Japanese American

Music and CultureBy: Casey Jones

Japanese History

The precise origins of the Japanese people are not known. Although, since ancient times, waves of migrating cultures have added their influence to what was already there. Even today, the Japanese absorb foreign culture in a unique way, but maintain a strong independence. As well as Chinese, Mongolian, Korean and Southeast Asian influences.

In traditional Japanese music, there are three general types of instruments - percussion

instruments, stringed instruments and wind instruments.

There are many different variations of Japanese drums. Most have two membranes which are nailed or laced and are struck with sticks. The most dramatic is the Odaiko (big drum). The physical energy and sheer excitement of an Odaiko performance is an integral part of many Japanese festivals.

The koto is plucked using picks on the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand, while the left hand can be used to modify pitch and tone. Koto are used in an ensemble as a solo instrument. One of the most famous koto players and composers was the blind musician Miyagi Michio who was heavily influenced by western music.

Miyagi Michio(1894~1956)

The shamisen is a 3-string lute. It first became popular in the pleasure districts during the Edo Period (1600~1868) and also began to be used for the musical accompaniment in kabuki and bunraku performances. Traditional shamisen playing requires the player to be quite stiff and expressionless. But young players like the Yoshida Brothers or Agatsuma Hiromitsu bring a whole new, some would say rock and roll approach .

The most famous flute is the shakuhachi bamboo flute. It has 4 or 5 finger holes on the front face and a thumb hole on the rear face. In medieval times, the shakuhachi became associated with wandering Buddhist priests known as komuso or 'priests of nothingness'. They played the shakuhachi as a spritual discipline. Other flutes include the nokan used in noh performances and the side-blown takebue and shinobue which were often heard during festivals.

DanceSword dances are recorded from throughout Japanese history. There are various traditions of solo and mock battle sword dances still performed today.

The Japanese Parasol Dance is an example of a simple Japanese dance that uses an umbrella or fan. The Parasol Dance is from Kabuki.

There is a tremendous diversity in traditional Japanese dance, from court and religious dance to the ritualistic noh dance-drama and theatrical kabuki dance.

Kagura Dance

Noh Dance

Kabuki Dance

Dance

Folk MusicThere are four main kinds of Japanese folk songs (min'yō): work songs, religious songs (such as sato kagura, a form of Shintoist music), songs used for gatherings such as weddings, funerals, and festivals (matsuri, especially Obon), and children's songs (warabe uta).

Japanese music is extremely diverse: solo music, chamber music, court music, festival and folk music, different types of theatre music, percussion music, epic singing, and many more. The situation of traditional music has greatly changed in Japan, due obviously to Western influences. Although traditional arts remain alive, there has been a decline of interest by young Japanese people, and this, mainly following World War II.

The boom of the Hawaiian sugar industry in the 1870s and 1880s, in contrast to Japan's painful transition to a modern economy that produced large-scale unemployment, bankruptcies, and civil disorders, contributed to a much larger portion of Japanese emigrants moving to America.

Migrating to America

Migrating to America

In 1835, American settlers established the sugar plantation system in Hawaii, which was then an independent monarchy. The sugar plantations required large numbers of workers to cultivate and harvest the cane fields and to operate the sugar refineries. Beginning in 1852, the plantation owners imported Chinese laborers. In many ways, this resembled the African slave trade.

World War IIAfter Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the public began to fear the idea of Japanese Americans possibly aiding a Japanese invasion. This made life very difficult for Japanese Americans in the United States. However, the government concluded that there was no evidence supporting a reason to fear sabotage from the Japanese Americans and they were released from the internment camps. One of the many mistakes we deeply regret.

Taiko DrummingTaiko is a drumming style of Japanese origin. While various taiko drums have been used in Japan for over 1400 years, and possibly much longer, the style of taiko best known today has a relatively short history, beginning in the 1950's

As Japanese immigrated to North America in the early part of the 1900's, they brought taiko over with them as well. In 1968, Seiichi Tanaka formed the first North American taiko group, the San Francisco Taiko Dojo. Taiko, although utilizing ancient instruments, has been infused with a thoroughly modern spirit, and has continued to grow in popularity in both Japan and throughout the world.

Seiichi Tanaka

Although Asian Americans had been performing jazz music almost since the music's inception, it was not until the late 20th century when a distinctly Asian American brand of jazz began to develop. In the 1970s , West Coast musicians began to create a hybrid music that was reflective of their ancestral heritages and experiences as Japanese Americans, but which was at the same time also rooted in jazz.

Jazz

Glenn Horiuchi

Fred Ho

Japanese American culture is strong today in the United States and continues to grow more and more all the time. Taiko and Jazz are always on the rise and traditional Japanese music will continue to be appreciated for ages to come.

VideosThe Moon over the Ruined Castle - Japanese Folk music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IqryOGvLAE

Walk in the Night – Japanese American Jazz:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1AK0jwHApQ

Umekichi – Traditional music:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVBGzaB7nSs

Taiko - Drum Performance Festival 2011:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuYsJpos1U4

Works Cited

http://www.japan-zone.com/culture/instrument.shtml

http://www.taiko.com/taiko_resource/history.html

http://www.gojapango.com/culture/japanese_music_folk.html

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/japan.htm

http://web-japan.org/museum/dance/about_da.html

http://www.farsidemusic.com/historyJa.html