Essay Final Editing

How to Protect Japanese Traditional Arts and Music

Research Question

How should Japanese do in order to protect Japanese traditional arts and music?

Thesis Statement

Japanese government should do two things in order to protect Japanese traditional arts and music, 1) make elementary school to teach Japanese traditional culture at least once a week by appropriate way which is suitable for each grade and 2) educate teachers to be able to teach such traditions in daily classes.

Outline

I. Introduction

  A. Recent situation of Japanese traditional arts and music

  B. Thesis statement

II. The Problem of Japanese Art and Music Classes in Elementary School Today

  A. Focusing on Western Arts and Music

  B. Traditional Arts and Music Treated as "History"

III. The Effects of Teaching Japanese Arts and Music in Elementary School

  A. Comparison of Art Education 

     1. The Case of Other Countries than Japan

     2. The Case of Japan

  B. Unfamiliarity of Japanese Traditional Culture

IV. How to Teach Traditional Arts and Music in Elementary School

  A. Model Classes

              1. As Daily Classes

              2. Special Classes

  B. Education of Teachers

V. Conclusion

How to Protect Japanese Traditional Arts and Music

Do you know the Japanese four-character compound “onko-chishin”? This means to know new things by studying from the past. This proverb represents the Japanese traditional way of studying, but this is changing now. Today children do not study Japanese traditions much compared to western culture in school.

Nowadays, Japanese traditional arts and music are suffering from decreasing of successors. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) says that there were 290,000 creators in 1979, but this number decreased to only 93,000 by 2006. There are several reasons why the population of creators is decreasing, but this is the largest reason (METI). Moreover, traditional arts are not known to Japanese people well. According to the survey of METI, in 307 traditional arts, there are only 21 which were known by more than 50% of Japanese people. This shows how few Japanese people know about their own culture.

There is the law to promote Japanese traditional arts industry (METI), but this is not enough because this law is only about industrial protection. In order to protect traditional arts as culture, it is important to make people interested in them. In particular, education of children is significantly crucial, because by being educated from early childhood, it becomes easy to be familiar with such arts and music. Accordingly, Japanese government should do two things in order to protect Japanese traditional arts and music; 1) make elementary school teach Japanese traditional culture at least once a week by appropriate way which is suitable for each grade and 2) educate teachers to be able to teach such traditions in daily classes.

There are two courses why students cannot be interested in Japanese traditions; 1) western cultures are taught too much and 2) Japanese traditions are treated as a kind of historical things.

In Japanese elementary school, many teachers tend to mainly teach western music and arts or Japanese music and arts which are strongly influenced western culture. Koji Matsunobu, who is the philosophiae doctor of University of Illinois, draws on Imada and Ogawa that this situation is due to westernization which happened after the Meiji Restoration (Bresler 89). In Japanese elementary school, western cultures are taught in many music and arts class. I examined three elementary school music textbooks (Miyama, Yuyama and Ohara). In music classes, many western instruments appear in textbooks from lower classes. For example, children practice the recorder from second grade. However, Japanese traditional instruments do not appear in textbooks until sixth grade, and children do not play these instruments in many cases. There are only the names of famous instruments, such as koto or shakuhachi, and the very brief explanation of how to play. The curriculum says that teachers have to select some instruments which have come down in Japan or other countries and which suit to students (MEXT 71). Accordingly, there is no rule how much children have to study Japanese traditional music. The same thing can be said about arts class. I examined three elementary art textbooks, too (Nihon Jidou Bijutsu Kenkyuukai, Nihon Zoukei Kyouiku Kenkyuukai and Kurita), but there is little information about Japanese traditional arts. There are some columns about traditional crafts, but only hanga (block prints) and sumie (ink paintings) are for students’ experience. The rests of the textbooks are mainly about western arts. This gap seems to be an imbalance.

Moreover, these traditional arts and music are treated as a part of history in Japan, and they are taught in history classes, even though they are kinds of art. Children study and remember these traditions as terms of history, so students only listen to the lecture. However, according to the Benesse, the corporation which is focusing on many things concerning education, 77.3 percent of students like arts class and 70.8 percent like music class, while only 51.9 percent like sociology class (Benesse). These statistics show that students are interested in doing actually than only listening to the lecture. This is one reason why they cannot be interested in these traditional arts and music.

