Asano Taiko - 400th Anniversary Celebration

This June (2009), Asano Taiko is turning 400 years old. To celebrate their birthday, Asano Taiko is putting on three days of taiko workshops and concerts (a rare sale as well) on June 5th, 6th and 7th. I realize that most of my readers do not live in Japan, and posting the great taiko opportunities available in June may just make some of you envious (sorry) but then again, it is in June, which is summer, and there is a chance that some of you might be visiting Japan at that time and may want to plan a visit to Asano into your travels. If you can read Japanese, here is a link to Asano's 400th Anniversary Activities. If not, here is a brief overview of the three days:

Most workshops cost 1000 yen (a great deal) The Mini Taiko workshop is 2009 yen and the outdoor workshops are free.

Friday, June 5
Workshops 10:30 - 18:00
Making a mini-taiko
Outdoor Workshop 1
Shime Taiko Workshop
Odaiko Workshop
Outdoor Workshop 2
Miyake Taiko Workshop
Odaiko Workshop

Special Concert - 1000 yen
18:30 Hakusan-shi Matto Gakushu Center (白山市松任学習センター)
Guests include - Hono Taiko, Kaneko Ryutaro (former Kodo) Fujimoto Yoshikazu (Kodo), Hajijojima Taiko, Miyake Taiko, and more...

Saturday, June 6
Workshops 9:30 - 16:30
Making a mini-taiko
Hachijo Jima Taiko
Outdoor Workshop 3
Play (taiko) and dance Workshop
Shime taiko Workshop
Odaiko Workshop
Outdoor Workshop 4
Chappa Workshop
Katsugi taiko Workshop
Outdoor Workshop 5

Sunday, June 7
Workshops, 9:00 - 15:30
Katsugi Workshop
Shime taiko Workshop
Outdoor Workshop 6
Making a mini-taiko
Hajijo Jima Taiko Workshop
Miyake Taiko Workshop
Hokuriku Mitsu Uchi Workshop
Singing "Kiyari" Workshop ("Kiyari" is the song usually sung before, and during Miyake Taiko)

The workshops are all being led by well known, established, professional taiko players, from groups such as Hono Taiko, Kodo, Miyake Jima Geino Doshikai and so on.

As an added bonus, several times each day, for three days, there will be 15 - 30 minute mini-live performances in the Museum by many of the guest performers and workshop instructors. The times for the mini-live performances are:
Friday
1. 10:00
2. 13:00
3. 16:30

Saturday
1. 10:00
2. 13:00
3. 15:00
4. 16:45 (15 min performance of Gojinjo Taiko)

Sunday
1. 10:00
2. 12:30
3. 14:00 (20 min)
4. 16:00 (45 min finale)

Finally, Asano taiko will be offering 400 items at a sale price, drums, bachi, chappa, bags, etc., so if you're coming from overseas, leave some extra room in your baggage to take home that Odaiko!

If anyone would like more information about these events, needs help registering, and so on, please send me an email with your questions. I can't promise anything, but I'll do what I can to help you out. raion.taiko@gmail.com

Kaga Taiko Recital Videos

It's Christmas Eve Day here, in Japan and we are sure busy. You see, Christmas is not a holiday in Japan and most people have to work today and tomorrow and the next day. Thus, for those who wish to celebrate Christmas in a major way, like in Europe or the States, it is a challenge to get everything ready because you are often working right up to, and through the holiday. It's rather depressing, actually. At least working at a school, the winter holidays cover the Christmas holidays so I have never had to work on a Christmas in all my years of working in Japan (well, it's only been four years I guess).

Anyhow, before I spend too much time writing, I just wanted to post videos of our most recent taiko recital. This past Sunday we had our Kaga Taiko recital, which was held at an Onsen (Hotel Suiko) in Katayamazu, near Komatsu Japan. Here is a link to the Hotel Suiko website, in case you want to see pictures.

It was much different than last year's Kaga Taiko Recital, and not just because it was in a different location. This year, we had both our children with us and as a result, we were unable to see many of the other performances. A two and half year old can only sit still for so long, even if he does like taiko. Also, last year's recital featured only Kaga and Fukui style taiko (traditional styles, dating back nearly 400 years), but this year there were also groups that would be considered "Sousaku Taiko" (創作太鼓) which is the more modern form of taiko that most of us probably are more familiar with. On personal level, it was also much different because my wife and I felt much more confident in our playing. I don't know that you can see a whole lot of difference between the technical difficulty of what we played this year and what we did last year, but (at least I like to think) our stage presence is slightly more confident than last year.

