the flourishing culture of the townspeople.
Increasing criticism of the shamisen
Research on the changing role of the shamisen and koto from the Edo to Taisho periods has begun to appear only recently, and useful information is emerging. According to Yajima Fumika, despite the great popularity of the shamisen and its music during the Edo period, unfavourable opinions of both were already expressed before the Meiji Restoration in 1868. There was discrimination against not only workers in the red-light districts, but also theatrical and street performers; and the shamisen's association with these areas caused its reputation to suffer. The instrument was even subject to legislation, for example the prohibition of performances of theatre pieces involving the shamisen, and jōruri [
, dramatic recitation accompanied by a shamisen]. Nevertheless, there were those who held the instrument in high regard. Sources of the period present a variety of opinions on the value and merits of the koto and shamisen. Nevertheless, Yajima asserts that there is no evidence suggesting that the shamisen was ever esteemed more highly than gagaku or nō, and she concludes that gagaku and nō were commonly ranked in first place, koto next and finally the shamisen.Footnote 38 Among those who valued the shamisen were the parents of the townsman class who made their daughters learn the instrument. Tanimura Reiko argues that, with the ability to play the shamisen, ‘girls of the townsman class would be able to serve with a samurai family’, and ‘they could then acquire the tastes and culture of the samurai’ through this service. Further, it helped them ‘to make a good marriage in their own class, or to advance in a career as a lady-in-waiting, or to become the concubine of a samurai’.Footnote 39 Tanimura's evidence suggests that the shamisen was actually popular with enough samurai to make it an aspirational instrument for the townsman class. Thus the reception of shamisen varied depending on both social class and region, and generalizations are difficult to make.
A renewed disdain of the shamisen began with the Meiji Restoration, and criticism – appearing in the print media – was especially strong in the late nineteenth century. The cause of this renewed vilification is related to the instruments background and social circumstances. As the shamisen was played by geisha when they entertained guests with singing and dancing, their songs’ texts often had sexual content. This association of the instrument with sexual themes and situations, and the growth of the movement to abolishment prostitution during this period, resulted in a shift in popularity from the shamisen to the koto. Nevertheless, despite this critical view of the shamisen and its relationship to geisha, the instrument was never actually outlawed.
Influence on the violin repertoire of regional differences within koto and shamisen music
Having clarified the connection between musical instruments and social class, we may turn to consideration regional differences. As mentioned above, Osaka was the centre of publication of zokkyoku violin pieces. I have placed the series of Nakao Tozan and Kōga Musen of Osaka and Machida Ōen of Tokyo into categories and concluded that the repertoire was distinct for each region. Before elaborating on that conclusion, I outline below some of the ways of classifying the music for koto and shamisen (see Figure 3).
Classifications of koto and shamisen music (a rough sketch, simplified for the purposes of this article)
One means of classification is by the geographical areas in which the genres developed, in particular the representative regions of Edo [
, modern-day Tokyo] and Kamigata [
, the Osaka–Kyoto region]. Jiuta [
or
] (shamisen songs, later also with koto accompaniment) and gidayū [
] (a type of dramatic recitation associated with the Japanese puppet theatre), for example, developed in Kamigata, while other genres of shamisen-gaku developed in Edo.
The second classification is based on musical style, namely utaimono [
or
] (song-like works; uta: song, mono: thing) and katarimono [
] (narrative works; katari: talking). The examples representative of utaimono are jiuta, nagauta, kouta [
] (short ballad songs with shamisen accompaniment) and hauta [
] (short love songs with shamisen accompaniment). Examples representing katarimono are jōruri (which embraces gidayū, kiyomoto [
], tokiwazu [
] and other sub-types). Kouta, hauta and a special kind of nagauta, which derived from nagauta in kabuki theatre music in the late Edo, were preferred among geisha.
