The cover of Margaret Mehl’s Music and the Making of Modern Japan: Joining the Global Concert, taken from the 8 October 1895 issue of the Japanese magazine Fūzoku Gahō, features a fascinating image: a group of twelve children in kimono playing a variety of instruments including flutes (vertical and transverse), accordions, drums of different sizes, a triangle, and vertically stacked bells, identified by the author as ‘pagoda bells’ (p. 199). Behind this group stands a man dressed in a Western costume consisting of a dark suit, a high collar shirt, and a tie, who looks intently at the musicians. To his right is a large reproduction of a print of Mount Fuji and breaking waves. To his left is a banner unfurled to display the name of the ensemble, Tokyo Shōnen Ongakutai (Tokyo Youth Band). In front of the banner are three flagpoles. The flags are partially obscured, but one of them is the Kyokujitsu-ki or the Rising Sun Flag. This striking blend of Japanese and Western musical instruments and costumes, symbols of Japanese traditional culture and modern nationhood, captures what Mehl masterfully argues in her monograph about the crucial role that music played in Japan’s quest to transform itself into a modern nation during the Meiji and Taishō periods (1968–1912 and 1912–1926, respectively).

Early in the book, Mehl presents an intriguing argument that ‘musical modernization, including the importation and adoption of European music, played an essential role in Japan’s modernization following Western models’ (p. 4). The novelty of her position is that instead of explaining Japanese people’s embrace of Western music, both what we commonly call Western art music (classical music) and popular music, as a byproduct of Japan’s process of modernization and Westernization, Mehl focuses on the essential role that musical activities played in the daily lives of Japanese people in developing a collective sense of modern national identity. Mehl breaks down her insight into five components which she follows through in the remainder of the book: (1) Western music was prized for its functionality in forging this sense of modern national identity, rather than its aesthetic worth; (2) individuals were aware of, and desired to be connected to, the global community of modern nations through musical activities; (3) traditional genres of Japanese music were impacted by this transformation but were not necessarily relegated to a secondary position; (4) the definition of ‘Western music’ during this period was more flexible and included newly created music in Japan in the Western style; and (5) the impact of these musical reforms were keenly felt by ordinary Japanese people (p. 4). Through this book, Mehl successfully presents a historically oriented argument about music that sheds a new light on the way we can think about Japan’s process of modernization.

The book is organized into three sections, each with multiple chapters, whose scopes become successively narrower from the global, to the national, and finally to the local (Sendai and its environs in northeast Japan). As its title proclaims, ‘Part One: Global History, Modernity, and Western Music’ contextualizes the introduction and dissemination of Western music in Japan within the global process of modernization. What is remarkable here is the comparison of the emergence of a modern national sensibility through music education and promotion of European classical music that took place in the USA and Japan in the final decades of the nineteenth century (Chapters 2 and 3). The comparison points out the contested nature of ‘classical music’ that was being debated and developed during the nineteenth century in Europe and the USA, at the same time as the Japanese political and cultural leaders were carefully studying and adopting it for their own use. The following sections, ‘Part Two: Music for the Nation’ and ‘Part Three: The World, Japan, and Sendai’ home in on the philosophical debates, various government policies and educational programs, and the musical activities of private citizens that shaped the course of Western music in Japan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The choice of Sendai in the third section provides contrasts with existing studies on modern Japanese music history, typically concerned with activities in the metropolis, especially Tokyo and Osaka. The section also puts into relief the challenges and successes of implementing the initiatives developed from the centre in remote regions of the nation. Within these two sections, Mehl moves back and forth between chapters dedicated to individuals, such as Isawa Shūji (government official), Shikama Totsuji (publisher), and Kate I. Hansen (educator), who spearheaded the promotion of Western music in different ways. The biographical chapters provide a more personal and granular view of the process of modernization through music. However, one may regret in this context the absence of first-hand accounts by students, audience members, or consumers, which could have provided additional information and balance about their experiences of this process.

In writing this book, Mehl has consulted an impressive number of primary sources, including official documents, contemporary magazine articles, and personal letters, as well as secondary sources in Japanese that are not readily accessible to Anglophone readers. At the same time, she synthesizes insights drawn from these sources with those from recent discussions in European and North American history and musicology that seek to address music’s global movements. Thanks to her expertise as a historian of Japanese modernity, Mehl focuses on musical activities and their political, social, and cultural implications, largely eschewing in-depth discussions about the aesthetic qualities of the musical works themselves. This aspect of the book does not weaken the argument that the author puts forth, but rather it opens opportunities for additional elaboration in assessing the formation, development, and shifts in the musical tastes of modern Japanese people. Although Chapter 3 ‘The Case of Japan’ outlines the development of Western music in Japan through the postwar period, the bulk of Mehl’s research is contained in the period prior to the advent of the radio in the late 1920s. While this limits the scope of this study, it also provides a starting point for future research in the ways in which music shaped the experience of Japanese people.