Historical Development Of the Taishokoto

There are four periods that form the Taishokoto Era. The first period spans from 1912-1937.  This period includes the taishokoto invention in 1912 until 1937 when Japan declined to war against China.  The second period was from 13 years after the end of World War II to the middle of 1960s.  The third period was from the middle 1970s to the end of 1,990s.  The fourth period was from around 1998 to now.

During the first period, the Meiji government favored and advocated the Western civilization influence.  Music was no exception.  Children’s folk and popular songs with traditional Japanese expressions changed to western musical theory and grew popular with the people of the Meiji era.

Mr. Goro Morita invented taishokoto in order to be able to play western music with a less expensive instrument.  The piano, organ and violin played western music well.  However these instruments were too expensive for the common people.  So the taishokoto satisfied the common people’s musical needs and instrumental cost. Taishokoto has become the representative exports similarly ranked with"Noritake"chinaware and "Suzuki"violin.

During the second period, the famous composer Mr. Masao Koga composed the song "Jinsei Gekijyo" and chose to use the taishokoto instrument to introduce his song.  Many people heard the song and taishokoto and were reminded and touched by the beautiful and sorrowful sounds and began studying the taishokoto as one of their pleasures in their usual life.  The restoration after the war also promoted taishokoto interests.  Thus began the popularity and growth of the taishokoto.

During the third period, taishokoto became the associated musical hobby for aged and middle aged women.  Supported by the big demand of taishokoto, many groups called "Ryu or Kai" schools were established and even competed with each other to gain success and popularity.  These competitions enabled taishokoto groups to grow in membership.

The fourth period, Taishokoto became more popular hobby for aged and middle aged women than the third period.  Due to a big demand for taishokoto, manufacturers improved the quality of the taishokoto.  During the same year, many types of electric taishokoto for ensemble performances were manufactured and became popular among instructors of schools.  They studied technical skills of playing and musical expressions.  The results of these taishokoto developments ended in many concerts.  As the result of these efforts, Taishokoto musicians got acknowledgements that taishokoto expressed wonderful music.

Recently, many taishokoto lovers are assisting and performing for the aged community members because the aged members like the lovely sounds that remind them of their yesteryears.  More explanations of elderly concerns will be covered later.