Another distinction in the music for both koto and shamisen can be made between the music of tōdō [
], the association of the blind, jiuta-sōkyoku, and other genres of shamisen-gaku. Jiuta is conventionally categorized as shamisen-gaku, but the koto occasionally is included in the jiuta ensemble, and shamisen is sometimes played in sōkyoku ensembles. As jiuta and sōkyoku continued to evolve, they became nearly inseparable, and they are known collectively as jiuta-sōkyoku. Throughout the Edo era, the government restricted the playing of shamisen for jiuta, as well as koto as a profession, to the members of tōdō, in order to secure a livelihood for the blind.Footnote 40 All blind musicians were expected to be capable of playing three instruments, shamisen (only for jiuta) koto and kokyū [
], the only stringed instrument played with a bow before the Meiji era in Japan, though the kokyū was much less important than the others. They made their livings by performing and teaching those instruments. After the abolition of the tōdō system in 1871, however, both the continuation of the music and the living of tōdō musicians, especially those in Osaka, were endangered, while those of Tokyo and Kyoto suffered less. The koto and jiuta-shamisen player Nakashio Kōsuke (1911–2006), gave two reasons for the difference between Osaka and the other cities. First, the tōdō musicians of the Osaka district had made much of the shamisen during the Edo era, so that many jiuta-sōkyoku masters of tōdō would have been embarrassed to play the koto in public. Second, the cities had different characters. Nakashio describes Tokyo and Kyoto as conservative castle towns and Osaka as more rationalist or existentialist.Footnote 41 Osaka's tōdō musicians felt compelled to fit into the new epoch, and they developed elaborate strategies for doing so.Footnote 42 I will refer to their two successful attempts below.
There were many different schools for each instrument. In the case of sōkyoku, the Yamada school of Tokyo and the Ikuta school of Kyoto were the two biggest. The former includes works that incorporated elements of katarimono, and koto took the central place in the ensemble rather than shamisen. The latter centred on instrumental works, and shamisen took the central place. Koto players of the Ikuta school had opportunities to play with jiuta shamisen players, which acquainted them with the jiuta repertoire; in this way the Ikuta school added many jiuta to its repertoire, and both the genres of sōkyoku and jiuta continued to develop.
I referred above to the Kamigata region; but in fact there is quite a big difference between Osaka and Kyoto. In Kyoto, the koto was heavily favoured, while in Osaka the shamisen prevailed. In his Morisada mankō, Kitagawa Morisada (1810–?) says that parents in Kyoto and Osaka were not as keen to have their daughters take lessons on the shamisen as were those in Edo. Tanimura agrees: Kyoto was the city of court nobles, who had their own culture different from those of the samurai. Parents in Edo, or in the east of Japan, were more enthusiastic than those in Kyoto about buke hōkō [
], the tradition of serving at the residence of a feudal lord or high ranked samurai.Footnote 43 This indicates the peculiarity of Kyoto and also demonstrates that the support of shamisen-gaku in Tokyo was different from that of Osaka.
I believe that this geographical difference in the development of shamisen-gaku and sōkyoku played a role in the characteristics of the violin boom after the Russo–Japanese War in 1905. It is clear that jiuta-sōkyoku was much more popular than nagauta in the Osaka district, while in Tokyo it was the other way around.Footnote 44 Although all violin zokkyoku series include a few pieces of Yamada-school sōkyoku, considering the rate of publication, and comparing to the numbers of jiuta-sōkyoku issued by Machida Ōen in his violin publications to those of Yamada sōkyoku, it is clear that in Tokyo Yamada sōkyoku was preferred to fusions with violin.
The activities of Kōga Musen are without doubt the key to explaining the violin boom. Kōga was a musician in the military band of the fourth army division in Osaka. His major instrument seems to have been saxophone, and he was capable of playing the violin. He established a violin ensemble of his pupils around 1897.Footnote 45 Besides teaching, he played on the stage with Nakao Tozan. In 1906, Nakao issued his first violin piece, in cooperation with Kōga. However, soon Nakao gathered other violinists to work together, and Kōga began his own series of violin piece in 1910.Footnote 46 There are many other pieces of evidence that prove to us how the musicians of this area, whether a Western music specialist or zokkyoku musician, collaborated in musical ventures. Although many older records of zokkyoku performance with violin in other locations exist, we can maintain that Osaka's ethos ignited a boom of violin zokkyoku performances.
