City in Japan. It has been the national capital since 1868; it was previously known as Edo. It is now the most important musical centre in the country. While the western cities of Osaka and Kyoto have a long tradition of native art music, it was only after 1600 that the musical tradition known as the Edo style emerged in contrast to the Kamigata style of Kyoto and Osaka. Several types of vocal music with shamisen accompaniment, e.g. nagauta or tokiwazu, belong to the Edo tradition. The distinction is still often found; in Tokyo the Yamada school of koto music (as opposed to the Ikuta school of west Japan) and Kinko school of shakuhachi playing (as opposed to the Tozan school) are more popular. At the Meiji Restoration in 1868 Tokyo became the principal centre for promoting Western music, and since then most Japanese composers and performers have preferred to work in Tokyo; their activities have greatly increased since 1945.
The Gagakuryō (the Imperial Music Bureau, now officially the music department of the imperial household), established in 701, is in the Imperial Palace, and preserves the tradition of gagaku, the court music. Many nō schools, which originally flourished in Kyoto, also have their centres in Tokyo now, together with their private theatres, e.g. Kanze Nō Theatre (Kanze school), Kita Nō Theatre (Kita school) and Suidōbashi Nō Theatre (primarily Hōshō school), while the National Nō Theatre, built in 1989, is sponsored by the government. Kabuki-za (inaugurated in 1889) is the most important theatre for kabuki. The National Theatre of Japan (built in 1966; fig.1) presents all kinds of drama and music in the purely Japanese tradition, including kabuki. There are about 20 concert halls with a capacity of more than 1500. Of them, the Tōkyō Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall, built in 1961) and the NHK Hall (1973) were for a time the more important and have also served as temporary opera houses. After 1980, however, a number of excellent halls were built, many with concert organs; notable are Suntory Hall (1986; fig.2), with a Rieger organ, Orchard Hall (1989), Tōkyō Geijutsu Gekijō (Tokyo Arts Theatre), with a Garnier organ (1990) and Sumida Triphony Hall (1997), with a Jehmlich organ. Also in 1997, the first opera house in Tokyo, Shin Kokuritsu Gekijō (New National Theatre), was inaugurated, together with the neighbouring Tokyo Opera City building which houses the Takemitsu Memorial Concert Hall. In addition there are about 25 smaller halls, of which the more important are Iino Hall (1960), Ishibashi Memorial Hall (1974), Casals Hall (1987), Tsuda Hall (1988), Hamarikyū Asahi Hall (1992) and Kioi Hall (1995).
The nine major orchestras in Tokyo are the Japan Philharmonic SO (founded in 1956), the NHK SO (originally the New SO, founded in 1926; it became the Japan SO in 1942 and was renamed in 1951 when it became the orchestra of the national broadcasting system), the Tokyo Metropolitan SO (founded in 1965), the Tokyo PO (originally the Central SO, founded in 1940; it became the Tokyo SO in 1941 and was renamed in 1948), the Tokyo SO (originally Tōhō SO, founded in 1946 and renamed in 1951), the Yomiuri Nippon SO (founded in 1962), the Shinsei Nippon Orchestra (1969), the New Japan SO (1972) and the Tokyo City PO (1975). There are numerous choral groups, the more important being the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, the Tokyo Hōsō Gasshōdan, the Nippon Gasshōdan and the Nippon Josei Gasshōdan. The Fujiwara Opera, the Niki Kai and the Nihon Opera Kyokai (the Japan Opera Society) are the three major opera groups, but none of them has its own theatre.
The government-sponsored Arts Festival (founded in 1946) is held every autumn and includes many music programmes. In 1962, the Japanese Society for Contemporary Music began to sponsor a twice-yearly exhibition of contemporary music, and the Goethe Institute in Tokyo began sponsoring the Japanisch-Deutsches Festival für Neue Musik in 1967. The Festival for Contemporary Music (founded in 1957 by the Institute of 20th Century Music) is often held in Tokyo. The NHK, the national broadcasting system, has extensive music programmes and an electronic music studio, one of the earliest in the world (completed in 1954 and opened in 1955). The Tōkyō no Natsu Ongakusai (Tokyo Summer Music Festival) has been held each year in July since 1985.
The Tokyo Music School (founded in 1887) became the Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku (officially the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, but sometimes known as the Tokyo University of Arts) in 1949. Kunitachi Ongaku Daigaku (Kunitachi College of Music, founded as a conservatory in 1926, a college since 1950), has the best music library in Japan, as well as a good collection of musical instruments. Ueno Gakuen College (founded in 1952, a college since 1958) has an archive specializing in traditional Japanese music, particularly gagaku and shōmyō (Buddhist chant). Other major music schools are Musashino Ongaku Daigaku (Musashino Music College, founded in 1929, a college since 1949), Tōhō Gakuen College of Music (founded in 1955, a college since 1961) and Tokyo College of Music (founded as Tōyō School of Music in 1907, a junior college since 1954 and a college since 1988). The private Nanki Music Library which owns the Cummings Collection is temporarily closed, but copies of all its materials are available at the library of Kunitachi College of Music. The Nihon Kindai Ongaku-kan (Documentation Centre of Modern Japanese Music) has a fine collection, especially of Japanese music after 1868, including autograph manuscripts and other original materials by Kōsaku Yamada, Osamu Shimizu and others. Several important musicological organizations have their headquarters in Tokyo, including the Society for Research in Asiatic Music (founded in 1936) and the Musicological Society of Japan (founded in 1952), which specializes in Western music.
For bibliography see Japan.
MASAKATA KANAZAWA