A History of Japanese Hacking and DIY music
ADACHI Tomomi
Translation by Sayoko Mundy
Is it unreasonable to start a history of Japanese hacking and DIY music with the year 1924?
That was the year TAKAMIZAWA Michinao, perhaps inspired by Luigi Russolo’s Intonarumori
instruments, took some bicycle wheels, metal strings and empty cans and combined them tocreate his Sound Constructors. (The creator of Japan's first robot manga, Takamizawa later
became a famous cartoonist under the name TAGAWA Suiho ). The documentation is sketchy,
but it is clear that these devices were used by the Japanese Dada group MAVO in dance andtheatre performances where they were played by people with no musical background. They
might be the first Noise Improvisations in the history of modern art. Three decades later in 1956,
TANAKA Atsuko, a core member of the avant-garde group Gutai, created her Electric Dress—amass of light bulbs and wires that she wore fully lit, despite the risk of electrocution, on stage. A
year earlier she exhibited a work in which twenty bells could be rung in sequence when visitorspressed a button, a very early example of an interactive sound installation.
As in the United States and Europe, in Japan the 1960s were critical years for art as well aspolitics. Among the members of the Group Ongaku, founded in 1960, were two important
pioneers of electronic experimental music, TONE Yasunao and KOSUGI Takehisa (1938–2018).
Tone created one of the first artworks using a tape loop for the “Yomiuri Independentexhibition,” a critical occasion for avant-garde art, in 1962, and in 1965 transformed the body ofa Volkswagen into an interactive sound object. This interest in the transformation of content
through changes in media—audio tape to visual object, automobile to musical instrument—
would remain consistent through Tone’s career. Kosugi, who was familiar with electronics fromrepairing radios in his youth, created ethereal electronic sounds by heterodyning closely tuned
radios (see David First’s audio and video tracks on the website). He built his own Theremin andaltered his live violin performance through filters and delay pedals to gently transform sound andspace.
A unique attribute of Tokyo, essential to the development of Japanese electronic music, was theAkihabara district—the urban temple of electronics. After World War II, Akihabara was theepicenter of the black market in the destroyed city center, and later small shops selling military
surplus vacuum tubes and radio parts crowded the area around a local school for electronics. The
narrow arcade was so jammed with vendors it was difficult to pass, but how exciting to survey
the precisely organized arrays of parts and junk, and chat with the sometimes-difficult shop
owners. Akihabara nourished Japanese DIY culture: you could find new or old things atincredible prices, and every Akihabara regular would have had a map of it imprinted in theirbrain. It offered a mysterious flow of imagination not to be had through catalogs or mailorder. You might go to buy things, but you would leave with ideas—a modest collusion ofcapitalism and creativity. By the 1990s Akihabara had devolved into a purlieu of anime andvideo-games, but one can still catch a glimpse of older times in a bin of electric parts labeled“new old stock” not found on the Internet. Some have been there for decades.

Several engineers had significant roles in the 1960s development of electronic music in Japan.
OKUYAMA Junosuke began as a recording engineer collaborating closely with composer
TAKEMITSU Toru (their film work is a précis of the best Japanese film of the sixties) and went
on to support and influence many experimental musicians, including international visitors toJapan. He met John Cage and David Tudor in 1962 when they were invited by the Sogetsu ArtCentre, then the heart of the Tokyo contemporary art scene (though it strains credibility, Sogetsu
was sponsored by the Ikebana flower arranging school Sogetsu-ryu). Okuyama was the residentsound engineer, and his relationship to Cage was cemented when he built in one night a 50channel mixer for Cage’s 50 contact microphones (the microphones had been made in Japan but,curiously, brought by Cage from America). Perhaps more importantly, for the subsequent historyof electronic music, Okuyama, who could not speak English, took Tudor, who did not understandJapanese, to Akihabara. Cage wanted to bring Okuyama back to the US, but this did not happen.
Instead Cage took home technology and the spirit of Zen, a form of Orientalism Western
intellectuals like; while Tudor brought back a fascination with live electronics that blossomed
instantly. Okuyama continued to assist musicians by building multipliers, filters, ring modulatorsand other devices. Cage’s pupil ICHIYANAGI Toshi used these tools in performing his own
compositions, and at times Okuyama himself got up on stage. While the nation’s most importantelectronic music studio, NHK Electronic Music Studio (under the aegis of Japan’s national
broadcasting corporation, NHK,) was mainly interested in tape music, Okuyama’s work greatly
expanded the field of live electronics.
It was in Akihabara in 1963 that the engineer ABE Shuya met artist Nam June Paik, who hadstudied in Japan and was a frequent visitor. Together they built Robot K-456 (1964), whoperformed in the groundbreaking street performances. Later Abe designed the Paik-Abe video
synthesizer, based on specifications from Paik, as part of a project with WGBH television inBoston.
The tradition of art-oriented engineering in Japan can be traced back to the legendary UCHIDA
Hideo (one story has it that he was the actual inventor of the transistor.) In 1962, having
previously worked at the NHK research laboratory, he opened a shop in Akihabara (the store
remained in the same place with the same name until quite recently). Later he devoted himself toelucidating paranormal phenomena through electrical engineering. Echoes of Uchida can beheard in the work of artists SHII Kei and MURAI Keitetsu . In the 1970s Shii had studied withKosugi at Bigakko, the base for anti-academic education at the time. He has since provided
electronic devices for many artists, and with other Kosugi alumni is a member of MarginalConsort, which employs a wide range of electronic instruments. MURAI Keitetsu assisted
Kosugi with electronics in later years, and is known for solo performances, most memorably
those using a candle flame to trigger an array of oscillators to produce a resounding roar.
YOSHIDA Minoru, a member of the Gutai group, developed his work using technologies in a
psychedelic way, and in 1974 built synthesizer components into a plastic jacket. Wearing thissynthesizer jacket, Yoshida suspended himself with ropes and performed mid-air—linkingwearable electronics and Sun Ra.

