Past Futures. Assessing the Experimental Developments of Japanese Court Music Between Philological Reconstructions and Creative Reinventions

2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17F17760
• Research Institution: International Research Center for Japanese Studies
• Principal Investigator: 細川 周平 国際日本文化研究センター, 研究部, 教授 (70183936)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): GIOLAI Andrea 国際日本文化研究センター, 研究部, 外国人特別研究員
• Project Period (FY): 2017-11-10 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 雅楽 / gagaku / 復元 / reconstruction / 木戸敏郎 / 伶楽 / 伶楽舎

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

The first stage of this project consisted in extensive bibliographic and archival research concerning the "reconstruction project" set up by Tokyo National Theater since its opening in 1966, and in interviews with major actors involved. Archival research was conducted directly at Tokyo National Theater. At the same time, bibliographic research made clear that further analysis was needed on the reconstruction of ancient gagaku scores. It was ascertained that concerts at the National Theater were performance sites in which intense, active intermingling of philological and creative approaches to ancient gagaku scores took place. Indeed, the confusion of "authentic" and "inauthentic" reconstructions appears to be the most important analytical element at play throughout the whole experimental phase which came to be known as the "reconstruction project". Interviews with a member of the gagaku group Reigakusha and with researchers highlighted the difficulty of untangling the relationship between performers and researchers. Nonetheless, such collaborations emerged thanks to the "reconstruction project", and continue to characterize the public presentation of gagaku. Concrete performance strategies were observed at live concerts by the sho player Miyata Mayumi and the group Reigakusha. Finally, at this stage of the research project, it seemed important to establish a (partial) comparative theoretical framework, relying on the notion of "authenticity" as elaborated and discussed in the context of the "Early Music Movement" in Europe and the United States.

Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

The main difficulties encountered were: 1) acquiring the technical knowledge indispensable to understand the subtleties of the philological approach to the reconstruction of ancient sources; 2) getting access to the main stakeholders; 3) obtaining the primary sources necessary to conduct research on the reconstruction of ancient gagaku scores. Overall, establishing a stable and clearly defined corpus of musical pieces or performances to focus on has proved highly problematic: the works commissioned to Japanese and foreign composers in the context of the gagaku and ongaku series at the National Theater are too numerous to be taken into consideration collectively, and the scholarly bibliography on the reconstruction of gagaku scores is too extensive to be considered in its entirety. In order to get access to important stakeholders, however, it is necessary to sketch out a clear research plan that should also be comprehensible and easy to communicate outside the academia. This was complicated by the huge amount of data uncovered, which needed to be sifted carefully, slowing down the research project. Primary sources such as scores by contemporary composers and ancient notations that were the object of reconstructions proved difficult to locate and obtain.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

In the coming fiscal year, I intend to refine the research plan by devising a clear connection between a broadly comparative theoretical framework (the concept of "authenticity" in the reconstruction of the music of the past) and the material under examination (a split corpus of "philological" reconstructions, "deliberately inauthentic reconstructions", and newly composed works). Once the scope and final goal of the refined research plan are set, I intend to pursue additional interviews and fieldwork research, focusing on: 1) the legacy of the "reconstruction project" on the way gagaku is researched and presented to the public on stage; 2) the relationship between academic and artistic approaches to reconstructions, particularly with regards to the interaction between performers and scholars of gagaku pieces. Additionally, I intend to present the results of this research more broadly, in international venues, through conference presentations and journal articles.