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The Suzuki Method represents a significant contribution by a Japanese, Suzuki Shin'ichi (1898-1998), to the teaching of musical instruments worldwide. Western observers often represent the method as "Japanese," although it could be called "Western" with equal justification. Suzuki left no detailed description of his method. Consequently, it is open to multiple interpretations. Its application, whether in Japan or elsewhere, represents an act of translation with its adaptation to local conditions involving creative processes rather than mere deviations from a supposedly fixed original. To illustrate the importance of historical context, the author discusses Suzuki's life and work, sheds new light on the significance of his studies in Germany in the 1920s, and explains the method's success in Japan and abroad by examining local and historical circumstances. Besides Japan, the author focuses on Germany, where Suzuki received most of his formal musical education. In contrast to other Western countries, particularly North America, the method has been slow to spread in Germany, although Japanese and Germans sometimes like to point out cultural affinities between the two countries. While this is an historical study, the suggested conclusion for music educators is that they judge the Suzuki Method on its pedagogical merits rather than on its Japanese provenance and that they continue the process of creative adaptation. (Contains 44 notes.)

Obara Kuniyoshi, a leading representative in Japan's New Education movement in the early twentieth century, founded his own private school, Tamagawa Gakuen, in 1929. Although his educational philosophy owes more to contemporary Western ideas about educational reform than to Japan's educational heritage, Obara throughout his life invoked the "juku", a type of private academy prevalent in Japan until the late nineteenth century, and made ""juku" education" one of his principles. This case study examines Obara's ""juku"-myth" both in the context of Obara's educational thought and achievements and in the context of recent discussions about collective memory as a historical reality in its own right. (Contains 73 footnotes.)

Susan Westhafer Furukawa's The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan (Harvard University Press, 2022) is an engagingly written study of twentieth- and twenty-first-century representations of a crucial figure in Japanese history. The research is thorough; the critical underpinnings of the study are accessibly presented; the illustrations, which grace nearly every chapter, serve to enhance what is already a valuable addition to any library that is staying abreast of significant developments in Japanese literary and historical scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the innovative use of AI computer algorithms in the creation of tanka, a form of Japanese poetry. From the recent forays into computer-generated poetry in Japan, I look at two computer programs in particular: the instant tanka generator "Inu-zaru," created by Sasaki Arara, and the "gūzen tanka" Twitter bot by programmer Inaniwa. These programs engender new paradoxical models of technology-mediated authorship and reading, whereby human agency is at once subtracted from the composition process while also being presupposed as a necessary component in the participant reader. Such forms of reading and writing shed new light on theoretical matters such as the death of the author even as they pose intractable questions concerning international copyright conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article juxtaposes a long Japanese poem (Maruoka Kyūka's 1886 'Rippu ban unkuru') and an Egyptian play (Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm's 1933 Ahl al-kahf) to examine representations of cultural belatedness and departures from normative temporalities. In these texts, the protagonists have a supernaturally long night of sleep and come to consciousness in what seems to them, on waking, a different world. The protagonists eventually discover that they are out of sync with the recognized, official timeline; dismayed and alienated, their reactions indicate how drastically the world changed while they slept. Both texts allude to contemporary conditions in modernizing Japan and Egypt – representing the distresses of those who were perhaps unwilling to embrace rapid, irreversible Westernization – and are self-conscious of their formal novelty. Kyūka's text is a 'new-style poem', retelling a story by an American author who was then unknown in Japan; al-Ḥakīm's play is a philosophical drama of a sort that was unprecedented in Arabic literature. Belatedness is thus represented, in each of these texts, from a vehemently neophilic (and pro-modern) perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of European and especially German historiography on the formation of the modern academic discipline in Japan is undisputed, as is the importance of the German historian Ludwig Rieß. Undeniably, Rieß contributed to the organization of the academic discipline by teaching future historians and taking an active part in the establishment of the Historical Society, as well as by the example of his own research in the history of Japan. But how significant was his influence on the establishment and maintenance of archives in Japan? Japanese scholars had been collecting and working with primary documents long before Rieß arrived; indeed, the earliest efforts predate even the measures introduced under the Meiji government in the 1870s. This article outlines the beginnings of komonjogaku (the study of primary documents), giving particular attention to the work of its pioneer, Kume Kunitake. The author argues that while European methods based on archival research inspired and served to justify Japanese activities, indigenous traditions were at least equally important. Moreover, parallels with western countries are not merely a result of western imports but reflect the common responses to global processes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Playing the violin in Japan was pioneered by women. The first Japanese to study the violin abroad were Kôda Nobu (1870–1946) and Andô Kô (née Kôda, 1878–1963). Both taught at the Tokyo Academy of Music (now Tokyo University of the Arts) after their return. Kôda later opened a piano studio. The article describes their lives and careers and shows how their Western expertise gave them unprecedented opportunities while their gender imposed limitations. It discusses the sisters' role in the transmission of Western music to Japan in the context of Western as well as Japanese preconceptions about appropriate musical roles for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Japanese violinists, who have made headlines in the 1960s after successfully making the Western art music as their own. It says that the reasons for the said phenomenon were speculated by observers, but there were few who knew that it originated during the Meiji period from 1868-1912. It states that the Western music was systematically introduced by the government as part of its general modernization and Westernization policies following the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

Obara Kuniyoshi (1887–1977), the founder of Tamagawa Gakuen, and Matsumae Shigeyoshi (1901–1991), the founder of Tôkai Educational System (TES), were both inspired by Denmark and Danish education, although in different ways. Obara, a representative of the New Education Movement in Japan, became interested in Denmark when he heard about Danish gymnastics, which seemed to be ideally suited to his vision of rigorous but non-competitive physical education. In 1931, two years after founding his own school, he succeeded in inviting the Danish gymnast Niels Bukh and a group of his students to Japan. The interest in gymnastics sparked off a wider interest in Denmark. Matsumae Shigeyoshi's attention was drawn to Denmark and to the Danish folk high schools as a result of his encounter with Uchimura Kanzô. Although not an educator by training, he decided to devote his life to education. This article explores the role of cultural borrowing in the thought and educational praxis of Obara and Matsumae. Although they uncritically accepted a Danish cultural memory (Denmark's recovery from military defeat in the nineteenth century through spiritual strength and education) and cultivated a stereotypical image, the adaptation of this image to suit their own needs represents a highly creative process which resulted in two successful private schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the study of China, `kangaku,' during Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912). Reason for `kangaku's decline; Stress of Western knowledge of Japan's educational system; Application of Western methods in the study and interpretation of China.