The Revival of Zokkyoku and the Rising Popularity of the Violin
Clearly, the violin played a significant role in the music of koto and shamisen. And we have seen that zokkyoku made a great contribution to the dissemination of the violin. But how did this affect the world of koto and shamisen in general? The answer to this question is to be found in an examination of the zokkyoku musicians’ efforts to revive their own music. Facing poverty, these musicians realized that reforms were necessary to attract students. Changes were made in their traditional teaching methods (which had usually been entirely oral instruction); public concerts were introduced, and new compositions, known as Meiji shinkyoku [
, new compositions of Meiji era] were created; all of these developments can be seen as by-products of the reception of Western music.Footnote 47 Playing in a sankyoku [
] ensemble, which had been popular in the Edo period, enjoyed a revival as part of the new interest in home music; the fact that the three instrumental parts could each be shared by any numbers of instrumentalists was an advantage for music-making in the home.
The utility value of the violin
The fact that native Japanese music, transmitted almost exclusively by oral instruction, had no musical score for learning new pieces without a teacher, was probably one of the most serious barriers to the popularity of koto and shamisen music. Not having a musical score was actually the issue that most concerned musicians and instructors of koto and shamisen, because it left them at a disadvantage compared to practitioners of Western music, who had gradually advanced into Japanese society.Footnote 48
Several iemoto [
, school heads] of shamisen, koto and shakuhachi were competent violinists who successfully invented systems of notation. Examples include Suzuki Koson (1875–1931),Footnote 49 Chikushi Katsuko (1904–1985),Footnote 50 Kineie Yashichi IV (1890–1942), founder of the Kineie school of nagauta, and Nakao Tozan.,Footnote 51 Whether they learned the violin and studied Western music in order to use Western musical ideas in the establishment of their own schools, or out of simple curiosity, I argue that prospective iemoto's study of the violin is integrally tied to their development of musical notation suitable to their major instruments.
All kinds of Japanese arts, whether ikebana, tea ceremony or music, adopt the iemoto system: a pyramidal style of organization in which the head of the school (iemoto) is responsible for transmitting the inheritance and developing the style of the school. Though a product of the feudally organized society of the Edo era, the pyramidal iemoto system survived the Meiji Restoration. In this way, the traditional values of Japanese performing arts were transmitted from one generation to the next.
During the Edo era, the shakuhachi was considered a religious instrument, and was to be played only by the komusō [
], monks of the Buddhist Fuke sect [Fukeshū,
].Footnote 52 The abolition of the Fukeshū and the prohibition of komusō became effective in 1871, and this might have resulted in the extinction of the shakuhachi tradition. Thanks to the efforts of Yoshida Itchō (1812–1881) and Araki Kodō (1823–1908) of the Kinko school of shakuhachi, the instrument's use was opened to all, and the dissemination began.Footnote 53 It is not certain when the shakuhachi began to replace the kokyū in the sankyoku ensemble,Footnote 54 but shakuhachi was primarily a solo instrument and was very much associated with religious music. The shakuhachi iemoto Nakao Tozan established his own school, in Osaka in 1896, with few more than ten pupils. Nakao directed his attention to expanding the instrument's ensemble potential, and, after learning of jiuta and the Ikuta school's sōkyoku, he aimed to compose a shakuhachi part to be played in ensemble with koto or shamisen. He first wrote the part for jiuta, but he did not yet have access to most of the repertoire. He visited some of the highest ranked tōdō of the Ikuta school, imploring them to play sōkyoku for him, so that he could take the melodies down in musical notation. Not surprisingly, they refused, since they earned their money by charging not only for each lesson but for each piece taught. Nakao finally discovered a young koto instructor who was willing to help him.Footnote 55 He then devoted himself to his next task, the invention of a musical notation, and the arrangement of the part for various instruments, but first for the violin, not for his major instrument. Two years after the publication of his violin pieces, the publication of the Tozan school scores was completed, and publication of his editions for shakuhachi began in 1908. This story suggests that Nakao's ability on the violin proved very useful in the invention of musical notation for his major instrument, shakuhachi, though the precise process through which he invented the notation cannot be proven. It is emphasized in the Tozan school that the publication of the series of violin pieces was extremely helpful to the expansion of the Tozan school.Footnote 56 Because the Tozan school scores were easy to understand and were the first printed music for shakuhachi, the school gained more pupils and ultimately became one of the two biggest schools of shakuhachi.
The case of Kineie Yashichi IV is unique. Kineie married her violin teacher, Akaboshi Kunikiyo, a violinist who had graduated from the Tokyo Music School, and they worked together for many years to create their own notation system for shamisen. The system was established in 1922, and is known as shamisen-bunkafu.Footnote 57 Today shamisen-bunkafu is one of the most-used notation systems for shamisen (see Figure 4).