However, in other countries, the situation is much different from Japan. For example, elementary school in Australia, students learn about Aborigine in class (Sherrard). In this class, students not only listen to the lectures about Aborigine, but they also experience some traditional arts and music. Students experience traditional Aboriginal body painting, stenciled hand print (the record of people’s presence), and Storytelling Telephone Lesson (to tell the stories or songs which tell how the world is made) (Sherrard).  Like this, many countries have practical classes of their own traditional arts and music. It enables students to be interested in their culture.

Another reason why students cannot be interested in Japanese traditional culture is that they are not familiar enough. There is little opportunity to see, listen or experience traditional arts and music. Furthermore, even if there are some opportunities, people are overwhelmed by too high an obligation. So, it is important to be familiar with such Japanese traditional culture from early childhood.

How to teach traditional culture in elementary school is the most important problem. Some model classes for each grade students which are developed by Matsumoto Tooru, who is the member of Hiroshima Prefectural Education Center, can solve this problem. First, for students in the first and second grades, to teach warabeuta (Japanese traditional songs for children) is a good way to know traditional music (Matsumoto 126). Students in these grades tend to move their body with the music in order to familiarize themselves with it (Matsumoto 126). Second, for students in the third and fourth grades, to introduce “ma (silence)” is a good way to make them interested in traditional music, because these students can perceive music not only sensibly but also intellectually (Matsumoto 127). Third, for students in the fifth and sixth grades, teachers should teach some traditional instruments (Matsumoto 128). According to Matsumoto, many students practice the wadaiko actually (128). Students make some rhythm pattern and familiarize themselves with such traditional rhythms. Like this, it is important to make students study traditional music in a suitable way for each grade, and these classes should be hold at least once a week, because by doing so students can enjoy it constantly.

Furthermore, it can also stimulate students to be interested in Japanese traditions to invite special teachers who are professional players of traditional instruments. Some students learn shinobue, koto or shakuhachi in elementary schools as special classes. However, Kato Hagiko, who is the member of the Traditional Arts and Music Education Supporting Network, says that these classes are only single classes in many cases and there are very few offers from teachers. Nevertheless, these classes enable students to be interested in Japanese traditional instruments. According to Kato, there is no difference between recorders and shinobue for students, because they have no preconceptions. In addition, the notation for shinobue is very different from ones for western instruments. Thus, every student can learn the notation from zero and students who cannot read western notation and who dislike music class become to be able to enjoy music (Kato).

It is also important to train good teachers. In many case, schools invite professional players or artists in order to have special classes today. However, if homeroom teachers can tell those things to students, they can learn in daily class. In this way, students can practice the instruments far longer than doing in special classes, and they can also enjoy them far longer. This is why it is important to glow teachers who can teach Japanese traditional culture. There are courses for successors of traditional music in Japan, and in these courses people can learn many traditional performing arts, such as nagauta and yosebayashi (Takase 1). It is almost impossible that every teacher learn all these courses, but they should learn these at least to some extent. Or, as is written before, in Australia, teachers tell students about Aborigine in classes. In these classes, teachers introduce some painting or crafts made by ancient Aboriginal artists, show several symbolic things and make students experiment some of these arts (Stevens). Japanese teachers have to learn from Australian teachers’ way of teaching.

    In conclusion, Japanese elementary students should learn more about Japanese traditional arts and music in class in order to familiarize themselves with these traditions by knowing about them. It is important to make students experience these traditions actually constantly in daily classes, and in order to do so, Japanese government should bring up good teachers who can teach Japanese traditions. Some western people like Japanese music (Pillai), but even if Japanese are asked about their culture, many of them cannot answer well because they are not educated about their traditions well. Japanese traditional arts and music exist only in Japan, and they can never be seen in any other countries. Japanese should be proud of their culture, but actually they do not know even though they are their original culture, so Japanese should place importance on their culture much more. By teaching them in elementary school, many children can familiarize themselves with these traditions, and as a result, the number of successors will increase again.

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