The Japanese Society for Aesthetics

Aesthetics No. 25 (2022): 26-38

Musical Practice and Receptionin Silent Movie Theaters in Tokyo:
Intermission Music and Accompaniment MusicSHIBATA Kotaro
Waseda University, Tokyo
Abstract: Movie theaters in the silent era had the feature of concert halls. Especially in Japan,

from the late 1910s to the 1920s, they were central places where ordinary people heard Westernmusic. Though it is an important case for Japanese receptive study of Western music, how film
audiences received it had scarcely been investigated. This study, focusing on some first premiere
theaters in Tokyo, tries to show their reception of Western music. First, three sections consider
the audiences’ columns in the pamphlets issued by one of the main movie theaters, theTeikokukan in Asakusa. They show that audiences were so interested in Western musicfrequently played as intermission music, that, when the same music was used for film
accompaniment, it sometimes gained audiences' attention more than the film itself. Until 1927,
however, musical medleys had gradually gained popularity as a new form of intermission music.
The popularity was based on each tune’s associative images which the audience had formed
through their repetitive use in film accompaniment. The peculiar associations formed in the movie
theaters gave birth to a unique musical practice.
Keywords: film music, movie theater, silent film, Japanese film, Western music

Introduction
In the silent film era, movie theaters across the world were a site for the practice andreception of music. As Kathlyn Kalinak wrote, “[d]ifferent practices for production and receptionof musical accompaniment developed around the world,” especially in the early days.1 Even then,however, there was a tendency for domestic movies to be projected with indigenous music while
foreign Western films were usually accompanied by Western music. In the early twentiethcentury, movie theaters that projected foreign movies became a unique place where Westernmusic was played and heard by ordinary people worldwide. In this study, I examine the Japaneseexperience of Western music in the movie theater and the kind of musical practice and receptionthat formed in Japan.
First, we consider several articles that refer to the Japanese audiences’ knowledge ofWestern music. Popular Japanese novelist, Kikuchi Kan, wrote in an essay in 1920, “if you want
to see movies, you should go to Asakusa.” According to Kikuchi, “you would feel much better* This paper is based on the Japanese version printed in Bigaku 68, No. 1 (2017): 109-120, published by theJapanese Society for Aesthetics.
1
Kathlyn Kalinak. "Performance Practices and Music in Early Cinema outside Hollywood," in David
Neumeyer ed. The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, 612.

Musical Practice and Reception in Silent Movie Theaters in Tokyo27

in seeing a movie in Asakusa than seeing it in other districts.” Asakusa was a popular traditional
entertainment district in Tokyo, but “the spectators in Asakusa are the most progressive.”
Although their behaviors tend to be “brash,” they “love novel things” so much that “they give a
big round of applause even when they see just intertitles in English.” Further, Kikuchi wrote,“They know a lot of [Western] music that is played during the intermission and the screenings.”2
Interestingly, he described the audience in Asakusa as “progressive” because of their knowledgeof Western music.
The musical magazine Ongakukai, in 1915, also referred to the movie spectators’ knowledgeof music: “The music of the movie theaters like the Kanda Kinkikan and the Asakusa Teikokukan
are prominently superior as these theaters attract people with a profound knowledge of music.
The audiences made critiques such as “the march played in that movie was inappropriate” and“this music is more desirable in that movie.” The spectators encouraged the musicians to improvetheir music.3 The movie spectators, especially those in foreign film theaters like the Kinkikan
and the Teikokukan, seemed to be interested in Western music. If contemporary Japanese people
want to listen to Western music, they could play records or go to the Hibiya Park Sunday Concerts,
where the Japanese military band plays music with Western instruments. However, foreign film
theaters were also precious musical halls where melophiles could always enjoy Western music.4
Moreover, movie theaters also attracted people who did not usually listen to music. Movie
theaters, at that time, offered an experience to their spectators who were generally not interested
in Western music. The movie director Inagaki Hiroshi wrote that he became a fan of Asakusa
Opera by listening to intermission music like excerpts from Carmen in movie theaters.5 These
theaters functioned as a cultural apparatus for the popular reception of Western music in Japan.
Previous studies have shown that movie theaters play an important role in the receptive
history of Western music in Japan. Hosokawa Shuhei wrote a section named “The Cinema Palace
as a Concert Hall” when he sketched the history of film music in Japan.6 Kurata Yoshihiro wrote
in his book on the cultural history of recording in Japan, “You must not forget that theintermission music in film theaters was one of the reasons more Japanese people interested inWestern music.”7 Further, some books have also documented the names of several musicians
who worked in movie theaters and the tunes that were played there.8 These studies indicated thatmovie theaters frequently offered a chance for people to hear Western music and became an

