Although “Sakura, Sakura” is one of Japan's most famous melodies, its composition and development into a song which is widely regarded as an indispensable part of school music education has never been made clear. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate these points.

  “Sakura, Sakura” has always been accepted as an old Japanese melody. However, by researching Japanese music books published in the early Meiji period, it is clear that there is no reliable evidence for regarding this melody as an ‘old tune’. Indeed, throughout both the Meiji and Taisho periods, it seems that this song was hardly sung, and certainly not a popular part of school music education. We must, therefore, conclude that this song is a new melody fabricated by the Department of Education for inclusion in the “Collection of Japanese Koto Music” made in 1888.

  During the prewar music education period, both the text and melody of “Sakura, Sakura” were rewritten, and the description “old tune” added, and it was also adopted as an important song for the purposes of patriotic cultivation. From that time this remodeled “Sakura, Sakura” has been employed as mainstream material in an elementary school music education.

  The “Sakura, Sakura” which is now sung in schools does, therefore, not have such a long history, and through this study, I wish to debate whether this song should be regarded as an “old Japanese melody”.

  This study is a continuation of my research introduced in “A Theoretical Foundation of ‘Linguaggio Musicale’ (Language of Music) in Italian National Curriculum Standards―Gino Stefani's Semiotic Approach―” (Japanese Journal of Music Education Research, No, 30-4, 2001). In this former research, the author presented that in the public education in Italy the musical ability is developed by comprehending that sound and music encompass semantic and communicative functions through the idea of “language of music.” Stefani developed his theory concerning this language of music and musical ability from the semiotic standpoint. The author believes that this approach plays an important role in conducting the ideas conceived in the National Curriculum Standards toward practical use.

  In this study, the models of the five levels of musical ability specified by Stefani, i. e. (1) general codes, (2) social practice, (3) musical technique, (4) styles, and (5) works, are investigated in detail while examining the viewpoints of Stefani's theory. Music learning comprises the competence in relation to these five levels, and, in his theory, creative ability will be developed with each of these levels supported by the above capacity to produce sense.

  The author examines the interrelationship with the capacity to produce sense as the universality of musical ability. The issues to be challenged in the music education of Japan are specified in this study through these theories.