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Watanabe Hiroshi

わたなべ ひろし

Watanabe Hiroshi

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1953-07-16 （Chiba Prefecture, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
musicologist, university professor
Active Years
1977-
Affiliations
University of Tokyo (Professor Emeritus), Tokyo College of Music (Specially Appointed Professor), Osaka University (Associate Professor), Tamagawa University (Lecturer → Associate Professor)
Influenced By
Theodor W. Adorno

Education

Chiba Prefectural Chiba High School
Period: ～1972
Year of Graduation: 1972
Country: Japan
University of Tokyo, Faculty of Letters
Faculty of Letters / Aesthetics and Art Studies
Degree: 学士
Period: 1973–1977
Year of Graduation: 1977
Country: Japan
Graduated BA; later entered graduate school (left doctoral program)
University of Tokyo, Graduate School
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / Aesthetics and Art Studies
Degree: 博士（文学）
Period: 1978–2001 (在学・研究期間含む)
Year of Graduation: 2001
Country: Japan
Awarded PhD (Literature) in 2001

Awards

Suntory Prize
1989
Work: The Birth of the Audience: Music Culture in the Postmodern Era
Organization: Suntory Foundation
Result: Winner
Music Writers Association Newcomer Award (Classical)
1990
Work: Mahler in Cultural History
Organization: Music Writers Association
Result: Winner
Arts Encouragement Prize for New Artists
2003
Work: Japanese Culture: Modern Rhapsody
Organization: Agency for Cultural Affairs
Result: Winner
Art Encouragement Prize — Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award
2011
Work: Singing Nation
Organization: Agency for Cultural Affairs
Result: Winner
Order of the Purple Ribbon
2013
Organization: Government of Japan
Result: Recipient

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Birth of the Audience: Music Culture in the Postmodern Era

1989 musicology, cultural history

A study on the formation of musical audiences and changes in reception during the postmodern era.

auditory culturepostmodernismreception history

Mahler in Cultural History

1990 music history, cultural history

Interprets Mahler's works from a cultural-historical perspective, exploring relations with fin-de-siècle Vienna and modernity.

Mahlerfin-de-siècle Viennamodernity

Japanese Culture: Modern Rhapsody

2002 cultural history, criticism

An essay collection reexamining Japanese culture in the context of modernity, including perspectives from music culture studies.

Japanese culturemodernizationmusic and society

Singing Nation: School Songs, School Anthems, and Singing Voices

2010 music social history, cultural studies

Examines nation formation and publicness in Japan through songs such as school songs and choral movements.

school songsanthem culturenational identity

Singing the School Song!: The Mystery of School Culture Nurtured by the Japanese

2024 cultural studies, music education

Essays on modern and contemporary Japanese educational culture centered on school songs.

school songseducational culturemodern history

Bibliography

  • The Birth of the Audience: Music Culture in the Postmodern Era
  • Mahler in Cultural History (later retitled 'Mahler and Fin-de-Siècle Vienna')
  • The Music Machine Theatre
  • The Transformation of the Takarazuka Revue and Modern Japan
  • Introductory Essays on the Performance History of Western Music: Beethoven Piano Sonatas
  • Japanese Culture: Modern Rhapsody
  • Thinking Ears: Places of Memory, Eyes of Critique
  • Music Reflects Society: Rethinking 'Thinking Ears'
  • Singing Nation: School Songs, School Anthems, and Singing Voices
  • Sound and Media Cultural Resource Studies: Music on the Borderlines
  • Theory of Sensibility Culture: Postwar Showa History of 'Ending' and 'Beginning'
  • Cultural Walks: Intersecting Cities and Narratives
  • Singing the School Song!: The Mystery of School Culture Nurtured by the Japanese

Translations by Author

  • Adorno: Collected Writings on Music and Media (co-editor/translator)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
interdisciplinarycultural-historicalcritical
Recurring Motifs
audiencemediamodernization and culture

Legacy

A scholar who clarified modern Japanese culture and the reception history of music from musicological and cultural-historical perspectives. Contributed to dissemination of music culture studies through university teaching and public writing; recipient of several academic awards and honors.

Trivia

  • Born in Chiba Prefecture; graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Letters in 1977.
  • Received the Suntory Prize in 1989 for 'The Birth of the Audience'.
  • Awarded the Order of the Purple Ribbon in 2013.