Figure 1 Synthesizer jacket, YOSHIDA Minoru, . Photographer Unknown courtecy of Midori
Yoshida and Ulterior Gallery, New York, used by permission.
I would like to take this moment to correct a misperception about Japanese culture common
among Western readers—namely the idea that Japan has nurtured its own consistent andcontinuous culture, independent of the United States, Europe and other places. As alreadyobserved, there was Dadaism in Japan in the 1920s, and the Japanese avant-garde of the 1960s
was perfectly synchronized with that of New York City. There was always influence from theWest, but there is no need to lament “cultural imperialism.” Dadaism may have reached Japanfrom Berlin, but it was accepted in Japan only because similar things had already taken shape
there. Similarly, the musical work of Group Ongaku commenced without direct knowledge ofCage or of Fluxus, but when their ideas were imported, they resonated with the Japanese avantgarde. In other words, Japan shared in the Zeitgeist of the 20th century.
That said, one possible, and unfortunate, peculiarity of Japanese culture is a dearth ofcommunication between different generations and different regions in Japan. Thus there waslittle relationship between 1920s Dadaism and the 1960s avant-garde in Japan—somehow thedistance was much greater than the (mathematically equivalent) one between Duchamp andFluxus. The physical distance between Tokyo and Osaka, the two cultural poles in Japan, isonly 400 km, but the cultural gap seems greater than that separating New York and SanFrancisco. The meeting point for Group Ongaku (Tokyo) and Gutai (around Osaka) ran throughJohn Cage’s loft in New York City.

Figure 2 Turnhat, IMAI Jiro. Photo © IMAI Jiro, used by permission.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, a new DIY culture, punk, exploded in Tokyo. For better or worse,
there was no Japanese equivalent to Malcolm McLaren, and the punk scene remained anunderground phenomenon. IMAI Jiro, who was involved in the strangest band, Pungo and themost self-destructive band, Taco (“octopus”), expressed the DIY spirit with honesty and humor.
Around 1990 he started Jirox Dolls Show as a solo effort, using dolls and rubbish combined onstage with light bulbs, cheap turntables, electric fans and other household appliances. Aperformance using an electric mixer to turn a disc placed above a hat conveyed a meaninglesspurity. Imai died in 2012, but during his final days in hospital, he photographed objects createdfrom hospital food, images that still speak to us about what is hacking, what is DIY, what is art,
truth and love. In Osaka also the punk scene boomed, characterized by the use of effects andunusual explosive sounds that later became common to Japanese noise music1.

Figure 3 Food art, IMAI Jiro. Photo © IMAI Jiro, used by permission.
Guitarist TAKAYANAGI Masayuki was a pioneer of the free jazz movement in Japan, fromwhich he drew his methodology of “action direct” in the 1980s. Takayanagi placed a number ofelectric guitars on a desk; these were activated by motors and heard through a ring modulator andnumerous effect pedals, accompanied by tape material and feedback, The result was anincredible, roaring sound performance. Takayanagi’s disciple IMAI Kazuo (like Shii, a former
student of Kosugi’s), attached springs to a metal plate and performed with it as part of theMarginal Consort and in solo performances. OTOMO Yoshihide, another student of Takayanagi,
created a number of “action direct” mechanisms, and had played twisted noise on an electricguitar to which he had added springs.

Figure 4 Action Direct, TAKAYANAGI Masayuki. Photo © SAITO Yasunori, used bypermission.

Figure 5 Table set-up for Marginal Consort, IMAI Kazuo,. Photo © FUNAKI Kazuyuki, used bypermission.

