The Possible Context of “Sound Art” in Japan in the late 1980s: Ethnomusicology by KOIZUMI Fumio
NAKAGAWA Katsushi
Yokohama National University
ABSTRACT
This paper outlines the situation surrounding sound art in Japan in the late 1980s by investigating three exhibitions that occurred at that time, which put emphasis on sound and music, by discussing the backgrounds of the exhibitions, and by forming theories about one of the geneses of the genre called sound art in Japan. A close examination of these exhibitions will clarify how works leading up to sound art operated before the term “Sound Art” became common in Japan. This presentation then aims to indicate the context relevant to these exhibitions. I consider the ethnomusicological thinking after Fumio Koizumi. Finally, this presentation introduces one of the possible histories of sound art in Japan.
Although the reasoning behind this paper is necessarily simple and blunt, I hope that the hypothesis will help to continue the comparative research on Sound Art in various Asian Countries (NAKAGAWA & KANEKO 2016).
(The articles provided on this website has some parts which does not reflect the revisions. Please refer to the published version in the journal when you need to quote in your article.)
1. INTRODUCTION
In this paper, I will be talking about “Sound Art” in 1980s Japan. I use the term “Sound Art” to mean, “art that uses sound but is not music.” Precisely speaking, the term came into general use in the West in the late 1980s and in Japan in the 1990s. In 1980s Japan, similar terms such as “sound sculpture,” “experimental musical instrument,” “on-gu (which means the instruments for sound)” were in circulation. For the purposes of this presentation, I will not apply a strictly historical or aesthetic focus and will not draw a clear distinction between these terms.
My paper will examine “Sound Art in Japan in the late 1980s” and its context, offering my own hypothesis about the process and mechanism through which sound art appeared in Japan. First, I will explore three exhibitions which shared the following aims:
To relativize Eurocentrism in music;
To incorporate an educational purpose;
To make sound sculptures that could be manipulated through play;
To enable musical non-specialists to perform music.
Next, I will refer to one of the possible contexts for these exhibitions, that is, the prevalence of ethnomusicological thinking introduced into Japanese musical culture by KOIZUMI Fumio. Finally, I will develop a theory about the origins of the sound art genre in Japan.
No one has yet undertaken comprehensive research on Japanese sound art. Although these exhibitions in the late 1980s may not have been the first sound art exhibitions in Japan, they were documented using well-organized research materials and are therefore good examples to discuss. I have used them as a starting point for this research on sound art in Japan.
Finally, it is important to say that, in presenting information about these exhibitions, I have drawn on research conducted with my research collaborator Mr. KANEKO Tomotaro (KANEKO & NAKAGAWA, 2013, 2015; NAKAGAWA & KANEKO, 2012, 2014), including one unpublished material (NAKAGAWA & KANEKO, forthcoming). I am very grateful that he has given his permission for me to use this material. All other aspects of this presentation are my own.
2. THREE EXHIBITIONS
2.1. The Discovery of Modeling: The Case of Sound (Zoukei-Hakken-Ten: Oto to Zoukei) (1986, 1987)
This exhibition was held at the National Children’s Castle (Kodomo-no-Shiro) in 1986 and 1987. This institution is not a national art museum but “Public Interest Incorporated Foundation.” It was founded in 1985 to provide “a place where children can develop healthy, happy, energetic, sound minds and bodies” (Kodomo wesite). it also developed educational programs for public facilities such as children’s houses and elementary schools. This exhibition, which was organized by the Division of Fine Arts, included an exhibition in which children could touch the works on display and attend workshops led by artists.
I believe that this exhibition also aimed partly to relativize Eurocentrism in music, criticizing the view that Western Art Music must always be the standard model. Consider the essay, “how to make sound (Oto-no-Shikumi),” which is included in the official book of this exhibition that was published in 1996 (Kodomo, 1996, 5-6). This essay begins with the observation that, when we talk about Japanese music after the Meiji era, we are usually referring to Western-style music. Although this bias has dominated music education, in recent years there has been an increasing interest in ethnic music and ethnic instruments. So this essay explained as below.
“When we talk about “music,” we generally mean Western music. We assume that we need to be able to read notes on a staff as one would at a piano or violin lesson, or when playing the recorder or key harmonica (melodica) in school. It could be said that the modern Japan has come to consider Western music as the one and only kind of music, even though Western music only involves one limited genre (art music) among many other types of ethnic European music. Since the middle of the twentieth century, more people have wanted to learn about other types of ethnic music, developed in various countries. As a result, the number of Japanese people playing nonwestern musical instruments has increased. Such instruments make sounds that are closely related to daily life.” (Kodomo, 1996, 5) (translated by NAKAGAWA)
I think the method of categorizing musical instruments used in this book is original. It eschews existing systems of musical instrument classification method such as the Sacks-Hornbostel. This book categorizes 19 on-gus, using a method based on nine children’s actions: beating, rubbing, flipping, swinging, shaking, blowing, pushing, speaking, and spinning (Kodomo, 1996, 10). I would interprete this method of categorization as distancing itself from Eurocentrism and revisiting music from a different perspective.