Anyway, here is where I will post the videos of this year's and last year's recitals, and you can decide for yourselves. (Please feel free to leave your comments, positive or "constructive")

We'll start with me (Brian)
Last year's recital (2007):


This year's recital (2008):


And now Mayumi's...
Last year (2007):


and this year's (2008):


And I'll just say goodbye with a little bonus video. My son, Kenji, seems to really be starting to "feel" taiko and he will pick up bachi (sticks) any chance he gets and start "playing" the couch, cushions, whatever he can find. The interesting thing is that when you watch him, he has a very serious, focused face, and he seems to be doing more than just "hitting". If he is playing a real drum, this is even more apparent. I was telling my mother this the other day, and she said it was the same way with my older brother (who is now a professional musician). He started learning piano at 3 years old, and although he wasn't necessarily playing songs right away, my mum said that what he played, although random notes, it was very musical. Anyway, decide for yourselves. Here is video of my son playing a cushion. You may think that my judgement is clouded by being a parent, but even if that is so, it is still kind of cute to watch...



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
From Raion Taiko

Taiko Practice and Sato Kensaku (佐藤健作)

Yesterday was a productive day from a taiko standpoint. I woke up early enough to go jogging. Unfortunately it's been too long since I have been running. I hope to get back into the habit of going three times a week, but we are just heading into the rainy season, which means nearly daily rain showers for a month or more. Not that a little rain will keep me from running, but if it is heavy, I likely won't go. At any rate, I pushed myself a but harder and ran all the way to the top of the "mountain" that I usually only run halfway up. (Read about my running route) It actually only added about 5 minutes onto my total time. It was good to go running, though, after not going for so long.

Yume Mitai has a small performance coming up at the start of July for Extasia promotion and for this, they added an extra rehearsal yesterday afternoon from 1 - 2:30. This was in addition to the Jigen practice we already had from 2:30 to 4. So altogether I was able to practice taiko for 3 hours yesterday. It felt good, but my fingers were starting to hurt by the time we finished. If we are lucky, we'll have an hour or so this afternoon to practice some of our own music.

On Friday evening, my wife was able to go and see a taiko concert. I was unable to go because of work. The concert was given by Kensaku Sato and Hono Taiko played one song (Mitsu Uchi) as a special guest. I had known about this concert for sometime because one of the other Odaiko players in the groups I play with is a big fan of Kensaku Sato, and he has been talking about the concert for about the last three months or so. Yesterday he was telling us a bit more about him. Apparently he had an Odaiko specially made (by Asano Taiko, of course) just for this tour, called The Fuji Tour (不二). Fuji is the name of the Odaiko. (Many particularly large Odaiko get their own names) Fuji is over 4 shaku, which means it is over 120 cm. You can get an idea of the size from the picture posted on his website. He also had Asano construct some sort of special stand for it as well. All together, it cost around $400,000. If the price was not surprising enough, we learned that once he completes this tour, he is going to "offer" the drum to Mt. Fuji. I don't know exactly what this involves, but we were relieved to hear that it would not be burned. After it is offered to Mt. Fuji, however, it will not be played again.

Kaga Taiko - Ichikawa Juku School Visit

We haven't really played or practiced Kaga style taiko since our recital on December 9th. Since the course we took only ran from August to December, and won't run again until August, we don't have many opportunities to play in this style. We did always want to visit the Ichikawa Juku School, though, which I mentioned in a post last fall.

Today (10.Feb) we finally were able to observe a practice there. Our intent was to observe, but we were immediately invited to participate in the practice. After all, they knew that we were not totally inexperienced, since nearly all of them took part in the December recital as well, and Ichikawa sensei also visited our Thursday night class on several occasions. We weren't sure how well we would be able to participate because we had both of our children with us, but the practice was fairly family freindly, allowing us to participate, and watch our kids at the same time.

When I wrote about the recital, I compared the atmosphere to a jazz club. The practice also seemed to have the same, laid back type of feeling. Soon after we arrived, they began warming up, which consisted of playing the mitsu uchi base rhythm (don doko don doko ...), followed by incorporating only a few Kaga taiko patterns. This probably didn't last any longer than 30 minutes. Then everyone had a break, drank some tea, smoked a cigarette, ate snacks, talked for a bit. Our kids found some sticks and played on the drums a little bit. During the break, Ichikawa sensei talked and played with our children. He told us that he has a grandchild the same age as our daughter (4.5 years).

Following the break, students came up one at a time, played a bit, and received guidance and commentary from Ichikawa sensei. It was rather like a 15 or 20 minute private lesson for each person, except that the rest of the class is watching you receive instruction. I can see that watching others play and listening to the critiques and suggestions from the teacher is an essential part of learning this particular style of taiko.

