Rokushiro Uehara

Japanese: 上原六四郎 - うえはら・ろくしろう

Year of death: April 1, 1913
Year of birth: 1848
A music theorist and physicist from the Meiji period. His former name was Shigeyuki. He was born in Chojamachi, Shitaya, Edo, and was a samurai of the Bushu Iwatsuki Domain (Saitama Prefecture). He studied at Kaisei School (the precursor to the University of Tokyo), and served as an instructor at the Army Academy, Tokyo Higher Normal School, and many other schools, including the Tokyo Music School and the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He is also known as a pioneer of handicraft education. He was an expert on the shakuhachi, and studied under Araki Kodo II, under the pseudonym Kyodo. He improved on the shakuhachi notation that existed up until that point, and made a great contribution to the development of shakuhachi music. His book Zokugaku Senritsu Ko (Thoughts on Folk Music) published in 1895 (Meiji 28) (reprinted in 1927) is renowned as the first scientific achievement in the study of scales in traditional Japanese music.

(Toru Seyama)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：大正2.4.1(1913)
生年：嘉永1.12(1848)
明治期の音楽理論家,物理学者。旧名は重之。江戸下谷長者町生まれで,武州岩槻藩(埼玉県)藩士。開成学校(東大の前身)に学び,陸軍士官学校,東京高等師範学校などで教官を務め,東京音楽学校,東京美術学校など多くの学校で教鞭をとった。手工(工作)教育の先駆者としても知られる。尺八をよくし2代目荒木古童に師事,虚洞と号した。それまでの尺八譜を改良し,尺八楽の発展にも大いに貢献している。明治28(1895)年刊行の著書『俗楽旋律考』(復刊,1927)は,日本伝統音楽の音階研究における最初の科学的業績として名高い。

(瀬山徹)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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