It was a great pleasure to be able to welcome Profs. Kobinata and Fuchigami with their students to MOMRI in Shinanomachi, Tokyo on March 29, 2025 and to give them a tour of the exhibition at the Min-On Music Museum, which includes a corner on Music in Peacebuilding organized by MOMRI. Our conversations yielded many insights and pointed to various promising avenues for future collaboration and joint projects. Prof. Fuchigami accepted our invitation to write a piece about his impressions of the visit, and how he sees the connections between his work and Music in Peacebuilding. It is with profound gratitude that we convey his remarks to our readers.

Peacebuilding through Music: Reflections on the Experience at MOMRI

Prof. Rafael Hiroshi Fuchigami

On March 29, 2025, as part of the educational and research activities of the Institute of Ethnomusicology (MINKEN) at Tokyo College of Music, we visited the Min-On Music Research Institute (MOMRI). In addition to myself, the Director of MINKEN, Prof. Hidetoshi Kobinata, and students from the Traditional Musics Special Extension Course were present. We were warmly welcomed by the Director of MOMRI, Prof. Olivier Urbain, and the Deputy Director of the Min-On Museum and Library, Dr. Atsushi Miki.

We had the wonderful opportunity to appreciate the exhibition of ethnic instruments, the display and presentation of period pianos, as well as automatic instruments, and to listen to the moving performance of the Hibaku Piano, one of the few that survived the atomic bomb explosions in Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

Not only did we deepen our musical knowledge and experience, but we also felt how crucial efforts to maintain peace are and, above all, how music can be a powerful tool in building harmonious relations between people around the world.

Furthermore, I was able to reflect on how peacebuilding through music is deeply connected to the concept of World Music, as explored in the field of ethnomusicology. I’m not referring here to the concept used by the music industry, where many record companies, especially since the 1980s, have labeled a hybrid genre, such as afrobeat, cumbia, salsa, among others, as World Music, which blends traditional elements with new musical proposals. I’m actually referring to a broader concept of World Music, which includes these hybrid genres but goes further: it encompasses the vast musical diversity of the planet, also including Western music, pop music, and other expressions. It is a perspective that understands music as a cultural phenomenon, not restricted to a specific place, and that is not dissociated from other elements of society, such as dance, theater, sports, festivities, religiosity, and so on. This concept encompasses different phenomena that have in common forms of interaction between cultures, such as multiculturalism or even transculturalism.

Thus, in contact with cultural diversity, it is possible to develop mutual respect, both by valuing one’s own culture and by admiring and interacting with the music of the "other." This process is not standardized and differs depending on the context and the people involved. It also does not refer to a specific genre or style, encompassing traditions considered pure or hybrid, globalized or local, Western or non-Western, written or oral. I believe this view of music and culture, in general, is one of the fundamental ingredients for building peace.

I’m particularly interested in cultures in transit. I am a third-generation Japanese descendant, born in Brazil. During my studies of transverse flute and classical music at the University of Campinas (São Paulo), I encountered the traditional Japanese shakuhachi flute. Since then, I have delved deeply into this instrument and eventually completed my Ph.D. (Music Education) at the Tokyo College of Music, where I currently work as a Researcher-Administrator at the MINKEN and teach the subjects "Introduction to World Music" and "Special Topics in World Music" to undergraduate students.

In fact, in my Doctoral Thesis, entitled The Process of Learning Shakuhachi in Brazil as a Construction of Japonesidades and available in the Tokyo College of Music Repository, I present a study on identity issues involving shakuhachi players in Brazil. In the thesis, after describing the introduction and transmission of shakuhachi within the Nikkei community by Japanese immigrants and their descendants, I discuss the spread of shakuhachi among non-Nikkei individuals.

It is well known that in Brazil, the country that hosts the largest Nikkei (Japanese immigrants and their descendants) community in the world in terms of numbers, there are practitioners of various traditional instruments, such as koto, shamisen, shanshin, taiko, and others. These instruments, which for much of the country's immigration history were almost exclusive to the Nikkei, have now gained an increasingly diverse audience, including people of mixed race and those of non-Japanese origin.

In the case of shakuhachi, the aspects related to Buddhist spirituality surrounding the instrument particularly caught my attention. During my fieldwork, I observed that the shakuhachi transcends the realm of art, as many non-Nikkei players believe they were Japanese in past lives, some seek marriage with Nikkei individuals, and incorporate Japanese culture into various aspects of their daily lives—elements that highlight the construction of their own Japonesidades (japaneseness). It was precisely this complex process of constructing these Japonesidades and the way they have altered shakuhachi traditions in Brazil that became the focus of my thesis.

Moreover, my activities also involve performing in concerts. As a shakuhachi player, I feel that I can connect with the culture of my Japanese ancestors, not as a way to cling to the past, but as a way to expand my roots, making the music of this instrument accessible to Japanese, Brazilians, and people from other countries. In other words, to keep alive and up-to-date the musical legacy of humanity, whose origins date back to the most remote and unreachable past, and to materialize it through education, concerts, and the systematization of this knowledge gained through musical research.

Other faculty members of the MINKEN are also working diligently in their respective fields. There are various musical courses and activities, some of which are free, in which we nurture the music of countries such as Japan, China, Mongolia, Indonesia, India, Romania, Kyrgyzstan, as well as the instruments of Europe during Renaissance and of baroque style, and specific local music like the Ainu of Hokkaido, the musical traditions of the samurai of Kagoshima, and even Minshin-gaku music, a traditional repertoire derived from the music of the Ming and Qing dynasties, introduced to Japan during the Edo Period and widely practiced in the Meiji Era. For example, Prof. Kobinata, a specialist in Indian music, is also an excellent player of the sitar – an instrument typical of northern India.

In conclusion, dedication to education, performance, and research in music is essential for promoting understanding between people from different cultures, thus contributing to peacebuilding. I hope that every musician or music lover, within their sphere of activity, becomes aware of this sublime mission that music can fulfill.

For more information about the activities of the Institute of Ethnomusicology at Tokyo College of Music, visit our website.

Rafael Hiroshi Fuchigami's personal page and performer page.

Hidetoshi Kobinata’s profile.