A Japanese Musical Instrument in Africa: Intersecting Journeys of Taishōgoto and Karayuki-san

This paper explores intersecting journeys of the taishōgoto (a Japanese musical instrument) and karayuki-san (Japanese overseas prostitutes). The taishōgoto has been adapted in taarab, a popular musical genre in East Africa, but how did this happen? By detecting subtle linkages of traveling music and migrating women, this research investigates expanding, or even erratic musical worlds that interrogate such conventional ethnomusicological models as a “holistic conception of unified cultures” (Turino 2008). From the late 19th to early 20th centuries, many Japanese girls/women had migrated to China, Malaysia, Australia, India, and even to such African countries as Kenya and Zanzibar. They were often from poor families and were sold to overseas as prostitutes. Because of the miserable and disgraceful images of sex workers, karayuki-san have been often marginalized as “the shame of the nation” and neglected in the mainstream historiography of Japan. However, I argue that prostitution was just one of multiple aspects of these girls/women; many karayuki-san were musicians as well, just like the geisha. One clue that helps uncover the mystery of taishōgoto in Africa is that the distribution of taishōgoto surprisingly parallels migration routes of karayuki-san, especially between Mumbai and Zanzibar. The overlapping travel routes suggest musical aspects of karayuki-san that transcend the stereotyped images of these women. More significantly, the study of a Japanese musical instrument in Africa demonstrates expansive musical cosmologies or ontologies that guide us to a possibility of new research beyond “a society with a music culture” (Slobin 2003) towards plural, intersectional and transborder contexts.