¹ Yōgaku juyōki [, reception period of Western music] or Yōgaku juyō [, reception of Western music] are very common expressions among musicologists in Japan. See Yūko, Ozawa, ‘Ongaku Zasshi ni miru Meiji, Taishōki no Nagoya no Yōgaku Juyō’ [On the reception of Western music in Nagoya in the Meiji and the Taisho eras, through the articles of musical magazines], Bulletin of Nagoya College of Music 30 (2011): 17–31Google Scholar

Junko, Iguchi, ‘Shanhai Sokai: nippon no yōgaku juyōshi no saikentō ni mukete’ [Shanghai settlement: towards a re-appraisal of the history of Japanese reception of Western music], Bulletin of Osaka College of Music 48 (2010): 47–60Google Scholar

² The word ‘wayō gassō’ was used to mean playing Japanese music as well as playing Western music. Wayō gassō had widely varied instrumentation, from an ensemble of only a few musicians to a huge orchestra. A related musical term including the prefix ‘wayō’ [ ] is wayō-chōwagaku [ ]. This term usually seems to indicate a certain type of music. However, my survey shows no apparent rigid definition of those terms, which causes confusion about their application.

³ ‘Music in the home’, Hausmusik in German, signifies music-making in the home with family or friends for their pleasure, and should not be confused with self-study.

⁴ Harich-Schneider, Eta, A History of Japanese Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973): 547Google Scholar

⁵ In addition to sources I own myself, I have drawn on sources owned by the National Diet Library of Japan and the Music Cultural History Research Institute of the Osaka College of Music.

⁶ Rie, Ichikawa, ‘Meijiki ni okeru kyōiku no ba e no piano dōnyū’ [Application of piano playing to the school education in the Meiji Era], Journal of Human Studies 31 (1995): 25–31Google Scholar

⁷ Mehl, Margaret, ‘Japan's Early Twentieth-century Violin Boom’, in Nineteenth Century Music Review, 7/1 (2010): 23–43Google Scholar

⁸ Mehl, ‘Japan's Early Twentieth-century Violin Boom’, 24Google Scholar

⁹ Christian Heinrich Hohmann, Praktische Violin-Schule. The work was first published in the early part of the century and went through many reprints.

¹⁰ According to the Japanese tutor, Vaiorin to mandorin no hikikata [Directions for playing the violin and the mandolin] (Osaka: Miki Sasuke, 1925): 6 (of the Japanese edition), almost two-thirds of the people using Hohmann's tutor gave up after the first several pages.

¹¹ Shikama Totsuji, Gakki shiyō hō [Directions for playing musical instruments] (Tokyo: Fukyūsha, 1888)Google Scholar

¹² These songs were composed in order to fulfil the intention of the Japanese government to create national music. They were meant for elementary school students to sing at holiday ceremonies.

¹³ Ongaku torishirabe seiseki shinpōsho [ , Report on the survey of music] (Tokyo: Ongaku-Torishirabe-gakari, 1884): 317–30. The document also recommended the improvement of Japanese compositions.

¹⁴ Some shamisen makers turned to violin making, and became the first-generation of Japanese violin makers. Suzuki Masakichi (1859–1944), the founder of Suzuki Violin Co., Ltd., is a good example. He later said that he decided to change his job because of poverty. See his history in the website of Suzuki Violin Co., Ltd. (in Japanese). http://www.suzukiviolin.co.jp/about/story1.html

¹⁵ Yamada Gen'ichirō, Vwaiorin shinan [ , Violin instruction] (Osaka: Miki Sasuke, 1892)Google Scholar.Margaret Mehl transcribes as ‘vwaiorin’ to distinguish it from , transcribed as ‘vaiorin’. The distinction is significant when searching databases.

¹⁶ Ōtsuka Torazō, Tsūzoku vaiorin hitorimanabi, shiyōhō no bu, jisshū no bu [A popular violin self-study book: method section, practical section], 7th ed. (Kyoto: Jūjiya Gakkibu, 1909).

¹⁷ Both were enormously successful. I have been able to find a 31st reprint edition (1926) of the former and a 151st reprint (1933) of the latter.

