Plucking the Forest Sound: the Transculturation of the Finnish Kantele in Japan

Japan is among the few countries in the world with visible enthusiasm for the kantele, the stringed folk instrument widely known as the national instrument of Finland. Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, around 100-150 enthusiasts were playing the kantele regularly to learn about Finnish culture. They formed hobbyist groups in Tokyo, Sapporo and Western Japan, where they had lessons with senior players. The women in the community are very active and dominate the musical scene. Understanding Japanese enthusiasm for the kantele simply in terms of consumption is incomplete. The potential changes in the kantele and its music in Japan have yet to be explored. Why are the Japanese enthusiastic about this folk instrument? How has the kantele (and the practice of kantele playing) changed in Japan? This dissertation explores these issues from a transcultural perspective.

Leaning on Kath’s (2015) theory of transculturation, this dissertation examines the Japanese view and the adoption of the kantele through an ethnographic study. The research materials comprise interviews and participant observation conducted during several short field trips between 2016 and 2018. Most of the interviewees were kantele enthusiasts from different hobbyist groups. The sites for participant observation included regular lessons, camps, concerts, cultural events and festivals in Japan and Finland, where the kantele is studied and performed. Internet data (homepages/blogs, Facebook pages, media reports), CDs and advertisements (posters, flyers and leaflets) supplement the ethnographic material. The main findings of this study show that the kantele is imagined, reinterpreted and changed in new contexts. I argue that the kantele became a new variant in Japan, resulting from transculturation – the dynamics of exoticization, resignification and adaptation.

From the Japanese perspective, the kantele connects with nature and thus brings joy and a sense of healing. How the Japanese perceived the kantele sound inspired the title of this dissertation, “Plucking the forest sound,” implying that Borealism, a form of foreign exoticism specifically towards northern geographical regions, exists in the Japanese kantele community. Under the Japanese Borealist gaze, the kantele incites imagination and positive emotions, and the Japanese imagery of the North is reproduced in images. Interestingly, the kantele symbolizes freedom to the enthusiasts because they see the potential of tapping musical inspiration, the joy in a group activity, and the emotional warmth experienced in musical practice. In the receptive process, enthusiasts adapt the kantele to serve their needs in performances. In sum, the kantele style in Japan has local characteristics, deviating from the Finnish style because of the Japanese inscription of imagination, reinterpretation and changes that unavoidably occur in the new environment.

Keywords in the dissertation: transculturation, kantele, Finland, Japan, enthusiasm, enthusiasts, imagination, exoticization, musical freedom, resignification, adaptation, remaking, domestication.