Hiromori Hayashi
Encyclopedia
Hiromori Hayashi was a Japanese
composer
credited with composing the Japanese national anthem
Kimi ga Yo
.
for his birthday, on 3 November 1880.
Sources conflict over who composed the music. Historian Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney
writes, "The composer is nominally identified as Hayashi Hiromori, a musician at the Imperial Court, but Oku Yoshiisa, who worked under Hayashi, is believed to have composed the music, with some rearrangement by Franz Eckert (1852-1916)." The melody that Hayashi was credited for replaced an arrangement by John William Fenton
, a visiting Irish military band leader, that was rejected in 1870. The Court then adopted a new melody composed by Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori Hayashi. The composer is often listed as Hiromori Hayashi, who was their supervisor and Akimori's father. Akimori was also one of Fenton's pupils. The German musician Franz Eckert applied the melody with Western style harmony.
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
credited with composing the Japanese national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
Kimi ga Yo
Kimi ga Yo
is the national anthem of post-1868 Japan. It is also one of the world's shortest national anthems in current use, with a length of 11 measures and 32 characters. Its lyrics are based on a Waka poem written in the Heian period , sung to a melody written in the imperial period...
.
Life and career
He held several positions in the royal court starting in his youth. He moved to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration and in 1875 helped carry out 1875 orders to fuse Western musical theory with Japanese theory. The final version of the anthem was first played for Emperor MeijiEmperor Meiji
The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...
for his birthday, on 3 November 1880.
Sources conflict over who composed the music. Historian Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney is an anthropologist who has been working on the question of power of symbols and its absence in political spaces since the mid-1980s...
writes, "The composer is nominally identified as Hayashi Hiromori, a musician at the Imperial Court, but Oku Yoshiisa, who worked under Hayashi, is believed to have composed the music, with some rearrangement by Franz Eckert (1852-1916)." The melody that Hayashi was credited for replaced an arrangement by John William Fenton
John William Fenton
John William Fenton was an Irish musician, the leader of a military band in Japan at the start of the Meiji period...
, a visiting Irish military band leader, that was rejected in 1870. The Court then adopted a new melody composed by Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori Hayashi. The composer is often listed as Hiromori Hayashi, who was their supervisor and Akimori's father. Akimori was also one of Fenton's pupils. The German musician Franz Eckert applied the melody with Western style harmony.