Master in Music

The Music and Arts Graduate School of the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts aims to accomplish the objectives of developing students’ outstanding professional competence in various areas of the musical arts. Based on the above, and following the founding principles of the school, outstanding practical education shall be provided to students, with particular attention paid to the technical characteristics of Okinawa’s traditional performing arts, which have been inspired by the particular history, culture, and natural environment of this archipelago.

Art education based on philosophical, aesthetic, and cultural reevaluations on the concept of beauty, including both Eastern and Western conceptions shall also be provided from a perspective stressing the universality of art.

Interdisciplinary studies shall be conducted to uncover the distinguishing features of traditional arts and culture with regard to the Orient, covering Pan-Asian regions from the perspectives of the structural study of music and ethnomusicology that aim to elucidate the existing diversity of performing arts in the cultural sphere of southern islands that include Okinawa as a key player.

Through our educational activities, we aim to foster human resources that include performing artists, scholars, and professional leaders in art education who have a deep understanding of arts and cultures and with their refined sensitivity and rich creativity, will strive to maintain practical involvement in a wide range of endeavors in the music arts within society in the future.

Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, founded in 1986, opened its doors in the historic town of Shuri, the center of the Kingdom of Ryukyu, a land that once flourished in the maritime sphere. This year marks the university’s thirty-fifth anniversary. Our founding principles emphasize the pursuit of both the distinctive beauty created by Okinawan culture and the universal beauty of humankind. Based on such principles, our university remains committed to fostering talented individuals who can succeed in, and develop, traditional arts as well as those who can explore novel fields of artistic creation, thus contributing globally to the advance of art and culture.

Artistic activities in which human nature is explored and expressed through an independent spirit are certainly unique to our species. Indeed, the arts have been part of human existence since time immemorial as shown in the examples of cave art from prehistoric times and artifacts from our Jomon culture. Today, we live in a highly-networked information society, and therefore nurturing the great sensibilities both in ourselves and in our perspectives on the natural world has become an imperative need now more than ever. Those of us engaged in the arts in that world are expected to play important roles and surely to fulfill more responsibilities.

Our university commits itself to cultivate individuals who will represent the coming generations and put themselves in possession of enriched humanity, sociability, and international perspective, young people who can contribute to the world as professionals such as artists, performers, researchers, and educators. With such a goal in mind, the university implements its curriculum through small-class instruction, thus bringing out the uniqueness of each student. We help our undergraduate and graduate students strive to acquire a deeper understanding of diverse values and multifaceted viewpoints, essential to those aspiring to be artists. The advanced ICT society today also drives the globalized standardization of the world. Therefore, it is crucial for us to continue to reaffirm critical perspectives free from those existing ordinary values that are, indeed, the foundation of diversity and originality in the arts.

This beautiful southern island with its world heritage sites is endowed with a rich history and environment. The significant historical age covers the great trading era to the present, a period over which people have embraced diverse cultures and created their own rich, unique culture and art forms. As for the Okinawan environment, seasonal changes in nature can be felt close at hand even in our urban areas. Such elements in Okinawan history and the environment inevitably nurture flexible minds and resilient wills, things necessary for those aspiring to live their lives in and by the arts.