I am not sure what the ancient music of Japan is.
It seems certain that there was some kind of song, but its melody is unknown.
Gagaku seems to have an ancient Japanese origin, but it seems to have come from China and India.
After the Meiji Restoration, when the Western civilization came in like a storm, one of the former leaders of the Meiji Restoration said, "Most things in Japan can be beaten by the West, but only music can be beaten.
It is true that Western music was systematically created, with the invention of the average rate and the ability to reproduce music in musical notation, which made it possible to create large-scale symphonies.
It is no wonder that Western music was actively adopted during the Meiji period, with the country at the forefront.
In 1918, around the time of World War I, Beethoven's "Ninth" Symphony was performed in its entirety by German prisoners of war at a POW camp in Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture.
Since then, the Ninth has taken root in Japan, and its performance has become an annual year-end event.
The year after the performance in Naruto, members of the German POW camp in Kurume traveled to Kurume High School for Girls to give a concert.
It is said that those teachers and female students were the first ordinary Japanese to hear the Ninth performed.
In Fukuoka, there are people who have been performing the Ninth for three generations.
In this way, Western music has steadily penetrated Japan, centering on classical music, and popular music originating from the West, such as rock and popular music, is now widely enjoyed.
It seems as if Western music has become a global standard, but this is not always the case.
This is because some Western works contain music that is unique to the regions of the West.
For example, Chopin's "Mazurka" is unique to Poland.
Opera briefly enjoyed a boom in Japan, but it did not last long.
The long stories of opera did not suit the Japanese, who are more familiar with haiku.
The hysterical exclamations of heroes and heroines drew Japanese people away.
I think it is about time that music originating in Japan that can spread to the rest of the world is born....
But I wonder if it will be difficult, since the world has already tried its hand at musical expression.
Incidentally, the most moving music I have ever heard was a performance by two boys playing on a transverse flute in a remote area of China.
It was very simple music with the same melody repeated over and over again.