Electrified Voices: How the Telephone, Phonograph, and Radio Shaped Modern Japan, 1868–1945

302 Pages·2018·8.7 MB·English

by  Kerim Yasar

E D
LECTRIFIE
V S
OICE
How the
Telephone,
Phonograph,
and Radio
Shaped
Modern Japan,
1868–1945
KERIM
YASAR
ELECTRIFIED VOICES
STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE,
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE,
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University were
inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of significant new research
on modern and contemporary East Asia.
For a list of titles in this series, see pages 279–81
ELECTRIFIED VOICES
HOW T H E T E L E P HO N E ,
P HO N O G R A P H ,
and
R A D IO SHA P E D M O D E R N
JA PA N , 1 8 6 8 – 19 4 5
KERIM YASAR
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup .columbia .edu
Copyright © 2018 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Yasar, Kerim, author.
Title: Electrified voices : how the telephone, phonograph, and radio shaped
modern Japan, 1868–1945 / Kerim Yasar.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2018] | Series: Studies of the
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018012328 | ISBN 9780231187121 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780231187138 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231547024 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Japan—Civilization—1868–1945. | Japan—History—1868– |
Communication—Social aspects—Japan—History. | Sound recordings—Social
aspects—Japan—History. | Mass media and culture—Japan—History. |
Nationalism—Japan—History.
Classification: LCC DS822.25 .Y3784 2018 | DDC 952.03—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018012328
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-f ree paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Noah Arlow
Cover image: Takabatake Kashoe, Natsukashi no mikoe (Nostalgia of the
real voice). Japan, 1920s. Courtesy of the Yayoi Museum
FOR MY MOTHER, AND FIRST
AND BEST TEACHER,
AZADE SEYHAN
•

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Names xvii
INTRODUCTION: ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS
INTO SOUND(cid:2)1
1. VOCAL CORDS AND TELEPHONE WIRES:
ORALITY IN JAPAN, OLD AND NEW(cid:2)22
2. SOUND AND SENTIMENT(cid:2)52
3. THE GRAIN IN THE GROOVE: INSCRIBED VOICES,
ECHOED TEMPORALITIES(cid:2)83
4. IMAGINING THE WIRELESS COMMUNITY(cid:2)114
5. GHOSTLIER DEMARCATIONS, KEENER SOUNDS:
EARLY JAPANESE RADIO DRAMA(cid:2)154
VIII(cid:2)CONTENTS
6. SOUND AND MOTION(cid:2)192
CODA- OKE(cid:2)225
Notes 229
Bibliography 253
Index 263
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1.1 Postcard of Fukui Post Office Telephone Exchange. 49
Figure 1.2 Telephone switchboard, Kosaka Mining, Smelting,
and Refining Works. 50
Figure 4.1 Subjects of the Japanese Empire listening to the Imperial
Rescript on Surrender on August 15, 1945, in Yotsuya in
Tokyo, Japan. 115
Figure 4.2 Postcard of JOBK in Osaka. 117
Figure 4.3 Cover of the NHK guidebook for radio exercise leaders,
1940 (in celebration of the putative 2,600th anniversary of
the foundation of Japan). 119
Figure 4.4 Interior of the NHK guidebook for radio exercise
leaders. 122–23
Figure 4.5 “Sports Sketch” recording of Keiō– Waseda Baseball
Game announced by Matsuuchi Norizō, 1930. 132
Figure 4.6 Recording insert of Kasai Sansei’s recording of the
800- meter relay at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 141
Figure 4.7 Original disc of the Shōwa emperor’s declaration of
surrender, NHK Museum of Broadcasting. 153
Figure 5.1 Photo of Nagata Mikihiko, featured in Musen to jikken
(Radio experimenter), June 1925. 159