Golden Week Concert - Wow! Taiko Shock!

Wow! Taiko Shock? Yes, that is what Asano Taiko named the special Golden week concert in which I participated last Sunday. I guess, to a native English speaker, it is not very catchy and doesn't really seem to roll off the tongue all that smoothly. Still, this does not mean that it is the same way for Japanese people. Regardless of the name, I was very happy to have the opportunity to be a part of this event. From Friday evening to Sunday evening, my memory is all a sort of blur of rehearsals, schlepping drums, setting up stages, tearing down stages, etc. At some point, though, during one of the times we played our piece, there were a lot of people in front of us watching, they clapped enthusiastically when we finished and before and after we played, there were some very famous taiko players who performed. (I guess that must have been the concert). I haven't seen any video of our performance, so I am not sure really how we sounded. As far as playing the notes and rhythms correctly, I don't recall making any mistakes. Stylistically, musically, etc. it is harder to comment on without actually watching it. However, a very important critic did tell me the next day, "You are a good taiko one, papa." Well, if my daughter was happy, then what more can I ask for?

It was very exciting to be part of this event, though. We were surrounded by world famous taiko performers and groups, who have toured around the world. There were former members of Kodo (Kaneko Ryutaro) a father and his three sons who actually taught Kodo one of their songs (Miyake Taiko) Hono Taiko, who have played concerts all over the world, and others as well. I imagine my feelings must have been similar to my brother and his band when they had their first chance to tour with Grammy award winning band Wilco. We weren't playing in front of 2000 people, like they did, but we played to a full house. The audience had payed 3000 yen per ticket ($30) and there was literally standing room only.

Here is the complete list of peformers/groups who participated in the concert:
Miyakejima Hozonkai - Mr. Tsumura and his three sons
Matto Yume Mitai (the group I am in)
Yamabe Taishi (?) of Kurashiki Taiko
Hanakagami - made up of former members of Hikari and current Hono Taiko members
Kaneko Ryutaro - former member of Kodo
Ayano Yamamoto - a former member of Hono Taiko, classically trained (?) and an excellent shime taiko soloist
Sasuke - Asano sponsored group made up of junior high and high school male and female students. They recently took part in the all Japan Youth Taiko Competition and received honors for Ishikawa prefecture.
Hono Taiko - Asano Taiko's top group, made up of three women

Seeing as this was a real concert, as opposed to a recital, taking video and pictures was not possible, so unfortunately I cannot post any. I did, however, get a picture during the morning rehearsal, which I will put up. This is Hono Taiko and Sasuke playing the song called "Shoko". Later, I may have a chance to put up a performance of the song at a different event. In the mean time, use the picture to imagine what it sounds like.

Concert

Our Sunday performance was more or less a success. I was pretty exhausted afterwards, though. Not from the playing. I only played for 3 numbers and they were spread out through the concert. It was more the release of all the pre-concert stress, I suppose. It was a lot of work (mentally) for the three of us to prepare for this recital, not only the music, but putting together all of the clothes for our costumes (it probably cost me over $100 to get everything I needed), organizing car pools to get to the venue and so on. Needless to say, on Monday, I was able to finally exhale, and my exhaustion finally caught up with me. In spite of the exhaustion, you can bet that we were at our taiko practices the next two days after the concert. (they were a bit lighter than usual, though.)

I hope to eventually get some video up of our performances, but in the meantime, several audience members gave us some nice pictures from the performance (and some of the practices) which I will post here for your enjoyment.

Here's my daughter ready to practice


More practicing...


... and the performance ...


My wife at Matto Bayashi practice...


Me at Matto Bayashi practice...


Here is the Matto Bayashi group before the concert...


Me (in the back) peforming with Matto Bayashi...


My wife (on the left) performing with Matto Bayashi...


Wow, there are a lot of pictures to post
Here is the Yume Mitai group picture before the concert...


Me at Yume Mitai practice...


Yume Mitai performance...


and a close up during the performance...


Oh yeah, I got interviewed again after our Matto Bayashi performance...


That is Kinoshita san of Hono Taiko interviewing me.

And the finale...


So, that's it for the photo essay of our performance. Be patient for videos. It will likely be a couple weeks before I have a chance to get them up. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures.

