Modan dansu = モダン・ダンス (The Modern Dance)

Modan dansu = モダン・ダンス (The Modern Dance)

Place of Publication: Tokyo, Japan
Language: Japanese
Date of Publication: 1933-1940, 1949-1955
Introduction by: Stella Li

Modan dansu [The Modern Dance], founded in Tokyo in February 1933, is one of the earliest and longest-running Japanese periodicals devoted to ballroom dancing and its music. From 1933 to 1940, the journal appeared monthly, before entering a nine-year hiatus due to the war. Publication resumed in Tokyo in July 1949. In 1950, the journal adopted a new title, Dansu to ongaku [The Dance and Music], under which it continued until 1995. The RIPM Jazz will include the first three postwar issues: the inaugural issue (July 1949), vol. 10, no. 2 (September 1949), and vol. 10, no. 3 (October 1949). It is hoped that the preceding issues will be loaded in a future update.

Articles related to music in the journal include band reviews, notes of radio programs, and educational content regarding the history and development of dance music, with particular attention jazz and tango. Reflecting the journal’s readership and focus, jazz is presented primarily as a form of dance music. Two regular columns––“Dance Band News” and “Dance Band Reviews” ––offer updates and critiques of Japanese jazz bands during this time. The journal also organizes a reader poll of the most popular dance bands in Japan.

Notable jazz-related articles include Ōtani Yoshihide 大谷吉秀’s lecture on boogie-woogie (July 1949), Ishihara Yasuyuki 石原康行’s review of band auditions (July 1949), Muraoka Tei (Tay) 村岡貞’s serialized account of the founding and development of Japan’s Hot Club, Kami Kyōsuke 紙恭輔’s commentary on “progressive jazz” (September 1949), Ikegami Teizō 池上悌三’s introduction to bebop (September 1949), and Maki Yoshio 牧芳雄’s notes on recent jazz broadcasts (October 1949).

The journal’s editor-in-chief, Fujimura Kōsaku 藤村浩作, president of the Nippon Shakō Butō Kyōshi Kyōkai (The Nippon Association of Teachers of Dancing, known as NATD) from 1950 to 1965, was a leading figure in the introduction of taxi dance hall to Japan in the late 1920s.¹ As editor-in-chief, Fujimura contributed regularly to the journal, primarily through his lecture series “Shakō dansu kōza” [Social dance lecture], the second installment of which specifically deals with dance music.

In addition to its jazz-related content, the journal offers valuable insights into Japanese social dance culture in 1949. Examples include Ichimura Jōji 市村襄次’s observations of rural social dancing (July 1949) and Shiga Akira 志賀彰’s two-part survey of workplace dance parties (July and September 1949).

This RIPM Index was produced from copies of the journal held by the Gordon W. Prange Collection at the University of Maryland, College Park.

¹ Yoshikazu Nagai, Jazu to dansu Nippon (Ōsaka: Kansai Daigaku Shuppan-bu, 2024), 65-66.