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In 1888, Konakamura Kiyonori published the first book-length history of music in Japan. Written in Japanese, Kabu ongaku ryakushi (A brief history of music and dance) includes two prefaces: one written in kanbun (Sinitic) by Shigeno Yasutsugu and another in English by Basil Hall Chamberlain. Konakamura and Shigeno, both leading scholars in their time, have generally been considered rivals, representing two opposing intellectual schools, kokugaku (national learning) and kangaku (Chinese learning). This article examines Konakamura’s work and particularly Shigeno’s preface in the context of the momentous epistemic transformation that occurred in Japan in the late nineteenth century, when the Sinocentric world order crumbled as a result of Western encroachment and Japan reinvented itself as a modern nation-state, and argues that Konakamura’s work represents a significant moment in the transition from classical to national scholarship discussed (mainly with reference to Europe) by Rens Bod in his New History of the Humanities.

紀要論文, 《第20回国際日本学シンポジウム》〈セッションⅠ〉地域からみた文化形成【講演】 / The 20th Symposium on Global Perspectives in Japanese Studies, Session I “Formation of the Culture in Regions”

The fact that much of what the Japanese regard as part of their culture originally came to Japan from the Asian continent in ancient and medieval times is well known and has been extensively researched. For the period after 1868, however, the attention of scholars has tended to concentrate on Japan's comprehensive importation of Western civilization. This exploratory article suggests a different perspective. Taking music in modern Japan as an example and based in part on the author's research for her recent book Not by Love Alone: The Violin in Japan, 1850-2010, the author will argue that music is a particularly rewarding field for examining transnational flows. Research on music in modern Japan has tended to privilege the introduction of European art music from the West and this was undoubtedly one of the most important developments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are, however, aspects to this development that merit more attention than they have received so far, including the relationship between Western music and other musics practised in Japan in the nineteenth century and the interactions between Japan and non-Western countries and in particular its East Asian neighbours. In this article, four general themes for further enquiry are introduced: 1. The possible relation between Meiji states-men's and intellectuals' kangaku education and their views on the role of music in the modern state. 2. The Chinese origins and the place of minshingaku (Ming and Qing music) in the musical culture of nineteenth-century Japan. 3. Japan's role in the dissemination of Western Music in East Asia. 4. The role of the East Asian continent (particularly the cities of Shanghai and Harbin) as a place of encounter between Asia and Europe.

The establishment of a national education system soon after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 is recognized as a significant factor in Japan's modernization, hence research on education is concentrated on the state system. However, this development did not mean the disappearance of the juku, the private academies which were so much a feature of the Tokugawa period. Indeed, these played a far greater role than has been appreciated so far and this book aims to rectify the omission. This comprehensive study of a little-known but significant area not only contributes to a better understanding of education in the Meiji period but is also relevant to the reform of Japan’s public education system today. Education was once viewed and organized very differently from today and the modern state-controlled system we take for granted is just as much a product of historical circumstances as the juku was; it, too, must therefore be open to challenge.