Hiruma Kenpachi

Hiruma Kenpachi ( Japanese 比 留 間 賢 八 ; born April 19, 1864 in Tokyo Prefecture ; † April 15, 1936 ) was a Japanese mandolin and guitar player and music teacher. His daughter Hiruma Kinuko is also a mandolin player.

Life

Hiruma Kenpachi was trained as a cellist from 1883 to 1887 at the Music Research Center , a forerunner organization of the “Tokyo Conservatory” ( 東京 音 楽 学校 , today: Tokyo University of the Arts ). After completing his training, he first went to New York as a foreign student and studied in Europe for two years from 1889. In 1898 he traveled again to Germany and Italy to learn classical guitar and mandolin. When he returned to Japan in 1901, he took instruments with him and opened a guitar and mandolin seminar. He is therefore considered to be the founder of mandolin and guitar playing in Japan. His students included Saitō Hideo (1902–1974), Tokugawa Yoshichika , the composer and conductor Takei Morishige and Hijikata Yoshi .

Kenpachi Hiruma died in 1936 at the age of 71.

Works

• 1903: マ ン ド リ ン 教科書 (for example: "Mandolin Textbook", online , Japanese)
• 1910: マ ン ド リ ン 独 習 (for example: "Mandolin for self-study", online , Japanese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 比 留 間 + 賢 八 . In: 新 撰 芸 能 人物 事 典 明治 ～ 平 成 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved April 19, 2015 (Japanese). 

Web links

• Robert Coldwell: The Early Guitar and Biographies of Important Guitarists in Japan. Editions Orphée, Inc., June 24, 1997, accessed April 18, 2015 (Japanese). 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Hiruma is the family name, Kenpachi the first name.