Taiko Performance on Sunday

It's our last week before the Sunday performance. All three of us have completed our final practices. All that remains is the dress rehearsal on Saturday afternoon/evening. All we really have a chance to do there is run through our piece one time. Although our final practices were not all that intense, there have been more than usual. Sunday morning was my daughter's final practice, then Sunday afternoon I had an extra 3 hour practice for Yume Mitai, Monday evening was the regular Yume Mitai practice, and yesterday we had Matto Bayashi practice. That was three days of taiko practice in a row for me. I can't say that it exhausted me, but it has taken a bit of a toll on my hands. I am developing a few new blisters that weren't there before and my fingers are a bit achey. I think it is from the continuous jarring when the stick hits the drum, especially the Odaiko (big drum) which uses big and heavy sticks. I imagine that if one is consistently practicing every day, this ache eventually goes away. For now, I have a few days to let my hands recover.

Yuko - 遊鼓

Hmm, I have only made two other entries this month. I guess I haven't felt all that inspired to write. Well, at least not inspired to write here. I was actually inspired to write music this month, and I completed a new song just this week. It's called Yuko (遊鼓）For those of you that can read Japanese, you will recognize that the two characters mean "play" and "drum", or playful drum, in more natural sounding English. Like the name, it is a fun and interactive song, which I wrote for Okedo, or Katsugi Taiko, which is a lightweight drum, that is easily carried with a shoulder strap and the heads are tightened with ropes.

I haven't had a chance to actually try it on the drum, but at this point, I am pretty pleased with it. I will ask one of our instructors to look at it and give me comments after our upcoming performance, March 16th. I am looking forward to the performance. Almost my whole family will perform at one point or another. I play in two groups, my wife plays in one, and my daughter will play in another. It's only about 3 weeks away now, which may seem like a long time, but 3 weeks means only three more practices, so we have been working extra hard lately.

And actually, there is another concert coming up, that will be sort of a big deal, but it is not a certainty until after this March 16th performance, so I will wait to give details about it.

Age discrimination, Encouragement and the best taiko group in the world

Maybe I'm just easily pleased, but yesterday I received a compliment/encouragement from Hono Taiko's Yamada-san. Asano Taiko sponsors several taiko groups, their top group, and most well-known, being Hono Taiko. At this weeks practice, we learned that one of the sponsored groups is soon going out of existence and they would like to make a new group to replace it. They are looking for people with experience between the ages of 14 to 30 to make up this amateur/semi-pro level group. Although I am extremely interested in being a part of this group, I was born nearly 3 years too early to be considered for it, so I did not bother to try out for it. Still, last night I saw Yamada san and she asked how old I was because she had thought of me for that group. I told her, and asked if they couldn't possibly extend the age limit to 35. Apparently, I'm not the only one who has asked that. Anyway, I was encouraged to be even considered. I don't mean to say that I have become a taiko virtuoso (if there's such a thing) in 6 months of practice, but I feel validated that I am doing well, showing dedication and potential.

On the other hand, I watch a performance like Yamato's last Sunday and, although it is not discouraging, it also gives me a feeling for the gap between us and becoming a truly professional level performing group. Yamato's concert was truly a moving experience. From the first note of the concert, a chill went through my body, and I was moved to the very last. I have seen Yamato perform on 5 separate occasions now: twice in the US, once in Austria, once in Germany and now in Japan. I am pretty sure that this was the best performance out of the 5 that I've seen.

Yamato now has 18 members, of which I think four are trainees, but they still perform in the shows, just in lesser roles than the full members. Also, I think their touring is more limited. When I first saw Yamato, I think they had about 10 members. 10 people is actually a nice sized taiko team, and when you see 10 people on the stage at once, beating all different sized drums with all their body, mind, heart at the same time, it is quite moving. But add eight more people, and it is even more moving. Also Yamato does not change their program all that much. I first saw them in 1999 and when I opened the program at the concert last Sunday, there was only one song that I hadn't heard. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that I've seen the same concert 5 times either. Yamato's leader, Ogawa san, is constantly making adjustments and changes to improve the songs and the presentation. One of my favorite changes was for the song, Hayate, which has always been one of my favorites. The song features 3 of the girls playing shamisen, accompanied by two other members playing kumi taiko (like a taiko drum set). Miyazaki Mika, the lead shamisen player, has always had an excellent stage presence for this piece, and is probably one of the reasons it is my favorite. Anyhow, this time, there weren't three shamisen players, but about seven. I thought it made the song even better.
Several other songs also included an increased number of performers, and others, the music itself had been changed. And some songs, I think, were just performed even better than before.

