The Effect of Meiji Government Policy on Traditional Japanese Music During the Nineteenth Century: The Case of the Shakuhachi

Abstract

The nineteenth century was the major turning point in traditional Japanese music, leading to changes in the musical world that rendered it well-nigh unrecognizable. With the introduction, in 1871, of a primary school curriculum in which only Western music was to be taught, traditional Japanese music began its journey to marginalization – in the end becoming a genre that sounded foreign to a majority of the inhabitants of its own native country. The vertical bamboo flute shakuhachi was particularly affected by the new Meiji government's modernization process. During the Edo period (1603–1867), mendicant monks organized in the Fuke sect had enjoyed a monopoly on playing the instrument. With the abolishment of the sect, in 1871, and the prohibition of begging for the following decade, the social position of shakuhachi players was radically changed. This article explores the ways in which shakuhachi players adapted to these changes in order to survive. That adaptation affected not only the construction of the instrument, but also the music itself.

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