Japanese music students in Germany and Austria, 1880 to 1945

This chapter explores transnational flows of musicians between Japan and Germany from the late nineteenth century to the 1940s, focusing on the Japanese who studied music in Germany and Austria. It illuminates the messy nature of Japan’s adoption of Western classical music in the volatile geopolitical context of colonial modernity and regional and world wars. The first part of the chapter discusses Japanese who studied abroad before 1914. The next part deals with those who studied music abroad after 1920, when Germany and Austria again became destinations for Japanese music students after the disruption of World War I. Also discussed are the Korean musicians, technically considered Japanese citizens as a result of Japan’s colonization of their homeland, who were able to study in Germany and Austria.