¹⁸ Suzuki Kōtarō, Vaiorin no tadashii hikikata [The proper way to play the violin] (Tokyo: Seikasha, 1920 (first printing 1919)), 4Google Scholar

Itō Gen, Vaiorin shotei no kokoroe [Knowledge for the violin beginner] (Nagoya: Gennokai kankōbu, 1924), 18Google Scholar

¹⁹ Yasuko, Tsukahara, ‘Senzen no Tōkyō ni okeru “Hōgaku”’ [‘Japanese music’ in pre-war Tokyo], in Nihon bunka no renzokusei to hi-renzokusei: 1920–1970 [The continuities and the discontinuities of Japanese culture: 1920–1970), ed., Eduard Klopfenstein and Suzuki Sadami (Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan, 2005): 435–472Google Scholar

²⁰ See the article by Kiku Day in this issue.

²¹ Nakao Tozan, ed., Vaiorin onpu dai nijūhachi gō, sōkyoku Tsumikusa [Violin ‘piece’ volume 28, sōkyoku, ‘Picking Young Grass’] (Osaka: Maekawa Gōmei Gaisha, 1921)Google Scholar

Kōga Musen, ed., Chidori no kyoku [‘Plover's melody’] (Osaka: Kōga Musen, 1921)Google Scholar

²² Foljanty, D., ‘Konzertleben’, in Japan-Handbuch, ed. Horst Hammitzsch (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1981): 1234–1240Google Scholar

²³ March 1925 in Tokyo, June in Osaka and July in Nagoya.

²⁴ Kajino Ena, ‘Katoki no vaiorinisuto, sono oto to sugata’ [The violinist of the transition period, his sound and stature], in Kishi Kōichi to ongaku no kindai [Kishi Kōichi and music of modern times], ed. Kajino Ena, Chōki Seiji and Hermann Gottschewski (Tokyo: Seikyūsha, 2011): 16–55.

²⁵ Tomoko, Takada, ‘Meijiki no Kansai ni okeru tefūkin no ryūkō’ [Popularity of the tefūkin (accordion) in the Kansai area during the Meiji Period], Ongaku kenkyū (ōsaka ongaku daigaku hakubutsukan nempō) 11 (1993): 53–78Google Scholar

²⁶ Kaneko Atsuko, Taishōgoto no sekai [The world of taishōgoto] (Tokyo: Ongaku no tomo sha, 1995): 34Google Scholar

²⁷ In the first phase of the ‘reception period’ four tutors were published with staff notation, one with numerical solfège system and tablature, and one with tablature only. In the second phase there were 13 with staff notation, four with numerical solfège system, and one with staff notation and numerical solfège system. In the third phase there were five with staff notation, five with staff notation and numerical solfège system, one with numerical solfège system and tablature, and one with all kinds of notations.

²⁸ Hebert, David G., Wind Bands and cultural Identity in Japanese Schools (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011)Google Scholar

Yōko, Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai no minkan ongakutai’ [Civil music bands in the Kansai area during the Meiji period], Ongaku kenkyū (Ōsaka ongaku daigaku hakubutsukan nempō) 11 (1993): 25–51Google Scholar

²⁹ Takada, ‘Meijiki no Kansai ni okeru tefūkin no ryūkō’, 74Google Scholar

³⁰ Henseler, Ewald, Satoshi, Murao and Yoshie, Tokimitsu, ‘Suifūkin – Meiji kōki no rīdo paipu’ [Some notes on the suifūkin – a reed-pipe in the late Meiji Era Japan], Elisabeth University of Music Research Bulletin 21 (2001): 63–71Google Scholar

³¹ Henseler, ‘Suifūkin – Meiji kōki no rīdo paipu’, 71Google Scholar

³² Nakao Tozan, Vaiorin onpu daiichigō sōkyoku Chidori no kyoku [ , Music for violin No.1, ‘Plover's melody’] (Osaka: Chikurinken, second edition 1906)Google Scholar

Shūkan Asahi ed., Nedanshi nenpyō [Chronology of the history of prices] (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1988)Google Scholar

³³ The most-known and best-sold series, in general, is Senō-gakufu [Music of Senō] for singers. They produced many ‘pieces’ of opera arias. Many of the cover illustrations were drawn by Takehisa Yumeji (1884–1934), the most popular artist of the Taisho era.

