On the Musical Life of Correspondence Learners: An Investigation of the Dainippon Home Music Association Magazine, Katei Ongaku.

Abstract

   Following the launch in 1890 of Japan’s first specialist music journal, many other music-related journals and magazines followed; these represent a valuable source of materials for research today. One of these magazines, Katei ongaku （Hausmusik, “‘Home’ or ‘Parlor’ Music”）, which was published for about ten years from 1915, has, however, rarely been studied, perhaps because it was intended chiefly for correspondence music learners of the Dainippon katei ongakukai （Dainippon Home Music Association） in Fukuoka. Indeed, a very limited number of copies remain today. After several years of research, I have been able to investigate 47 issues, which is about 40％ of those issued. This study aims to clarify how the correspondence learners of Katei ongaku led their musical lives.
   From 1913 until the early Showa era, the Dainippon Home Music Association offered correspondence courses on both Western and Japanese instruments, including the violin, shakuhachi, koto, and mandolin. At the time, learning musical instruments was mainly associated with women. My research has revealed, however, that the principle subscribers of this magazine were men. Among the long literary sections by both contributors and readers, the reader’s correspondence section was probably the most popular. It enabled subscribers to become acquainted with each other, even though they lived across the Japanese Empire, including Manchuria, Taiwan, and Korea. This indicates that the purpose of this publication was not the dissemination of Western music or Hausmusik as such, but rather the promotion of friendship among readers and the increase in their musical knowledge: it was intended to present “a club activity” for correspondence learners, at a time when many of it readers were enjoying music on their own.