2
Kikuchi Kan. “Yo no Asakusa-kan,” Kikuchi kan zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo: Chuokoron Sha, 1938, 385. The
novelists at that time seemed to go to movie theaters frequently. As for the novelist Shiga Naoya, See Kida Sho,
Shiga Naoya eiga ni iku: Edison kara Ozu Yasujiro made mita otoko, Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun Shuppan, 2015.
3
Shikosei. “Katsudoshashin no ongaku,” Ongakukai, Februrary 1915, 21.
4
As for the gentrification of movie theaters in Japan and the transformation of movie spectatorship, See Ueda
Manabu, Nihon eiga sosoki no kogyo to kankyaku: Tokyo to Kyoto wo chushin ni, Tokyo: Waseda University Press,
2012.
5
Inagaki Hiroshi, Nihon eiga no wakaki hibi, Tokyo: Chuokoronsha, 1983: 228. Judging from his remarks, thetime he mentioned here is around 1922-1923.
6
Hosokawa Shuhei, “Sketches of Silent Film Sound in Japan Theatrical Functions of Ballyhoo, Orchestras and
Kabuki Ensembles”, Daisuke Miyao ed. The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Cinema, Oxford University Press, 2014.
294-297.
7
Kurata Yoshihiro. Nihon recodo bunkashi, Iwanami shoten, 2006, 127.
8
See for example Omori Seitaro, Nihon no yogaku. vol 1, Tokyo: Shinmon Shuppan, 1986: 117, 131.

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SHIBATA Kotaro

important place for music experience. However, they did not demonstrate how and why movie
theaters could perform the function of promoting Western music in Japan.
In this study, I examine the relationship between the music of movie theaters and its
reception by Japanese spectators through the analysis of their contributions in movie theater
programs. These contributors’ columns were published weekly and freely distributed in many
Japanese movie theaters. In particular, I focus on the programs issued in the “first premiere
theaters”9 of foreign film in Tokyo, a city that housed more than 100 movie theaters in thosedays. First, I study the programs of the Teikokukan in Asakusa because they were one of thepioneers of the contributors’ columns, which are also relatively well preserved today. Further, I
examine the high interest and enthusiasm of the spectators at the Teikokukan during that time.
Subsequently, I focus on the two aspects of the audience’s arguments on the modernization of
the culture of cinema and movie theaters. Finally, I examine how the practice was followed bytheaters that projected Japanese cinema in the 1920s, focusing on theaters such as the Denkikan
and the Shochikukan in Asakusa and the Nikkatsukan in Kanda. In this study, I examine therelationship between music and its reception in the Japanese movie theaters of the silent era todemonstrate how the Japanese audience received Western music and formed their musicalmemory in movie theaters.

1. Enthusiasm for Western music: Intermission MusicIn Japan during the 1910s–1920s, most foreign films were first premiered in Asakusa, one of thecentral movie avenues.10 Cinema fans frequented movie theaters in Asakusa to watch the latest
movies. In a single day, they watched various films at several theaters until late at night.11 Movie
theaters at Asakusa competed to capture these audiences in various ways. One of the prominent
theaters in Asakusa, the Teikokukan (established in 1910), attracted young cinema-goers throughexclusive shows of foreign (usually American) films in the late 1910s and the early 1920s. The
Teikokukan had an exclusive contract with Universal Pictures and screened the latest Bluebird
movies, which were produced by the Bluebird Photoplays and distributed by Universal Pictures.
These were extremely popular among young Japanese audiences at the time. In addition to themovies, the Teikokukan attracted audiences through the enhancement of the movie theater9
During those times, few prints for each film were imported to Japan. Therefore, those prints premiered in thetheaters in Asakusa, and the box-office at Asakusa was considered an indicator of the film’s popularity in other places.
See Aaron Gerow, “One Print in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Film Industry and Culture in 1910s Japan,”
Early Cinema in Asia, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press: 40-156.
10
Asakusa was central to the movie industry in Japan; however, it had also been an entertainment district for along time and was assumed to be a bad place. An editor of the leading movie magazine Kinema junpo wrote about
his strong dislike in a preface. Although he said that people need to go to Asakusa because the imported movie
theaters in Asakusa were superior to those in other districts, he also wrote about “how horrible” it was to go to a place
like Asakusa. Nonetheless, he praised some of the other theaters in Tokyo, such as the Ginza Komparukan and the
Akasaka Aoikan and argued that the premiere theaters should be placed in downtowns like Ginza and Akasasa. See“Setsuen: Gaikoku eiga josetsukan shinai shugo wo sakebu,” Kinema junpo 6 (September 1919): 1. As history
suggests, the central place of entertainment made a transition from Asakusa through Ginza to Shinjuku. See Yoshimi
Shunya, Toshi no Dramaturgy, Tokyo: Kawade shobo, 2008.
11
Shishi Bunroku. Chinchin densha, Tokyo: Kawade Shobo, 2006: 155.

