Shooka

When Japan opened its door to the rest of the world in 1868 after 250 years of seclusion, it was the beginning of a fundamental transformation of the entire society. “Enrich the nation, strengthen the military” became a national slogan. The Japanese government realized that modernization of the educational system was necessary for Japan catch up with the leading Western powers. Unlike many other nations, Japan made a strong effort to promote mass literacy; thus emphasis was put on elementary education. In 1871, the Ministry of Education was created. It soon made elementary education mandatory for Japanese children of both sexes. Japan did not have in place a centralized formal education system for the entire population. It therefore modeled its new system of universal public education after the leading Western countries.

While all basic subjects were introduced at the level of elementary education, music did not become a part of the educational curriculum for a long time. The reason for that delay is not clear. One speculation is that the introduction of music education was a very difficult task. The Japanese government felt that there was a need to create songs that everybody, regardless of social status, gender or age differences, could sing easily together for the development of national solidarity. The Japanese are a traditionally music loving people. However, the traditional Japanese singing style was more in art form and for solo singing, not for casual singing by everybody as a group. For this reason, Luther Whiting Mason, a famous American music specialist, was invited as an oyatoi gaikokujin, or a hired foreign expert, to educate Japanese music teachers and to compile music textbooks. Mason was given sole decision-making authority on which songs should be included in those textbooks. Traditional Japanese music is in minor keys. So a special effort was made to combine traditional Japanese melodies in minor keys with western style singing so that Japanese people will adapt to the new kind of music more easily.

Despite the difficult beginnings, music education in Japan became widespread. Songs were chosen for each level of elementary school, junior high school, and high school level, and taught uniformly throughout Japan. Those were called shooka, or vocal music. Thus an entire nation grew up with those songs taught at schools.

In the beginning, melodies were taken from such western songs as Scottish folk songs that because of their minor keys were similar to traditional Japanese music, while Japanese poets wrote the lyrics. As the Japanese became educated in Western music, Japanese composers and poets started to create their own songs that were included in the shooka. It is rather amazing that, although the songs included in music education changed over time, many of the songs introduced in the first textbook are still sung in schools today.

Dooyoo

While shooka was promoted by the initiative of the Meiji government as a form of music education, poets in the early 20th century created dooyoo. Shooka, which often contained lyrics in archaic language that was difficult for young schoolchildren, was the vehicle for singing lessons. But dooyoo was designed to be poetry with simple language and new rhythmic patterns for children to express their feelings about the beauty of nature and life in general. Before 1945 shooka was often set to nationalistic slogans and used to teach traditional morals (dootoku), especially in times of war.

By the 1920s many intellectuals criticized shooka for overemphasizing the teaching of Western music and national ethics and failing to develop the emotional and aesthetic capabilities of young children. They therefore felt a strong need to come up with an alternative to shooka that was part of compulsory education designed to inculcate Western music and state values. In contrast, dooyoo was freely composed by poets and encouraged free expression by children. Ujoo Noguchi and Hakushuu Kitahara were two of the main contributors who promoted dooyoo as a new genre of literary art. Originally a term for popular songs since ancient times, dooyoo now referred to story-telling in the form of poetry set to music for children. dooyoo first became popular when Miekichi Suzuki published a childrens monthly magazine Akai tori (Red Bird). Miekichi influenced others who were concerned about music education taught at school through shooka, which was not considered fine art by many poets. Miekichi’s magazine Akai tori provided the forum for concerned poets to publish their poems for children.

The period from around 1920 to 1926 was considered the peak of the dooyoo movement. Many popular and famous dooyoo songs, that are considered compositions of exceptional artistic merit and still remembered and loved by the Japanese people today, were written around this time. In addition to the state-mandated shooka to be taught to all school children, some school teachers also taught dooyoo, some of which were eventually accepted by the government for inclusion in shooka. Ujoo Nogochi became involved with the children’s monthly magazine Kin no fune (The Gold Ship) and actively promoted the development of dooyoo, while Hakushuu Kitahara did likewise through Akai tori (The Red Bird). These magazines usually contained childrens stories and dooyoo (poems and melodies) with music notes and drawings to illustrate the images of these songs. All the magazines that aimed to stimulate the artistic development of children used those three elements. Both Ujoo and Hakushuu shared the same ideal conception of dooyoo: the promotion of the artistic sensibility and emotional empathy of children, who were to be encouraged by the models and inspiration of the dooyoo to express themselves poetically. While the lyrics of the earliest shooka were often set to pre-existing melodies frequently of Western origin by writers commissioned by the government, the lyrics of dooyoo were composed by poets first before tunes were composed to match their contents. Dooyoo was considered good if written in simple and natural language, easy to sing, and with undiminished excitement and feeling no matter how often the song was sang.

Many shooka and dooyoo are depictions of nature and society. Songs were used to express admiration of nature, to encourage the national spirit, or to show parental love and/or grief.  By looking at the origins and the background of these songs, we can learn a lot about the history and society of Japan. Examining the songs that Japans entire nation grew up with will give us some ideas about who Japanese people are and what are their dreams and fears.