Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the reception of the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich in Japan, particularly during the early post-war period when his works had a catalyzing effect on social movements affiliated with the then powerful Japan Communist Party.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I discuss the reception of the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) in cold war Japan. Before 1945, Shostakovich was known to a small coterie who thought of him as a composer of genius; the New Symphony Orchestra, a forerunner of NHK orchestra, performed his first symphony in 1931. During the post-war period, however, Shostakovich's major symphonic works entered the repertory of orchestras throughout Japan and had an immense impact on Japanese musicians. Furthermore, leftwing movements in Japan welcomed Shostakovich as a revolutionary and popular musician and associated him with opposition to the post-war state. For example, Song of the Forests (Opus 81), a minor oratorio considered one of Shostakovich's "official" works, enjoyed a wide popularity in Japan. After it debuted in Kyoto, choral groups made up of ordinary workers, students and citizens performed the oratorio in 30 cities throughout Japan. In addition, the work had a catalyzing effect on both workplace choruses and the emerging popular protest song movement (utagoe undō) affiliated with the then powerful Japan Communist Party. These works were often performed by striking workers and in ANPO demonstrations opposing American bases in Japan.

While Shostakovich was welcomed as a revolutionary compose during the period of political mobilization in the 1950s, his image in the media changed in the subsequent high growth period as a look at contemporary newspapers suggests. In 1960, shortly after the defeat of the ANPO movement, the new wave film director Ōshima Nagisa released Night and Fog in Japan that casts a retrospective and disillusioned gaze on the ANPO movement. Music plays an essential part in the movie, which features both utagoe protest songs sung by demonstrators and the music of Shostakovich. In a climactic scene of the movie, the film's main characters listen to an extended (eight minute) recording of first movement of Shostakovich's Fifth (Revolution) Symphony. In this scene, rather than inspiring young Japanese to protest, the music serves as a kind of commentary on the personal betrayals and intrigues that undermined the intense political protest of the previous decade.