Musical Practice and Reception in Silent Movie Theaters in Tokyo

29

program, Daiichi Shinbun (A.1. News in English), and the use of contributors’ columns.
Spectators’ contributions to the programs are said to have started at the Teikokukan in 1916.
Shortly, the practice was adopted by foreign film theaters across Japan as a tool of communication
between the audience and the theater.12 The audience commented on various topics that ranged
from the films they saw in the previous week to their favorite actors/actresses, benshis (Japanese
live narrator for silent films), and music. The topics in the programs varied across theaters;
however, one of the topics frequently posted in the Daiichi Shinbun was music.13
Among the various aspects of music, a major topic was intermission music. The audienceoften wrote about the joys of hearing this music: “We are really pleased to hear Carmen,”14 and“The William Tell played this week was brilliant.”15 Sometimes, they also requested specificmusic: “We are eager to hear the music of operetta.”16 There were also comments like, “Thankyou for the intermission music, Chocolate Soldier. I would like you to play Les Cloches deCorneville next week.”17 Such active audience requests remind us of the song request practicethat would be adopted by radio in later years.
In the Daiichi Shinbun, there were also requests for specific musical practices: “How aboutplaying Teikoku[kan] March before the screening starts?” 18 Here, the contributor seems torequest the theater to compose an opening piece specifically for the Teikokukan. Interestingly,
the movie theater Komparukan was known for composing Komparu March, an opening piecethat was specific to the theater. The Komparukan was located in Ginza, an upscale and modern
shopping area in Tokyo. It was also known as a sophisticated cinema hall with an accomplishedorchestra, the Hatano Orchestra, conducted by Hatano Fukutaro. The Komparukan screened
Universal Pictures films, including Bluebird movies, a week after they were screened at the
Teikokukan. Many movie-goers went to both the Teikokukan and the Komparukan. If they liked
the film at the Teikokukan, they went to the Komparukan to see it again. Therefore, thecontributor’s appeal to compose a Teikoku March suggests that the audience tried to bring someof the practices of the Komparukan to their favorite theater.19
However, the question remains as to why the audiences so enjoyed Western music in movie
theaters across Japan. A possible reason is that Western music was modern music to the12
Kinema Record (May 1916: 200) reported that the Teikokukan started to issue the Daiichi Shinbun as “theorgan publication of a movie theater.” The photograph on the page suggests the first issue was published on March
18, 1916, although the early issues do not to survive today. As for the movie theater program, see Kondo Kazuto,
Eiga to kankyaku no media ron, Tokyo: Seikyu sha, 2020.
13
The style of the movie theater programs was not uniform. Some had contributor columns and others did not.
While the program of the Asakusa Denkikan, the oldest movie theater in Japan and one of the leading imported
theaters in Asakusa, had column space, few spectators wrote to them about music.
14
Daiichi Shinbun, January 18, 1919.
15
Daiichi Shinbun, February 21, 1920.
16
Daiichi Shinbun, January 11, 1919.
17
Daiichi Shinbun, May 3, 1919.
18
Daiichi Shinbun, May 24, 1919.
19
Takeizumi Heisaku described the difference between the pieces played at the Asakusa Teikokukan and the
Ginza Komparukan as the accompaniment music for the movie Shinya no hito. See Takaizumi Heisaku, “Renzoku
katsugeki banso ko,” Eiga shiryo, October 1, 1969. As for Hatano Orchestra, see also Takeishi Midori, “Hatano
Orchestra no jittai to kouseki,” Ochanomizu ongaku ron shu, 2006: 363-373.

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SHIBATA Kotaro

audience.20 One spectator wrote, “I hate [Japanese traditional music of] shamisen, and prefer
Western music. I visit Teikoku[kan] to see a Bluebird [film] and hear the voice of Ikoma [Raiyu,
a star benshi], and admire the great musical mood.”21 A critic from the movie magazine, Kinema
Record, wrote that the young audiences who studied at modern schools were the people who
enjoyed Western music like Waves of the Danube.22 This can be considered true as some readers
sent the following comments to the contemporary magazine: “We are young. Rather than the
bewildering fast sword scenes [of Japanese period films], accompanied with [traditional] hyoshigi
and taiko percussions, we would like to see the love stories of South Europe with passionate
moods or [American] Bluebird films with their soft mood and quiet and dream-like music.”23
These comments suggest that Western music was considered the music of the new generation in
Japan that was moving towards modernization. Theaters like the Teikokukan tried to appeal to
the young audience by updating their musical repertoire. In 1919, the Teikokukan announced thatthey had reformed the music department and had started importing new music from New York.24
Endo Saburo, the music director of the Teikokukan, also asked spectators to contribute theircomments to the magazines and the programs or visit the music department at their theater if they
had music requests.25

2. Cinematic Culture and Audience Comments
The audience made contributions due to their enthusiasm for Western music as modernmusic. However, there was another reason for their keen interest. Western music was assumed to
be closely related to the modernization of the Japanese culture of cinema, which was evident inthis particular request for music in the Daiichi Shinbun: “Please place the intermission music
between a drama movie and an action movie in a program.” The contributor asserted, “during themusical performance,” they were “annoyed by the voices of the vendors of cheap sweats and thechattering by other audience members.” 26 Those days, the exhibition programs comprised
several movies that included shorts and features, and the entire program was repeated twice or
thrice a day. The intermission music was played between the programs; therefore, when a newaudience entered the auditorium, they chattered and made noises. Even the Teikokukan, a theater
20
The increased interest in intermission music is confirmed by the fact that the movie magazine Kinema junpo,
during its early days, had published commentaries on some repertoire of the intermission music, although each of its
issues in those days had only four pages. Further, the commentaries were merely brief synopses of opera, whose
overture was played frequently.
21
Daiichi Shinbun, July 13, 1918
22
Nakano Kajin, “Katsudo shashin to ongaku VIII,” Kinema Record, February 1917: 64.
23“Dokusha jiyu rondan,” Katsudo Zasshi, October 1919: 159.
24
Daiichi Shinbun, April 19, 1919. Movie theaters in the United States also sought a method for cultural
upliftment through music. For example, W. Stephane Bush of Moving Picture World went to Western Europe toinspect the practice of music there. See James Buhler and Catrin Watts, “The Moving Picture World, W. Stephen
Bush and the American Reception of European Cinema Practices, 1907-1913,” Claus Tieber and Anna K. Windisch,
The Sounds of Silent Films, London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014, 103-22. As for the musical performance practice ofWestern Europe, see the articles in The Sounds of Silent Films, and regarding the sound and musical practices in the
United States, see Rick Altman, Silent Film Sound, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
25
Daiichi Shinbun, December 7, 1918.
26
Daiichi Shinbun July 19, 1919.

