【コラム】山城祥二（大橋力）と芸能山城組 ― 音響・群れ・環境の総合芸術としての探求

Column en 70s Experimental Tribal

01 Nov 2025

【コラム】山城祥二（大橋力）と芸能山城組 ― 音響・群れ・環境の総合芸術としての探求

Prologue: Where cyber and primitive intersect - A person named Shoji Yamashiro

Text: mmr｜Theme: About the entertainment Yamashiro-gumi formed in the early 1970s

In the 1970s, there was a person who stood out at the border between Japanese music and visuals. Shoji Yamashiro (real name: Riki Ohashi).He graduated from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku University, and was interested in life science, information, and sound.With a background of scientific thought and sensibility, he positioned art as ``an experiment to explore the relationship between humans and the environment.’’

The place for this experiment was Geinoh Yamashirogumi, which was formed in the early 1970s. More than just a music group, it was a community for comprehensively exploring the relationship between sound, humans, and society'' and was aplace’’ that integrated music, ethnology, information theory, and anthropology.

Chapter 1: Birth of the entertainment Yamashiro Gumi - Art as a “group”

The starting point for the Geino Yamashiro Gumi was the formation of a collective'' of people who came together across universities, companies, and professions. Doctors, teachers, engineers, students, housewives - people with different professions and philosophies shared an intuitive desire tolive in sound’’.

From the beginning, Yamashiro defined art not as an act of individual expression, but as the expression of a group. Therefore, their rehearsals were not just performances, but the process of ``sound generating a field.’’ The moment when body, voice, space, and time come together to resonate - that is the starting point for Geino Yamashiro Gumi.

“Music is the very structure of human consciousness. That’s why the sounds of a group are connected to the sounds of society.” — Shoji Yamashiro (1982)

Chapter 2: 80 types of “sounds of groups” from around the world - Quest for universal musical structure

Geino Yamashiro-gumi was active from the late 1970s to the 1980s. He has actually performed and researched **80 types of ethnic performances from around the world''**. This was not just a collection of folk music, but an exploration of the fundamental question,What is the sound that humans make as a group?’’

◇ Examples of research/performance targets

Region	Music/Rituals	Research Focus
Bali, Indonesia	Kecak, Gamelan	Collective trance and time structure
African tropical forest	Pygmy forest singing	Synchronization of environmental sounds and the body
Eastern Europe Bulgaria	Female chorus	Unequal meter and overtone structure
Caucasus Georgia	Male chorus	Spatial resonance and sociality
Tibet/Mongolia	Homie chanting	Laryngeal resonance and overtone separation

Rather than treating these as “materials,” Yamashiro et al. observed and reconstructed their structure, function, and social significance. In particular, the acoustic structure that transcends time and space'' of gamelan music in Bali is fundamental to thegroup creation’’, information environment'', andsound environmental studies’’ of the Geino Yamashiro Gumi.

“People form groups based on sound. Sound evolves through groups.” — Shoji Yamashiro

Chapter 3: Reaching “AKIRA” – Fusion of electronics and ethnicity

In 1988, Geino Yamashiro Gumi composed the music for the world-famous animated film ``AKIRA’’ (directed by Katsuhiro Otomo). This is where Yamashiro’s acoustic philosophy reaches its peak.

◇ Acoustic design philosophy

Bali gamelan polyrhythm × electronic pulse
Tibetan esoteric chanting x sampled audio
Urban reverberations and crowd sounds × spatial construction rhythm

It was not just a theatrical accompaniment, but a ``myth-building through sound’’, an attempt to connect the city and the primitive, the future and memory. The soundtrack of “AKIRA” has been reevaluated internationally as a fusion of electronic music and ethnic sounds. It also influenced later world-famous artists such as Aphex Twin, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Cornelius.

Chapter 4: Sound Environment - Science and Philosophy of “Listening”

After AKIRA,'' Yamashiro developed the concept ofenvironmental studies of sound’’ in parallel with his artistic activities. He reconsidered sound not just as an auditory stimulus, but as a ``point of contact between information and ecology.’’

◇ Main works and ideas

Book title	Publisher/year	Content summary	Link
“Sound and Civilization - Introduction to the Environmental Studies of Sound”	Iwanami Shoten, 2003	Investigation of the effects of rainforest sounds and gamelan music on the brain	Amazon
“Hypersonic Effect”	Iwanami Shoten, 2017	A monumental work that sharply questions the state of health and civilization	Amazon

Here, Yamashiro defined sound as a communication protocol between humans and the environment.'' Sound is not a symbol, but an ecological and social activity itself. This idea resonates with later research onsoundscape’’ and ``media ecology.’’

“Sound is an interface between the environment and information. Music is an algorithm by which a herd synchronizes itself with its environment.”

His scientific training at Tohoku University’s Faculty of Agriculture gave Yamashiro a unique analytical perspective. With an understanding of chemistry, biology, and the environment, he came up with the idea of viewing sound not only as a physical phenomenon, but also as part of life’s activities.

His approach is a back and forth between scientific observation and artistic practice. Rather than a laboratory, the human group itself is treated as an “acoustic system.” There was an ``experimental ethics’’ that sought to match the rhythms of life and society.

``The sounds we hear are images of the world reconstructed in our brains. So music is the act of rehearsing the very structure of the world.”

Chapter 6: Crowds in the 21st Century - The Significance of Performing Arts in the Information Society

In the modern age of social media and AI, the concept of “swarm” is becoming important again. It can be said that the practices of the Geino Yamashiro Gumi anticipated the ``regeneration of communal resonance’’.

From “individual” to “group”. From “information” to “resonance”. The ideals advocated by the Geino Yamashiro Gumi in the 1970s are also the prototype for a ``new community’’ in a network society.

Music is not something that “communicates”, but something that “resonates with”. What Shoji Yamashiro explored was performing arts as an ecology of information and emotion.

Chronology: The history of Shoji Yamashiro and the entertainment Yamashiro group

timeline title Entertainment Yamashiro Gumi/Shoji Yamashiro Chronology 1946 : Riki Ohashi (Shoji Yamashiro) is born 1969: Graduated from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku University 1974: Formed the Geino Yamashiro Gumi and advocated “music as a group” 1976: Announcement of “Environmental Music I-II” 1979: Publication of book “Sounds and Environment” 1983: Integrating world folk music structures with “Ecophony Gaia” 1988: Produced the “AKIRA” soundtrack and received international acclaim. 1996: “Brain and Music Informatics” published 2000: Lectures and presentations on “Environmental Studies of Sound” held in various locations 2020s: Entertainment Yamashiro Gumi’s sound sources are rediscovered and reevaluated overseas