Front cover of Shamisen Bunkafu, designed by Kineie Yashichi IV and Akaboshi Kunikiyo. The lines of the books design hold symbolic meaning. Five horizontal lines represent Western staff notation; three horizontal lines are for shamisen notation. Four vertical lines stand for the four strings of the violin, while three vertical lines are for the strings of the shamisen
The details of how the violin influenced the creation of new notation systems have yet to be determined, and the subject deserves further research. In this article I can only speculate about the process. Today's shamisen-bunkafu notation is a kind of tablature. However, the sheet music for ‘Nagauta Gojō-bashi’ [
, ‘Gojō bridge’] for shamisen, issued in 1925 by Kineie Yashichi IV, uses staff notation, with marks identical to the bowing marks used for the violin, but here indicating the direction of movement for the plectrum. Roman numerals indicate the choice of string for a given pitch – again, just as it is marked for violinists (See Figures 5a and 5b). I conjecture that the process was as follows: Kineie played a tune on the shamisen, and Akaboshi imitated it with the violin to see how the tune would sound in the Western manner. From this violin version, they transcribed the tune on Western staff paper, adding the violin-notation-based movement and string indications and the names of various shamisen techniques – koki, kokiagari, ke – and the kakegoe: iya, yoi and so forth. They were then ready to allow somebody to play the tune using this music.Footnote 58
‘Gojōbashi’, issued in April 1925 by Kineie Yashichi IV
‘Gojōbashi’, issued in 1984. This is the shamisen bunkafu version now in use
The iemoto who succeeded in creating their own notation systems that let them establish their own independent schools all had a thorough knowledge of Western musical theory. But simply knowing the theoretical foundations was not enough to reconcile these two very different musical traditions – European and Japanese – in practice. Thus I emphasize that the violin was the medium through which the the iemoto were able to inscribe the music of the Japanese tradition with the help of the notational practices of the European. The importance of printed music for preserving these traditions is confirmed by the fate of the Tsukushi school of sōkyoku, which was determined to stick with oral instruction and is today almost extinct.
Meiji shinkyoku and the sankyoku ensemble as a strategy to popularize the music of koto and shamisen
From my survey, it is clear that both Nakao and Kōga's series include many Meiji shinkyoku. As Nakao and Kōga were both from Osaka, it is unsurprising that most of the composers of these were from that city or the immediate Kansai region. Eight out of Nakao's 34 titles and seven of Kōga's 31 titles are Meiji shinkyoku, but Machida, in Tokyo, issued none.Footnote 59
The first Meiji shinkyoku was ‘Mikuni no homare’ [
, ‘The Glory of My Country’] written in 1884 by Kikutaka Kengyō (?1838–1888). According to Nakashio's oral history from his master, after the abolishment of the tōdō system in 1871, jiuta-sōkyoku players often came together. The primary purpose of this was as a leisure activity; however, they soon started exploring how they could create sōkyoku catering to the interest of contemporary Japanese and how they could attract their students’ attention with something that had a broader appeal than shamisen alone. Nakashio regarded these activities as part of a movement to popularize sōkyoku. Their strategy was successful: approximately 1,000 Meiji shinkyoku or Meiji sōkyoku were composed throughout Japan from the late Meiji era and the Taisho.Footnote 60 The new repertoire proved attractive to violinists as well. Fundamental to the new compositional technique found in these works were a restructuring of the scale and/or the adoption of a sense of Western rhythm, among other changes.Footnote 61
Thanks to the creation of Meiji shinkyoku and the inclusion of the shakuhachi into the sankyoku ensemble, sankyoku ensemble flourished once more in the late Meiji era. The sankyoku ensemble had already been popular in the Edo era, when the shakuhachi was restricted to the komusō, and the orthodox instrumentation of ensemble had been koto, shamisen and kokyū. In the Edo period, in order to play jiuta-sōkyoku as sankyoku ensemble or an ensemble of any instrumentation, the musical parts for the added instruments had first to be composed by a todō musician of higher rank. But times had changed, and Nakao himself – though no todō member – created the new shakuhachi parts that were needed for instrument's participation in the sankyoku ensemble. The changes helped increase the popularity of the shakuhachi. Violin pieces were likewise published for playing in sankyoku or other forms of chamber music. These mixed ensemble of Japanese and Western instruments are what is called wayō gassō.
