How a song for a production based on Tolstoy changed Japanese music

How the birth contemporary popular music in Japan? In fact, it was only one composition written by a very young student that contributed to it! And today, it's known to millions of people around the world as "Katyusha's Song" ("Kachusha no Uta"). A great history for musical culture originates in the 1914-мIt was then that a record was released that turned a whole chapter in the history of music in the Land of the Rising Sun. "Katyusha's Song" successfully complemented the theatre production based on Leo Tolstoy's novel and made the Sumako Matsui Japan's first female hit singer!

History of Creation

Japan's musical biography numbers over alone thousands of yearsBut when did a chapter of modern Japanese popular music emerge? It happened in 1914 yearwhen "Toyo Phonograph Company" revealed to the world "Katyusha's Song"! The work was written for the theatre production "Resurrection" based on Leo Tolstoy's novel and performed under the title "Fukkatsu Shûka.". The unconventional idea belonged to the critic, writer, professor and founder of the famous theatre "Geijutsuza" by Hogetsu Shimamuru.. He wanted to make a bold experiment - to combine a Western style with a melody classic to Japan. And he succeeded! Well, almost succeeded.

Hogetsu gave an important commission to his servant - a young music college student who had neither experience nor any merit yet under his belt... Today it is hard to believe that the young man actually succeeded in writing the great work that made the play based on Tolstoy's novel famous. But this one did. He would later become known as "the father of Japanese popular music". His contribution to the country's cultural development is invaluable.

First performance

The voice of this iconic masterpiece was given by a delightful actress from the Tokyo theatre scene Sumako Matsui - one of the first of its kind! The production eventually became a resounding success, followed by a major tour - the theatre travelled all over Japan, followed by the China, Korea, Russia…

As for the first performer "Kachusha no Uta"it's important to emphasise that the lovely Sumako Matsui was a student. Tsubouchi Shoyo - Japanese theatre director and writer. Shoyo was the first to take women under his wing: initially he had four female students, but only Matsui managed to break through and build a successful career.

Success and fate

Thanks to the theatre's tours and the development of recording, the composition became known all over the world. In the first few years alone. month and a half its circulation was 20,000 copies - a huge commercial success for those times! And the record was very expensive: one and a half yenWhile the average salary in the country was approximately 20 yen.

It was this work that shaped modern popular music in Japan. "Kachusha no Uta" was the first commercially successful Japanese record. Such a phenomenon made labels look at music in a different way: at last producers realised that popular music had a huge demand.Also "Katusha's Song" was the first record that sincerely managed to win the hearts of people from different social classes.

Interesting facts

• "Kachusha no Uta" has left its mark not only on musical history. For example, the headband, popular among Japanese women, is still called "Katyusha.". In the years of the song's release, Sumako Matsui was an idol for female contemporaries. Therefore, her every gesture was instantly copied. It is not known for sure whether Matsui wore the headband on a permanent basis, but it was enough for her to appear in it once, so that the headdress got a big name and went to the people.
• Speciality of the work is that it brings together western trends и Japanese melodyand has won the love of a diverse audience."Kachusha no Uta" even those who were far removed from Western music.
• It was Katyusha's Song that made Sumako Matsui Japan's first female hit singer. Before that, such a phenomenon simply did not exist in the country's musical culture.
• Hogetsu Shimamura was the first Japanese to stage plays by Western authors.