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Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music
Kyoto City University of Arts
Outline of Centre
2002
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The Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music was founded at
the Kyoto City University of Arts on April 1, 2000, with the aim of undertaking
comprehensive research on traditional music and performing arts within the society
and culture of Japan.
In the more than one hundred years since the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan
has followed a path of modernization and Westernization, which has become more
pronounced in the fifty something years since the end of World War II. We have
reached a time ripe for the reconsideration of Japans traditional culture,
and the development of new approaches to it. The founding of the Research
Centre for Japanese Traditional Music at the Kyoto City University of Arts
is of particular significance in view of the fact that Kyoto has long been the
living centre of Japans traditional culture.
Kyoto is rich in physical evidence of its traditional culture, what we may
term a visual heritage; with the establishment of this new body, however,
the city authorities have demonstrated a deep respect towards its aural
heritage. As a new centre for research on Japans traditional
music, the Research Centre aims to make a broad and significant contribution to
the field of Japanese music, by means of sharing and exchanging information and
the results of research with researchers, other research establishments and performers,
not only within Japan but throughout the world.
The Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music thus hopes to link
the past with the present through a unique range of activities in research and
creation, within the wider context of Japans traditional culture.
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- Collecting, ordering, and preserving research materials of relevance to the
study of Japans traditional music and performing arts:
- Documentary materials (books, periodicals, old documentary sources, copied
and non-printed materials including microfilm, etc.)
- Audio-visual materials
- Instruments and related materials
- Pictorial materials
- Materials in electronic form, such as existing databases and the like
- Individual research on Japans traditional music and performing arts:
- Research by individual members of the full-time staff
- Research on particular themes by scholars employed as part-time research fellows
- Research commissioned from scholars outside of the Research Centre on their
fields of speciality
- Team research on Japans traditional music and performing arts:
- Team research undertaken from an interdisciplinary and international perspective
by research teams based at the Research Centre, formed for that purpose with the
cooperation and participation of researchers and performers from both Japan and
overseas
- Surveys in collaboration with other bodies and/or individuals
- Bringing the results of research to a wider audience through the following
activities:
- Public events including lecture series, seminars, workshops, and lecture-demonstrations
- Publications including a regular newsletter, an annual bulletin, and collections
of research materials
- Electronic publications such as databases available for use online
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The research fields of the Research Centre encompass the past, present and
future of Japans traditional music:
1. The development and transmission of music prior to the Meiji Restoration
of 1868
- Prehistoric times
- Religious song and performing arts (including archaeological study of surviving
examples of instruments, etc.)
- Ancient times
- Buddhist music (shoomyoo, etc.)
- Ceremonial and entertainment music of the court (gagaku, etc.)
- Medieval times
- Buddhist performing arts (biwa-accompanied narrative, zoogei,
shakuhachi, etc.)
- Performing arts of the warrior class (noo, kyoogen,
etc.)
- Popular song (imayoo, medieval kouta, etc.)
- Pre-modern times
- Music from foreign sources (so-called Christian music, Chinese
qin music in Japan, minshingaku)
- Theatrical music (gidayuu-bushi, other types of jooruri
including tokiwazu-bushi, etc., nagauta, hayashi
music in kabuki, etc.)
- Non-theatrical music (jiuta sookyoku, other shamisen
genres, biwa-accompanied vocal genres, shakuhachi, etc.)
- Popular song (kouta, hauta, etc.)
2. Developments in traditional music since the Meiji Restoration
- The development of traditional music and its possibilities, including composition
- The reception of traditional music and the place of traditional music in education
3. Music in daily life, in the broadest terms
- Folk transmission and the music and performing arts of areas related to Japan
and of its indigenous minorities
- Music and the performing arts in daily life (childrens song and folk
song; folk performing arts including festival music)
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(Position, research fields and current research topics)
- HIROSE Ryoohei (Director; Composition, Contemporary music for traditional
instruments)
- Stone flutes of Joomon culture and music that can be played on them
- Japans traditional music as a source for creation
- KIKKAWA Shuuhei (Professor; Japanese folk music and dance)
- Comprehensive research on kagura
- Comprehensive research on bon-odori
- KUBOTA Satoko (Professor; Historiography of Japanese music)
- Research on the sankyoku music world before and after the abolition
of the Toodoo Shokuyashiki
- Research on works of the jiuta and sookyoku repertoires