The instrumentation and the tuning are written at the top of each piece in the published violin parts (Figure 6). Among the 36 pieces of Nakao's series for violin that I examined, 14 are ensemble pieces with koto, and 22 are pieces with koto and shamisen. The latter are thus for sankyoku ensemble. Another feature is that about half of them are tegotomono [
], named for its tegoto section, a cadenza-like long instrumental passage between the sections of the composition. Kōga's series shows same tendency; however Machida's does not. Ishihara Mutsuko, who compiled the statistics of concerts in which the violin was performed in Osaka during the Meiji era, states that often-included tegotomono successfully combined with the violin because it includes significant instrumental elements.Footnote 62
Nakao's violin sheet music, including tuning instructions for koto (top left) and shamisen (top right)
A recording of ‘Yachiyo-jishi’ [
, ‘Lion Dance at Yachiyo’] with shakuhachi, koto, shamisen and violin (played by the shamisen player in alternation with his own instrument) is probably the only extant recording of sankyoku ensemble with violin from the period discussed here.Footnote 63 In this recording, the shamisen player plays the violin so briefly that one could easily miss it.
The most successful publisher of zokkyoku violin pieces, Nakao, stopped publishing new pieces around 1918.Footnote 64 All of this suggests that Meiji shinkyoku and sankyoku ensembles were ways to bring more people to the violin; in addition, zokkyoku was made accessible for violin players. The exchange worked both ways.
The Transition from Yūgei to Socially Accepted Skill
Yūgei [
] is the general collective term embracing the tea ceremony, ikebana [
, flower arrangement], calligraphy, poetry composition, kōdō [
, the incense ceremony], koto, the singing of nō and others. The ambiguous value of yūgei depends on the kind of yūgei, the time, the region or the social class. In fact, not only highly regarded yūgei but some that were held in low esteem by the Meiji government have been accorded the respected status of ‘traditional performing arts’ in Japan today.Footnote 65 Most of the research literature about the transition of yūgei, focuses on the non-musical kinds; only recently have a few studies about music been published.Footnote 66
Wayō gassō as ‘home music’
In 1899, the government decided to establish more public girls’ schools and propagated the ‘good wife and wise mother’ idea in girls’ education.Footnote 67 In order to enrich their cultural education, a major revision of the curriculum was undertaken. Reed organ and piano lesson were first included in 1903.Footnote 68 In 1911, violin lessons were included for the girls in the third and fourth years, but only as one of three choices, the others being reed organ and piano.Footnote 69Koto lessons, on the other hand, had been available since 1895.Footnote 70 Obviously, koto was given priority compared to the Western instruments. Even though koto had been a rather highly evaluated yūgei, its incorporation into public education suggests a fundamental change in the value of yūgei.
In 1910, about ten years after the regulations for higher education for girls were laid down, the discourse of ‘home music’ emerged in print media.Footnote 71 Many magazine articles referred to the middle- and upper-class Western customs of each family owning a piano at home and spending time together enjoying playing music. The aim of introducing this ideal style was to encourage readers to adopt music into their homes. The idea of ‘home music’ was taken from the West, and in Japan it was explained as the proper way for a wife and children to help father recover from the fatigue of his working day. With the introduction of this idealized home life, the magazines tried to persuade readers, stressing how important it was for women to have the necessary skills for the performance of ‘home music’. This raised the question of what kind of music and instruments were proper to Japanese, and there were various suggested answers. Between 1910 and 1919, six writers for the magazine Ongakukai recommended piano, five recommended violin, four shamisen, and three each organ and koto.Footnote 72 In this magazine, many claimed koto or shamisen were ideal for playing Japanese music, and the piano was ideal for Western music. Although the violin was often recommended, these articles are unclear about the precise place of the violin in the changing instrumental hierarchy. This is particularly interesting considering both the difficulty of learning the violin and the continued criticism of the shamisen.
