City in Japan. It is the country's second largest city and is musically the most active town in west Japan. The traditional musical style of Osaka and Kyoto is known as the Kamigata style, in contrast to the Edo style of Tokyo. When European music was introduced to Japan (after 1868), Osaka, Kyoto and Kōbe (west of Osaka) formed an important musical centre second only to Tokyo.
The musical distinction of Osaka began in the 17th century when gidayū singing for the bunraku puppet play became popular there. Asahi-za (formerly Bunraku-za) is the main theatre for puppet plays; for kabuki there is the Osaka New Kabuki-za. The major concert halls are the Nakanoshima Kōkaidō (built in 1918), the Festival Hall (1958; also used for opera), the Osaka Kōsei-nenkin Hall (1968) and the Symphony Hall (1982), while the small Izumi Hall (1990) is used for chamber music. In Kōbe there is the Kōbe Bunka Hall (1973).
The Osaka PO (founded in 1947 as the Kansai SO and renamed in 1960) and the Osaka Century Orchestra (founded in 1989) are the two major orchestras, while the Telemann Chamber Orchestra specializes in Baroque music. Choral groups are active in Osaka and its vicinity, including the Kwansei Gakuin Glee Club, a student organization founded in the 1890s. The Kansai Opera Company (founded in 1949) is the major opera company in west Japan.
The annual Osaka International Festival was founded in 1958. Almost all Japanese composers participated in Expo ’70 in Osaka, as did several from abroad including Stockhausen and Xenakis. The Fourth Symposium of the IMS in July 1990, entitled ‘Tradition and its Future in Music’, was the first international musicological congress held in Asia. The three major newspapers in Japan, each with its own broadcasting stations and musical sponsorship, have their headquarters in Osaka: they are the Asahi, the Mainichi and the Yomiuri.
Osaka Music School (founded in 1915) became Osaka College of Music in 1958. Several other colleges have competent music departments, for example Ōsaka Geijutsu Daigaku, Osaka University of Education, Sōai Women’s College and Kōbe Jogakuin Daigaku (Kōbe Women’s College). In Hiroshima (west of Osaka) the Elizabeth Music College (founded as a conservatory in 1948, and a college since 1963) specializes in sacred music.
For bibliography see Japan.
MASAKATA KANAZAWA