This Yamato's 15th year (I think) and at one point in the concert, Ogawa san shared a little bit about how the group was started back in 1993. He had already had experience playing taiko with another group, but was working as a glass blower. There was a festival coming up at a nearby shrine and his mother suggested/encouraged him to put together a few songs with a couple other people and perform at the festival. He, and two other friends wrote a few songs, practiced intensively for maybe two weeks and performed. Their performance was well received and after that, they had many inquiries about joining their group, or doing more performances. I guess there was enough interest, that they decided to try to create a more serious performing group.

In some ways, I thought there were some similarities to our own beginning (although there are many differences as well). We, also, kind of started out without any clear goals, or expectations and following our first we also received an unexpected amount of interest and requests for future performances, enough to encourage us to actually try to create a serious taiko group as well. Although we have no plans to become a world touring group, spending 11 out of 12 months in other countries, I hope that we can attempt to practice and perform the drums with the same passion and dedication that Yamato does.

After the concert there was a reception for Yamato and their friends, to which we were invited. There were quite a few people in a rather small space, so unfortunately, there was not a lot of time for one on one interaction and talking. We did get some pictures with some of the members, though, which I will post below. But first, there was, I guess a notable celebrity in attendance at the concert and the reception, but I did not realize it. I noticed him at the reception because he had very unique clothing. I cannot describe it very well, but he had a brimmed hat, and a sort of patchwork shirt and was also wearing a patchwork type of apron, possibly made of leather. I kept wondering what country he had come from. I thought possibly Mongolia or far eastern Russia. I realized that I was probably staring too much, and was just thinking that I should go and talk to him, instead of staring when my wife told me that he was Kansai Yamamoto, a internationally recognized fashion designer and big fan of taiko.

Anyhow, here are some pictures from the reception, but first, as the concert was held in Nara, some Nara-esque photos:
Me with one of Nara's famed, tame "sacred" deer:


And Mayumi in front of a "Sharp Pagoda":



Me and my wife with Takeru Matsushita, one of Yamato's assistant leaders.


Me with Midori Tamai. He is one of Yamato's most recognizable players because of his hair, which is unfortunately not visible in this picture.


Mayumi with current member, Mika Miyazaki (left, the lead shamisen player) and former member, Shoko Kodera (middle).

Just some news

I just got back from Yume Mitai practice. It was our first practice of the year, and Yamada sensei ran things pretty efficiently today. She is trying to get us focused on the recital coming up in March. It is actually a bigger deal than usual because it will be almost like a trial to see if we have what it takes to perform at a major (?) concert event coming up in May. At the beginning of December she told us about the possibility. Apparently there will be a taiko concert during the first week of May, Golden Week holidays in Japan. This is important, because it means people will not have to work and more people are likely to attend the concert. Also, there are some major names on the concert roster, like the Miyake Jima hozonkai leaders, I believe it is a father and two sons who founded the hozonkai. There will also be former members of Kodo playing, and probably Hono Taiko will perform also. I think the concert is partly sponsored by Asano Taiko. Apparently, the people in charge at Asano said if Yume Mitai performs well at the March recital, they will invite us to also play at the May concert. So it is exciting to work hard for the possibility of playing again with world renowned taiko performers.

I learned another fun piece of info at today's practice. When I got to practice today, there was a camera man there also. Apparently, Asano Taiko is making a new promo video for Hono Taiko, and they wanted some footage of Yamada sensei (a member of Hono Taiko) teaching some of the other groups she works with. So, I guess there is a chance that I might be seen for a brief moment in Hono Taiko's promo video. I'll have to be sure to ask for a copy.

And finally, yesterday, we got back late in the evening, from attending Yamato's concert in Nara. It was about a 3 - 4 hour drive from here. I hope to write in more detail about the concert later, but for now I'll just say that I was moved from the first note of the concert to the last. As soon as they hit the first notes on the drum, a chill went through my body. In the past I've often said that Yamato was one of the best taiko groups in the world. I've seen Yamato perform live 5 times now, and I have also seen other world class taiko groups (such as Kodo) perform several times. After last night, I feel that Yamato is not one of the best, but the best taiko group in the world. If they come to your town, please make every effort to see them. Starting next week they kick off a 3 week or so stint in Paris.

Well, I keep trying to make "short" entries, but they always turn out much longer than I intended.

The Asano Taiko Family and enjoy

Now that my schedule has settled down a little bit, I will try to make more frequent entries. In the last two weeks, or so, I've actually had quite a bit to say, but haven't had the time to write it down.

About two weeks ago, we attended Hono Taiko's concert in Kanazawa. I don't think that I have ever seen them "in concert". I've seen them many times at various events, but they were always there as part of some bigger event. So this was the first time that I saw just them. It quite enjoyable and made me think about many things. One aspect of the concert in particular which I paid close attention to was how they constructed their pieces. They are only three people, so it limits them somewhat as to how many parts their songs can have. At this point, my wife and I are only two people, so we also, are limited in what we can do, when we try to create songs. One thing I noticed was that most songs involved a kumi-taiko set up. This means that one person is surrounded by maybe three to five drums. It is basically a taiko drum set, I guess. This allows the song to have a little more variety in the parts.

My wife was commenting on how Hono Taiko is rather like Kanazawa's "Home Team" taiko group. Everyone in this area knows them, and likes them. It provides them a nice atmosphere to "work" in, and they have a lot of support and help. In fact, I am guessing that most of the people who attended the concert actually were acquainted with at least one of the three members. The interactions with the audience were very friendly and even included some personal greetings from the members. It was a very relaxed atmosphere. It seems Asano Taiko (which sponsors Hono Taiko, and the other two groups in which I am playing) is rather like a big family. At the concert, I saw almost every member of the two groups I am in either working at the concert, or attending the concert.

Sorry if this is a bit rambling. I had a lot to say right after seeing the concert, but it seems that I have forgotten what it was.

There are a couple other news items to add, but I'll save them for another time. For now, I'll just mention that our recital for the Kaga Taiko class is on Sunday and we had our final practice last night. There are nine students and at last night's practice we got to each perform our own improvisations twice. The first time was sort of practice, and Matsuya sensei (our instructor) gave advice and suggestions. The second time was rather like a dress rehearsal, and we ran through everything without stopping in program order. One of the comments that almost everyone had during our first run through, was to smile more. If you have been reading along with me, you may remember that I said Kaga style taiko is supposed to be relaxed and fun. Most of the nine of us don't have much experience with this style, so we probably all look like we're concentrating very hard on remember the correct rhythms and not making mistakes. Matsuya sensei said that many of us even looked scary. So for my second run through, I decided to not worry about anything and enjoy myself, have a good time. (This is what I have been telling my students at every speech and drama contest we have had, and so far the results have been good.) I think it worked for me. I smiled, and enjoyed playing the taiko. I am certain I made more mistakes than usual, but when I finished, I noticed the applause of my classmates was noticeably louder than it had been previously. I was even praised by the teacher. Perhaps I did make more mistakes than usual, but I think I played better than usual. Of course, playing well and accurately is important, and if you play too poorly, your audience will probably not enjoy themselves, but also, if you are too serious, your audience will also probably not enjoy themselves. If the performer is obviously worried about making mistakes, the audience will not be able to relax either. They will be on the edge of their seats wondering if the performer will make it through without screwing up. Even if he makes it through without mistakes, the audience is probably relieved when he finishes, instead of wishing they could hear more. Anyhow, lets enjoy playing taiko together! (heh heh heh).

As I said, the recital is on Sunday. Hopefully I'll have video to post of my performance, and Mayumi's (who is better than me, in my opinion).

A quick update

My schedule is finally beginning to get a bit busier. I have been wanting to make several entries lately, but amazingly have not had the time to write all that I would like to. The schedule of working, training, and attending taiko classes three times a week, seems to be catching up with me. By the time I get home in the evenings, the first thing on my mind is usually sleeping. I am also finding it harder and harder to wake up to go jogging in the morning. But I am pleased that I have been able to keep up a regular jogging schedule for about a month now. I have tried in the past, but I think I always lost interest within a couple weeks. This time, though, I have a goal to motivate me to continue. At any rate, since my schedule is getting tighter, I may have to resign myself to making briefer entries in the journal.

So here is my quick update:

After worrying that we might have to stop attending our Tuesday evening taiko class (Kaga style drumming) because of work. We have actually been able to attend all but one of the classes this month. Next month also looks like we will be able to attend most of the classes.