The warm up was pretty relaxed, and as I mentioned, Ichikawa sensei took on a kind and grandfatherly tone during the break as he played with our children. I was, therefore very surprised to hear his comments for the first student who played after the break. After she finished her piece, he basically said, "Well, if I were to tell you where you made mistakes, I would say everywhere. I would give you some positive feedback, but there was absolutely nothing postive about your playing." ... I thought "Wow," as I reached down to pick up my jaw off the floor. He then proceeded to work with her on various aspects of her playing, giving her advice and demonstrating at times, but his comments for most of the lesson with her were not very forgiving. Still, I noticed a significant improvement in her playing by the time she was finished.

Imagine my surpise (and horror) when he then said, "So, who's next? How about you, Brian san?" Seeing how he tore apart the previous student, who was much better than me, I could only imagine what he might say about my playing. Somewhat reluctantly, but trusting that he would be fairly kind to me, as it was my first visit to his class, I got up and played what I had played for the December recital, as best as I could remember. Being two months from that performance, of course, I made plenty of mistakes, but luckily, he was kind as I had hoped. His comments to me were basically, "You've made a good start, and if you practice, I'm sure you will become a good player." Next was my wife, and his comments to here were pretty much the same, except that he added, "I think you're just a tiny bit better than your husband." Well, I had thought that since we started practicing, so it wasn't a total surprise to to hear that.

The strictness and directness of the lesson suprised me mainly because the beginning of the class had been so laid back. I actually understood that this was just his teaching method, and not meant to be mean, but rather to motivate. The first student had been practicing Kaga taiko for some time and was fairly advanced. I'm sure he was simply trying to get her to play at a higher level, since she was probably capable of it. Although he mentioned several times, "Maybe you aren't as good as I thought you were, maybe I'm pushing you too fast." I think that anyone who has worked at something, be it an art or a sport, probably has noticed that the better you get, the more your teacher's seem to criticize you. As you improve, their expectations rise, and a good teacher will hold you to those.

If you are over-sensitive, or need positive comments along with the negative, you probably wouldn't last long in this class, but if you understand the purpose of the comments, and are able to not take them personally, you'll probably be fine. I think we are fine with that, and hope that we will be able to visit the school on a regular basis to continue learning Kaga style taiko during the "off season".

Kaga Recital Videos

If you prefer to watch taiko videos, rather than read my taiko journals, then this entry is for you. I think I have about 10 new videos to introduce to you today. They are all from the Kaga Taiko recital a few weeks ago (December 9). You may want to read that entry first, before watching the videos. Also, if any of our personal friends have been waiting to actually see Mayumi and I play taiko, instead of watching other groups, here is your chance. Of course, as I mentioned in most of my posts about Kaga taiko, it is not an easy style to learn, and it is largely improvisation, which is something kind of new for me.

Anyhow, I will start with videos of our performances, please do not view them too critically. We only started learning this about 7 months ago. Without further ado, here is my Kaga Taiko recital performance, December 9, 2007:


And next, Mayumi's. Personally, I think she did a better performance than I did, of course, she says the opposite.


As I mentioned, after the recital portion, there were many other much more advanced Kaga Taiko/Mitsu uchi drummers there, so they took turns performing. Here are some of them. The first one is a lady who is a student at the Ichikawa Juku Kaga Taiko school:


This next man was the most impressive, in my opinion, and I don't just say that because of his tight pants. My daughter, however, seemed to notice them. When she watched the video, she kept saying, "look at his bottom". Anyway, don't let his toit rump distract from his drumming:


The next performer was also pretty enjoyable to watch. She is actually doing a different style than Kaga Style, but closely related and based on the same base, mitsu uchi rhythm. She was from Fukui, the prefecture next to Ishikawa. From what I understand, this is Fukui style mitsu uchi drumming:


Now we have a sort of cross over performer. He was from Fukui, but performs Kaga style instead of Fukui style. Enjoy:


Here is another pair from Fukui. This time, it is a grandfather, performing with his grandson:


This boy is pretty young. I think they said he was in 2nd grade. He looks just terrified to be on the stage. In the end, though, his nerves do not get the better of him and he delivers quite an impressive performance:


This next performer was special because he had recently received a designation as a meijin. I am not completely sure of the meaning of this term, but he had received a special plaque and certificate from the government recognizing his talent/ability as a performer of Kaga Style drumming. From what I can understand, I think it means that he is probably one of the top players:


And finally, our instructor, Matsuya sensei. He was not the last performer, but soon after this, our camera battery ran out, so we could not record any more anyhow. I really enjoy his style of playing, it seems to be very powerful:


I hope you enjoyed the recital.