³⁴ Iwane, Matsuyama, ‘Nihon ni okeru vaiorin 2’[The violin in Japan, 2], Ongakukai 3/3 (1910): 44Google Scholar

³⁵ Ōnoki, ‘Gakki sangyō ni okeru seshū keiei no ichi genkei (I)’, 17. Ōnoki gives the source of the data as Suzuki Masakichi's Suzuki vaiorin no sōsei enkaku [History of Suzuki Violin Co., Ltd.], but this work could not be found.

³⁶ The original data of the Japan Export Trade Promotion Agency's Chōki juyō dōkō chōsa kekka are the data of the Suzuki Violin Co., Ltd.

³⁷ Nishiyama Matsunosuke, Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600–1868, transl. Gerald Groemer (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997)Google Scholar

Groemer, Gerald, ‘Noh at the Crossroads: Commoners Performance during the Edo Period’, Asian Theatre Journal 15/1 (1998): 117–141Google Scholar

Groemer, Gerald, ‘Elite Culture for Common Audiences: Machiiri Nō and Kanjin Nō in the City of Edo’, Asian Theatre Journal 15/2 (1998): 230–252Google Scholar

³⁸ Yajima Fumika, Sō-shamisen ongaku to kindaika [Music for koto and shamisen and modernization] (PhD diss, Japan Women's University, 2007): 58.

³⁹ Reiko, Tanimura, ‘Practical Frivolities: The Study of Shamisen Among Girls of the Late Edo Townsman Class’, Japan Review 23 (2011): 73–96Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Kokyū and biwa [] were also restricted to tōdō's musicians, but they are not of direct relevance to the present discussion. See Groemer, Gerald, ‘The Guild of the Blind in Tokugawa Japan’, Monumenta Nipponica 56/3 (2001): 349–380Google Scholar

⁴¹ Kōsuke, Nakashio, ‘Meiji shinkyoku ni tsuite’ [On Meiji new pieces], in Nihon ongaku to sono shūhen [Japanese music and its related fields] (Tokyo: Ongaku no tomo sha, 1973): 189–206Google Scholar

⁴² Philip Flavin has desribed their situation, citing the oral history of Nakashio, in his article, ‘Meiji shinkyoku: The Beginnings of Modern Music for the Koto’, Japan Review 22 (2010): 103–23.

⁴³ Tanimura, ‘Practical Frivolities’, 78–79Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Here I present only the numbers of jiuta-sōkyoku, nagauta and yamada-ryū sōkyoku, since pieces from other genres were scarce. Nakao included 34 jiuta-sōkyoku and 3 Yamada-school sōkyoku, he issued no nagauta; Kōga, issued 31 jiuta-sōkyoku, 4 nagauta and 2 Yamada-school sōkyoku; Machida issued only 4 jiuta-sōkyoku, 9 nagauta and 3 Yamada-school sōkyoku.

⁴⁵ Kōji, Nagai, ‘Ōsaka no ongakushi, seiyō ongaku sono 2’ [The music history of Osaka, Western music no.2], Ongaku bunka 22 (1957): 20–21Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Morita Shūzan, ‘Tozan-ryū no keifu wo saguru, Nakao Tozan ga shugyō jidai ni naratta shishō’ [Investigating the origins of the Tozan school: Who was Nakao Tozan's teacher?], Nihon Dentō Ongaku Kenkyū Sentā-shohō 4 (2007): 55–77. The earliest known record of Nakao and Kōga performing together in concert, identified by Morita, is in 1904.

