Music, Culture and Society: Philip Flavin
7 March 2008
Miyagi, Modernity, Nationalism and Kitsch
Philip Flavin
This paper explores modernism, nationalism, and ‘modern Japanese’ music for the koto and focuses upon Miyagi Michio (1894-1956) and his creation of the first “national music”. Miyagi was the first traditional Japanese musician (koto) to draw upon Western compositional technique and his importance in the history of Japanese music is indeed indisputable. In spite of having revolutionized music for the koto, rather than a simple appropriation of Western musical ideas,_ _Miyagi’s borrowings were interpreted through a highly nationalistic lens created by Miyagi and other seminal figures in the _New Japanese Music Movement. _The premise behind this movement was to “modernize” Japanese music by turning to the West, modify Western techniques to reflect Japanese taste, and thus create a music that would match Western music in its complexity. The contemporary reception of Miyagi’s works was extremely divided. Many supported his efforts while others accused Miyagi of questionable taste as “he made the _koto _sound like a piano” and also disparaged the mass appeal of his music. In this paper, I argue that in the creation of a “national music”, much of what Miyagi created was kitsch, which in turn leads to the overt militarism immediately before the war.
Philip Flavin is in the Japanese Studies Program at Monash University as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate on the ARC-Funded Project, Music and Modernity in Osaka in the Interwar Years (1918-38), with Assoc Prof Alison Tokita. After Graduating From the University of the Pacific in 1982 with a Degree in International Relations and Japanese, Dr Flavin Entered the Seiha Conservatory of Japanese Music in Tokyo to Pursue His Interest in SôKyoku-Jiuta, Music for the Koto and Jiuta Shamisen. In 1992, He Was Accepted to the Graduate Program at the University of California at Berkeley Music Department to Study Ethnomusicology. During the 1996-1997 Academic Year Dr. Flavin Returned to Japan with the Assistance of a Fulbright-Hayes to Study a Comic Chamber Music Under Tomiyama Kiyotaka, One of the Last Performers of This Repertoire.