Composer and pianist TAKAHASHI Yuji has had a large influence as a role model for antiacademic composers and performers in Japan. A student of Iannis Xenakis, Takahashi
commissioned and premiered Xenakis’s solo piano piece “Herma” (1961). Though it would beimpossible to do justice to his extensive activity in hacking and electronics here, it is importantto acknowledge his computer improvisations of the late 1980s and early 1990. Working withMac and a sampler, he often collaborated with the legendary improviser TOGASHI Masahiko ,as well as with the American composer John Zorn, who lived in Tokyo at the time. He used theprogramming language Max, in which the user connects digital “objects” (discrete processingelements) with lines, mimicking the physical process of connecting components with patchcords: on stage Takahashi would sometimes work with his back to the audience so they could
watch the screen as he added or deleted Max objects, clicking and dragging patching cables toconnect or disconnect them. These performances could be described as “live coding,” but theymight as accurately be dubbed “live cording.”
Bassist YOSHIZAWA Motoharu, like Takaynagai and Togashi, started in free jazz, where hebecame a leading figure. Always in the forefront of improvised music, he developed in the late1980s a system in which a homemade vertical electric bass was connected to a DJ sampler andother effects, modified so that they could be delicately controlled with his feet as he played thebass. This enabled him to perform real time sampling and modulation, creating an orchestra-likeaccompaniment from vertically placed speakers, resulting in very lively improvised electronicmusic.
In the new millennium, the Internet has linked communities around the globe and facilitated ouraccess to information, in Japan as elsewhere. I would like to mention seven artists among themany who have emerged in this milieu.
ITO Atsushiro had long included fluorescent lights in his installations, but around 2000 he began
amplifying the sound of the lights with electromagnetic pickups in audio visual performances.
He dubbed this instrument the Optron, and used it in collaborative efforts with other improvisingmusicians. In 2003 he reduced the system to a single fluorescent tube, held like a guitar. His
performance style mimics rock guitar— the most sophisticated style of musical performance tobe developed in the last 50 years. The guitar is abandoned. And the strobe is your own!

Figure 6 ITO Atsuhiro, Optron. Photo © FUJISHIMA Ryo, used by permission.

Along with Ito, SUZUKI Manabu is a member of IMAI Kazuo trio mentioned above (in thisgroup Imai acts exclusively as an outstanding jazz guitarist). In addition to building electric
instruments for other artists, Suzuki performs his own work with a large number of eccentric
electric devices, that translate chemical and physical motion data into sound. One performancework amplifies the electric potentials of an electrolysis of water; in he holds both his hands in ahorizontal position for around 20 minutes; as the hands start to shake, sensors catch themovements and transform them to sounds.

Figure 7 System Y, YONEMOTO Minoru. Photo © YONEMOTO Minoru, used by permission.

YONEMOTO Minoru has invented a large number of unconventional electric devices that
explore the territory between conceptual art and fetishism. In performance, he manually sends 8bit commands to an early digital music chip using a combination of switches and buttons,
collapsing the distance between the human body and digital technology. With more than 150modules, his System Y appears to be a normal self-made synth, but it contains a compass, anaccessories case and a spring-powered walking toy. Until Handmade Electronic Music wastranslated into Japanese in 2013, Yonemoto’s book Fun Electronic Musical Instruments: AnIntroduction to DIY (2008) was the only guide for experimental musicians written in Japanese2.
One of the most prominent contemporary artists in Japan at the moment is MOHRI Yuko. Manyof her kinetic installation works employ chains of devices and objects activated by solenoids andmotors. Her projects combine a refined minimalist aesthetic and the unpretentious joy of selfmade objects.
KUBOTA Akihiro teaches media art at Tama Art University. Active on the “live coding” scene,
he also performs on an electric guitar into which he has incorporated a breadboard for
prototyping circuitry, an Arduino, contact microphones, optical sensors and a video synthesizer.

Figure 8 Breadboard Guitar, KUBOTA Akihiro. Photo © KUBOTA Akihiro, used by permission.
TAKESHITA Yuma is a member of the emerging younger generation. He has attachednumerous sensors and mechanisms— including one that can rotate a knob automatically—to anelectric bass, allowing him to control effect devices and synthesizers in improvisations. He
frequently collaborates with NAKADA Kayu who, unlike many of those involved in theJapanese independent music scene, has trained in traditional composition methods at theSenzoku Gakuen College of Music. Nakada regards circuit bending as an extension of theconcept of the prepared piano (adding wires to an open can be seen as analogous to placing
objects in the strings of the piano). Nakada extracts components from electric keyboards andstacks them in large numbers to make electrical contact, creating unexpected sounds. These
performances are representative of the best aspects of the Japanese hacking music scene in Japantoday.

Figure 9 Electro-bass, TAKESHITA Yuma. Photo © TAKESHITA Yuma, used by permission.

Figure 10 a & b: NAKADA Kayu, Bug Synth. Photos © NAKADA Kayu, used by permission.
1Press.

See David Novak, 2013, Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation, Duke University

2Minoru Yonemoto, Tanoshii denshi gakki: jisaku no susume [楽しい電子楽器 自作のススメ] (Tokyo: Ohm, 2008).
Thanks to KIM Yohan