Colonial circulations: Japan's classroom songbooks in Korea, 1910–1945

The rise of Japan as a regional empire and a model of Asian modernity in the late nineteenth century set in motion the diffusion of particular forms of vocal music across East Asia. In this article, I examine one important material channel within this intra-regional circulation of music: classroom songbooks published by the Japanese colonial government in Korea for use in its elementary schools throughout Korea. I analyse the contents and sourcing patterns of authorised songbooks that represent the three distinct phases of the colonial rule (1910–1945), exploring how they crystallised the colonial government's shifting stance on Korean assimilation and difference. I also situate these textbooks within a broader ecosystem of published songbooks in Japan and Korea, which I argue constituted a multifaceted nexus between the metropole and the colony, one that demonstrates the interrelationship of coloniality and modernity in early twentieth-century East Asia.