⁴⁷ Mihoko, Nogawa, ‘Meijiki no sankyoku no ensōkai ni tsuite’ [On the sankyoku concerts of the Meiji era], Bulletin, Faculty of Music, Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku 17 (1992): 45–84Google Scholar

⁴⁸ William Malm, Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, new edition (New York: Kodansha USA, 2000 (originally published 1964)): 200–204Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Wada Katsuhisa, ed., Kyōgoku-ryū sandai nenpu [The big three chronological records of Kyōgoku-school] (Fukui: Kyōgoku-ryū sōkyoku kamikita no gakudō, 2001)Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Mochida Katsuho, Maboroshi no koto [Koto from the dream world] (Fukuoka: Nishinippon Shinbun, 1974): 65–68Google Scholar

⁵¹ Kineie [ ] is a very common surname among nagauta players, and it is usually pronounced Kineya, but in the case of Kineie Yashichi IV [ ], it is definitely Kineie (the character may be pronounced ya, ie, or uchi in personal names). She first belonged in the Kineya [ ] school, but she formally changed her name from Kineya [ ] to Kineya [ ] in 1927 and from Kineya [ ] to Kineie [ ] in 1930. Her explanation for this change was that she wanted to expand her teaching activity using shamisen-bunkafu notation, and that remaining a member of the Kineya school would limit her freedom to innovate, since Kineya-school nagauta players insisted on continuing with their classical teaching method and did not approve her use of notation. (Kineie kai Kineie shi Hensan Iinkai, ed., Kineie-shi, Bunkafu Sōshi Hachijusshūnen Kinen Hakkō [The History of Kineie, the 80th anniversary of the establishment of bunkafu]) (Tokyo: Kineiekai, 2003): 12–13).

⁵² This rule was not perfectly observed. Some Edo-era paintings depict laypeople playing shakuhachi. On the history of the shakuhachi see the article by Kiku Day in this issue.

⁵³ The founder of the Kinko school was Kurosawa Kinko I (1710–1771). He was originally a lower-grade samurai and later became a komusō.

⁵⁴ A concert of sankyoku with shakuhachi is reported in Ongaku Zasshi [Music Magazine] 5 (Jan. 1891): 18–19.

⁵⁵ Tozan-ryū henshū-bu, ed., Tozan-ryū shi [The history of the Tozan school] (Tokyo: Tozanryū sōke, 1932): 1–10Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Tozan-ryu henshū-bu, ed., Tozan-ryu shi, 40Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Kineie kai Kineie shi Hensan Iinkai, ed., Kineieshi, Bunkafu Sōshi Hachijusshūnen Kinen Hakkō, 9–11.

⁵⁸ Koson, Suzuki, ‘Hōgaku to kifu’ [Japanese music and notation] Ongakukai (Jan. 1910): 61Google Scholar

⁵⁹ The pieces that appear in both series are ‘Tsumikusa’ [ , ‘Picking Young Grass’] by Kikuhara Kotoji (1878–1944), ‘Kongōseki’ [ , ‘Diamond’] by Tateyama Noboru (1876–1926) and ‘Chigozakura’ [ , ‘Mountain Cherry’] by Kikutake Shōtei (1884–1954), a fellow pupil of Kikuta Utao (1879–1949), a jiuta-sōkyoku player who published a violin tutor.

⁶⁰ Nakashio, ‘Meiji shinkyoku ni tsuite’.

⁶¹ Flavin, ‘The beginnings of modern music for the koto’, 111, says: ‘Tateyama borrowed melodic and rhythmic material from Western military music to his “Gaisen rappa no shirabe” (Melody of Triumphant Trumpet)’. According to Shiotsu, ‘Meijiki Kansai no minkan ongakutai’, neighbourhood music bands started to increase in 1892 in the Kansai area and the peak was between 1894 and 1907. Neighbourhood bands pleased people so much that they were asked to perform at various kinds of celebrations and military events. Considering that ‘Gaisen rappa no shirabe’ was composed in 1896, Tateyama's intention to popularize sōkyoku is obvious, as Flavin points out.

