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ВЕСТНИК МУЗЫКАЛЬНОЙ НАУКИ № 4 (10) - 2015
УДК 78.01
Masaya Shishikura
TRANSCENDING MUSICAL BODIES: EMBODIMENT OF MULTIPLE BONDS OF THE OGASAWARA ISLANDS
Introduction
This article explores musical bodies that embody "bonds of people" of the Ogasawara Islands, Japan. Various musical activities of Ogasawara transcend our conventional concepts of nation, culture and tradition, and affirm historical and cultural affiliations of this small island community with many others. The article first considers theoretical concepts on performance-based historical activities, such as "historical reenactment" and "historically informed performance". While accepting criticisms on reproduction or manipulation of the past, I feel that these historical practices produce corporeal and empirical knowledge that connect past to the present. The case study of Ogasawara musical culture follows the theoretical considerations, and exemplifies how musical bodies demonstrate multiple pasts of the Ogasawara Islands. A complex history of Ogasawara has provided a variety of musical genres for this small and remote place. On a surface level, the diversity of musical cultures appears to represent a fracturing of memories and identity. However, I argue that the variety of music activities collectively identifies Ogasawara within a plurality of histories and cultures, rather than in a monolithic culture, society or nation. Music and dance can be vital media to embody different pasts of Ogasawara, and enrich the identity of this vulnerable community in multiple and meaninglul ways.
Theoretical Arguments on Musical Bodies
Historical Reenactment For theoretical arguments on musical bodies, I first consider historical reenactment, that is, cultural and educational activities that replicate a past event or story. It aims to provide some experiences of the past by recreating and re-enacting a historic event,
© Masaya Shishikura, 2015
such as a famous battle, exploration, and "living history." I recognise various criticisms on historical reenactment, including issues on authenticity, invention of tradition, and abuse of the past by the performers. However, I also notice great possibilities in such performance-based activities. Historical reenactment seeks insight into bodily practices and performances, and provides shared notion, aesthetics, and "experiences" that connects present to the past.
Here, I cite an interesting case of historical reenactment: a brilliant performance of the canoe Hokule 'a voyaging across the sea. It was a re-enactment of a past Polynesian migration -travelling from an island to another island over the great Pacific Ocean. Navigating the canoe Hokule'a, Hawai'i born Nainoa Thompson (b. 1953) devised "wayfinding" to sail around the ocean without using modern equipment.1 The endeavour was not a precise replication of the migration voyage that occurred in the past. For instance, the Hokule 'a was built of plywood and fibreglass, which were not available to early canoes. However, these departures do not derogate the endeavour and achievement of the voyage. Rather, the re-enactment of a past migration affirmed historical/cultural connections beyond the vast ocean, and enhanced affinity amongst the peoples of the Pacific.
Pacific historian Greg Dening summarises the reenactment of the canoe Hokule'a in the following way: "The canoe was an icon of all sorts of continuities of identity, an icon of conjoining past and present" (2004:182).2 In his book, entitled Performance (1996),3 Dening also asserts:
Making sense of what has happened is how we live. We do it in all sorts of ways. We sing it, dance it, carve it, paint it, tell it, write it. We find different ways to make sense of what has happened according to the different occasions of our telling and the different audiences to which we tell it. (xiv)
In performances, such as singing, dancing, carving, painting, telling and writing, Dening finds
great possibilities that provide experiences of hidden pasts, and demonstrate historical and cultural conjunctions of peoples beyond distance.
Historically Informed Performance
Now, we find "singing" and "dancing" in the Dening statement. To shift my argument toward musical bodies, I shall here consider "historically informed performance." Historically informed performance is an approach that tries to replicate the performance of the period in which the music or theatre work was created. It often employs period instruments and early notation, and tries to arouse insight into the music practices of a historic era. Just like historical reenactment, there are various criticisms of historically informed performance, including fidelity to the musical work and arbitrary selection of practices by the performers. However, historically informed performance also increases our consciousness of the past, and enriches our musical experiences through bodily and performance practices.
