Resonances of Chindon-ya, Sounding Space and Sociality in Contemporary Japan by Marié Abe

Abstract

Reviewed by: Resonances of Chindon-ya, Sounding Space and Sociality in Contemporary Japan by Marié Abe Bruno Deschênes (bio) Resonances of Chindon-ya, Sounding Space and Sociality in Contemporary Japan. Marié Abe. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2018. xxv + 252 pp., 8 pages of plates, b&w photographs, appendix, bibliography, index. ISBN: 9780819577788 (hardcover), $85.00; ISBN: 9780819577795 (paperback), $27.95; ISBN: 9780819577801 (e-book), $22.99. Companion website: http://www.ResonancesOfChindon-ya.com. During Japan's Edo period (1603–1868), Edo city (today's Tokyo) was a major center for entertainment, alongside Osaka and Kyoto. Among the many forms of entertainment found mainly in and around the pleasure quarters were those that relied on a large number of street performers (see Groemer 2016). When Japan took the path to modernization in the second half of the nineteenth century, a majority of these street-performing troupes disappeared. Although a few still exist today, the most prominent genre is one that became popular after World War II, called chindon-ya. Marié Abe, in this most enlightening book, recounts how this form of street performance adapted itself to twentieth-century modernity, becoming a modern redefinition of Japanese street sounds and entertainment. The primary argument of Abe's book shows how the practice of chindon-ya is built on a close interrelation between sound, history, and "sociality" in defining street and neighborhood environments as "dynamic space produced through social relations, practices and imaginaries" (xxii). Space, time, and social and musical sounds become a form of embodied and affective resonance, which Abe defines by using the Japanese term hibiki (resonance, but not just in an acoustical sense) (xxiii). Chindon-ya adapted its characteristics while keeping a nostalgic foot in the past. In her introduction, Abe gives us a view of her key arguments and provides an overview of the sounds and history of chindon-ya. The syllable chin is the onomatopoetic word for the sound of a small, flat gong chime, and don the sound of the drum. As for ya, it refers to business, in this case a business that "makes sounds." At the beginning of the twentieth century, street musicians were using the shamisen (the three-stringed Japanese lute) as a melodic instrument. Because of the increasing noise of the new urban environment, the [End Page 153] shamisen became almost inaudible. The use of louder brass-and-reed Western instruments proved to be better suited to hearing among and over the incessant street noises. These augment the core percussion instruments, most of which are of Japanese origin, but in particular the kane, the distinctive highpitched small gong that can be heard from afar and that announces to the neighborhood that a troupe is nearby. Chindon-ya's primary function has always been to serve as an advertisement for local businesses, with players distributing pamphlets or publicity sheets to passersby. Troupes perform a wide range of music, including military marches, old popular songs, tunes from traditional comic vaudeville, theme songs from children's TV programs, contemporary J-pop tunes, and some known songs from the West. Other than their standard introduction, few tunes are exclusive to them. Their advertising practice includes speech and theatrical performance, with a mellifluous style of delivery coming from popular theater. In addition, extravagant costumes and makeup, both traditional and modern, are part of the image of chindonya, although some musicians might also dress casually. The chindon-ya style of today, as well as the term itself, appeared in the 1930s. The origin can be traced back to sometime around 1845, while the use of sound for self-advertisement can be traced back at least to the twelfth century. Up until the 1930s, these street entertainments had different names and formats, but after World War II chindon-ya really took off. There were well over 2,000 chindon-ya performers across the country in the reconstruction period of the early 1950s. Toward the end of the 1990s there was a modest resurgence, with about 30 troupes existing today. Abe indicates that chindon-ya shows numerous ambiguities. It is a marginal activity, viewed by many as out of place, especially from a modern-world viewpoint. It is both a...