Tsugaru Shamisen and Modern Japanese Identity

TSUGARU SHAMISEN AND MODERN JAPANESE IDENTITY GERALD T. McGOLDRICK A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO MARCH 2017 © Gerry McGoldrick, 2017 ABSTRACT The shamisen, a Japanese plucked lute dating back to the seventeenth century, began to be played by blind itinerant male performers known as bosama in the late nineteenth century in the Tsugaru region, part of present-day Aomori prefecture in northern Japan. By the early twentieth century it was used by sighted players to accompany local folk songs, and from the 1940s entirely instrumental versions of a few of the folk songs were being performed. In the late 1950s the term Tsugaru shamisen was coined and the genre began to get national attention. This culminated in a revival in the 1970s centred on Takahashi Chikuzan, who had made a living as a bosama in the prewar period. In the wake of the 70s boom a contest began to be held annually in Hirosaki, the cultural capital of the Tsugaru region. This contest nurtured a new generation of young players from all over Japan, eventually spawning other national contests in every corner of the country. Chikuzan’s death in 1998 was widely reported in the media, and Yoshida Ryōichirō and Yoshida Kenichi, brothers who had stood out at the contests, were cast as the new face of Tsugaru shamisen. From about 2000 a new Tsugaru shamisen revival was under way, and the music could be heard as background music on Television programs and commercials representing a modern Japan that had not lost its traditions. Through discourse analysis of primary materials, and informed by the author’s twenty-five years of direct experience with the Tsugaru shamisen community, this dissertation examines how since the millennial revival the music has come to index a Japanese identity that is modern but still essentially Japanese. It explores ideas developed in the 1930s by thinkers like Watsuji Tetsurō and Yanagita Kunio that continue to influence popular conceptions of modernity and tradition in Japan. It traces the one-hundred-year recording history of the music and the proliferation of national contests in recent decades and compares the revivals of the 1970s and the millennium to demonstrate how a genre that previously indexed rural, traditional Japan has come to represent the modern nation. ii ACKNLOWLEDGMENTS I want to begin by thanking my shamisen teachers Nishimura Makoto, Nishikawa Shinobu, Nishikawa Misao, and Hayashi Kimiko for being so generous with their time and knowledge through the years. I am thankful to so many people in the Tsugaru shamisen world that I cannot individually thank here, but would like to mention a few of them at least. I appreciate the time given to me by Takahashi Yūjirō and Yamada Chisato, from the generation of players who have since passed on, and by members of the next generation like Oyama Mitsugu, Takahashi Chikuzan II, and Sato Michihiro. I am grateful to the players at folksong bars like Yamauta and Aiya in Hirosaki, and Oiwake in Tokyo, that continue to make such virtuosic and moving music, and who have taken time to share their thoughts on this music over the years, in particular Nagamine Kenichi, Shibutani Kazuo, Gareth Burns, Abe Kinzaburou, and Abe Ginzaburou. I want to thank all of the people involved in the contests, organizers, judges, participants and audience members for their insights into that part of the Tsugaru shamisen world, including Sasaki Kenichi, Ito Kazuhiro, Yamaya Takumi, Shusui Enomoto III, Kametani Eimei, Yamamoto Dai, Patrick Conway, and Steven Ryan. I am also grateful to shamisen craftsmen like Isono Sen, as well as everyone as Shamisen Katoh. Various scholars and writers who have inspired me in both their work and in person include David Hughes, Gerald Groemer, Sasamori Takefusa, Anthony Rausch, James Westerhoven, Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, and Oda Mayusa. I’d like to thank longtime Aomori resident and Tsugaru shamisen virtuoso Kevin Kmetz for his hospitality and generosity, and the players that he inspired in California, including Mike Penny, Grant Reimer, and Kyle Abbott. Kyle Abbott’s website, Bachido.com, has also been a great source for monitoring the development of the international shamisen community over the last few years. iii Several people at York University went above and beyond the call of duty to help me in the overly-long process of bringing my dissertation to completion. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Rob Simms for scholarly and moral support, and for committee members Louise Wrazen and Michael Coghlan for their work on the document and the process. I also want to thank examining committee members Sherry Johnson, Jay Goulding, and Jay Keister for their comments and advice that helped make the final work stronger. Tere Tilban-Rios has helped hundreds of students navigate the dissertation process, and has been a lifeline for me many times in my own journey. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their unstinting support through all of this. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgments iii Table of Contents v List of Figures x List of Illustrations xi Chapter One: Introduction 1 Opening 1 Aims 2 Personal Perspective 3 Methods and Theories 4 Literature Review 6 The Tsugaru region 6 Tsugaru shamisen 6 Modernity and national identity 10 Music revivals 11 Traditional music competitions 12 The Tsugaru Region 13 Tsugaru Shamisen 15 History 15 Musical Parameters 20 Chapter Summary 23 Chapter Two: Modernity in Japan 25 Introduction 25 General Concepts 25 Modernity 25 Nationalism and the Rise of the Nation-state 26 Tradition 29 Nostalgia 30 Other Modernities 32 Japan's Modernity 33 Modernity in Japan 34 Nationalism in Japan 35 Defining documents of modern Japan 36 The Overcoming Modernity Symposium 37 Nihonjinron, the discourse of Japanese uniqueness 39 Natsukashisa, Japanese nostalgia 45 Rural tradition and urban modernity 46 Tradition, Modernity and Tsugaru Shamisen 50 Conclusion 53 v Chapter Three: The Recording History of Tsugaru Shamisen 54 Introduction 54 Early History 55 Earliest Japanese Recordings 55 Recording Companies in Japan 56 Early Min'yō Recordings 58 Two Eras of Tsugaru Shamisen Recordings 61 Early Tsugaru Shamisen Players 63 The players 63 The recordings 65 The Repertoire 66 Discographies 68 Takahashi Chikuzan's recording history 68 King records 70 Victor, Nippon Columbia, and Nippon Crown 71 Sony 72 Disques Jean-Jean, Canyon Records, RAB, and Tsugaru Shobō 73 Unofficial and unlicensed releases 75 Shirakawa Gumpachirō's recording history 75 King records, Nippon Columbia, and Tsugaru Min’yō 21st Century Heritage Association 76 Compilations 78 The Present Era 79 Before the Yoshida Brothers 79 Takahashi Chikuzan II 79 Sato Michihiro 81 Contest recordings 81 The Yoshida Brothers 82 In the Wake of the Yoshida Brothers 87 Online sources 89 Conclusion 90 Chapter Four: National Tsugaru Shamisen Contests 92 Introduction 92 I. Experiencing Hirosaki's 34th Annual Tsugaru Shamisen International Contest 95 The Contest Programme 97 The Contest 99 Day one: greetings 100 Junior C-level 101 Senior C-level 102 Groups 103 B-groups (five to ten members) 105 A-groups (more than ten members) 106 vi Middle C-level (40-59), youth C-level 107 Day two: greetings 107 B-level 108 Song accompaniment 109 Women's A-level 110 Men's A-level 111 Attractions 112 Awards ceremony 112 II. Surveying the National Tsugaru Shamisen Contests 114 Min'yō Contests 114 1. Hirosaki's Tsugaru Shamisen International Contest 116 Yamada Chisato 116 History 117 Funding 119 Adjudication 120 Categories 121 Criteria 123 Participants 125 Awards 126 Winners 127 Distinguishing Features 127 Prestige 129 2. The Tsugaru shamisen All-Japan Kanagi Contest 130 Daijō Kazuo 131 History 133 Satozukuri 134 Funding 134 Adjudication 135 Categories 136 Criteria 137 Participants 138 Awards 138 Winners 139 Distinguishing Features 140 Prestige 140 3. Tokyo's Tsugaru Shamisen Concours National Contest 141 History 141 Funding 142 Adjudication 143 Categories 143 Schedule 144 Criteria 145 Participants 145 vii Awards 145 Winners 146 Reason for Existing 147 Distinguishing Features 147 Prestige 148 Controversy 149 4. The National Tsugaru Shamisen Concours Osaka Contest 150 History 150 Funding 151 Adjudication, Categories, Criteria, Participants 151 Awards, Winners, Distinguishing Features, Prestige 152 5. The Tsugaru Shamisen National Contest in Kobe (2004 to 2014) 154 History 154 Funding 155 Adjudication, Categories, Criteria, Participants 156 Awards, Winners, Distinguishing Features, Prestige 157 6. Aomori's Tsugaru Shamisen Japan Number One Deciding Battle 158 History 158 Funding, Sponsors 160 Adjudication, Categories, Criteria, Participants 161 Awards, Winners, Distinguishing Features, Prestige 163 7. All-Japan Tsugaru Shamisen Competition: Nagoya Contest 167 Funding 167 Adjudication, Categories, Criteria, Participants 168 Awards, Winners, Distinguishing Features, Prestige 169 8. Other Contests 170 III. Discussion 172 The Spread of the National Tsugaru Shamisen Contests 172 Funding 175 Adjudication 176 Categories 177 Criteria 179 Participants 181 Awards 182 Winners 183 Distinguishing Features 184 Prestige 184 Gender 185 Stylistic Change 187 Conclusion 189 Chapter Five: Tsugaru Shamisen Revival and Recontextualization 190 Introduction 190 The History of Tsugaru Shamisen Revivals 191 viii Music Revivals: Six Themes 200 One: Motivations 200 Two: The Selective Use of

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