In her book, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works (1994),4 scholar of philosophy of music Lydia Goehr presents an extremely positive defence for historically informed performance. She notes that the historically informed performance has appeared in the latter half of the nineteenth century as reaction against modern musical techniques that overwhelmed music of earlier times, and argues alternatives of music making besides mainstream:
More than any other movement currently existing within the European tradition of classical music, the early music movement is perfectly positioned to present itself not only as a 'different way of thinking about music,' but also as an alternative to a performance practice governed by the work-concept (authoritative convention or norm)... it keeps our eyes open to the possibility of producing music in new ways under the regulation of new ideas. It keeps our eyes open to the inherently critical and revisable nature of our regulative concepts. Most importantly, it helps us overcome that deep rooted desire to hold the most dangerous of beliefs, that we have at any time got our practices absolutely right. (284, parenthetical comment my own).
In Goehr's statements, I recognise continuous efforts to communicate with the past through performance bodies that enrich our experiences
and understandings of the past into the present. It is also important to note that Goehr insists that these historical practices present alternative ways of thinking about music that possibly challenge and overcome conventional concepts about music.
Case Study: Ogasawara Musical Bodies
Based on the above-mentioned theoretical arguments about musical bodies, I explore a case of Ogasawara musical culture, its musical bodies and performance practices. Just as in other cases of historical reenactment and historically informed performance, Ogasawara musical bodies increase historical consciousness of this small/remote community, embody a plurality of histories and cultures, and present an alternative view of the islands that transcends conventional concepts of culture, society, and the nation.
The Ogasawara Islands are a cluster of small islands located in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan - about 1,000 km away from mainland Japan (figure 1). A boat trip of 25.5 hours from Tokyo metropolitan area is the only public transportation to Ogasawara, where less than 2,500 people reside today in relative isolation. Amongst 30-odd tropical and subtropical islands, only two are inhabited: Chichi Jima and Haha Jima. There are about 2,000 people on Chichi Jima, and less than 500 people reside on another inhabited island of Haha Jima. The rest of the islands are currently uninhabited, although more than 1,000 people had lived on the island of Iwo To (known as "Iwo Jima" in English) before the Pacific War (1941-1945). Now, the island of Iwo T6 is exclusively occupied for military and other national interest purposes, so civilians are not allowed to live or visit the island without special permission (see also Long 2002 for social and cultural conditions of Ogasawara).5
The Ogasawara Islands
The Ogasawara Islands were virtually uninhabited until 1830, when five Westerners and some twenty people from Hawai'i first migrated to the island of Chichi Jima.6 Since then, there were more migrants arrived from Western countries and Micronesia. These early settlers had sustained a small autonomous community on the islands. But later, in the 1870s, the Japanese government began sending a large wave of immigrants to establish its occupation of the islands. Accordingly, the Westerner/Pacific Islander residents were
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Figure 1. Map of the Ogasawara Islands
discriminated against in their homeland. They were forced to be shinmin, Japanese for obedient citizens, yet concurrently labeled as ijin (literally "different people," but with connotations of "aliens"). The Japanese administration had continued for several decades, but was terminated with Japan's defeat in the Pacific War. Then, US Navy assumed arbitrary control of Ogasawara and allowed only "Westerner descendants" to reside on the islands.7 The "former Japanese settlers" were excluded from their home and became refugees on mainland Japan. In 1968, the islands were returned to Japanese administration, and in 2008, Ogasawara village celebrated the 40th anniversary of reversion (Arima 1990, Shepardson 1977,1998, Tanaka 1997, and Ishihara 2007)8.
As seen in the history, the Ogasawara Islands have been manipulated and marginalised under the politics of nation-states, and are now placed at the fringe locality of Japan. However, in an alternative musical view, we see that Ogasawara's multiple bonds transcend national and geopolitical boundaries. In this article, I argue that music and dance can be vital media to provide corporeal experiences that affirm Ogasawara's transcending
affinities with many others9. Through various musical practices and performances, the Ogasawara Islanders embody multiple bonds of this small, remote, but extensively connected place.
