Shō in New Music: Study on Cultural Appropriation

This article has been translated from the original Japanese publication dated July 1, 2020, on Gagaku Dayori Vol. 62.

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  “Since hearing gagaku music here in New York, I’m really into the sound of shō, and would like to compose for the instrument one day. But my family do not have any ties to Japan. Are there things that I should be careful about in order not to disrespect the Japanese culture?” This was a question I received from a composition student at Manhattan School of Music, where I gave a workshop titled “Shō: Composition Techniques and Notation”.

 

  In recent years, the debate over cultural appropriation seems to have intensified. Cultural appropriation can be defined as the act of adopting, usually without acknowledgement, the customs, practices, and ideas associated with or originating in minority communities. One of the many incidents which blew up was the kimono fitting event “Kimono Wednesday” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which invited visitors to try on a kimono in front of Claude Monet’s “La Japonaise”, depicting Monet’s wife in the same traditional Japanese garment. This event was canceled due to protests over its “racist, Orientalist, and colonialist” approach to Japanese culture.

 

  So, must one take into account of their ethnicity and their family ancestry when composing for gagaku instruments? My goal in this article is to first introduce the criticisms towards using other cultures, and to explore multiple angles of the discussion. It is my wish that the article can be constructive for those, both Japanese and non-Japanese, who aim to engage with gagaku instruments, whether in performance, composition, or research.

 

  The criticisms over appropriated cultures, in many cases, stem from the history of exploitation done by colonialism and imperialism. Take for example, the New Age movement by the hippies, during the latter half of the twentieth century. Considering the history of early European settlers plundering the Indigenous People’s lands, culture, and ideology on the American continents, it is unsurprising that Indigenous People were upset to see hippies of European ancestry oversimplify and misrepresent their cultures. However, objectively defining the boundary between cultural appreciation and appropriation is, to put it simply, nearly impossible.

 

  In 2019, British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was heavily criticized around appropriation for his newly opened Lucky Cat, an Asian fusion restaurant “inspired by the underground clubs of Tokyo in the 1930’s”. While an early press release introduced the restaurant as “authentic”, critics pointed out the lack of Asian chefs in the kitchen, as well as oversimplifying Chinese and Japanese cuisines as “Asian”.

 

  On the other hand, data shows that more than 90% of the restaurants serving Japanese food worldwide are owned by persons without ethnic or cultural roots to Japan, and of those, other Asian ethnicities such as Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese, hold the largest share. While many of the dishes served in these “Japanese restaurants” are untraceable to Japan, criticism of plagiarizing culture is unheard of in this context.

 

  Alarmed at the growing numbers of restaurants neglecting the strict traditional trainings sushi-chefs go through, and serving pseudo-Japanese style dishes, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan announced a system to certify “authentic” Japanese food, which was quickly shut down by Western media as a “revival of nationalism” (Washington Post).  The reason why the appearance of “sushi police” prompted a backlash from the Western media, frequently amplifying the voices critical to appropriation, will be illustrated, alongside with the point at issue about cultural appropriation, in the latter part of this article.

 

  It is undeniable that cultures have evolved and transformed over time by spreading across the world with human flow. Cultures have been borrowed, stolen, mixed, and appropriated throughout human history. In search of how we can mold future cultures, I interviewed Daryl Jamieson and Miya Masaoka, each of whom who has dealt with this topic in their respective ways. The interview was conducted in Japanese with Jamieson, and in English with Masaoka.

 

  Upon receiving his doctorate in composition at the University of York, Canadian composer Daryl Jamieson came to Japan as a MEXT Fellow, studying with Jo Kondo at Tokyo University of Arts. As the recipient of the 3rd Toshi Ichiyanagi Award for “Is nowhere free of bad tidings?”, his works for Japanese traditional instruments (wagakki) are widely recognized in Japan. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Kyushu University.

 

  In 2016, in Winnipeg, Jamieson was confronted by an audience member on the topic of cultural appropriation, after presenting his composition for string quartet, which was based on waka (31-syllable Japanese poem). To this criticism, Jamieson explains, “when dealing with cultural appropriation, it is important to consider the level of understanding the appropriator has over the appropriated culture and tradition, rather than the ethnicity of the person”. He adds, “Where I am unable to agree with the people who criticize appropriation of cultures is when they insert the concept of ‘ethnicity’ into the debate. They say a Japanese-Canadian can wear a kimono, but a white Canadian should not do that. If they are both born in Canada, they are both culturally Canadian – why do we need to differentiate people by ethnic ancestry in this way?”

 

  After moving to Japan, Jamieson studied nō theatre (nōgaku) in depth. He says, “we should not bind culture and ethnicity together. Anybody who studies another culture and tradition should be able to be part of that tradition”. Although it is the political left that condemns cultural appropriations, “dividing people by ethnicity is a right-wing ideology”, says Jamieson. He states that those people who say it is culturally insensitive when borrowing an aspect of a specific culture, are brainwashed by capitalism. “Capitalists propagate the narrative of ethnic and racial division to divide and conquer, so the pubic do not start directing their anger against capitalists”.

 

  Born in Washington DC, Miya Masaoka, a Japanese-American artist currently based in New York City, has been actively involved in Japanese culture in the United States, such as the founding and directing of the San Francisco Gagaku Society. Her improvisational performances using koto and electronics are highly popular, and her sound art works are exhibited around the world. Since 2016, she has been the director of the Sound Arts MFA Program at Columbia University.

 

  Masaoka explains that she has seen fetishizations, both subtle and blatant, of Japanese and other minority cultures in the United States. During World War II, her parents were stripped of their daily lives, and forced into internment camp for their ethnicity. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, small-scale gagaku was practiced in a temple in California, however, that too, was shut down by the authorities. “They burned Japanese instruments on the streets”, says Masaoka. “Even after the camps were over, Japanese music was suppressed along with other Japanese culture, so the Japanese Americans started playing organ music in churches. It’s due to these historical tragedies forced upon Japanese-Americans and other minorities, that in the United States, some may find it culturally insensitive when the society appropriates a culture that it once attempted to exterminate”.

 

  In 1993, Masaoka released her first album Compositions/Improvisations with the album cover of herself dressed in kimono. She was met with disapproval and criticisms from some of her Japanese-American community about catering to the image of the “exotic Oriental female”, which was already widespread in the United States. Masaoka’s story made me feel the incomprehensible complexity and weight of history of cultural identity.