2019 Volume 49 Issue 1 Pages 25-36
This study aims to clarify Hikaru Hayashi’s thoughts on music teaching focusing on his role between the late 1960s and 1970s as an adviser in the National Meeting of Japan Teachers Union. In the 1950s, Hayashi was actively involved in social movements such as “A Japanese Choral-Singing Movement (Utagoe-undo)” and “The Music Association for Workers of Japan (Rohon).” He proposed the “Popular Arts Theory” for the practice of music during those movements. From 1968 onward, he participated in the National Meeting of Japan Teachers Union as an adviser. He planned the “Music Teaching Featuring Singing” based on his popular arts theory. He believed that teachers should choose teaching materials that allowed children to sing energetically and joyously and that the teacher should play the piano in such a way that it allowed the children’s voices within the teacher’s piano techniques to be heard rather than play exactly according to the score. Hayashi’s thoughts on music teaching were aimed at the personal growth of children by making them enjoy music spontaneously, in contrast to the music teaching of those days, which emphasized gaining musical knowledge and learning musical techniques.