After the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the trend away from girls playing shamisen was marked. On the other hand, the custom of girls learning music remained. The koto had become popular, but the shamisen – so popular in the Edo era – also continued to be played, despite continuing criticism. The many statements in the print media criticizing the shamisen are a kind of negative proof of how deeply this instrument had taken root in Japan. Utagawa Kōichi has considered the changing representation of the shamisen in women's magazines between 1886 and 1918. He proposes three phases of change. During the first phase, from 1886 to 1902, the ‘shamisen represented a relic of the early modern (i.e. the Edo era)’; the second phase, from 1903 to 1911, could be labelled ‘the changes of images of shamisen’, and the third phase, from 1912 to 1920, ‘making the shamisen harmless’. According to Utagawa, the shamisen was declared an inappropriate instrument for the home in the first phase, for two reasons. First, girls learning it merely represented a convention and contributed neither to the ‘happy family circle’ nor to the ‘aspiration of children's education’. Second, the shamisen evoked the world of the geisha. He points to a change that occurred sometime after 1903, when playing the shamisen ceased to be regarded as something which conflicted with the ‘happy family circle’, the ‘aspiration of children's education’ or the ‘division of duties based on gender’. Finally, in the third phase, the instrument had earned societal approval as an instrument for developing the musical tastes of the girls’ of the rapidly expanding middle class. He concludes that yūgei found a social function that contributes to family relations.Footnote 73 This function differed from the main purpose for girls learning shamisen in the early modern era, which Tanimura called ‘cultural investment’.Footnote 74
The period between Utagawa's phases two and three coincides closely with my second phase, described above. Thus wayō gassō of zokkyoku with the violin spread at the same time as the shamisen's image began to improve. Wayō gassō of zokkyoku with the violin became popular when musical and social conditions of zokkyoku were established.
Wayō gassō developed spontaneously between 1905 and 1910. According to Shūtō Yoshiki, the emergence of the ‘home music’ discourse was no earlier than the beginning of the 1910s, reached its peak between 1912 and 1913 and disappeared after 1920.Footnote 75 This discourse promoted an idealistic world in which music was a part of everyday home life, though it seemed that the advocates did not expect that ‘home music’ would immediately take root. Even though wayō gassō is derived from the sankyoku ensemble, which has a history as home music at least since the Edo era, some music specialists viewed wayō gassō with contempt.Footnote 76 On the other hand, many musicians did play zokkyoku on the violin or other Western instruments. Even the Japanese Army band included zokkyoku in the program, when they started giving concerts in 1905 on the stage of Hibiya Park, next to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The advocates of ‘home music’ claimed its effectiveness without expressing their thoughts about wayō gassō. Probably the latter did not quite match their description of ‘home music’, but many kinds of material indicate that in fact wayō gassō as home music functioned as a device for sharing fun with family or friends (Figures 7a–c).
Home music as represented in the media. This illustration shows how new ideas, based on the old sankyoku ensemble customs, were proposed: printed music enabling quick learning, shakuhachi as the choice instrument for men, and the integration of the newcomer instruments, including violin, with daily living. From a Dainippon Katei Ongakukai catalog printed in 1935
Another portrayal of home music, possibly more realistic. This is a satirical picture-postcard (details unknown)
Wayō gassō postcard (details unknown)
Further development of the violin playing as a hobby and the decline of wayō gassō
Although most of the advocates for ‘home music’ had in mind Western music played on the piano, the discourse on ‘home music’ did not really reflect upon the choice of appropriate music or appropriate instrument. Indeed, they seemed to avoid coming to any conclusions about musical styles and instruments. Similarly, violin pieces continued to appear even after the peak of the arguments about ‘home music’ in the media. It was probably between the early 1920s and early 1930s that the publication of most of the major zokkyoku pieces for violin as well as Western music declined.
In the early 1920s the publication of zokkyoku piece for violin decreased. After 1918 a few series of pieces, mostly Western music, for violin(s) and/or mandolin(s) were issued and became popular.Footnote 77 This may well indicate that the function of wayō gassō as ‘home music’ was losing ground.