Ogasawara Musical Culture Reflecting the complex history and society, as mentioned, a variety of musical genres can be observed in this small island community, including choral singing, rock music, steel orchestra, flamenco, Japanese bon dance, Shinto shrine festival music, J-pop (Japanese popular music), and Okinawan eisa performance. Each of these musical genres has its own stories of transmission, localisation and popularisation within the Ogasawara context (see Shishikura 2014 for details of these musical activities)10. Amongst these, I have selected three major musical genres: 1) taiko drumming, 2) Micronesian dance, and 3) hula. I consider that these musical genres are suitable to advance my arguments concerning musical bodies of the Ogasawara Islands. These three musical genres exemplify different historical/cultural connections; yet they collectively demonstrate the multiple bonds of the Ogasawara Islands.
Figure 2. Taiko Drumming
The first example is taiko drumming (figure 2). In the late 19th century of Ogasawara, many migrants had arrived from neighbouring Hachijo Island under the Japanese colonial scheme. The Hachijó Island is renown for its own taiko tradition that has been preserved probably since the Edo period (1603-1868). So, the Hachijo migrants began performing the taiko drumming as embracing nostalgia for their country of origin. Since then, the islanders had enjoyed the drumming in various occasions, such as shrine festivals, labourers' parties, and the launch of fishing boats (Wakazawa 2003)11. However, during the Pacific War, the taiko drumming disappeared from Ogasawara as the islanders evacuated to mainland Japan due to the impending US military campaign. The taiko was never performed during the US Navy period (1946-1968). After Reversion, the Japanese returnees began performing the taiko again as nostalgia for a past Ogasawara. In the early Reversion days, there was no taiko drums on the islands, so some of them made their own taiko by fitting car tires to an oil drum can (interview Anonymous A 2009).12 Thereafter, as in the past, the islanders again employ taiko drumming
familiar occasions, including shrine festivals and sending a boat off.
Although the social disruption had created disjunction of performance practices, the current Ogasawara taiko drummers are still conscious of the past of this performing art. They often recognise shared performance practices between Hachijô and Ogasawara, and respect Hachijô drumming as the prototype of Ogasawara drumming (interviews Anonymous B 2009, Anonymous C 2010). Shared performance practices further create cultural exchange between two island communities. For instance, every year in June, Ogasawara village invites Hachijô drummers to participate in the reversion festival of Ogasawara. Also, the Ogasawara Association often invites Hachijô people to visit Ogasawara and hosts a party to have cultural exchange;13 competition of taiko drumming is one of the highlights of the event. As in the case of the canoe Hôkûle 'a, the taiko performing bodies enhance the sense of historical connections, and affirm affinity of the peoples of Hachijô and Ogasawara, transcending the disruption caused by the war and post-war politics.
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Figure 3. Nanyo Odori
The second example is Micronesian dance, called "Nanyo odori (literally 'South Pacific dance')" (figure 3). The dance was transmitted from Micronesia when Japan controlled Micronesia (1919-1945) after the World War I (1914—1918). During this period, many Ogasawara Islanders travelled around the South Pacific, seeking better job opportunities and quality of life,14 and eventually brought local Micronesian dance to Ogasawara. The dance retained great popularity in pre-war Ogasawara; the islanders enjoyed the dance in festival occasions, at nightly gatherings around the port, and as entertainment for Japanese soldiers stationed in Ogasawara. However, just like the taiko drumming, the dance ceased to be performed during the Pacific War, and was never performed during the US Navy period. After Reversion, along with an increasing number of returnees and newcomers, the people collaborated to retrieve the past practices of Micronesian dance. The revival movement achieved a great success, and the islanders began performing the dance in various occasions, such as the reversion festival, at the boat arrivals,15 and recreation after work. As a result, in 2000, the Tokyo prefectural government recognised Nanyo odori as an intangible cultural asset of Ogasawara. Today, the islanders preserve the dance practices
with extended performance activities, including school education,16 performance workshops for visitors, as well as regular entertainments for a gathering and a party.