Musical Practice and Reception in Silent Movie Theaters in Tokyo

31

that tried to reform its music department and appeal to the audience with musical performances,
did not consider the elimination of disturbance during the presentation of their musicalperformances. This may have been because, in the early 1910s, music was played to entertain theaudiences in the hall and attract the people on the road into the theater.27 However, from the latter
half of the 1910s, the audience in the Teikokukan began to listen to the music more carefully,
separating the music from the exhibition and commercial customs. The aforementioned
contribution was acknowledged after a month when a comment stated the theater’s decision toplay the intermission music between the sub-featuring movie and the featuring movie [within aprogram].”28
The emergence of such attentive listening was paralleled by the reformation movement—
the Pure Film Movement—in Japan, which emphasized the importance of moving images overthat of benshis. A benshi’s performance was so popular in the silent film era that they had
supremacy over the films for which they narrated. Some benshis even changed the story of thefilm during their narration. Therefore, in the Pure Film Movement, which started around 1917,
young moviemakers and critics argued that the benshi’s narration must become more“sophisticated” so that it speaks modestly regarding what the moving images narrate. 29 The
reformation of the benshi was requested for various reasons, and some critics even asserted thatthe benshi must be removed from the movie theaters. Although the dismissal of the benshi was
not realized until the end of the silent era, one of the main benshi performances was abandoned
during the movement— maesetsu—an introductory talk about the film that offered an opportunity
to attract the spectators’ attention and help the benshi hold an unchallenged position as aperformer. However, it was gradually considered to be an impurity in the cinematic experience.
It is believed that the abolition of maesetsu was initiated around 1917 by Fujinami Mumei and
Tokugawa Musei, leading “advanced” benshis at the Aoikan at Akasaka, a downtown in Tokyo.
According to the film historian Misono Kyohei, the abolition spread from the Aoikan in Akasaka,through the Usgigomekan in Ushigome and the Komparukan in Ginza, to theaters in Asakusa.30
According to the Daiichi Shinbun, a contributor to the Asakusa Teikokukan also demanded “toabandon maesetsu.”31 Some practices in central theaters in downtown Tokyo seemed to gain
spectators’ discoveries with their praise and be adopted in the theater in Asakusa by the spectators’
approaches.
There was also an argument regarding music playing in connection with the benshi’s
narration. Some spectators required accompaniment music during the benshi’s narration. The
movie magazine, Kinema junpo, reported that there was usually no accompaniment music in thelast feature film in the daily program in ordinary theaters. However, at the Aoikan in Akasaka,

27
This seems to be a vestige of the practice that began in the early 1910s. See Ueda, Nihon eiga sosoki no
kogyo to kankyaku: 119-127.
28
Daiichi Shinbun August 9, 1919.
29
Kitada Akihiro, Imi eno aragai: Mediation no bunka seijigaku, Tokyo: Serika Shobo, 2004: 238-275.
30
Misono Kyohei. Katsuben jidai, Iwanami Shoten, 1990, 82. For the relationship of the Pure Film Movement
and benshis, see Aaron Gerow. Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship,
Oakland: University of California Press, 2010, 133-173.
31
Daiichi Shinbun, Sept 21, 1918.

SHIBATA Kotaro

32“soft accompaniment music was calmly played to the projected scenes during the narration.”32
Again, such a report recommended the practice to downtown Akasaka and tried to introduce thepractice of the first-class theaters of downtown areas into the popular district of Asakusa. An
audience at the Asakusa Teikokukan also requested, “Please play music during some scenes in
The Price of a Good Time even if the benshi was explaining.”33 This request seems to have been
acknowledged by the Asakusa Teikokukan, as was made evident by a contributor one month
later: “I am pleased to hear music during the explanation of The Chalice of Sorrow. I hope themusicians will play music in human dramas during such instances from now on.”34 During thereformation movement that transferred the central interest from the benshi to the moving images,
the audiences took a greater interest in the way the music accompanied the movie.
Certainly, many contributors wrote about their admiration for the movies or their favorite
actors rather than films as works of art.35 However, with the spread of the idea to see films asworks of art that is independent of the eloquent narration by the benshi, the sound practices offilms and accompaniment music were recognized as film enhancers. Nevertheless, the interest inaccompaniment music sometimes became severe, as some spectators expected it to be played ina manner that was beyond its role as an enhancer.

