Searching for Wagner in Japan

In 1868 Japan opened its borders to the outside world and began a rapid modernization process which included importing European musical instruments, compositional practices, and repertoire. The operas and prose of Richard Wagner trickled into Japan during this time and, as in other parts of the world, agents in Japan manipulated the composer's prose and musical works to suit ideologies ranging from the fascist to the frivolous. Through the lens of global history, Japanese cultural studies, and musicology, this book presents a new way of understanding Wagnerism as it filtered through modern Japanese culture. Wagnerism is entangled in modernity, and in Japan these entanglements surfaced not only on the operatic stage, but also in sheet music, film, and popular literature. Author Brooke McCorkle Okazaki documents Wagner's opera premieres and utilizes mass media--such as film, magazines, and comics--to explore the interplay of modernity and Wagnerism in Japan. Okazaki first situates the discussion in the context of global historical methodologies, demonstrating how the story of Wagner's reception in Japan models a non-Eurocentric approach to one of musicology's most canonical composers. She then presents a series of case studies that consider how Wagnerism shaped individuals and institutions in Japan beginning from the late nineteenth century and to the present.