The establishment of the imperial palace Music Department and amateur groups

The imperial palace was shifted from Kyoto to Tokyo at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868–1912). A department for the performance of music, the Gagaku-kyoku (‘Court Music Department’) was soon established, staffed by members of the Momijiyama group and musicians from the three centers, who were called to Tokyo for the purpose. At first, positions in the department were only open to musicians from the traditional gagaku families, but this condition was soon relaxed, and it was now possible for others to become imperial musicians.

Musicians at the new department were also required to perform Western music. This was, in effect, a continuation of the initial duties of the court musicians; it had been the role of the musicians of the first Bureau of Music to perform music newly imported from the Korean peninsula and Chinese mainland.

With the departure for Tokyo of musicians of the three directions, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka were left with a dearth of gagaku musicians. Several amateur groups were formed to continue the performance traditions at shrines and temples. Other amateur groups also sprang up, some with close to professional standards and others more club-like in nature.

Reorganizing the music traditions and the new official scores of Meiji

Until the Edo period, the transmission of gagaku had centered on hereditary families at the three main gagaku centers in Kyoto, Nara and Osaka. The founding of the new Court Music Department in Tokyo, however, required the musicians to reorganize and standardize their repertoires and performance styles, in order for them to be able to practice and perform together smoothly.

Detailed discussions were undertaken over a period of several years, and two sets of standard scores were produced as a result: the part-scores, now commonly called the Meiji sentei-fu (‘Selected Scores of Meiji’), of 1876 and 1888. The performance practice of the musicians of today’s official body, the Kunaichō Shikibushoku Gakubu (Music Department of the Board of Ceremonies of the Imperial Household Agency) is based on these part-scores. Repertoire excluded from the official part-scores was referred to as engaku (‘remote music’).

Elements of the traditional repertoire that had been passed down by court nobles, such as kagura, saibara, rōei, and the string parts of kangen performance, were ‘returned’ to the imperial family, made the responsibility of musicians of the new department, and included in the official part-scores.

The modern Music Department and the National Theatre

The Court Music Department established in the early Meiji era passed through a number of reorganizations and renamings in the following years, continuing through until the years of World War II. The present day Music Department (officially the Music Department of the Board of Ceremonies of the Imperial Household Agency, or more simply the Music Department of the Imperial Household Agency) was founded in 1949.

In 1955, the gagaku performed by the department was designated as an Important Intangible Cultural Property, and the court musicians (as a group) as ‘holders’ of the tradition. The tradition was further recognized in 2009, with registration on the UNESCO World Heritage list as an ‘Important Intangible Cultural Property’ of Japan. The present-day Music Department is responsible for the performance of gagaku and Western music at palace rites and ceremonies, and for the training of the next generation of musicians.

The National Theatre was founded in 1966, and has since it inception provided opportunities on a regular basis for the concert performance of gagaku, by both musicians of the official Music Department and other ensembles. It has made efforts to revive pieces not included in the Meiji part-scores, and has commissioned new pieces from contemporary composers, thus providing an important impetus to the development of gagaku in today’s world.