3. Interest in Musical Accompaniment around 1920
The reformation of the Japanese movie culture in the late 1910s encouraged the spectators’interest in musical accompaniment. Two movie magazines that promoted reformation (Kinema
Record and Kinema junpo) featured film music in 1916 and 1919, respectively, and discussed theideal accompaniment. The discourse on Daiichi Shinbun reflects this kind of contemporary
discussion.
The spectators’ interest in accompaniment music did not stem only from the pursuit of an
ideal film accompaniment. A good example of this is the popularity votes held by Daiichi Shinbun
as a plan for communication between the theater and the spectators. They usually collected votes
about favorite actors. However, in July 1918, they appealed to the spectators to vote for theirfavorite music at the Teikokukan:
Popularity contest of music played by the Teikokukan musical department
Genres: 1. Intermission music, 2. Tragedy music, 3. Action music, 4. Landscape music
Deadline: July 31
Publication of results: August 10
Note: Vote for your favorite music for each genre. Regardless of whether the music is32“Katsudoshashin to ongaku,” Kinema Record 40 (October 1916): 462.
Daiichi Shinbun, Feb 8, 1919.
34
Daiichi Shinbun, March 29, 1919.
35
Itakura Fumiaki described the movement as a “struggle for supremacy between movie exhibitor andmoviemaker” and indicated that the spread of the movement had started to create in film spectators the concept ofwork of art. Itakura Fumiaki, “’Kyugeki’ kara ‘Jidaigeki’ e,” Iwamoto Kenji ed. Jidaigeki Densetsu, Tokyo:
Shinwasha, 2005.
33

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33

Japanese or Western, we are going to play the most popular music. For the first 100
arrivals, admission tickets for the special seats at the Teikokukan will be presented as a
prize for the winner of each genre.36
This announcement refers to “Intermission music” and the music that accompanied the three
typical scenes in the movies: “Tragedy music,” “Action music,” and “Landscape music.” Usually,
spectators did not know the name of the accompaniment music played during the screening as
the names were not shown. However, the results of the contest, published a month later, suggestthat the most popular accompaniment music pieces were part of the common repertoire often
played as intermission music: Dublin Bay and Carmen for intermission (138 votes), William Tell
Overture for action (54 votes), The Blue Danube for landscape (116 votes), and Faust by Gounod(71 votes) and The Bohemian Girl by Balfe for tragedy (63 votes).37 These pieces were played
both during intermission and as accompaniment and became familiar tunes for the audience.
Several comments sent to Daiichi Shinbun also suggest that these music pieces actuallyaccompanied films: “Thank you for The Bohemian Girl for [the movie] The Night Shadows,”38
and “I am grateful for the Danube during the scene of The Heart of Humanity where John drifted
on a boat in the lake like a floating leaf under the lucent moon.”39
The contributions in Daiichi Shinbun also suggest that there were requests for the selectionof accompaniment music. A spectator, who heard of the plan for the Bluebird movies
retrospective, wrote, “Please play The Bohemian Girl in The Greater Law and Maritana andWilliam Tell in Little Miss Nobody.”40 In 1923, when the affiliation of the Teikokukan changed
from Universal Pictures to Shochiku Kinema, music director Shimada Harutaka wrote that moreaudience had been accustomed to hearing “novel repertoire for intermission music” as well asfamiliar tunes. Occasionally, he saw “ardent audiences” who made “professional critiques andrequests,” although he could not keep up with all the requests. “Some spectators eagerly requested
for a specific musical repertoire, but I am extremely sorry for not fulfilling all the wishes forseveral reasons. I cannot play the requested ‘sailor’s song’ as it does not suit the movie scheduled
for next week.”41 The last sentence is astonishing as it highlights that some spectators requested
music without caring for the film scenes. Although the modernization movement expectedaccompaniment music to support film as central to the movie culture, the growing interest inmusic pushed it beyond its role as accompaniment. The comment cited above (“Thank you for36

Daiichi Shinbun, July 12, 1918.
Daiichi Shinbun, August 17, 1918. The number of votes for the favorite music was not many when comparedwith the popularity contest for actors (the count was more than 500 votes for the most favorite actor, and more than3000 votes in total). However, the contest attracted the attention of the spectators, and the result was announced aweek later, contrary to the initial plan because a large number of votes was unexpected. Interestingly, in the next
month, Daiichi Shinbun (August 31, 1918) announced that “the popularity vote contest was planned to know themusical taste of spectators, and [they] will not play the selected accompaniment music during the films perforce
simply because they had won.” Some spectators seemed to have requested them to do so.
38
Daiichi Shinbun, August 24, 1918.
39
Daiichi Shinbun, September 20, 1919.
40
Daiichi Shinbun, April 12, 1919.
41
Shimada Harutaka, “Saikin ichijirushiku shimpo shita katsudo josetsukan no choshu,” Katsudo Gaho 7.6(June 1923): 40.
37