- Steven G. NELSON (Associate professor; Historiography of Japanese music)
- Comprehensive research on the Junshi oojoo kooshiki
- Research on the methods of musical construction employed in early performances
of kooshiki texts
- TAI Ryuuichi (Associate professor; Ethnomusicology, Japanese performing arts)
- Comparative research on the hayashi music of festival floats
- Research on the hayashida folk music genre of the Chuugoku District
- TAKAHASHI Mito (Associate professor; History of the performing arts, Japanese
music and information technology)
- Comparative research on central and peripheral bugaku dance traditions
- Construction of a database on Japans traditional music instruments
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- NAKAHARA Kanae
- Research on music treatises and music tales of the medieval period
- OGAWA Kayoko
- Research on the late noo plays of Zeami
- OKADA Mariko
- Research on the kabuki music of the Kamigata region during the
late Edo period
- WADA Katsuhisa
- The tuning of the koto in the tsukushi-goto tradition
- YAMADA Chieko
- Musicological research on jiai in gidayuu-bushi: model
patterns in jiai
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- INO Yoshihiro
- Research on shooga and bodily expression in regional bugaku
traditions
- TAJIMA Midori
- Cataloguing depictions of instrumental performance in Chinese art
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Long-term Projects
(1) The music iconography of the traditional music of Japan
- Project leader:
- Steven G. NELSON
- Advisers:
- FUKUSHIMA Kazuo, Tilman SEEBASS
- Joint members:
- AKITA Shingo, Monica BETHE, ENDOO Tooru, FUKINBARA Yasushi, FUKUHARA Toshio,
GAMOO Satoaki, GUNJI Sumi, HASEGAWA Yumiko, HIGUCHI Akira, HIGUCHI Makiko, IRIE
Nobuko, IZUMI Takeo, KASAHARA Kiyoshi, KASUYA Makoto, KATSUMURA Jinko, KIKKAWA
Shuuhei, KOMODA Haruko, KUBOTA Satoko, MIYAZAKI Mayumi, NAKAMIZO Kazue, NAKAYASU
Mari, NOGAWA Mihoko, OGAWA Kayoko, OKADA Mariko, ONO Makoto, OOKAJI Haruhiko,
SAKAMOTO Mamiko, SIMURA Satosi (SHIMURA Satoshi), SUGISAKI Takahide, TAI Ryuuichi,
TAJIMA Midori, TAKAHASHI Mito, TAKAKUWA Izumi, TAKEUCHI Yuuichi, TANIMOTO Kazuyuki,
YAMADERA Mitsutoshi, YAMASHITA Yuuji, YUHI Kuniko
Regular Projects
(1) Texts of Japanese vocal music II: Jiuta-sookyoku
- Project leader:
- KUBOTA Satoko
- Other members:
- IGUCHI Haruna, MANABE Masahiro, NAGAIKE Kenji, Steven G. NELSON, NISHIKAWA
Manabu, NOGAWA Mihoko, ONO Mitsuyasu, SASAKI Mika, SUZUKI Yukiko, YAMANE Michihiro
(2) Aspects of festivals employing festival floats and their hayashi
music
- Project leader:
- TAI Ryuuichi
- Other members:
- AOMORI Tooru, FUKUHARA Toshio, HIGUCHI Akira, IRIE Nobuko, IWAI Masahiro,
KAKITOO Toshihiro, KIKKAWA Shuuhei, MASUDA Takeshi, NAGAHARA Keizoo, UEKI Yukinobu,
YONEDA Minoru
(3) The lineage of the Japanese zithers: the instruments, documentary materials,
and performance techniques
- Project leader:
- Steven G. NELSON
- Other members:
- AOKI Hiroyuki, ENDOO Tooru, KUBOTA Satoko, ISO Mizue, TAKAHASHI Mito, TSUGEI
Yukio, WADA Katsuhisa
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- Director:
- ASAHI Shooji
- Chief:
- AOKI Shizuo
- Clerical Staff:
- SAIDA Noriko
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- Librarian:
- IGUCHI Haruna
- Research Assistants:
- IMAI Toshiyuki, ITOO Shino, MIZUOCHI Manabu
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- 1991
- The need for a new Kyoto centre for research on Japans traditional music
expressed by HIROSE Ryoohei at an international conference of the worlds
cities
- 1993
- Expansion of the Kyoto City University of Arts proposed within the citys
plans for its renewal
- 1996
- Initial plans for the Research Centre and Doctoral Course within the graduate
programme of the Faculty of Art tabled; preparatory committee for the Research
Centres founding established
- 1997
- Budget allocated for planning the new building and surveying the site
- 1998
- Construction begun (completed early 2000)
- 2000
- Commencement of activities (April); opening ceremony (December 2)
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The Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music is situated on the 6th to
8th floors of the Universitys Shinkenkyuutoo (New Research Building), with
a total area of approx. 1500m2.
- 6th floor:
- Directors office, administration, committee meeting room, reference
library, materials management room, individual office
- 7th floor:
- Seminar rooms (2), instrument storeroom, special collection
- 8th floor:
- Individual offices (5), fellows rooms (2), audio-visual studio, training
rooms (2)
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- Kyooto Kootsuu Bus:
- Buses for Kameoka from Kyoto Station (JR lines), the eastern side of Katsura
Station (Hankyuu line), and Kawaramachi Shijoo, to the bus stop Geidai-mae, followed
by a short walk to the entrance of the university.
- City Bus:
- Bus 1 or 5 from the western side of Katsura Station (Hankyuu line) or Bus
73 from Kyoto Station (JR lines) to the bus stops Shinbayashi-ike Kooen or Kokudoo
Kutsukake-guchi, followed by a 10-minute walk west.
- Taxi:
- From the western side of Katsura Station (Hankyuu line) or the western side
of Mukoomachi Station (JR lines) to Kyooto Shiritsu Geijutsu Daigaku.
How to Get
to Kyoto City University of Arts
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Home >
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of centre > Outline, 2002
Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music, Kyoto City University
of Arts
13-6 Ooe Kutsukake-choo, Nishikyoo-ku
Kyooto-shi, 610-1197, Japan
tel: +81-75-334-2240
fax: +81-75-334-2281
Administrative Secretariat: jtm-www@kcua.ac.jp