Hayashi (Nagaya), Kenzo
Hayashi (Nagaya), Kenzō
Hayashi (Nagaya), Kenzō, Japanese musicologist; b. Osaka, May 1, 1899; d. Nara, June 9, 1976. He graduated from the Tokyo Arts School in 1924, and became a moderately successful sculptor. He also wrote some music for brass instruments. In 1928 he met the Chinese scholar Kuo Mo-jo, who encouraged him to write about his findings in the field of ancient Asian music. His first book, on music of the Sui and T’ang dynasties, was tr. into Chinese by Kuo (Shanghai, 1936). In 1948 he was commissioned to begin what became his life’s work, research on early Chinese instruments kept in the imperial storehouse in Hara dating as far back as the 8th century. He publ, some theoretical findings, among them Ming yiien pa-tiao yen- chiù (8 Musical Modes of the Ming Dynasty; Shanghai, 1957), Tun-huang p’i-pa pu ti chieh-tu yen-chiu (An Attempt to Interpret the Tun-huang Pipa Notation; Shanghai, 1957), and Higashi Ajia gakki kō (Musical Instruments of East Asia; Tokyo, 1973).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire