Mandala Musica
Mandala musica is a research seminar that serves as a platform to approach “music” from various angles. It consists of five main projects ongoing in collaboration with each other. The purpose of this seminar is to reexamine the meaning of "music" from a broad and fundamental perspective and to study the role that music can play in today's academic fields and in social life in general, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. We also organize a variety of experimental workshops to create a synergy between academia and the arts.
Active since 2012
● Project ① : Yui Shoichi Archive, Open Jazz Seminar "Expanding Jazz"
Led by visiting researcher Yo Nakagawa, this project continues the work of the Yui Shoichi archive and examines the history of jazz from various angles. Additionally, in collaboration with visiting researchers and artists, such as Naruyoshi Kikuchi, we organize various lectures, concerts, and workshops to explore the possibilities of contemporary music. With the support of Seiko Holdings Corporation from 2017 and Daiichi Kosho Company from 2020, we were able to provide more regular and substantial activities.
● Project ② : Pop Japan Project
Started in 2016, this project explores the history of Japanese popular music and how it is being received in various parts of the world. It also discusses the possibility of introducing Japanese music to the international audience from both cultural studies and arts management perspectives. Visiting researchers and artists list includes Kazufumi Miyazawa, Zeebra, Kenichi Makimura, Takeshi Fuji, and Nobuyuki Harada.
● Project ③：Entertainment Communications Project
This project positions "entertainment" as an important element of private and social communication and explores how it could be utilized in various communication settings. In addition, it also considers how to make the most of the elements of entertainment in the future society, which is bound to become more globalized, multi-layered, and diverse in terms of technology. With the support of the Japan Association of Music Enterprises and NexTone Inc., we hope to pass the sense of academism being connected to entertainment to students and foster a generation of young people who can lead productive lives in the future.
● Project ④：Universal Music Study Group / Universal Music Research Group
With reference to Goethe, Kircher, Bruno, and Ficino, as well as to ancient scholars and contemporary philosophical theories of music, this project aims to reconceptualize the practice of "music", which has now become a genre of "art”, as a "universal science = universal music”.
● Project ⑤：“Music/Culture in Keio” Project
Since the dawn of Japanese popular music, Keio University has produced a number of influential musicians. While collecting records of “musicians of Keio”, this project aims to explore the nature of “Keio music culture” from a variety of angles.
We aim to expand the listed multiple projects by collaboration with each other.