Culture, Tradition and Challenges in Japanese Music Education
Organizer/Chair: Mari Shiobara, Tokyo Gakugei University
1) Yuri Ishii, Yamaguchi University
Musical Tradition and Culture in Policy and Reality: A case study in Yamaguchi Prefecture
2) Chieko Mibu, Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Art and Music
The Structural Defect of Music Education in Japan from the Perspective of Community Musicians
3) Mari Shiobara, Tokyo Gakugei University
Teaching ‘Music Culture’ in the Japanese Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives
4) Christian Mau, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Reaching-in: Supplementing Traditional Music Teaching in the Japanese Classroom
Discussant: Hiroki Ichinose, Tokyo Gakugei University
Culture, Tradition and Challenges in Japanese Music Education
Organizer/Chair: Mari Shiobara, Tokyo Gakugei University
Japan is often referred to as a model
society of cultural hybridization and its educational system has been
highly regarded by outside world. However, in the case of music
education, what actually happened was not hybridization but a
replacement of traditional music with western music by the government
in the process of modernization. Western music, especially that of the
classical tradition, has functioned as a barometer for the
enculturation of Japan along with its economic growth and the schools
played vital roles in the process. However, the recent globalization
drive in the world has affected Japanese music education and pushed
towards more national and traditional cultural aspects by the policy
makers. It has produced a dynamic dialectic as well as conflicting
values and practices within the music classrooms and their surrounding
musical communities. The first paper investigates how the types of
songs specified by the course of studies for cultivating Japanese
identity are viewed by university students and people over 60, and
discusses the policy’s limitation in educating children for that
purpose. The next paper, interrelated functions among higher music
education, school music education, and states of community musicians
are examined. The third paper discusses secondary school music
teachers’ views about teaching traditional music and how they intend to
teach music culture as required in the recent courses of study.
Finally, the fourth paper investigates the role that traditional
musicians in community at large can play in bringing Japanese
traditional music into the classrooms.
1) Yuri Ishii, Yamaguchi University
Musical Tradition and Culture in Policy and Reality: A case study in Yamaguchi Prefecture
In Japan, the revised Courses of Study for primary and lower secondary school education were announced by the Ministry of Education and Science in March 2008. The revision was made based on the report of the Central Council for Education that was submitted in January 2008, indicating the principles of the revision. Among the seven main points for the improvement of educational contents that are listed in the report, the third calls for “the improvement of education concerning tradition and culture.” It is intended to foster children’s respect for national and local tradition and culture so that they will also become able to appreciate those of other peoples. In order to respond to this principle, the subject of music is supposed to include the teaching of songs created by the Ministry of Education during the pre-World War II modernization drive, Japanese folk songs, songs that have been sung for generations in local communities as well as teaching about Japanese musical instruments.
The purpose of this paper is to
investigate how these types of music are actually perceived by Japanese
people and whether there are differences in perception between
different generations. For this purpose, the paper compares the results
of questionnaire research conducted in Yamaguchi prefecture, targeted
at university students and people over sixty. The paper argues that the
Ministry’s effort to maintain the above mentioned types of music as
Japanese identity is likely to have a limited effect.
2) Chieko Mibu, Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Art and Music
The Structural Defect of Music Education in Japan from the Perspective of Community Musicians
This paper focuses on higher music education and musicians’ activities in the community. In Japanese modern society, Western music has functioned as a cultural-class transferring device since it was introduced. This social status of the music, which was separate from the folks and their communities, but succeeded in showing its overwhelming value in compulsory education, has brought significant repercussions. With a view of the relationship of the schools, musicians and the communities, complicatedly woven problems have been coming to the fore.
In the study of outreach activities to school music, for example, the inefficiency in matching musicians with schools is one of the urgent matters to be settled. One of the reasons for this inefficiency was clearly caused from the education system itself, especially from the higher education system with the orientation that favors Western music. Both school music teachers and musicians are often trained at the same universities, but it cannot be said that even they have enough cooperation for outreach activities. Needless to say, the musicians of other fields, who trained outside universities, have much less access to school music.
Bringing outside resources into the
schools has always been a contentious issue, but the new national
guideline implies more promise for musicians in the communities.
Despite this, the surplus of formally educated musicians remains a
serious problem. The fact that art-related NPO’s are increasing also
bears witness to this problem. This paper elaborates this issue and
explores possible solutions for restructuring Japanese music education.
3) Mari Shiobara, Tokyo Gakugei University
Teaching ‘Music Culture’ in the Japanese Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives
The revised courses of study for
secondary schools were announced by the Mombusho in March, 2008 and
will be effective from April 2009. In describing the aims of the new
music curriculum, little has changed, except that one new item is
inserted: through music education the students should deepen their
understanding of ‘music culture’. Because the previous 1998 version of
the course of study introduced practical experience of playing at least
one Japanese traditional musical instrument as a compulsory activity as
well as listening to music of various ethnicities, music teachers have
been making efforts to accommodate those statutory requirements. This
has been met with varying degrees of success so far. However, it has
contributed to raising awareness among them that Western music –
especially that of classical tradition in which most of them had their
training – is not the only musical culture they deal with in the
classroom. Under the new course of study the teachers themselves are
required to be aware of what is meant by ‘music culture’ and deepen
their understanding of it in order to make their teaching functional.
This study first examines secondary school music teachers’ views about
how they have managed to teach Japanese traditional music as well as
music of different ethnicities put forward in the 1998 course of study.
Then it goes on to discuss how those teachers anticipate dealing with
teaching music culture described in the 2008 course of study and its
implications in their music classrooms.
4) Christian Mau, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Reaching-in: Supplementing Traditional Music Teaching in the Japanese Classroom
This paper investigates the role that musicians in the community can play in introducing Japanese traditional music into the classrooms of Japanese schools. It has often been pointed out that Japanese school music teachers are ill-equipped to teach Japanese traditional musics. The main reasons given for this deficiency is the emphasis given to Western music at the institutions of higher learning, where the teachers are trained. This research looks at what is being done to fill this gap, in view of the mombushō’s (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) directive in the 1998 course of study that students “experience traditional musics, including a Japanese traditional instrument.” Added to this, in March 2008, is a suggestion that students should “experience min'yō or nagauta, etc.”
This paper argues that it would be
virtually impossible to train teachers adequately to take up this task
and examines how the schools can fulfill the recommendation by drawing
on resources in the community in order to bring traditional music into
the schools’ classrooms. It also looks at how some traditional
musicians are already making themselves available by volunteering to
bring their skills and experience into the classroom. Several case
studies will be presented, to see how initiatives are being taken by
some traditional musicians at large to penetrate the educational system
in order to make their craft known. Their motives for entering the
schools and thereby delivering their music to a young audience of
students will also be explored.
Discussant: Hiroki Ichinose, Tokyo Gakugei University