"Living with the Piano: The Reception and Development of Classical Music Culture in Japan"

2025/05/16

The starting point for my research into piano culture was when my son, who had been devoted to the piano for 16 years, quit just before his music college entrance exams and entered the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology a few months later. Due to my son's sudden change of path and his admission to Keio, I wanted to explore the sociological meaning of the piano, which had always been by my side since childhood, and I entered the Keio University Graduate School of Human Relations. Meeting Professor Emeritus Hisashi Yano during my first year of the Master's program became the motivation for proceeding to the Doctoral Programs and eventually publishing this book.

Originally, Japan was a country without a piano culture, but looking at the 140-year evolution of piano culture from the Meiji era, when the piano was introduced as an instrument, to the present, it can be considered that Japan did not simply inherit Western piano culture but created its own unique piano culture. Therefore, I divided the 140 years of piano evolution into the embryonic, popularization, and maturation periods of piano culture, and analyzed them from a historical-sociological perspective using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "cultural capital" and Yosuke Koto's concept of "hybrid modernity".

Currently, the image of piano culture in Japan as a "lesson for girls" has faded, and it has progressed even further than in the West where the piano was born, with the existence of "high-class amateurs" whose performance skills are not inferior to those of music college students. There must have been a way of accepting piano culture unique to Japan that does not exist in the West. As a means of exploring that background, this book positions interviews, which are the raw voices of those involved, as important materials. The interviews reveal the longing for the piano of people before the war, and the true feelings of parents, children, and piano instructors involved with the piano after the war. I also captured the true state of Japanese piano culture by including the voices of parents who do not place much importance on the piano even if they let their children learn it. The evolution of piano learners' performance skills was analyzed using Chopin's Etudes, which are also used as required pieces for competitions.

By reading this book, I believe you will see that no other instrument has influenced the Japanese people as much as the piano, and that various things can be seen through the piano. For those who have experienced piano culture, I think it will also be an opportunity to reflect on themselves. I would be happy if you would read it.

"Living with the Piano: The Reception and Development of Classical Music Culture in Japan"

Chihiro Honma

Koyo Shobo

324 pages, 4,180 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.