SHIBATA Kotaro

34

The Bohemian Girl for The Night Shadows”) might be an expression of gratitude for the theater
playing the requested piece. For these spectators, the experience in the movie theaters may havebeen equated with their attending a music concert accompanied by movies.
Additionally, musicians sometimes granted the spectators’ excessive wishes foraccompaniment. In 1923, the critic Ota Kocho praised the music department of the cinema hall
Shinjuku Musashinokan and criticized the music of other theaters, including the Asakusa
Teikokukan:
Many musicians are absorbed in meeting the spectators’ wishes to play popular musicalrepertoires and egocentrically pleased to be applauded. However, the musicians here [inthe Musashinokan] do not forget their role in supporting movies and play the music
quietly and modestly. Therefore, we must praise their attitudes. I am disgusted with theattitude of the musicians in some theaters like the Teikokukan, who played [the populartune] Love in Idleness recklessly and tried to meet the spectators’ wish rather thanharmonize music and cinema.”42
There are two noteworthy remarks in this comment. First, according to Ota, Shimada did not playmusic “quietly and modestly” and was “egocentrically pleased to be applauded.” Music directors
like Shimada, who performed in popular theaters, tried to meet the spectators’ requests throughthe selection of the repertoire and the extravagant style of performance.
Ota’s comment also documents the audience’s attitude with the word “applauded.”Contemporary articles indicate that spectators in theaters applauded several times during thescreening. In 1922, Tanaka Junichiro, a leading Japanese film historian, reported some of theinstances in which the spectators applauded frequently: before the screening (to urge the theatre
to quickly start the film); when musicians and benshi entered the hall; during the opening credits,
especially when they saw their favorite actor’s name; when the stars appeared on the screen; if
the scene was beautiful; during thrilling scenes; at the climax. Their behavior seemed to be
inherited from their viewing of kabuki theater and other popular stage theaters. Additionally,
Tanaka reported that he heard applauding most frequently at the Asakusa Nihonkan and for Endo
Saburo, the former music director of the Teikokukan.43 It was also reported in a contemporary
article that the musicians at the Nihonkan scamp their work because “the spectators always please
when they listened to popular tunes.” 44 This contrasted with the practice at the Ginza
Komparukan, where Tanaka heard no applauding. The practices of contributors discussed thus
far can be categorized within the two extremities of the practices of the Nihonkan and the
Komparukan that Tanaka mentioned. Around 1920, the spectators in the foreign movie theaters,

42

Gappyo dojin, “Musashino ongakudan gappyo,” Katsudo gaho, 7.7 (July 1923): 67.
Tanaka Junichiro, “Eiga josetsukan ni okeru hakushu no iroiro,” Katsudo Kurabu 5.9 (September 1922): 59.
Tanaka described the noisy auditorium so as to suggest readers to see films quietly. However, it was not put into
practice. Until the 1930s, when sound films had been established, the theaters were noisy. Itakura Fumiaki, “Eigakan
ni okeru kankyaku no saho: rekishitekina jyuyo kenkyu no tameno jyoron,” Itakura Fumiaki et al. ed. Nihon eiga wa
ikite iru, Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 2010: 227-49.
44
Sato Yasuo, “Kaku ongakudan bekkenki,” Katsudo gaho, 7.6 (June 1923): 35.
43

Musical Practice and Reception in Silent Movie Theaters in Tokyo35

on the one hand, began to internalize the norm of viewing films as a work of art, independent of
the benshi’s performance. They also directed their attention to the accompanying music as if it
was separate from the experience of the films.45
What will then be the relationship between the musical practice and reception in movie
theaters? Unfortunately, after the mid-1920s, when the affiliation of the Teikokukan changed
from Universal Pictures to Shochiku Kinema, the contributors’ columns in movie theater
programs gradually ceased, and the voices of the spectators started to disappear. Regarding thework of musicians, however, interesting cases can be found in the relationship between
intermission and accompaniment music. In the following section, we will investigate theintermission music in the theaters of Shochiku that showed Japanese movies and had a uniquepractice concerning the audience.

