The Asian Concept of Creativity as a Foundation of Japanese Music Education

Surprisingly, the Asian view of creativity has an explicit connection to Japanese music education, especially creative music-making. From an Asian perspective, creativity is more about the process than the result. The process includes connecting to a larger reality by reconfiguring existing elements from the past. Thus, the Asian view is that tradition is not the opposite of creating (Lubart, 2010), but part of the process. Confucian philosophy describes learning as an ultimate human pleasure.

People are meant to learn from the past reflectively so to discover a new meaning or personal understanding (Koyasu, 2010). Similarly, in India, creativity is considered as a natural desire of human beings “to renew and transform pre-existing knowledge to adjust their environment suit to them” (Misra, Srivastava & Misra, 2006, p. 424). Koyasu (2010) suggests that invention will only occur by reviewing the past, not just to acquire knowledge or skills, but to construct and develop a future with creative insight.

Yamada (2002) explains that imitation or analogy is considered central to the recreating process. In the Edo era (1603-1868), a type of woodblock painting called Ukiyo- e became very popular among ordinary people. In fact, the way to learn how to draw the Ukiyo-e was exclusively through imitation. Evidence of how people in Edo learned the Ukiyo-e by imitation is drawn from the fact that there were many Ukiyo-e of beautiful women drawn by different artists, but these paintings share similar structure. Although there is some uniqueness in the paintings, artists imitated each other’s work and original insights are based on the similar framework.

This process was common, though there was no obligation or restriction requiring imitation at the time. Consequently, Runco (2007) argues that Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), an Ukiyo-e painter in the Edo era, exemplifies various aspects of creativity in traditional Japan, and suggests that those very similar paintings were accepted by the Japanese culture because of their common structures.

In fact, Hokusai’s exceptional ability to draw with great accuracy was learned by this same type of imitation. He drew Fuji in the traditional style of Ukiyo-e, yet his paintings are conceived to be truly creative. These views of creating by imitation are deeply rooted in the learning process of Japanese traditional art. Imitating first, adding new ideas, elaborating details, and finally finding one’s own manner of expression comprise the traditional conception of Japanese creativity. These processes are quite like the use of imitation and call-and-response to elaborate and to expand on pre-existing musical fragments.

The Processes of Re-Creating in Learning and Teaching. The traditional Japanese approach to learning and teaching emphasizes children’s free and structured play. Wilson (2006), describing the work of Zeami, notes that in approaching art, the Japanese avoid feeding any specific instructions to young beginner students. Back in the 500s, the first pedagogy book of Japanese noh, a dramatic art form comprised essentially of mime or role playing and poetic chanting, was written by Zeami, a noh actor, teacher, and aesthetician. Zeami described noh teaching and learning in terms of developmental stages ranging from early childhood to adult. Although Zeami suggested age seven as “the time to begin this art,” children younger than 12 or 13 years of age should not be criticized or given specific instructions on how to sing or dance in the lessons (Wilson, 2006).

Zeami described how children could mimic, dance, and sing spontaneously as they wished, but “should be left to perform” as they will or the children lose heart and the natural flow of the performance (Wilson, 2006, p. 63). The book continues to draw the developmental stage of noh learning as a lifelong process though the sixth decade and described the importance of understanding noh as a total art form. Indeed, the emphasis of the book was on acquiring flowering spirit of the noh with a subtle nuance, “with a kind of grace with its unique quality of the performance” (Wilson, p. 147).

According to Ikuta (2007), there is almost no “how to” or “step-by-step” instruction available for students learning Japanese traditional art, dance, music, or martial arts. Instead, students experience the art by being with a teacher and imitating the teacher’s performance, as well as the attitude toward the art-making. Ikuta (2011) defines Kata, a basic form of learning in Japanese traditional art, as an ability to adapt teachers’ art as the total idea.

The element of imitation differs from simple mimicry because the adaptation process requires students to possess intrinsic motivation, passion, commitment, and critical thinking skills (Ikuta, 2011). Yamada (2002) describes this learning process as “mindful imitation,” and interprets it as a Japanese perspective of creative learning. Consequently, in traditional Japan, creativity is seen as an adapting process and as a way of learning from each other. As will be shown later in this chapter, the approach is closely related to Japanese composition pedagogy, ongakudukuri. In music education, children are introduced to composition through a play-oriented introduction followed by listening to various musical genres, and then students create music based on what they have learned.

Finally, there is a connection between Asian notions of creativity and the Western perspectives that recognize children’s creativity in a social context rather than as an individual trait. Although many creativity scholars have agreed to define creativity as novel and useful (Amabile, 1996) or novel, appropriate, and high quality (Matlin, 2009), there have been controversies and differing opinions on the definition of creativity in the everyday sense. Some creativity researchers suggest that there are certain cognitive universals to support the view that everyone is creative, including children (Runco, 2007; Richard, 2009). Csikszentmihalyi (1990) reserves the larger- C creativity for geniuses or especially talented people, while “the neat things children often say, or the creativity we all share just because we have a mind and we can think” is described as a smaller-c creativity.

From the standpoint of social psychology, Amabile (1996) points out the importance of conducting research on a non- eminent level of creativity as a normal cognitive ability in our everyday lives. Many subcategories have been added to describe the subjective and personal creativity of our daily lives as mini-c creativity or everyday creativity (Kozbelt, Beghetto, and Runco, 2010). “Mini-c creativity captures the idea that even very young individuals and those without a large amount of knowledge construct personal understanding of the world” (Ward and Kolomyts, 2010, p. 96). In addition, Richard (2009) explains everyday creativity as a universal capability both for adults and children, noting: “We humans are often ‘everyday creative,’ or we would not even be alive. To cope with changing environments, we improvise, we flexibly adapt and change the environ ment to suit us” (p. 3).

Everyday creativity is a way of life and learners generate new perspectives by using their own observations and experiences to creatively adapt.