THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO “RATHER A HUNDRED SINGING LABORERS THAN A SINGLE PROFESSIONAL”: IMAGINING THE JAPANESE MASSES IN THE UTAGOE MOVEMENT, 1948-PRESENT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY JUN HEE LEE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JUNE 2020 i Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures….……………………….……………………………………………iii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….vi Introduction: On Music as Cultural and Intellectual History…………………...…...………...…..1 Part I: Establishment of Music as Ideology in Twentieth-century Japan……………………..…17 Chapter 1: Imagining Japan’s National Music, 1880s-1945..........................................................22 Chapter 2: Early Utagoe under the Japanese Communist Party’s Cultural Policy……...……….47 Part II: Utagoe’s National and International Solidarity through Music………………….………99 Chapter 3: Remembering Araki Sakae the Laborer-Composer, Inside Out……………………106 Chapter 4: The Rise and Fall of Utagoe’s National Music Paradigm, 1953-1974……………..158 Part III: Dual History of Utagoe: the Cases of Utagoe Kissa…………………….…………….214 Chapter 5: “Utagoe Coffeehouse” Tomoshibi’s Cultural Ventures, 1962-1992……………….228 Chapter 6: Betwixt Movement and Nostalgia: Practicing Utagoe in Japan since 2011.……….290 Conclusion: In Place of the Coda.……………………………………………………...…….....355 Bibliography………………………………….…………..…………………………………….362 ii List of Tables and Figures Table 2.1: Timeline of institutional development of the Central Chorus and Nihon no Utagoe…....52 Figure 2.1: Seki Akiko leading rehearsal with the Central Chorus’s fifteenth class (1952).………...73 Figure 2.2 Sheet music for “Our Friends” (1949).…………………………………………………. 76 Figure 2.3 Participants from Tokyo performing at the 1954 Nihon no Utagoe Festival.…....……...79 Figure 2.4 A closer shot of the participants from Tokyo at the 1954 Nihon no Utagoe Festival.......80 Figure 2.5 Central Chorus members perofrming in Uchinada (1953) …………………………….. 91 Figure 2.6 Sheet music for “Uchinada Counting Song”.……..……………………………...……...92 Figure II.1 Seki Akiko conversing in Moscow (1956).…………………………………………….100 Figure II.2 Seki Akiko conducting the crowd in Warsaw (1955).………………………………….103 Figure 3.1 Araki Sakae conducting the crowd on May Day (1959)..………………………………116 Figure 3.2 Nara Tsuneko leading an utagoe action team (1960?).………………………………....118 iii Figure 3.3 Araki Sakae monument in Ōmuta (2018).……………………………………………...124 Figure 3.4 Opening bars from “We are the Sun”.……………………………………………….....148 Figure 3.5 Refrain from “We are the Sun”.………………………………………………………..148 Figure 3.6 Sheet music for “Song of My Mother”.………………………………………………...151 Figure 4.1 An undated picture of the Maritime Province Ensemble.……………………………....176 Figure 4.2 Pete Seeger and Seki Akiko convers at Ongaku Center.……………………………….191 Figure 4.3 Members of Life, Will, and Voice singing “Morning Dew” (1998).…………………..210 Figure 5.1 Still shot of the Tomoshibi scene from Giants and Toys (1958).……………………....233 Figure 5.2 Still shot of the Tomoshibi scene from Giants and Toys (1958).……………………....233 Figure 5.3 Map of the Shinjuku Ward area (1960).………………………………………………..236 Figure 5.4 Map of the Kabukichō-Sahchōme area from a 1954 fire insurance map.……………...237 Figure 5.5 iv Timeline of Tomoshibi from a pamphlet (1978?).……………………………………...258 Figure 5.6 Snapshots from God of Poverty (1967?).……………………………………………….268 Figure 6.1 Women of the World Performing “Singing for our Lives” (2019).…………………….300 Figure 6.2 “We will Struggle” (Warera wa tatakau, 2016) and “Human Rights” (2017).………...303 Table 6.1 Survey questions and responses from members of the Saitama Chorus.……………….316 Table 6.2 Concert program of the Saitama Chorus’s fifth-fifth anniversary concert.…………….325 Figure 6.3 Opening bars from “Song of a Human Being”.…………………………………….......331 Figure 6.4 Final refrain of “Song of a Human Being” in Yoshida Keiko’s arrangement.………....335 Figure 6.5 Side-by-side comparison of World of Songs and Utagoe Kissa Songbook 828.……….344 Figure 6.6 A portion of the self-introductory pamphlet by music therapist Hirose Megumi.……...353 v Acknowledgments No journey is made alone. It is made possible by a combination of conditions that are ultimately beyond the control of the traveler. Naturally, a journey that lasts for an extended period depends heavily on the hospitality of many other human beings, and academic projects are no exception. In the case of this dissertation project, my journey was made possible by financial, intellectual, and temporal support I have received – the last one in the sense that one must be granted a leave of absence (physically, at least), with the expectation that the journey will bear fruit in the form of a completed dissertation. Over the last six years, I have developed connections in the United States and Japan that each led to the next step in my dissertation research. In reflection of my multi-year journey that culminated into this dissertation, I shall extend my expression of appreciation