Conclusion
As the twentieth century progressed, the violin gradually took on the role it currently holds in Japanese Western musical culture, leaving its brief flirtation with zokkyoku behind. In 1920, Miyagi Michio (1894–1956), the most famous koto musician and composer in the twentieth century, gave the first concert of ‘New Japanese Music’ with his colleagues.Footnote 78 New Japanese Music was a style that merged elements of European composition with Japanese instruments.Footnote 79 In 1932 the French violinist Renée Chemet and Miyagi performed Miyagi's ‘Haru no Umi’ [
, Sea in Springtime] together at Chemet's recital, a performance which was well received.Footnote 80 They made a recording that met with a favourable reception in Japan.Footnote 81 Although not necessarily perceived as such by contemporaries, Chemet's and Miyagi's performance might be described as a form of wayō gassō. But the performance does not seem to have inspired further exploration of wayō gassō. I believe that Chemet's performance of ‘Haru no Umi’ made a strong impression on Japanese audiences because her ‘Westernness’ – the way she looked and the way she played – was so different. She performed while avoiding ‘mimicry instead of interpreting or creating’, in reference to the traditional criticism of Japanese adoption of Western elements. Her technique was completely Western – employing vibrato and portamento – as were her sense of intonation rhythm. Were I to ask her, she might disagree with my opinion, but the difference is obvious if one compares it to a recording made in 1930 of ‘Haru no Umi’ played by koto and shakuhachi, the original instrumentation of this piece.Footnote 82 This is the sound Japanese people were accustomed to hearing. Chemet's performance must have seemed very different from the kind of wayō gassō fashionable earlier in the century. Her technique and artistic expression were unattainable for Japanese violinists of that time, because the level of technique of Japanese violinists was still quite low in the 1920s. But technique aside, the difference between the musical background of a Japanese amateur and a French professional would have led the two to feel the music very differently. As an artistic performance presented on the stage by a foreign violinist, it may not have suggested itself to its Japanese audience as a suitable form for adoption as home music.
How did it sound when a koto or shamisen player of that time played Western music on the violin? Chikushi Katsuko, the founder of Chikushi-kai of the Ikuta koto school, left some recordings of her violin performance of Western music under her former name, Sakamoto Katsuko. One that is still available is an unaccompanied recording of Gounod's ‘Serenade’.Footnote 83 This piece is written in
with the tempo moderato. Sakamoto takes a very slow tempo, and the
meter is not recognizable. On my listening, I misunderstood it as an Andante in three.Footnote 84 Compared to recordings of trained Japanese violinists of this time (as opposed to a koto or shamisen player, playing the violin), the difference is obvious. Trained Japanese violinists almost forced themselves to keep tempo when they played the solo repertoire of Western music. They let themselves play glissando or portamento just as frequently as foreign violinists of this time did, but they were very strict with tempo. Andō Kō (1878–1963), who studied with Joseph Joachim in Berlin, and who made significant contributions to the education of Japanese violinists, once pointed out that Japanese students of the violin have a tendency to be lax with tempo and intonation, which is why they forced themselves to keep such a strict tempo. And Andō described their performance as ‘unsettling’ [kimi no warui].Footnote 85 Her reaction shows as well how strongly rooted Chikushi was in the traditions of Japanese music as she had learned them on shamisen and koto.
To conclude, we must ask why wayō gassō with the violin did not continue. Particularly negative characteristics of the violin, expressed in sources from the time it was practiced, will help us to find the answer. First, the violin was simply too loud.Footnote 86 The instrument sounds louder than either the koto or shamisen. This is caused by the different construction of the instruments and different playing technique. The violin's wooden body and soundpost produce a lot more resonance than the cat's skin and empty inner chamber of a shamisen. Playing with a bow results in a continuous tone, always much louder than the sound of a plucked instrument.
