The Japanese love of Chopin

We, the Japanese, love Chopin perhaps mainly because of the delicate beauty, modesty, and nobility of his music. It is like the waves of time.

Chopin competition fever

.More than 90 Japanese pianists applied for the 18th Chopin Piano Competition by 1 December 2019. Following preliminary auditions in October 2021, 14 performers participated in the main competition, and two Japanese winners were selected. The preliminary auditions and the main competition were broadcast online in 4K quality and attracted a large audience. The second stage was watched by up to 7,300,000 people, 45.5 per cent of whom were from Japan.

Aimi Kobayashi and Kyohei Sorita, who returned to Japan after finishing third and fourth respectively, gave daily TV and radio interviews and performed at sold-out concerts. NHK, the national public broadcaster, produced five major TV specials on the Chopin Competition from different perspectives. The Japanese press wrote extensive columns about the event – there was even a magazine entitled ‘The 18th Chopin Piano Competition’. In addition to the winners, a series of concerts were given by Tomoharu Ushida and Hayato Sumino, who were already well known before the competition. A gala concert tour of this year’s winners throughout Japan is planned for January and February.

Not since the ‘Bunin fever’ surrounding the 11th Chopin Piano Competition in 1985 has there been such excitement in Japan. The winner, Stanislav Bunin, performed in front of 12,000 people at the Nippon Budokan.

Chopin at the dawn of Japanese music

.The first piano, a square model made by William Rolfe & Sons, was brought to Japan in 1823 by Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold, a German doctor at a Dutch trading post. However, the first piano lessons in Japan came much later, with the establishment of the country’s first music school, Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari, in 1879. The first graduation concert was held on 20 July 1885. Kine Toyama played Chopin’s Polonaise (Op. no. unknown) in the first public performance of Chopin’s work in Japan.

On 22 February 1912, the anniversary of Chopin’s birth, Ryukichi Sawada gave the first piano recital in Japan, an all-Chopin programme. Eleven pieces were performed, including Ballade in A-flat major, Op. 47 and Fantasia-Impromptu.

Frederic Chopin was thus close to the Japanese from the very beginning of Japanese concert life.

Competitions and Chopin

.The first Chopin Piano Competition was held in Warsaw in 1927. At the time, the most prestigious national competition in Japan was the Japan Music Competition, which was first held in 1932 under the name of the First Music Competition. This is something Japan can be proud of, as the first edition was held only five years after the establishment of the Chopin Piano Competition. In the preliminaries of the First Music Competition, the participants’ task was to perform works by Bach and Beethoven, and in the finals – Chopin’s Ballade in G minor, Op. 23. This approach was continued in the second edition with Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20, and in the third edition with Fantasy in F minor, Op. 49. No. 20. In 1935, during the fourth edition, Etude in E major, Op. 10 No. 3 and Etude in C minor, Op. 10 No. 12were included in the preliminary stage, and Ballade in A flat major, Op. 47, in the final – as if it were the Chopin Competition!

The first Japanese to take part in the Chopin Piano Competition were Miwa Kai, winner of the aforementioned First Music Competition, and Chieko Hara, who studied in France with Lazare Lévy and was awarded an honorary diploma for her performance in the final and the audience prize from Stanislav Meyer.

The first Japanese woman to become a laureate of the Chopin Piano Competition was Kiyoko Tanaka, who won tenth place in the 5th edition, in 1955. Professor Lidia Grychtołówna, who took seventh place in the same competition and with whom I recently had the opportunity to sit on the jury of the Chopin Piano Competition, spoke fondly of the excellence of Kiyoko Tanaka’s playing, saying that she was “a pianist with real talent”. Thirteen Japanese have so far won prizes in the Chopin Piano Competition, including two in the 18th edition. This is the most among Asian countries. Unfortunately, Japan does not yet have a first prize winner.

Chopin beyond the music scene

.In contemporary Japan, Chopin’s popularity is not limited to the music scene. Keiichiro Hirano, winner of the Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards, has published a novel, Funeral (Marche funèbre, 2002), which depicts Chopin’s life.

In recent years, manga has begun to be treated as an art form in Japan. The most famous manga about Chopin is the Forest of Piano series (2015) by Makoto Isshiki. The series was a huge hit, with a total print run of more than 6,000,000 copies. It is the inspiring story of Kai Ichinose, who develops a friendly rivalry with an exceptional teacher and friends and eventually succeeds in the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. The author was later involved in the development of an animated comic adaptation under the auspices of NHK.

Chopin’s work is also an integral part of Nodame Cantabile (2010) by Tomoko Ninomiya, a manga that has surpassed Piano Forest in terms of circulation. Nodame Cantabile is a hilarious story about the adolescence of the titular Nodame and her boyfriend, the conductor Chiaki, who yearn to become real musicians. Nodame’s big London debut was Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11. There’s even a classic manga, Chopin Always in My Pocket (1981) by Fusako Kuramochi.

In the world of television series, 101 Proposition (1991), a cult series of 12 episodes, is the most impressive presentation of the Etude in E major, Op. 10 No. 3, popularly known in Japan as L’Adieu (Farewell).

Chopin’s works have even been used in Japanese television commercials. For example, a commercial for the drug Ohta’s Isan used the Prelude in A major, Op. 28, No. 7, because the name of the drug being advertised sounds similar to ‘A major’ in Japanese. This also shows that the Japanese love Chopin’s music.

The Japanese love Chopin

.Why do the Japanese love Chopin so much? The answer is not easy. I sometimes hear music lovers point out the similarities between Japanese enka music and Chopin. But this is a great exaggeration. True, the melody of one of Japan’s most famous enka songs, From the Northern Inn (1975), is reminiscent of the first movement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11. But this is a mere coincidence. It is also a contemporary song. It is unlikely that the author was familiar with Chopin’s concerto and drew inspiration from its theme.

Chopin’s works are also reminiscent of the ‘melisma’ style. The melismatic nature of Chopin’s melodies can be seen by comparing his works with those of Mendelssohn. This can be easily seen, for example, by juxtaposing the opening movement of Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14 with the melody of Chopin’s Op. 12.

We, the Japanese, love Chopin perhaps mainly because of the delicate beauty, modesty, and nobility of his music. It is like the waves of time.

We are also deeply impressed by Chopin’s patriotism. We are moved by the national pride present in the Polish composer’s works, such as the Polonaise in A-flat major (Heroic), Op. 53, or the Mazurkas. Chopin’s music continues to fascinate Poles and Japanese alike.

Koji Shimoda