Ongaku
Torishirabe
Gakari

Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari is a research institute founded by Kengo Shimizu. It conducts theoretical research and creative practice focused on Japanese traditional music and contemporary music in Japan.

Its research on traditional music is organized around three axes: pitch operation, timbre operation, and temporal operation. These axes are developed across five research areas. However, this does not mean that the institute aims to describe every aspect of traditional music. Its scope is limited to what has been written in scores and documents, and to what can be read from those materials.

For contemporary Japanese music, the institute examines popular music, animation music, Vocaloid music, and related practices. By describing these forms through theories of traditional music, the project seeks to clarify the aesthetic structures that appear in Japanese music.

This research is not intended to remain the private work of Shimizu alone. It is conceived as a foundation that future researchers can inherit, revise, and develop. Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari exists to build that foundation.

The name “Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari” derives from the Music Investigation Committee established by Japan’s Ministry of Education in 1879. The original committee was Japan’s first institution for music education, survey, and research, and later developed into the Tokyo Academy of Music, now the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts. By adopting this name, the institute situates itself within a historical lineage of investigating and describing Japanese music.