"Thus we cultivate our own world, and thus we should with others":
Kósçak Yamada's Visit to the United States in 1918-1919

By David Pacun

In December 1917 a thirty-two-year-old composer, Kósçak Yamada, sailed from Tokyo bound for the United States. Yamada was not the first Japanese musician to come to America but as his opera, The Seventh Tengo, had been accepted by the Schiller Theater in Berlin (the outbreak of World War I halted its production), and he had recently founded Japan's first symphony orchestra, his visit generated considerable interest.