The Ogasawara Islanders are sufficiently aware of the past of this performing art, and try to embody stories and memories of Micronesia in the dance practices and performances. They often mention how this cultural heritage of Ogasawara was transmitted from Micronesia and retained great popularity in pre-war Ogasawara. The dance still preserves its heritage by way of costuming, singing in Micronesian languages, and dancing in marching-like choreography that was widely disseminated around Micronesia since the late 19th century (see Konishi 2008 for details).17 Just like historically informed performance, the dancing bodies present alternative historical views of Ogasawara in close affiliation with Micronesia that are hidden behind the Japanese colonial scheme. The dance further creates cultural interactions between Ogasawara and Micronesia. In 2004, the Ogasawara Islanders participated in the Festival of Pacific Arts held in Palau, and in 2008, Ogasawara village invited dancers from Palau to participate in a cultural festival for 40th anniversary of Reversion. Through these musical/cultural interactions, the current Ogasawara Islanders
Figure 4. Ogasawara Hula
realise and embody an affinity to Micronesia that transcends temporal and geopolitical distances.
The third example is hula, which retains great popularity in Ogasawara today (figure 4). But, unlike taiko drumming and Nanyo odori, hula is a newly introduced performing art in Ogasawara only after Reversion. It was by chance, about 20 years ago, a woman named Yamaguchi Manami, who had learnt hula in Hawai'i received a request to perform hula in an island festival. Soon after the performance, many islanders came to her and asked for hula instruction. Within several years, it became one of the most popular cultural activities in Ogasawara. Today, more than 300 people involve in the hula activities, and annual hula festival 'Ohana (meaning "extended family" in Hawaiian) is one of the highlights of Ogasawara summer festival.
Although native Hawaiians were one of the earliest migrants in the 19th century of Ogasawara, there is no record that these Hawaiian migrants performed hula in Ogasawara. However, the current Ogasawara Islanders are still conscious of the early Hawaiian migrants in their performance practices of hula. For instance, when making leis for their performance, the islanders often refer to the Hawaiian migrants who had possibly brought the ti plant to Ogasawara. They say that the ti plant is not
indigenous to Ogasawara, and assert that the plants are found only in particular places where Hawaiian settlers previously resided (interviews Anonymous D 2009). Along with the prosperity of recent hula activities, the ti leaf became one of the most popular materials to decorate performance bodies of hula dancers, and embody Hawaiian lineage of the islands beyond temporal distance. Hula performance further creates cultural exchange between Hawai'i and Ogasawara. For instance, for the 40th anniversary of the reversion, Ogasawara village invited hula practitioners from Hawai'i, who provided a hula workshop and a concert together with Ogasawara hula dancers. In these hula activities, the Ogasawara Islanders express gratitude and reify affinity with Hawai'i and its migrants.
Invention of Tradition
Throughout the study of Ogasawara musical culture, I have struggled with the discourse of "invention of tradition." As historian Eric Hobsbawm suggests, the island musical activities often include the "process of formalization and ritualization" that utilises the past as reference, and "attempt to establish continuity with the past" (1983:1).18 However, especially for the study of the body and its practices, we have to be careful in applying Hobsbawm's invention of tradition.
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Sociologist Paul Connerton warns us: "The one-sidedness of the approach which insists upon the invention of traditions results from an inability to see performativity of ritual" (1989:103).19 The invention of tradition discourse often essentialises its argument as manipulation or fabrication of the past, and neglects our continuous efforts in seeking various alternatives of history. As suggested by Goehr, consideration of musical bodies allow us to avoid making a onesided argument and presents different ways of thinking about music, culture and society.