I have identified the following key characteristics of this exhibition:
To incorporate an educational purpose;
To make sound sculptures that can be manipulated through play;
To relativize Eurocentrism in music.
2.2. Moments Sonores (Oto no aru Bijutsu) (‘Fine Art having Sound’) (1989)
This exhibition was held at Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts. Although it was not the first sound art exhibition held in a Japanese art museum, it may be regarded as the representative exhibition from the heyday of sound art in Japan. The exhibition catalogue includes 40 sound art works: these are mainly sound sculptures but include some sound installations (Tochigi, 1989).
This exhibition looks varied and interesting, even from the perspective of today. It seems to have attempted to import the Sound Art movement, then fashionable overseas. In articles in the exhibition catalogue, SHONO Susumu and ONCHI Motoko, both contemporary art and music scholars, relate this exhibition to the overseas movement, referring to the seminal sound installation by Max Neuhaus and the important 1980 exhibition, “Für Augen und Ohren” (SHONO, 1989; ONCHI, 1989).
However, an interview with the chief curator, Mr. SUGIMURA, reveals that the exhibition originated from a totally different context and was unrelated to the appropriation of overseas materials or ideas. According to Mr. SUGIMURA, this exhibition was created for the children who visited the art museum during their summer vacations; it allowed them to touch the artwork on display. This exhibition was actually a product of the social education program by the museum, which had promoted art museum education since the museum was founded in 1972. Most of sound sculptures in the exhibition was designed to allow visitors to touch and play.
I have therefore identified the following characteristics of this exhibition:
To incorporate an educational purpose;
To make sound sculptures that could be manipulated through play.
2.3. Sound Garden (1987–1994)
This series of exhibitions was held six times during the late 1980s at the Roppongi Striped House Art Museum. A total of 58 artists participated. One of the main directors, YOSHIMURA Hiroshi, was a composer and musician who was born in 1940 (and died in 2003). More than a dozen other central participants were visual artists either still attending or recently graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Most had been born in the late 1950s or 1960s. There were few composers or musicians. The details of some works are lost and unknown, but most of the exhibited works in all six exhibitions used sound in some way. Beyond that, it is difficult to identify common characteristics across all six exhibitions. In most of the exhibitions, there were more sound sculptures that visitors could manipulate than ones they could not, but the reverse was true in SG6.
I want to focus on the performances given by these visual artists, using their sound sculptures such as KANAZAWA Ken-ichi’s iron pieces (Pieces of Sound series). These performances may be related to the Performance Art genre, which was imported into Japan in the late 1980s. However, I would like to interpret them as examples of musical non-specialists performing music. When we judge these performances by the traditional standards of Western Art Music, they are nothing but boring amateur performances. However, I want to suggest that by presenting performers who were not specialists in Western traditional music and not applying those standards, these performances can be regarded as attempts to relativize Eurocentrism in music.
I therefore identify the characteristics of this exhibition as:
Enabling musical non-specialists to perform music;
Making sound sculptures that could be manipulated through play;
As a result, relativizing Eurocentrism in music.
This interpretation concerning non-specialists performance and sound sculptures creates a loose association between these three exhibitions as suggesting why all of these exhibitions had so many sound sculptures that visitors could manipulate. I would argue they aimed to relativize Eurocentrism in music through sound sculptures, which were different from traditional western musical instruments.
I have identified some characteristics of Sound Art in Japan in the late 1980s. The three exhibitions share a common tendency: to make sound sculptures that can be manipulated in order to relativize Eurocentrism in music. I will now discuss the context of these sound art works.
3. CONTEXT: Ethnomusicology by KOIZUMI Fumio
I would now like to point out the influence of ethnomusicological thinking on music culture in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. I believe that it helped to shape the activities of Japanese artists in the late 1980s.
Take a look at the writing of Japanese ethnomusicologist KOIZUMI Fumio. The Japanese title of his book, “OTAMAJAKUSHI-MUYOU-Ron” can be literally translated as, “About the uselessness of staff notation” or “No more staff notation for Japanese music education” (KOIZUMI, 1980). KOIZUMI Fumio, who was born in 1927 and died in 1983, was a central figure who popularized ethnomusicology throughout Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. His book was published in 1973, causing a big sensation in Japanese musical thinking, including in the field of music education. An enlarged and revised edition of the book was published in 1980. This work clearly influenced Japanese sound art artists in the late 1980s, shaping their perspective on the need to relativize Eurocentrism in music. KOIZUMI criticized music education in Japan as “only teaching Western Music” (KOIZUMI, 30) and creating a situation in which “children don’t know how to enjoy music in general” (KOIZUMI, 32). He proposed to teach not only Western music but also various ethnic musical traditions (KOIZUMI, 36–44). That is, he criticized Eurocentrism in music education from the perspective of ethnomusicology. Similar books were published by other ethnomusicologists in Japan in the 1970s and 80s such as (GUNJI, 1989; KOJIMA, 1981; TOKUMARU, 1979).
