Keimatsu Imai - Keimatsu Imai

A Yamada school koto musician. His real name was Shintaro. He was born in Yokohama. He became blind at the age of four. He started learning koto at the age of nine. He moved to Tokyo at the age of fourteen and studied under the first Yamase Shoin (the third head of the Yamase school), and at the age of twenty-three he adopted the name Keimatsu. He became an assistant professor at the Tokyo Music School at the age of twenty-seven and a professor at the age of thirty-one, and continued to teach the next generation until he retired at the age of sixty-one. In 1942 (Showa 17), he became a member of the Academy of Arts. He served as president of the Japan Sankyoku Association and the Yamada school koto association. He was known as a skilled performer, and his performance of "Shinzarashi" is particularly famous. He composed over fifty pieces using classical techniques, such as "Miyomanzai" and "Kakuju Senzai," but he also composed the purely instrumental piece "Shiki no Shirabe" in the Meiji period.

[Keiko Hirayama]

"Imai Keisho Art Talks" by Shunichi Fujita (1959, Nippon Ongakusha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

山田流箏曲(そうきょく)家。本名新太郎。横浜生まれ。4歳で失明。9歳で箏曲入門。14歳で上京し初世山勢松韻(やませしょういん)（山勢派3代目）に師事し、23歳で慶松と称する。27歳で東京音楽学校助教授、31歳で教授となり、61歳で退職するまで長く後進の指導にあたった。1942年（昭和17）芸術院会員となる。日本三曲協会会長、山田流箏曲協会会長などを務めた。技巧派の演奏家として知られ、『新晒(しんざらし)』の演奏はとくに有名。作品は『御代万歳(みよまんざい)』『鶴寿千歳(かくじゅせんざい)』など古典的手法のもの50余曲あるが、すでに明治期に、純器楽曲の『四季の調(しらべ)』もある。

［平山けい子］

『藤田俊一著『今井慶松芸談』（1959・日本音楽社）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例