Conclusion
As presented in most historical accounts, the Ogasawara Islands are often positioned at the margins of a larger mapping of the nation and international politics. Also, on a surface level, Ogasawara musical culture appears to represent the fracturing of memory and identity of a small community. However, I argue that performance bodies indeed present alternative views of Ogasawara beyond the conventional gaze, and further allow the islanders to "experience" historical/cultural connections to many others. The taiko drumming transcends the social disruptions caused by the war and international politics, and created cultural communications between Hachijo
and Ogasawara. Nanyo odori embodies the extended relationship of Ogasawara with Micronesia, and affirms historical and cultural connections beyond geopolitical borders. Likewise, the performance bodies of hula allow the islanders to retrieve and embody memories of early Hawaiian migrants that are often discarded after the entangled life experiences of Ogasawara. As suggested by the invention of tradition, it is necessary to provide careful attention to arbitrary manipulation and misrepresentation of the past. However, as Dening and Goehr remind us, it should not be obstacle for our sustained search, inquiry, or conversations with the past. Ogasawara musical culture clearly demonstrates the significance of particular bodily practices and performances that embody multiple bonds of this small and remote place, and that present alternative views - transcending our conventional concept of history, culture, society, and nation.
Acknowledgements
Very many thanks to Professors Marina Dubrovskaya (Novosibirsk State Conservatoire named after M. I. Glinka) and Ricardo D. Trimillos (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) for their comments and suggestions in preparation of this article.
Notes
1 "Wayfinding" is the term that is often utilised to describe
non-instrument methods for traditional voyaging in the Pacific.
2 Dening, Greg. 2004. Beach Crossings: Voyaging Across
Times, Cultures, and Self. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
3 Dening, Greg. 1996. Performances. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
4 Goehr, Lydia. 1994. Imaginary Museum of Musical Works:
An Essay in the Philosophy of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5 Long, Daniel ed. 2002. Ogasawara Gaku Koto-hajime
[The Introduction of Ogasawara Studies}. Kagoshima: Nanpd Shinsha.
6 Five Westerner colonists included Mateo Mozaro (Matthew Mazarro) of Dubrovnik, Croatia; Alden (Aldin) B. Chapin and Nathanael (Nathaniel) Savory of Boston, United States; Richard Millichamp (John Millinchamp) of Devon, England; Carl Johnsen of Copenhagen, Denmark (Quin, Michael. 1856. "Notes on the Bonin Islands." Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 26:232-35). There is no specific record about the migrants from Hawai'i.
7 These categories of residents still remain in Ogasawara,
including "Westerner descendants" and "former Japanese settlers" both of whom are minorities as compared to the majority of "newcomers," who moved to Ogasawara after the reversion (see also Kasuga, Sho. 2002. "Katararezaru Rekishi no Shima, Ogasawara no Kizoku to Jûmin [The Island of Untold History, Residents and Belonging of Ogasawara]." In Ogasawara Gaku Koto-hajime [The Introduction of Ogasawara Studies], ed. Daniel Long, 11-32. Kagoshima: Nanpô Shinsha). I recognise that these discriminatory terms are ambiguous, uncertain and problematic, but they are still customary used in Ogasawara today.
8 Arima, Midori. 1990. "An Ethnographic and Historical
Study of Ogasawara/the Bonin Islands, Japan." Ph. D. Dissertation, Stanford University. Tanaka, Hiroyuki. 1997. Bakumatsu no Ogasawara: Obei no Hogei Sen de Sakaeta Midori no Shima [Ogasawara at the End of Shogunate: The Green Islands Flourished with Whaling Boats from the West], Tokyo: Chûô Kôron Shinsha. Shepardson, Mary. 1977. "Pawns of Power: The Bonin Islanders." In The Anthropology of Power: Ethnographic Studies from Asia, Oceania, and the New World, eds.
Raymond D. Fogelson and Richard N. Adams, 99-114. New York: Academic Press. Shepardson, Mary. 1998. The Bonin Islands: Pawns of Power (manuscript reserved in Menzies Library, The Australian National University). Ishihara, Shun. 2007. Kindai Nihon to Ogasawara Shoto: Ido-min no Shima-jima to Teikoku [The Japanese Empire and the Ogasawara/Bonin Islands: Socio-historical Studies on the Naturalized People's Encounters with Sovereign Powers], Tokyo: Heibon Sha.
