"The nationalization of Music and the "invention" of Japanese national music during the Meiji era"

In 1879 (Meiji 12) the Japanese Ministry of Education established the Ongaku torishirabe gakari or Musical Investigation Committee as a tool for creating a modern nation. This was one of the first efforts to modernize the soundscape of the country and to create citizenship in Japan. Thus, Music was considered an appropriate instrument to reach Modernity. However, what characteristics can explain why Music was considered a better tool for reaching this than others? The main purpose of this paper is to discuss how the Meiji intelligentsia considered Music and the debates in which they were involved to create a distinctive Japanese national music. In this discussion, the invention of different musical genres such as enka or Japanese ballads, gunka or Japanese military songs, and Shōka was pivotal to the process in which Western music was nationalized or nihonka to create citizenship throughout the country. Besides, as I will argue music was not considered a kind of “art” and it was not until the 1920’s that its artistic features appeared in public discussions, but during the Meiji period, it was considered anything but art. The songs of that period were composed to standardize the language, to stay healthy, and to mobilize the citizens during the wars.