| Music by Japanese traditional musical instruments
such as koto, shakuhachi and shamisen has
attracted not only Japanese but also non-Japanese
audience. Now, there are substantial number
of non-Japanese players of these instruments.
Japanese modern composers such as Takemitsu
composed musical pieces for Japanese traditional
instruments and sometimes music for orchestra
including Japanese traditional instruments
appears in a concert program outside of Japan.
These facts mean that Japanese traditional
music is now a cultural property of the world. With this background, The Association for International Exchange of Japanese Music was established in 1988 to make Japanese traditional music, classical pieces to modern compositions,accessible to international music lovers all over the world. Since then, the association has had various activities such as overseas concerts and multimedia database of Japanese music on internet. In 1993, the association modified its name into Okita memorial association after the memory of late foreign Minister,Saburo Okita, who supported the association in his life. |