Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the transformation of soundscapes in the 1920s and 1930s, with a focus on the case of Tokyo, by investigating the conception and reconception of ‘noise’ and ‘silence.’

Paper long abstract:

Due to the influx of modern cultures from the West as well as the influence of industrialization and capitalism, Tokyo in the 1920s and 1930s was a place where new urban cultures were created, displayed, and contested, and people experienced a new mode of sonic environment. This chapter particularly focuses on the transformation of soundscapes during this time, by investigating the conception and re-conception of ‘noise’ and ‘silence.’ In everyday life in the city, people experienced new types of sounds from mass media, such as cinema, telephone, gramophone, radio, and record music, to daily sounds, such as car honking, construction sounds, and noise from the neighborhood. Among these, some sounds were conceptualized and defined as ‘euphonic’ sounds while some were ‘cacophonic’ and ‘annoying sounds.’ Meanwhile, ‘silence’ was requested in selective public spaces, such as talkie cinema theaters and music halls. These new cultural and legal categorizations shaped new modes of listening. I seek to comprehend the desire(s) underlying these conceptualizations of sounds, questioning with respect to sensory experience, Japanese modernity, modern subject, and capitalism.