to those who provided hospitality even before my dissertation journey began. First, a note of thanks to my parents is in order. Most importantly, it was through my father’s career and decisions that brought me to Japan and the United States at a young age, directly contributing to my trilingual background (Korean, Japanese, and English, in the order acquisition). Both of my parents have been supportive of my life decisions, provided I make them at all with some reasoning. Our move to the United States has no doubt been more eventful than I realize. In lieu of verbally communicated thanks in our everyday contexts, I would like to make it abundantly clear that I owe my present self to my parents and their insights, both before and since the beginning of my life as a graduate student. I have also to thank a number of faculty members during my undergraduate years in southern California who supported my decision to apply for Ph.D. programs in History. Allie Frickert at Mt. San Antonio College was the first lecturer of history who took note of my interest in history beyond taking classes. On a more professional note, I still recall her response to my vi query about academic career: “We are not doing this to make money, but we are not doing this to not make money, either.” Though I ended up not choosing an academic career in higher education, her mantra remains and will remain a pertinent question. At the University of California, Los Angeles, I was fortunate enough to be acquainted with William Marotti. Though I only took two courses with him (one lecture and one seminar), they were intriguing enough to leave a lasting impression of what may be called the Chicago School of Japanese History (or, perhaps, the “Harootunian line”). It was in his class and seminar that I developed a serious interest in modern Japanese history, to which this dissertation also belongs chronologically and thematically. Thus began my exposure to the University of Chicago. As a graduate student at the University of Chicago, I am indebted to numerous faculty members from various departments who make up the Center for East Asian Studies, fellow graduate students, and student-led workshops. As both current faculty and graduate students would no doubt agree, the University of Chicago’s energetic workshop culture truly distinguishes the University’s Social Sciences and Humanities Ph.D. programs from those in other universities. I greatly benefited from various workshops, and I hope that I have been able to provide the same level of service to other graduate students in return. I express my thanks to the organizers of the East Asian Transregional History workshop, Arts and Politics in East Asia workshop, and EthNoise workshop, where I presented my chapter drafts. Within the workshops, I would especially like to thank the following fellow graduate students for reading my drafts and providing me with their insightful comments: Robert Burgos, Jessa Dahl, Dan Knorr, Alex Murphy, and Sabine Schulz. In or outside of the workshops, my graduate student experience would not have been complete without such an extended cohort of intellectually curious graduate students across research topics. vii I must extend a special note of gratitude for my dissertation committee members who helped me put the puzzle pieces together and, above all, trusted in the value of my research. As my dissertation chair from the Department of History and – may I say – my mentor, James Ketelaar has consistently remained the voice of reason. Before my dissertation research became a full-fledged project, he was not sure how the research would turn out to be – I am sure he must have felt the same way about my professionalization process. Yet, we came through – it means a lot to me to have been able to deliver results that met his approval. It was a blessing to have made acquaintance with Michael Bourdaghs from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, who turned out to be my most knowledgeable ally on things postwar Japanese popular culture. As his student, I realize in retrospect that I ended up following the current in the field of postwar popular music in Japan, which has seen a considerable volume of contributions from non-musicologists. I will miss our conversation about the latest Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances; may our musical friendship continue, especially when we are both present in Japan! In the Department of Music, I am much indebted to Philip Bohlman, who has consistently called international musical developments to my attention. Though that still remains a task for post-dissertation publication(s), his observations will remain the voice I must respond to. On a more personal note, I very much appreciate his insight comments on my dissertation chapters despite the short notices I ended up giving him. I must also thank Kaley Mason, who oversaw the ethnomusicology portion of my department’s Oral Fields Exam. I regret that I did not follow him up on many levels, on both personal and disciplinary levels.