The Sound of History

In the first half of the 20th century, the shellac record was the most successful and important medium for the distribution of voice and music recordings. In Japan, it also went hand in hand with the development of film and cinema. The nine essays in this anthology by international specialists use the Kataoka Collection preserved at the University of Bonn to present ways of analyzing and interpreting the records, their metadata, their content, and their consumption. In doing so, they provide new access to the history of Japanese culture, society, and economy in the modern era.