4. Continuity of Intermission Music and Musical Accompaniment:
Practices in theaters dedicated to Japanese cinema in the 1920s
The Japanese film production and distribution company Shochiku Kinema was founded in
1920 by Shochiku, the biggest kabuki production company, which promoted the Pure Film
Movement and musical accompaniment with Western music. Shochiku Kinema garneredconsiderable attention when it premiered its first movies at the Kabukiza in 1920 with a thirtypiece Western orchestra and invited a leading Japanese composer, Yamada Kosaku, as the guest
conductor for the premiere event. It later expanded its power in Tokyo and brought many movie
theaters under its wings. The Teikokukan affiliated with Shochiku in 1921, and its orchestra
doubled in size to 20. The Teikokukan program was renamed Shochiku News and printed thenames of the twenty orchestra members and the director, Shimada Harutaka. 46 Moreover,
Shochiku brought Western music to movie theaters for Japanese films which had traditional
Japanese music as accompaniment and where intermission music had not been played at all.
In 1922, Shochiku opened the Shochikukan as a premiere theater dedicated to the films
produced by Shochiku and began to change its accompaniment music to match the style of theforeign films through the use of Western music.47 The manager of the Shochikukan, Tsuzumi
45
The ambivalence could be seen in various situations in the Pure Film Movement. Tanaka Junichiro indicatedthat even a snobbish spectator who argued against benshi could not understand imported movies without benshis’voices that translated the foreign words on the intertitle. See Tanaka, “Eiga josetsukan ni okeru hakushu no iroiro,”
60.
46
Daiichi Shinbun, June 17, 1921.
47
To be more precise, the musical repertoire in imported film theaters had included Japanese music earlier. In
1916, the movie magazine Kinema Record reported that “intermission music is heard in every theater [these days],”and “in the Aoikan, the repertoire weekly alternates between Western music and Japanese music; however, in the
Komparukan, both kinds of music are played in a week.” (“Katsudoshashin to ongaku 8,” Kinema Record, August
1916, 337). Further, a Teikokukan contributor “asked [them to play] Japanese music sometimes.” (Daiichi Shinbun,
October 25, 1925) One and a half months later, the Japanese tune Echigo jishi was played during the intermission at
the Teikokukan, and that elicited loud applause. One spectator wrote, “Echigo jishi was a familiar tune for us, andwe really appreciated that it was played as intermission music. […] It would be better to play those ordinary tunes
rather than unintelligible new music.” (Daiichi Shinbun, December 6, 1919.) However, another spectator wrote, “itwas a matter of regret” that Japanese music rather than Western music “attracted the biggest applause since theestablishment of the Teikokukan.” (Daiichi Shinbun, December 20, 1919.)

SHIBATA Kotaro

36

Tomojiro, wrote in 1923 that the accompaniment of Japanese films with Western music wasinitially criticized for “ignoring the nature of the people in Asakusa.”48 In 1923, Sato Yasuo, acritic, remarked that “even if they played sophisticated music [in the Shochikukan], most of thespectators could not appreciate it,” and it would be better to select “popular and uplifting[Western] music” or “Japanese tunes like Echigo jishi or Tsurukame as had been played the otherday.”49 However, Tsuzumi reported that Western music in Japanese movie theaters was being
rapidly accepted, even expanding to theaters in rural districts. Thus, in the early 1920s, Westernmusic became popular in the theaters of Japanese movies, and spectators like Inagaki Hiroshi
began to listen to Western music, as noted in the introduction.
The Shochiku also started unique intermission music in Japanese film theaters around 1927.
It began to make medley pieces that achieved popularity. Playwright Kondo Keiichi reported thathe heard the new intermission music, Kanraku wo oute (Following pleasure, premiered on July
15, 1927), in the Asakusa Denkikan (Shochiku’s premiere theater at that time):
The popular tunes that the director, Shimada, collected and arranged are tasteful and idealfor our popular musical enjoyment. The new [medley] music, Kanraku wo oute, merely
contains famous tunes such as Carmen, Yashi no ha shigereru, Rokudan, Echigo jishi,
Showa bushi, and Love in Idleness, but they are well arranged. When I see that each tune
is appreciated by thousands of spectators who are thoroughly pleased, [I feel that] musicshould be like this [….] Although [the traditional nagauta song] Dojoji is good, I am
expecting Japanese Jazz to be born. I saw the audience who were fascinated with
Shimada’s arrangement of popular songs and thought that Japanese Jazz might be bornin this kind of music.50
The practice of making a medley for intermission music, which Kondo had indicated as the signof the birth of “Japanese Jazz,” spread widely to other movie theaters. Tanaka Toyoaki, the music
director of Shochiku’s rival movie production company, Nikkatu, called this a fashion of“arrangement” and made several medleys for the Kanda Nikkatsukan, Nikkatsu’s premier theater.
According to Tanaka, “this kind of medley pieces were welcomed by the ordinary people likemovie spectators,” even though “these pieces are easy to make as the melodies were almost readymade,” and all one must do is “add some harmony and elaborate the connections.”51 Tanaka
himself did not comment on the pieces positively. However, his arrangements are noteworthy as
they demonstrate a new stage of the development in the relationship between the practice of music48

Tsuzumi Tomojiro, “Shochiku kinema no genjo to hofu,” Katsudo gaho, January 1923: 36.
Sato, “Kaku ongakudan bekkenki:” 36. According to a newspaper from 1921, spectators at the Teikokukan
enjoyed listening to music for approximately seven to eight minutes. However, when the performance lasted morethan ten minutes, they started to applaud in order for the theatre to quickly begin screening. (“Kyukeichu no sogaku
mondai,” Asahi Shinbun, April 9, 1921.)
50
Kondo Keiichi, “’Utsuriyuku obon’: Denkikan,” Eiga jidai, September 2.9 (September 1927): 9. One of theearliest medley pieces was Haru no tsuioku arranged by Shimada Harutaka, which premiered in the Asakusa
Denkikan on April 15, 1927. Shimada started to make something similar to medley music in the early 1920s but
created a musical narrative around 1927.
51
Tanaka Toyoaki “Gaku wa ku no tane: Eiga onagaku isseki wa,” Eiga jidai 3.7 (July 1928): 47.
49