It can therefore be deduced that most sound art artists in Japan in the late 1980s were familiar with the ethnomusicological argument in favor of relativizing Eurocentrism in music, regardless of whether they were directly or indirectly influenced by KOIZUMI Fumio. For example, SEKINE Hideki, who participated in Sound Garden exhibition series four times, has said that he discovered the ethnic music of East Asia and Africa through KOIZUMI Fumio’s book and radio program.
The prevalence of ethnomusicological thinking in the 1970s therefore contributed to the context from which the artists who promoted 1980s Japanese sound art emerged.
4. HYPOTHESIS
Based on this argument, I have arrived at the following hypothesis:
The prevalence of ethnomusicological thinking in the 1970s relativized Eurocentrism in music and brought about “art that uses sounds but is not music, made by musical non-specialists” (in other words, “Sound Art in Japan in the late 1980s”).
Ethnomusicology relativized Eurocentrism and drew attention to ethnic music and ethnic musical instruments, which leads the late 1980s sound artists first to incorporate educational purpose and to relativize Eurocentrism in contemporary musical culture. And second to make sound sculpture which are not “standard” Western musical instruments, which also function to relativize Eurocentrism in music.
5. FUTURE TASKS
What conclusions can be drawn from the argument above?
Firstly, I want to suggest that “Sound Art in Japan” may have originated in the movement to relativize Eurocentrism in music, although it appears to have originated in the visual art movement. Secondly, we should consider the theme “Sound Art in Japan” not only as a mixture of visual art and music, but also in the context of a kind of anti-Western movement in the Asian countries.
Although the reasoning behind this hypothesis is necessarily simple and blunt, I hope that the hypothesis will help others to continue this examination of the development of “Sound Art in Japan in the late 1980s.”
I plan to carry out comparative research on Sound Art in various Asian Countries in order to refine and develop this hypothesis and gather more materials from a range of other countries. I would welcome your suggestions or recommendations, as I’m eager to understand how Sound Art is made and presented in other Asian Countries (NAKAGAWA & KANEKO 2016).
6. REFERENCES
Every articles are written in Japanese except specified as written in English.
GUNJI S. (1989). An introduction to musical instruments in the world: Likes and dislikes in sound. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc.
KANEKO T. & NAKAGAWA K. (2013). The development of sound art in Japan: Around the beginning of Sound Garden (1987-94).” CROSS SECTIONS (Journal of The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto), 5, 44-52.
KANEKO T. & NAKAGAWA K. (2015). The development of sound art in Japan: The post-genre in Studio 200, and sound art in Japan.” CROSS SECTIONS (Journal of The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto), 7, 56-62.
Kodomo = Division of Fine Arts at National Children’s Castle (Kodomo-no-Shiro). (1996). Oto-taiken. Tokyo: Nihon-Jido-Teate-Kyokai.
Kodomo wesite = National Children's Castle - "Kodomo no Shiro" (n.d.). Retrieved August 06, 2016, from http://www.kodomono-shiro.com/english/
KOIZUMI F. (1980). No more staff notation for Japanese music education. (Otamajakushi-muyou-ron). revised. Tokyo: Seido-sha.
KOJIMA T. (1976). Thinking about music in Japan. Tokyo: Ongaku-no-Tomo-sha.
NAKAGAWA K. & KANEKO T. (2012). The development of sound art in Japan: Sound Garden (1987-94) and the classification of sound art by YOSHIMURA Hiroshi. CROSS SECTIONS (Journal of The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto), 4, 56-61.
NAKAGAWA K. & KANEKO T. (2014). The development of sound art in Japan: Two exhibitions of ‘sound art’ in the latter half of 1980s: "moments sonores" at Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts in 1989, and "Discovery of modeling: in the case of sound" at National Children's Castle in 1986 and 1987. CROSS SECTIONS (Journal of The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto), 6, 66-73.
NAKAGAWA K. & KANEKO T. (2016). Research on the development of sound art in asian countries: Interview with Ms. Yeung, Yang (楊陽, founder and executive director of soundpocket in Hong Kong). Tokiwadai Journal of Human Sciences (Journal of Faculty of Urban Innovation, Yokohama National University), 2. 80-91. (in English)
NAKAGAWA K. & KANEKO T. (forthcoming). The development of sound art in Japan: Several contexts around ‘on-gu (sound object) in the 1980s’.” CROSS SECTIONS (Journal of The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto), 8.
ONCHI M. (1989). The space inviting the visitor’s move (Idou-wo-sasou-Kukan). The exhibition catalogue of Moments Sonores (Oto no aru Bijutsu) (‘Fine Art having Sound’), Tochigi, 1989, 11-15.
SHONO S. (1989). When eyes and ears intersect (Me-to-Mimi-ga-Kousa-suru-Toki). The exhibition catalogue of Moments Sonores (Oto no aru Bijutsu) (‘Fine Art having Sound’), Tochigi, 1989, 7-10.
Tochigi = Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts. 1989. The exhibition catalogue of Moments Sonores (Oto no aru Bijutsu) (‘Fine Art having Sound’). Tochigi: Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts.
TOKUMARU Y. (1979). A re-introduction to music for parents and children: From the perspective of listening. Tokyo: Kokudo-sha.