⁶² Mutsuko, Ishihara, ‘Meijiki Kansai ni okeru vaiorin juyō no yōsō: wayō setchū genshō ni tsuite’ [Aspects of the violin in the Kansai region during the Meiji period: On the East–West bridge phenomenon], Ongaku kenkyū (ōsaka ongaku daigaku ongaku kenkyūsho nempō) 11 (1993): 101–110Google Scholar

⁶³ Nitto Record 252- A/B. Shakuhachi: Ueda Hōdō (1892–1974); violin and shamisen: Kikutera Daikōdō; koto: Kikusue Daikōdō. Ueda Hōdō was a pupil of Nakao Tozan and was given the name Ueda Kazan by Nakao. In 1917 Nakao expelled Ueda from his school, and Ueda established his own shakuhachi school. Ueda then stopped using the name Kazan and gave his name as Ueda Hōdō. The date of this recording is unknown, but Ueda's biography makes it probable that it was recorded after 1917, when he was expelled from Nakao's school and took his own name.

⁶⁴ ‘Kongōseki’, the penultimate ‘piece’ published by Nakao, appeared in 1918. The date of publication for the final piece is unknown. But the lists of upcoming releases on existing ‘pieces’ around 1920 include some that were never published.

⁶⁵ Kabuki is a good example. The Meiji government considered this form of theatre lowbrow. In 1872 the government told kabuki impresarios that they expected it to become a theatre art commensurate with a cultivated nation, and requested changes. The theatrical play reformation movement was led by a group of politicians, entrepreneurs and scholars established in 1886.

⁶⁶ Utagawa Kōichi refers to the transition of yūgei during the Meiji era in his three essays that focus on shamisen and koto.

⁶⁷ The Meiji government changed the direction of its policies several times.

⁶⁸ Kōtōjogakkō kyōju-yōmoku [ , Syllabus for girls’ schools] of 1903.

⁶⁹ Kōtōjogakkō kyōju-yōmoku [ , Syllabus for girls’ schools] of 1911.

⁷⁰ Kōtōjogakkō-kitei [ , Regulations for girls’ schools], Monbushō –rei [ , Ordinance of the Ministry of Education] in 1895. However, the Regulations for girls’ schools allowed schools to avoid music lessons with permission from the appropriate authorities (see Kōtōjogakkō kyōju-yōmoku, 1903 and 1911). Many missionary girls’ schools offered extracurricular music lesson with the choices of instruments, but there were also schools that excluded violin from the available choices.

⁷¹ Shūtō Yoshiki, ‘Narihibiku katei kūkan, 1910–20 nendai Nippon ni okeru katei ongaku no gensetsu’ [The home as a music space: discourses on home music in Japan in the 1910s–20's], The Annual Review of Sociology 21 (2008): 95–106.

⁷² Hatsuko, Kitamura, ‘Katei ni tekisuru Ongaku’ [Proper music for home], Ongakukai 3/7 (1910): 50–51Google Scholar

Tetteki, Tōgi, ‘Shōrai no kokumin gakki’ [National instrument for the future] Ongakukai 3/9 (1910): 45–47Google Scholar. (Amaya [unknown pronunciation]), ‘Kateigaku no Sentaku’ [Selection of home music] Ongakukai 5/12 (1912): 27–8. ‘Koto no Gakkō’ [Koto school] Ongakukai 8/8 (1915): 42–3. ‘Shakai no koe’ [Voices of society] Ongakukai 8/9 (1915): 39–41. ‘Shakai no koe’ [Voices of society], Ongakukai 8/10 (1915): 65–7. ‘Nipponjin no Ongaku’ [Music for the Japanese], Ongakukai 8/10 (1915): 61–5.

Toshio, Suzuki, ‘Shōka shumi no zōshin to Katei ongaku’ [Promotion of Shōka and home music] Ongakukai 10/1 (1917): 63–66Google Scholar

Ginpei, Nishiyama, ‘Shamisen gaku no atarashii kokoromi’ [New attempts for shamisen-gaku], Ongakukai 12/1 (1919): 37–38Google Scholar

⁷³ Kōichi, Utagawa, ‘Meiji kōki , Taishō zenki fujin zasshi ni miru shamisen imēji no hen'yō – katei no seisei to yūgei no kindai’ [Changes in the image of ‘shamisen’ in women's magazines during the transition from the Meiji to Taisho periods: How ‘Yūgei’ survived in Modern Japan against the background of emergence of ‘Home’], Yokagaku kenkyū 14 (2011): 3–14Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Tanimura, ‘Practical Frivolities’, 90Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Shūtō, ‘Narihibiku katei kūkan, 1910–20 nendai Nippon ni okeru katei ongaku no gensetsu’, 98.

