Japanese music for beginner and intermediate piano students.
Over the last century many piano pieces have been written by Japanese composers.
A composer whose pieces for children have become quite well known in Japan is Akira Yuyama (湯山昭). One set of such pieces is ‘Confections/World of Sweets’ (お菓子の世界) (1974).
Other selected pieces by Japanese composers suitable for students are listed below. Student performances of many of them are available on Youtube.
-Kosaku Yamada (山田 耕筰) Japanese Silhouettes (日本風の影絵)(1918) https://imslp.org/…/Japanese_Silhouettes_(Yamada%2C_K%C5%8D…
-Toru Takemitsu (武満 徹)– Piano Pieces for Children, Breeze: https://youtu.be/u6Q1eNW-lok
-Megumi Ohnaka (大中 恩) The Melancholy Music Box (あおいオルゴール)
-Yasushi Akutagawa (芥川也寸志) 24 Preludes (24の前奏曲) (1979)
-Komei Abe (安部幸明) 3 Sonatinas for children (こどものための三つのソナチネ) (1972)
-Fumio Hayasaka (早坂 文雄) Nos 8, 10, 12 from Chamber Piano Pieces (室内のためのピアノ小品集 第)(1941) https://imslp.org/…/17_Piano_Pieces_for_Chamber_(Hayasaka%2…
-Taki Rentaro (瀧廉太郎) Minuet in B minor (メヌエット)(1900) One of the earliest piano pieces composed in Japan, written in the Neo-Baroque style.
-Koichi Uzaki (鵜崎庚一) Songs that the Wind Sings (風がうたう歌)
-Tokuhide Niimi (新実徳英) Preludes of Winds (風のプレリュード)
-Toshiro Nakagawa (中川俊郎) Waltz of the Cherry Blossoms
-Yasuji Kiyose (清瀬 保二) Four Pieces for Children (子供のための4つの小品) (1966)
Yasushi Akutagawa
Source: Asahi Shimbun - "asahi graph" October 29, 1952 issue, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32947511
Fumio Hayasaka
Source: Unknown author - 富樫康『日本の作曲家』, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27409774
Some useful sources:
In the last few decades Edition KAWAI has published many sets of piano pieces for children:
http://www.editionkawai.jp/html/page11.html
-https://en.schott-music.com/shop/autoren/akira-yuyama
-Garrett, Junko Ueno. Japanese piano compositions of the last hundred years: A history of piano music in Japan and a complete list of Japanese Piano Compositions. DMA diss. Rice University, 1998. https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/19260
-PTNA, Japan http://www.piano.or.jp/english/resource/enc.html
-Dan Sato. An introduction to Akira Yuyama and his Confections with a Discussion of Its Pedagogical Effectiveness. DMA diss. University of Miami. 2016. https://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi…
-Bonnie C. Wade. Composing Japanese Modernity. The University of Chicago Press. 2014.