Shohe Tanaka was a pioneering Japanese physicist, inventor, and music theorist who made significant contributions in both the sciences and arts. Though less well-known internationally than some of his contemporaries, Tanaka left a profound impact on music theory and acoustics research in his home country of Japan.
Early Life and Formative Influences
Tanaka was born on June 12, 1862 in Yahata village on Awaji Island in Japan. From a young age, he demonstrated an exceptional ear for music and took delight in Japanese puppet theatre. As a curious child, he would also stage imaginary competitions between insects he collected, intrigued by the sounds they produced.
After secondary school, Tanaka enrolled at the prestigious Tokyo Imperial University in 1878 where he studied physics. Among his professors was the American physicist Thomas Corwin Mendenhall who had an unusual teaching philosophy – he believed that understanding music was essential for mastering physics. Mendenhall allowed Tanaka access to a small organ in the physics lab for this purpose. This exposure, along with Mendenhall‘s claim that Western music adhered to natural laws while Japanese music did not, propelled Tanaka‘s deep interest in exploring the interplay of physics and music.
Early Career and Research in Germany
Tanaka graduated from Tokyo Imperial Univeristy in 1882 at the remarkable age of 20, earning the silver medal for the top academic achievement in his year. After a brief teaching stint at his alma mater, Tanaka set off for Germany in 1884 alongside other young Japanese scholars. He would end up staying in Germany for 15 years.
In Berlin, Tanaka worked under the supervision of the eminent physicist Hermann Helmholtz and studied piano performance. Immersing himself in European music, Tanaka sang in a choir and learned music theory extensively. This interdisciplinary background formed the basis of Tanaka‘s trailblazing research that combined his interests in physics, engineering, and artistic creation.
While in Germany, Tanaka published his seminal work "Studien im Gebiete der reinen Stimmung" on musical acoustics in 1890. He also patented the Enharmonium, an innovative musical instrument with a complex set of controls allowing for precise tuning in just intonation. Tanaka toured Europe widely to showcase its capabilities, garnering the support of both Emperor Meiji of Japan and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
Pioneering Work in Musical Temperaments
In addition to the Enharmonium, one of Tanaka‘s most significant achievements was his pioneering research into musical temperaments. He took great interest in exploring alternatives to standard equal temperament that could more closely approximate just intonation.
Tanaka was the first to thoroughly investigate the properties of 53 equal temperament, discovering its effectiveness at tempering out the problematic "schisma" and "kleisma" intervals. In doing so, he realized 53 equal temperament could be construed primarily as a 5-limit approximated just intonation – a remarkable insight at the time. His writings are the first known use of the term "kleisma" to describe the 15625/15552 interval.
Later in life, Tanaka resumed intensive research into just intonation and alternatives to standardized Western tuning. Through both his theoretical work and inventions like the Enharmonium, Tanaka furthered the cause of more flexible, adjustable musical temperaments.
Other Engineering and Science Contributions
In addition to his accomplishments in acoustics and music theory, Tanaka was also an inventive engineer who made practical contributions to Japanese infrastructure. From 1894-1899, he shifted his focus to the railway industry and received multiple patents related to mechanical calculation. The motivation behind this work was developing methods for reliably keeping track of numerical sums in environments with vibration and noise.
Tanaka later led the Institute of Electrical Engineering for seven years as President, earning the prestigious Asahi Prize in 1937 in recognition of his leadership in technological fields.
Preserving Traditional Japanese Music
Though Tanaka was well-versed in Western music theory, he maintained a strong appreciation for the traditions of his native Japanese musical heritage. In the final decade of his life, he devoted considerable effort as part of a national committee toward preserving uniquely Japanese musical forms. Some historians believe this focus on traditional music was politically motivated and encouraged by the imperial government promoting certain cultural agendas. Regardless of external pressures, Tanaka‘s academic work undoubtedly helped document and analyze distinguishing characteristics of Japanese music.
Lasting Legacy
Shohe Tanaka was unquestionably a man ahead of his time. His lifelong quest to unite principles of physics and engineering with artistic creation bore substantial fruits, even if recognition from the Western classical music establishment only came decades later. Today, Tanaka is rightly honored in his homeland as the founder of ethnomusicology studies and one of the key ancestors of contemporary Japanese musicology. Though he published little following his 1929 retirement, he continued exploring just intonation right up until his death on October 16, 1945 at the age of 83.
Few individuals can claim such a lasting multi-disciplinary impact spanning from precise calculations of musical intervals to patents supporting the smooth operations of an industrializing Japan. Shohe Tanaka‘s convergence of art and science throughout his storied career places him in a rare pantheon of scientist-artists who broadened their culture‘s very conception of knowledge.
