Music in the Making of Modern Japan: Essays on Reception, Transformation and Cultural Flows

This volume explores the notion of “affective media” within and across different arts in Japan, with a primary focus on music, whether as standalone product or connected to other genres such as theatre and photography. The volume explores the Japanese reception of this “affective media”, its transformation and subsequent cultural flow. Moving from a discussion of early encounters with the West through Jesuits and others, the contributors primarily consider the role of music in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. With ten original chapters, the volume covers a wealth of themes, from education, koto music, guitar making, avant-garde recorder works, musicals and rock photography, to interviews with contemporary performers in jazz, modern rock and J-pop. Innovative and fascinating, the book provides rich new insights and material to all those interested in Japanese musical culture.

Kei Hibino is Professor of English in the Faculty of Humanities, Seikei University, Japan. His published works include: The Postwar Development of Japanese Musicals (2017), American Labor: The Cultural Representations of Labor in the United States (2017), and Japonisme in Theatre (2016).

Barnaby Ralph is a Professor in the Department of British and American Literature, Seikei University, Japan.  Recent publications include the book London And Literature, 1603-1901, for which he was principal editor, “Four Men in a Boat: Dryden, D'Avenant, Shadwell, Locke and The Tempest”.

Henry Johnson is Professor of Music at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His books include The Koto (Hotei, 2004), The Shamisen (2010) and The Shakuhachi (2014). He is Associate Director of the Centre for Global Migrations at the University of Otago.