⁷⁶ Yamanoi Motokiyo (1885–1970), court musician and violinist, is a good example. He studied the violin with the instructor of court orchestra Wilhelm (Guglielmo) Dubravcic (1869–1925) and graduated from the Tokyo Music School; in other words, he received the highest level of violin training available in Japan at the time. In his series on studying the violin, published in the magazine Ongakukai, he opposed the boom in Osaka of playing zokkyoku on the violin and criticized it (article in the May 1912 issue).

⁷⁷ Around 1918 Saitō Masaru started publishing Saitō Gakufu [Sheet music for ensemble of string duet], violin or mandolin duets, and Dainihon Katei Ongakukai started publishing pieces for violin and koto and/or shamisen. In the early 1920s Senō Gakufu accelerated publication. The series of pieces for violin(s) and/or mandolin(s) was issued by Kōyō Gakufu Publishers in Osaka and Sinfonie Gakufu Publishers in Tokyo. The latest music of the series of Nakao that I have been able to confirm was printed in 1923 and that of Kōga in 1921.

⁷⁸ Both musicians of Japanese native music and musicians of Western music prepared the pieces for this concert.

⁷⁹ Flavin, Philip, ‘Sōkyoku-jiuta: Edo-period chamber music’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, ed. Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007): 169–195Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Miyagi had originally composed this piece for koto and shakuhachi in 1929.

⁸¹ 78 rpm records of ‘Haru no Umi’ were also produced in the US by Victor and in France by Gramophone, but I have found no information about its reception outside Japan. Audio source available at: (first half) http://neptune.kcua.ac.jp/l_gazo/0159730013.mp3; (second half) http://neptune.kcua.ac.jp/l_gazo/0378760003.mp3

⁸² Victor 13106, recorded in December 1930. Koto, Miyagi Michio; shakuhachi, Yoshida Seifū. The difference between this recording and that of Miyagi and Chemet is striking. The recording can be heard at: (first half) http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1319027; (second half) http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1333951. An interesting feature of those recordings is the intonation of Chemet and Yoshida: the two take very different approaches to harmonizing with the koto.

⁸³ Nipponophone 3556. According to Christopher N. Nozawa, it was recorded in August 1919. Audio source: www.ena-violin.com/katsuko_sakamotoviolin/.

⁸⁴ Sakamoto must have known that the piece was written in , because the notation was printed. She was a family member of the publisher, and was very involved in the business. Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, Tsūshin kyōju vaiorin kōgiroku daijūippen, Taisei Meikyokushū [Correspondence course violin lecture notes, vol. 11, Collection of Western masterpieces] (Fukuoka: Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, 1919): 54.

⁸⁵ Andō Kō(ko), ‘Vaiorin gakushū ni tsuite no chūi’ [Cautions when learning the violin], Ongaku 2/3 (1909): 66–68Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, Tsūshin kyōju vaiorin kōgiroku dainihen [Correspondence course violin lecture notes volume 2] (Fukuoka: Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, 55th reprint of revised edition 1919 (first edition 1913)): 109Google Scholar

Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, Tsūshin kyōju vaiorin kōgiroku daisanpen [Correspondence course violin lecture notes volume 3] (Fukuoka: Dainihon Katei Ongakukai, 55th reprint of revised edition 1919 (first edition 1913))Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Michihito, Sugiura, ‘Shakuhachi to vaiorin no gatchōhō’ [How to tune shakuhachi and violin correctly], Sankyoku 96 (Mar. 1930): 28–32Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Reirō, Fujita, ‘Teikin to sangen’ [Violin and shamisen], Sankyoku 156 (Mar. 1935): 73–74Google Scholar. This is a review of the first concert of New Japanese Music that involved the performance of a Japanese violinist. Fujita (1883–1974; real given name Shun'ichi []; Reirō was his professional name as shakuhachi player) explained ‘the intonation of the violin was not as fine as that of shamisen’, and criticized it with the word ‘unsatisfactory’. He was a shakuhachi instructor before he started publishing Sankyoku. This magazine specialized in sankyoku.