Second, the register of the violin did not really fit with other instruments. While professionals, such as there were in Japan at the time, could adjust to a limited extent, there were some common solutions employed by amateurs. One was to make all open strings of the violin higher. In this case, they put a capotasto on the fingerboard or tightened the fingerboard with a thread (see Figures 8a–b). Another way was tuning other stringed instruments much lower than usual. This inconvenience may have been disturbing especially when with singing, since the singer would choose the key. The register of the violin was also a problem for the shakuhachi.Footnote 87
Application for utility model No. 65004. Kijima Kōnosuke, Vaiorin kōchōki [
, violin capotasto], application date 24 November 1921, registration date 1 June 1922
A violin tied with a thread for playing wayō gassō
These are practical reasons; but in my opinion, the biggest reason for the young genre's failure was that violin never had an iemoto to advocate on its behalf. The iemoto system is the key to passing on the legacies of a school and developing its music. Today the iemoto system is also necessary for social recognition as a Japanese traditional performing art. Of course, in time the Japanese became more enthusiastic about Western music. However, even small schools of traditional instruments that are only regionally active often exist, so there is no reason that a violin iemoto could not have existed even with a few students. If there had been a zokkyoku violinist with charisma, it might have been possible for him to establish a zokkyoku violin school. Turning our eyes to the past, we see that an individual sometimes achieved great things, even if at the time those things seemed not to be essential or did not fit with current trends. The violin had no equal to Nakao Tozan, Suzuki Koson or Kineie Yashichi IV on their instruments.Footnote 88 Or, equally probable, no one was ambitious enough to dream of establishing his or her own violin school. As a result, wayō gassō with violin did not develop into as high an art as it could have as one of the traditional performing arts of Japan.
, reception period of Western music] or Yōgaku juyō [
, reception of Western music] are very common expressions among musicologists in Japan. See
] is wayō-chōwagaku [
]. This term usually seems to indicate a certain type of music. However, my survey shows no apparent rigid definition of those terms, which causes confusion about their application.
, Report on the survey of music] (Tokyo: Ongaku-Torishirabe-gakari, 1884): 317–30. The document also recommended the improvement of Japanese compositions.
, Violin instruction] (Osaka: Miki Sasuke, 1892)
as ‘vwaiorin’ to distinguish it from 
, transcribed as ‘vaiorin’. The distinction is significant when searching databases.
, Music for violin No.1, ‘Plover's melody’] (Osaka: Chikurinken, second edition 1906)
] were also restricted to tōdō's musicians, but they are not of direct relevance to the present discussion. See
] is a very common surname among nagauta players, and it is usually pronounced Kineya, but in the case of Kineie Yashichi IV [
], it is definitely Kineie (the character
may be pronounced ya, ie, or uchi in personal names). She first belonged in the Kineya [
] school, but she formally changed her name from Kineya [
] to Kineya [
] in 1927 and from Kineya [
] to Kineie [
] in 1930. Her explanation for this change was that she wanted to expand her teaching activity using shamisen-bunkafu notation, and that remaining a member of the Kineya school would limit her freedom to innovate, since Kineya-school nagauta players insisted on continuing with their classical teaching method and did not approve her use of notation. (Kineie kai Kineie shi Hensan Iinkai, ed., Kineie-shi, Bunkafu Sōshi Hachijusshūnen Kinen Hakkō [The History of Kineie, the 80th anniversary of the establishment of bunkafu]) (Tokyo: Kineiekai, 2003): 12–13).
, ‘Picking Young Grass’] by K
, ‘Diamond’] by T
, ‘Mountain Cherry’] by K
(Melody of Triumphant Trumpet)’. According to Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai no minkan ongakutai’, neighbourhood music bands started to increase in 1892 in the Kansai area and the peak was between 1894 and 1907. Neighbourhood bands pleased people so much that they were asked to perform at various kinds of celebrations and military events. Considering that ‘Gaisen rappa no shirabe’ was composed in 1896, Tateyama's intention to popularize sōkyoku is obvious, as Flavin points out.
, Syllabus for girls’ schools] of 1903.
, Syllabus for girls’ schools] of 1911.
, Regulations for girls’ schools], Monbushō –rei [
, Ordinance of the Ministry of Education] in 1895. However, the Regulations for girls’ schools allowed schools to avoid music lessons with permission from the appropriate authorities (see Kōtōjogakkō kyōju-yōmoku, 1903 and 1911). Many missionary girls’ schools offered extracurricular music lesson with the choices of instruments, but there were also schools that excluded violin from the available choices.
(A
, because the notation was printed. She was a family member of the publisher, and was very involved in the business. Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, Tsūshin kyōju vaiorin kōgiroku daijūippen, Taisei Meikyokushū [Correspondence course violin lecture notes, vol. 11, Collection of Western masterpieces] (Fukuoka: Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, 1919): 54.
]; Reirō was his professional name as shakuhachi player) explained ‘the intonation of the violin was not as fine as that of shamisen’, and criticized it with the word ‘unsatisfactory’. He was a shakuhachi instructor before he started publishing Sankyoku. This magazine specialized in sankyoku.