Musical Practice and Reception in Silent Movie Theaters in Tokyo37

and its reception in Japanese movie theaters.
An investigation of the movie theater program of the Kanda Nikkatsukan, Kanda Shuho,
suggests that Tanaka made several medley pieces with brief but unique musical narratives. The
musical scenario of the early piece, Nazo no toranku (Mysterious trunk), was simple: a music
director came to his movie theater, picked up some pieces of music from his trunk, and playedthem one by one.52 However, the piece that premiered a week later, Fantaji: Natsukashi no
merode (Fantasy: Nostalgic Melodies), was combined with standard pieces of accompanimentmusic and described as an “arrangement that depicts a reel of film in the imagination” and “issupposed to be heard and interpreted by the listener.”53 Additionally, the piece that premiered
the next month, Isokyoku Kanda Jocho (Kanda sentiment), depicted the musical soundscape of
Kanda—the path that starts from the students’ quarter through the Kanda Myojin shrine to the
Kanda Nikkatsukan was described using the tunes of student songs, shrine festival music,
accompaniment music, etc.54 Tanaka also made several medleys such as Uchiiri koshin kyoku(Raid March), Ueno bansho (Ueno Vesper Bell), and Kuraimakkusu Kokyokyoku (Climax
Symphony), and some were published as scores and recordings.55 Shimada’s Kanraku wo outealso had a simple scenario that traced the beginning of a new morning, people boarding a train
and arriving at Kaminarimon, a famous gate in Sensoji temple in Asakusa, people walking on
Nakamise shopping street to the temple and entering through another gate, and an old lady giving
beans to doves in the temple’s precincts.56
As Tanaka mentioned, the compositions were simple. However, notably, they were heard
with the backdrop of musical memories that had been accumulated by the experience ofaccompaniment music that played in films. A contributor of Daiichi Shinbun wrote in 1920, “I
heard The Bohemian Girl for the first time in a while and remembered Miss. Violet Mersereau.
Hearing the excerpt of the solitary sound at the beginning of William Tell Overture, I cannot help
but recall the scene of Mr. Harry Carey riding on a horse at the national border in themountains.”57 Another writer remarked on Japanese traditional music in a movie magazine. He
listed several Japanese tunes played in the Kanda Nikkatsukan that reminded the writer of somespecific scenes of movies: “The festive melody of [the Japanese nagauta music] Genroku hanami
odori curiously reminds me of actor Yamamoto Kaichi and the climax scene during the Tarainoto
Castle in Okubo Hikozaemon.”58 These comments suggest that the spectators began to relate themusic with their memories reminding them of the scene the tune accompanied. A contributor to
the Komparukan wrote this explicitly, “Music brings a past movie in front of me again. Hearing
Drigo’s Serenade, the first scene of the beautiful movie Broken Blossoms began to be quietly
projected in my mind.” 59 The medley music that prevailed around 1927 could be heard by
52

Kanda Shuho. September 1, 1927.
Kanda Shuho. September 15, 1927.
54
Kanda Shuho, October 7, 1927.
55
Some of the recordings are now digitized and accessible on the database Rekion, the Historical Recordings
Collection in the partner libraries of the National Diet Library, Japan.
56
Shochiku News, July 15, 1927.
57
Daiichi Shinbun, July 10, 1920.
58
Yamane Kenichi “Banso yawa,” Nikkatsu, December 1927, 72-73.
59
Komparu Shuho, November 10, 1922.
53

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SHIBATA Kotaro

spectators as if they were seeing a movie in their minds. Thus, film spectators in the 1920s had
sometimes listened to accompaniment music very carefully as if it were accompanied by motion
pictures. However, in the latter half of the 1920s, intermission music became more familiar due
to its association with cinematic memory, playing in the minds of people like a movie withoutvisuals. The music culture of silent movie theaters had developed with the interaction between
music and image and between theaters and spectators.

Conclusion
This study considers how Western music was played and heard in silent movie theaters inTokyo from the late 1910s to the 1920s. Though the examination of the audiences’ comments
contributed to movie theater programs, we demonstrated the changing relationship between
intermission and accompaniment music during the modernization movement. In the earlytwentieth century, Western music was foreign to the Japanese people; however, in the late 1910s,
with the popularization of films with Western music in movie theaters, Japanese audiences
became accustomed to Western music and developed a “film-musical memory,” which enabled
them to enjoy intermission music that stirred the memory of films watched before.
This study limited the scope of the investigation to the case in the silent film theaters,
especially premiere ones, in Tokyo. This aided in a more specific examination; however, it issubject to further discussion. For example, the relationship between Asakusa and other districtsin Tokyo or outside Tokyo ought to be more geopolitically examined. It must also be noted thatthe intermission program changed with the advent of sound films, from live musicalperformances to recorded music or live staging of a revue. Then, the investigation of how the
relationship between the intermission program and movies changed accordingly would be
required. Moreover, it is important to study how these instances differed among countries.
Comparative studies would shed light on the variety and uniqueness of the music culture thatdeveloped in film theaters where various kinds of music including folk, popular, and art music,
and foreign and indigenous music were played to accompany films in movie theaters across theworld.