In two previous columns (Feb. 5 and May 20) I wrote about recently established live-music houses, WAON in Nippori and Manabiya in Yokohama, where one can hear hogaku. The familiar settings of these spaces allow for an intimate connection with the music, which ranges from relatively unknown young musicians to veteran performers.

This spring, another live-music venue opened in Tokyo.

Tribute to the Love Generation, mercifully shortened to TLG, is sponsored by Sony Corporation and is part of their huge Mediage entertainment complex recently opened in Odaiba, across the Rainbow Bridge. Although a little difficult to get to, Odaiba is quickly becoming an important entertainment and recreation center for Tokyo. As a performance space, TLG, located right along the waterfront, is comfortable and extremely well arranged and appointed. Every table has good views of the performers.

TLG's mandate is to present first-class performers of "world music," which means artists like the African percussionist Doudou N'diaye, Brazilian musician Carlos Brown and the Hawaiian guitar and vocal duo Hapa. There is nothing new about this, as other venues in Japan have been presenting these people throughout the last decade or so. What is unique about TLG is that they have the foresight to place hogaku in the realm of world music.

To anyone who has experienced the wide scope of hogaku music, from the refined traditional to the experimental avant-garde, there is no question that hogaku can enlighten, entertain and generally hold its own on a world stage. This fact has not been realized, however, by most Japanese (especially commercially oriented concerns) until quite recently. TLG has lined up an impressive array of hogaku musicians, ranging from serious traditionalists to young musicians who are creating new sounds and opening up new worlds with their experimentation. That a major entertainment business such as Sony places importance on the creative musical impulses of its own culture is a tribute to all music lovers.

Hogaku performances are usually held Mondays and Tuesdays. Recommended performances for late June include the innovative shinobue flutist and former Kodo member Yasukazu Kanno, with vocalist Kaori Kasai and Isao Miyoshi on guitar, June 20. Japanese min'yo folk singer Akiko Kanazawa will perform her "house music" style min'yo accompanied by shamisen, shakuhachi and various percussion, June 27. Both performances have sets at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Admission 6 yen,000-8,000 yen. TLG is on the sixth floor of Mediage, a three-minute walk from Daiba Station, Yurikamome Line. For reservations or more information call (03) 5531-2025.

The Japan Biwa Music Association's summer recital June 18 will feature 17 up-and-coming performers from various schools of Satsuma and Chikuzen biwa. Once the favored instrument of samurai warriors, the biwa, a wooden lute, is still used today to accompany narrative songs of samurai heroics.

Heroes whose tales will be told tomorrow include Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Shizuka Gozen; Minamoto no Yoshinaka and Tomoe Gozen; Nasu no Yoichi; and Shunkan, all from the "Tale of Heike"; Oda Nobunaga; Akechi Mitsuhide; Sakazaki Dewa no Kami; and Miyamoto Musashi, all from the wars of the Momoyama Period (1572-1615); and Ii Naosuke, the shogunate statesman whose assassination in 1860 marked the beginning of the downfall of the shogunate.

Summer Biwa Music Recital, noon-5 p.m. June 18 at Tokyo Shoken Kaikan Hall (Kayabacho subway station, exit 8). Admission 2,000 yen. For information call the Nippon Biwagaku Kyokai, (03) 5371-0120, fax (03) 5371-0230.

Gagaku court music first entered Japan around the 5th century, since when it has undergone significant changes before finally reaching its present-day form. During the Heian Period (794-1185), gagaku was at a zenith, being performed at grand outdoor religious and state events as well as in intimate settings by courtiers.

Gagaku performer, scholar and educator Sukeyasu Shiba and his group, Reigakusha, will present a two-part program, "Gagaku Sen Nen (A Thousand Years of Gagaku)," featuring Heian Period pieces and performance styles. The first part, "Miyabi no Asobi," focuses on the pieces played by noblemen and women of the Heian court, including the well-known piece "Etenraku" and vocal pieces such as imayo and saibara.

The second part will feature music from the Silk Road and pieces transcribed from the medieval Chinese lute manuscripts discovered hidden in the Dunhuang cave temples of western China almost 100 years ago. These pieces will be performed on instruments reconstructed from the instrument collection of the Shoso-in repository of Japanese Imperial treasures, which dates back to the 7th-8th centuries.

"Gagaku Sen Nen," 5 p.m. June 24 at the National Theater Small Hall. For reservations call the National Theater, (03) 3230-3000. Admission 3,600 yen, students 2,900 yen.

Shakuhachi performer Yoshitaka Sato will be presenting a program of a selection of well-known traditional and contemporary hogaku compositions at the incomparable Oji Hall in Ginza. The performance will include Michio Miyagi's "Haru no Yo," the famous shakuhachi duet "Shika no Tone" and Toshio Funakawa's contemporary quartet for shakuhachi, koto, cello and viola.