[78-L] ancient Japanese record

[Hopkins/Kato]

Please send me a scan of the label and I'll be happy to translate it for
you.
The American Record is indeed an early incarnation of Nipponophone, pressed,
I believe, in the USA. The early history of the record industry in Japan is
murky, but the date 1910-1915 is probably pretty close. I'd guess closer to
1910, as you did.
>From the description, I'd guess that you have a geisha performance. Geisha
were, of course, one of the main models of "pro singer" used by the new
industry. There are basically two types of geisha performance on record. One
is short songs, sometimes cheerful, but more often laments. Geisha also
performed long narrative songs, which accompanied dances when live. These
are less common on record, since they had to be divided over several
records.
Incidentally, under Japanese tax law at the time, no one could have two
occupations, so a singer for a record company would have to have "retired"
from being a real geisha. There were five classes of geisha, the lowest two
being pretty close to mere prostitution, the highest one being a very
refined level of art. I'm guessing that your label identifies the singer and
the geisha district she is from, which is usual practice. Although there is
the usual question of recording speed, it seems pretty clear that geisha
voices rose quite a lot in the 20th century.
I could go on....

David Hopkins
Nara, Japan