The practices for the Shin-Matto-Bayashi Hozonkai have been getting more intense every week, mainly because there are two performances approaching. One this Sunday (9/30) and another October 7^th. In fact, this week, practice was led by one of the members of Hono Taiko, Ms. Yamada (I do not know her first name). Needless to say, she made us work twice as hard as usual, which I think you notice twice as much when you are playing the Odaiko. The Odaiko is one of the more strenuous drums to play because, first of all you must use much larger and heavier sticks than the average size drums, and the stance requires your arms to always be in a raised position. An untrained person (that would be me) will likely be nearly exhausted after only a couple minutes of playing. Anyhow, here is picture of the blisters I developed at the practice:

The Hozonkai song is quite long, and I have actually only learned one section of it. When I say “learned”, I only mean the sticking and the rhythms, the technique is a completely different story. Therefore, it has not yet been decided whether or not I will be able to join the group for these next two performances or not. Either way, I will be in attendance at both concerts and if there is opportunity to take video, I will definitely post it for all of you to watch.

Videos added to Kodo Earth Celebration entries

Just a quick note to say that videos have been added to three of the Kodo Earth Celebration entries. If you would like to see them in context, please scroll back to the previous three entries. Or you can view them in this entry, without the intro.

Miyakejima Hozonkai


Kodo Friday Night Concert - Pre-concert fun


Friday morning performance of Okinawan music and dance

Earth Celebration - Weather

As I mentioned in the last post, if I am able to return to the Earth Celebration next year, I would really like to participate in some of the workshops. Otherwise, the options seem to be somewhat limited. Our options were even further limited on the first day because of the weather. After two or three weeks of very hot weather and blue skies, it decided to rain on Friday morning and afternoon on Sado Island.

We had heard rumors of the possibility of such weather, but the only preparations we had made were two umbrellas. This might have been sufficient, except for two problems. First problem: both the fringe event and the evening Kodo concert were outdoors and seating was on the ground, which became wet, of course, after it rained. Second problem: umbrellas were not allowed at the evening's concert because they block the view of other audience members. (Keep this in mind, if you ever have a chance to go). So we were expecting to watch the concert sitting on wet grass while being soaked by the rain.

I also mentioned in my previous post that we had miscalculated our budget by forgetting about $80 worth of fares and fees. As soon as we arrived in Ogi, we sat down and wrote down everything we still needed to buy (meal, parking, hotel, etc.). We had just barely enough, as long as we didn't eat to fancy, or do any of the touristy things, like boat rides and such. We set aside about $20 in an emergency fund because we were not sure if we had enough gas to get home or not. Anyway, we decided that sitting in the mud and getting soaked while watching the concert was enough of an emergency to dip into the $20 and get some rain coats. As it turns out, we were not the only ones unprepared for the weather. Of course many of the other guests had not expected rain and were buying raincoats, but the shop owners in Ogi were also ill prepared and had not stocked up on coats. They were quickly selling out. The first three or four stores we went to had just sold their last ones. Luckily we found a little shop that still had some and we bought their last two. We were relieved to know that we wouldn't get completely soaked for the concert.

A little side story, as we were leaving the shop where we got the raincoats, I saw something moving on the floor. At first I thought it was an enormous spider. Japan, being a semi-tropical country, large insects and such are not uncommon. It turned out to be a little crab. This section of the town was quite a ways from the coast and the shop keeper was about as surprised as we were to see it. She shooed it out of her shop with a little broom.

How does this story end? It rained on and off just about up until about 5:30, when they began seating people for the concert. After that, it didn't rain again that evening. Our raincoats ended up being a barrier between our bottoms and the soggy grass. The grass was actually not even that wet and we were able to enjoy the concert fairly comfortably.

Here some unedited video of the Okinawa dance and music performance at the fringe festival. I apologize for the poor vantage point. I'm not sure if you can tell from the video, but there was quite a steady stream of rain coming down. We were sitting under a tent to stay dry. Unfortunately it was situated to the side, and somewhat behind it.



Again, I will close with some pictures.

The Audience at the Fringe event trying to stay dry.

Okinawan dancers performing at the Fringe event in the rain.

Waiting in line at Kisaki Jinja to go up the hill to Shiroyama Koen (Park), where Kodo would perform that evening.

The stage at Shiroyama Koen before the concert.