Tsugaru Shamisen Research Articles

Sight vs. Sound Judgments of Music Performance Depend on Relative Performer Quality: Cross-cultural Evidence From Classical Piano and Tsugaru Shamisen Competitions

Which information dominates in evaluating performance in music? Both experts and laypeople consistently report believing that sound should be the most important domain when judging music competitions, but experimental studies of Western participants rating video-only vs. audio-only versions of 6-second excerpts of Western classical performances have shown that in at least some cases visual information can play a stronger role. However, whether this phenomenon applies generally to music competitions or is restricted to specific repertoires or contexts is disputed. In this Registered Report, we focus on testing the generalizability of sight vs. sound effects by replicating previous studies of classical piano competitions with Japanese participants, while also expanding the same paradigm using new examples from competitions of a traditional Japanese folk musical instrument: the Tsugaru shamisen. For both classical piano and Tsugaru shamisen, we ask participants to choose the winner between the 1st- and 2nd- placing performers in 5 competitions and the 1st-place and low-ranking performers in 5 competitions (i.e., 40 performers total from 10 piano and 10 shamisen competitions). We tested the following three predictions twice each (once for piano and once for shamisen): 1) an interaction was predicted between domain (video-only vs. audio-only) and variance in quality (choosing between 1st and 2nd place vs. choosing between 1st and low-placing performers); 2) visuals were predicted to trump sound when variation in quality is low (1st vs. 2nd place); and 3) sound was predicted to trump visuals when variation in quality is high (1st vs. low-placing). Our experiments (n = 155 participants) confirmed our first predicted interaction between audio/visual domain and relative performer quality for both piano and shamisen conditions, suggesting that this interaction is cross-culturally general. In contrast, the second prediction was only supported for the piano stimuli and the third prediction was only supported for the shamisen condition, suggesting culturally dependent factors in the specific balance between sight and sound in the judgment of musical performance. Our results resolve discrepancies and debates from previous sight-vs-sound studies by replicating and extending them to include non-Western participants and musical traditions. Our findings may also have practical applications to evaluation criteria for performers, judges, and organizers of competitions, concerts, and auditions.

Music is appreciated cross-modally, but is culture- and context-dependent

A recommendation of: Gakuto Chiba, Yuto Ozaki, Shinya Fujii, Patrick E. Savage Sight vs. sound judgments of music performance depend on relative performer quality: Cross-cultural evidence from classical piano and Tsugaru shamisen competitions [Stage 2 Registered Report] https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xky4j

Understanding the role of visual and auditory information in evaluating musical performance

A recommendation of: Gakuto Chiba, Yuto Ozaki, Shinya Fujii, Patrick E. Savage Sight vs. sound in the judgment of music performance: Cross-cultural evidence from classical piano and Tsugaru shamisen competitions https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xky4j

Rethinking Iemoto: Theorizing Individual Agency in the Tsugaru Shamisen Oyama-ryū

This article discusses issues of individual agency arising from previous scholarship on iemoto (家元) (headmaster) in Japanese performing arts. Extant literature on the iemoto system has tended to view human action as mere enactment of rules and standards. The article develops a theory of individual agency and then examines the sociocultural practices of individuals associated with an iemoto school of tsugaru shamisen music called Oyama-ryū. This article aims to facilitate an in-depth understanding and critical rethinking of the iemoto organization’s formative processes, transformativity, and temporality as well as individual members’ projects and creativity.

Japanese Rural Revitalization: The Reality and Potential of Cultural Commodities as Local Brands

AbstractAgainst a background of the recent Heisei dai-gappei municipal mergers, this paper considers the reality of local revitalization in rural Japan through local branding; that is, the process through which local products are tied to the region from which they originate. While the importance of branding was formally recognized by the Japanese national government in 2006, this paper takes the position that the current mechanisms driving place-branding ultimately miss the potential of locally appropriate products. As part of the current rush to ‘brand’ anything local, the Tsugaru district of Aomori Prefecture has identified eight products for branding. However, considering the historical trajectory of Tsugaru nuri lacquerware and Tsugaru shamisen music, the two cultural commodities most associated with Tsugaru, it is clear that the potential of branding is complicated, if not countered—specifically in the case of cultural commodities—by the process of branding itself. The research concludes that in orde...

Tsugaru Shamisen : From Region to Nation (and Beyond) and Back Again

This is a study of Tsugaru shamisen, a well-known music genre and musical instrument with the same name that has distinct roots in the Tsugaru district of Aomori prefecture in northern Japan.' Tsugaru shamisen has a recognized home in Tsugaru, as is indexed in the first word of the genre's name, but today it is widely known and found throughout Japan - and beyond- and considered a unique Japanese music style. The genre is recognized within the Tsugaru district as holding a special place in the recent cultural history of northern Honshfi, particularly the T6hoku region,2 even though it has been influenced nationally in not only the development of its music style, especially as it has gained wider popularity in other parts of Japan, but also in the way its local identity has been constructed and contested in wider discourses of regional and national identity. Yet, what is perhaps most remarkable about Tsugaru shamisen is that it is a relatively new genre, particularly in terms of its contemporary style in wider spheres of Japanese culture, where it has gained popularity among younger and older players and listeners alike, while remaining at the same time one of contemporary Japan's icons of a traditional Japanese past. In this respect, Tsugaru shamisen is, to use the terminology of Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983), a recently invented tradition, even though discussion of its origins inherently links it to earlier styles of music found in the Tsugaru district from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. This article explores the acknowledged birthplace of Tsugaru shamisen in terms of the ways the genre has been foregrounded in discourses on regional ownership, and in the dialectics of regional and national constructions of cultural identity. The study provides insight into the phenomenon of localization, or regionalization, of one specific, and highly visible in contemporary Japanese culture, music genre within and vis-a-vis a wider geographic (national and international) context. While some scholars have provided in-depth discussion of the music and history of Tsugaru shamisen (see, for example, Groemer 1999; Kinoshita 2003; Suda, Daij6, and Rausch 1998), very few studies

Not Your Grandfather's Music: Tsugaru Shamisen Blurs the Lines Between "Folk," "Traditional," and "Pop"

This paper explores the ways in which Tsugaru shamisen musicians combine innovative techniques with a reverence for the past, producing music that constantly shifts between the categories of folk, traditional, and pop. I will demonstrate these qualities by examining the recordings, live performances, and images of some of Tsugaro shamisen's biggest stars the Yoshida Brothers and Agatsuma Hiromitsuin the context of Tsugaro shamisen's rich history, the music's previous booms, and its growing international exposure.

The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music: The Origin and Development of a Japanese Folk Performing Art

The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music: The Origin and Development of a Japanese Folk Performing Art

SUDA Naoyuki, DAIJO Kazuo and Anthony RAUSCH The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music : The Origin and Development of a Japanese Folk Performing Art

SUDA Naoyuki, DAIJO Kazuo and Anthony RAUSCH The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music : The Origin and Development of a Japanese Folk Performing Art

Suda Naoyuki, Daijo Kazuo and Anthony Rausch, "The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music"

Suda Naoyuki, Daijo Kazuo and Anthony Rausch, "The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music"