Not by Love Alone

The Violin in Japan, 1850 - 2010

Suzuki Shin’ichi, the Tokyo String Quartet, Midori - How did Japanese violinists manage to revolutionize violin teaching, win international competitions, conquer Western concert stages, study at world-famous conservatories and take up positions in leading orchestras and prestigious music faculties? What enabled the Japanese to master Western classical music within a few decades? What are the true origins of the Suzuki Method? What has the triumph of Western classical music meant for the traditional music of Japan?

Not by Love Alone is the first cultural history of the violin and violin playing, and indeed the first comprehensive history of Western music in general, in Japan from the mid-nineteenth century to the present in the context of Japan’s emergence as a modern nation and a major global power.