2018 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Past Futures. Assessing the Experimental Developments of Japanese Court Music Between Philological Reconstructions and Creative Reinventions
| Project/Area Number |
17F17760
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| Research Institution | International Research Center for Japanese Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
細川 周平 国際日本文化研究センター, 研究部, 教授 (70183936)
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| 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
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-11-10 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | gagaku / 雅楽 / reigaku / 伶楽 / reconstruction / 復元 |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
During the second stage of this project, I have developed my analysis of the ancient scores that form the basis of most “contemporary reconstructions” of gagaku, while also trying to select case studies in order to restrict the scope of the investigation. For example, while the reconstruction and cultural history of the triangular harp kugo has already received academic attention (see Nakayasu 2016), the shakuhachi end-blown flute have not been investigated. For this reason, I decided to focus on the “reigaku shakuhachi”, interviewing its makers and performers. Looking at the reconstruction of this instrument from the point of view of its makers and materials revealed unexplored connections between the gagaku shakuhachi, Shotoku Taishi, and the melody of the piece Somakusha. The output of this line of investigation consisted in a number of presentations and public performances: I have presented the results of this analysis at a symposium at SOAS University London (30/07/2018). I have compared various reconstructions of the melody of Somakusha as preserved in the notation Hakuga no fuefu (966) by Minamoto no Hiromasa. I have presented the preliminary results of this case study at the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient/Italian School of East Asian Studies (06/11/2018). I have also produced two critical accounts of gagaku reconstructions: one as liner notes for a recording (Giolai 2018), the other one for the Italian Association of Japanese Studies (forthcoming).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Currently, the project is progressing towards its final phase: I have identified the stakeholders, the timeline of their activities, and the most relevant phases that led from the first pioneering attempts at reconstructing gagaku in the 1950s and 1960s to the present. I have also interviewed participants in the “second wave” of performances on reconstructed instruments; investigated the role of the group Reigakusha; and analyzed the concept of Reigaku and its relations to contemporary music. I have established that the Reigaku and reconstruction projects should be understood as crucial elements in the development of Japanese contemporary and experimental music during the 1970s and 1980s. Indeed, the value of experimentations with reconstructed instruments by composers such as Takemitsu, Ishii, Ichiyanagi, and Hosokawa is fundamentally historical: entering a transnational conversation regarding the musical avantgarde and the development of such concepts as “sound art” and “happenings”, these composers capitalized on the chance (made available to them by Kido and the National Theater) to found a new musical language upon inauthentic-yet-traditional objects and musical modes. At the same time, the project was significant in that gagaku musicians became gradually involved in issues of philology and interpretation. In this final phase, I intend to explore the ideology behind the reconstructions of gagaku music and musical instruments, rearticulating the projects by the National Theater in terms of a specific instance of “historical acoustemology” (Smith 2015).
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the final phase of this project, I plan to produce a large-scale account of the Reigaku project, to be submitted to specialized and peer reviewed international journals. At the same time, I intend to conduct the last interviews with important stakeholders. Theoretically, I intend to further explore the discrepancy between “authenticity of materiality” and “infidelity to the notation” that characterizes these projects. I will continue to pursue the study of reconstructed instruments with an eye to practical research outcomes such as public performances and lecture-demonstrations. I will also explore the consequences of this project on more recent experiments with gagaku reconstructions. While continuing to present the results of this research internationally (in the US, in Southeast Asia, and in Europe), I will produce the draft of a manuscript in Japanese on gagaku and contemporary music between the Meiji and today.
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