Taiko Lecture

This afternoon is the Ecstasia Taiko Concert in Matto. We are looking forward to attending the performances all afternoon and evening. There will be many different groups from all over Japan performing this year. As the event is sponsored by Asano Taiko, Hono Taiko will naturally be headlining the afternoon and evening concerts. I am looking forward to seeing them perform again. I have not seen their performance since 2000, I guess. Since then, I suppose I have only seen Yamato's live performances.

Yesterday we were able to attend a pre-event lecture and mini-performance. Jige-san of Hono Taiko even sat right next to us. The lecture was at least 90 minutes and all in Japanese, of course. I was rather pleased with myself that I was able to understand enough to follow the main points of the presentation. Having not lived more than a few weeks at a time in Japan for seven plus years, I honestly did not expect to be able to follow an academic lecture.

The lecture was given by Mogi Hitoshi and was titled 「伝統と創作、それが太鼓の生きる道」 Which translates to something like "Tradition and Creativity, That is the Way of Taiko". The majority of the lecture dealt with the history and traditions of taiko in Japan. The last half hour or so, he spent talking about some of the creative styles that developed out of those traditions, such as Ooedosukeroku taiko (大江戸助六太鼓) and Mitsu Uchi (三つ打ち) style. The Mitsu Uchi Style seems to have been influenced from the traditions of Gojinjodaiko (御陣乗太鼓) from the Noto peninsula. It is a very flashy style using many fast rhythms and sticks decorated in red and white, which are twirled and flipped often during the performance. Apparently, this style has died out, though, and is not really performed any longer. The Sukeroku style, however, is still often used. Many North American taiko groups have adopted this style of playing.

When looking back at the traditions, from which these styles developed, there is quite a big difference. "IN THE BEGINNING" drums in Japan were not used for entertainment. It was almost always for more pragmatic purposes. In fact, it wasn't until the latter half of the 20th century that they were even considered as a possible entertainment vessel. Long, long ago they were used for purposes such as defining village boundaries. The boundaries were as far as the sound of the drum would carry. They were also used for scaring away pests from fields, homes and villages, or for calling for rain. Mr. Mogi actually spent quite a bit of time discussing taiko being used to call for rain. As one can imagine, the taiko sound was associated with the sound of thunder. Since the sounds were similar, people believed that the taiko would call the rain. So it makes sense that the Japanese image of the god of thunder would also have drums in it. He showed several graphics of the god of thunder　(you can see one of the graphics here: http://www.emuseum.jp/cgi/pkihon.cgi?SyoID=2&ID=w307&SubID=s000 ) Notice the small drums surrounding the god on the left.

Taiko were also used in festivals and other events as an offering of sorts to the gods and spirits. Sometimes this was in a festival setting. One festival, of which he showed a short video clip, I thought was particularly interesting. It was held in the middle of the night. There were probably about 20 or 30 people with staffs and bamboo poles striking the ground in a steady marching type of rhythm. Behind this group, a huge taiko drum was being pulled along on a cart, while priests (I think) on either side of the drum were striking it with a "bat bachi" (basically, a drum stick shaped like a baseball bat). It was struck probably once every few seconds or so. No complicated rhythms, but the sound must have been quite moving.

He also spent a bit of time discussing taiko in Gagaku music. This is Japanese classical music. There seem to be two taiko which are always part of this, one representing the sun, and the other the moon. The drum representing the sun is on the left (east) and the drum head is decorated with a mitsudomoe (like a yin yang design with three parts) and the drum on the right (west) is representing the moon and is decorated with a futatsudomoe (yin yang design). Gagaku music, I believe, was also a sort of offering to the gods, or perhaps the Emperor, who was/is also considered a god.

I think what struck me the most was how far the taiko that is prevalent today has come from its roots and traditional uses. I don't mean to say that it has strayed from its foundation. The traditions from which these newer styles developed are still evident. But the beginnings of taiko, or at least what I saw yesterday, are much simpler than modern taiko.

Although there is more to say, it is now time to depart for Ecstasia. With my limited understanding of yesterday's lecture, I hope that I have done justice to what Mr. Mogi wanted to say. I do not believe I have given any false information, but I may have given incomplete information. I did purchase his book yesterday, "An Introduction to Japanese Taiko". As I read through the book, I will come back to this post and edit, correct, add as needed.

Stay tuned, hopefully an entry regarding this afternoon and evening's concert will soon follow.