9 In this article, I focus on historical and cultural bonds that
connect Ogasawara with other places, such as Micronesia, Hawai'i, and mainland Japan. But the Ogasawara Islanders also utilise music to create and sustain unity of the island community within transient life experiences. See Shishikura, Masaya. 2013. "Overwhelming Love: A Case Study of Memory Construction through Ogasawara Hula Activities." In Re-Visions: Proceedings of the New Zealand Musicological Society and the Musicological Society of Australia Joint Conference Hosted by the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand between 2nd and 4th December 2010, 186-195. Otago: New Zealand Music Industry Centre, Music Department, University of Otago. Also, Shishikura, Masaya. 2014. "Wanting Memories: Histories, Remembrances and Sentiments Inscribed in Music and Dance of the Ogasawara Islands. PhD thesis, The Australian National University.
10 Ibid.
11 Wakazawa, Mineo. 2003. Senzen Haha Jima Ohmura no Minzoku Geind [The Performing Arts of Pre-war Okimura, Haha Jima] (self-complied booklet).
121 have conducted an extensive fieldwork in Ogasawara from 2008 to 2011.
13 Ogasawara Association was formed in 1965 to advance Reversion of Ogasawara. Today it works for promotion of Ogasawara in general.
14 In accordance with a national policy, called nanshin ron [southward advance doctrine], nearly 100,000 Japanese nationals (including Koreans and Okinawans) had migrated to Micronesia during this period (Tamaki, Takeshi. 2002. "Nanyó Dekasegi Imin no Sensó Taiken [The War Experiences of South Pacific Migrants]." In Yomitan Son Shi, Dai Go Kan Shiryo Hen 4, "Senji Kiroku" Jó Kan [The History of Yomitan Village, Volume 5, Appendix 4, "The Wartime Record"!]. Yomitan Village, Okinawa: Yomitan Son Shi Henshü Shitsu.0http://www.yomitan.jp/sonsi/vol05a/chap02/ sec05/cont00/docul48.htm, accessed 7 June 2012).
15 In the early days after the reversion, the islanders captured the visitors when they were landing and made them dance the Nanyó odori by stating: "Thank you for taking the long voyage to visit us. This is the dance you must learn upon landing on this island!" (interview anonymous E 2009).
16 Nanyó odori is incorporated into the elementary school curriculum of Ogasawara.
17 Konishi, Junko ed. 2008. Mikuroneshia, Ogasawara, Okinawa no Minzoku Geinó Kóryú to Sono Juyó, Henka no Dótai ni Kansuru Hikaku Kenkyü [A Comparative Study of the Performing Arts Being Spread by Cultural Exchange between Micronesians, Ogasawarans and Okinawans Focusing on Its Reception and Changing Aspects], Shizuoka: Shizuoka University.
18 Hobsbawm, Eric. 1983. "Introduction: Inventing Traditions." In The Invention of Tradition, eds. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, 1-14. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19 Connerton, Paul. 1989. How Societies Remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Transcending musical bodies: embodiment of multiple bonds of the Ogasawara islands
This article explores musical bodies that connect people beyond historical and geopolitical boundaries. Drawing a case from the Ogasawara Islands, Japan, it explicates how musical bodies embody multiple pasts of this small island community. Since the first settlement in 1830, the Ogasawara Islanders have suffered various hardships, including Japanese colonisation (1870s), discrimination at home, forced evacuation during the Pacific War (1941-1945), segregated life under the US Navy (1946-1968), and reversion to Japanese administration (1968). Reflecting the entangled history, various musical genres are present in Ogasawara today, including taiko drumming, Micronesian dance, and hula. The variety of musical activities appears to represent a fracturing of memories and identity. However, I argue that these musical activities rather embody multiple bonds of Ogasawara with many others. Here, musical bodies take a significant role. The performing bodies produce corporeal experiences of Ogasawara's multiple pasts, and affirm extended relationships of this small/remote community. By referring to such concepts as "historical reenactment" and "historically informed performance," the article identifies Ogasawara within a plurality of histories and cultures that transcends our conventional concepts of history, culture, and the nation.
Keywords: The Ogasawara Islands (Japan), musical bodies, plurality, historical reenactment, historically informed performance.
