What is a Kaga Taiko Lesson Like?

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In January Mayumi and I decided to dedicate more time to learning the traditional Kaga style of taiko drumming. We had taken two four-month "Primer" courses through the Ishikawa Taiko Association and desired to learn more. We headed out to the Ichikawa Juku in Komatsu, where Mr. Kazutaka Ichikawa teaches. Almost everyone in the Komatsu area who plays taiko has been taught at some point by Mr. Ichikawa. As we talked with Ichikawa sensei about our plans to return to the US at the end of this year and teach and perform taiko in Michigan, he was pleased, but he also warned us that we would have to work hard if we wanted to do Kaga taiko.

"If you really want to learn Kaga Taiko, I'm not going to go easy on you any more," he said.
"That's alright," I replied, "we don't have much time, so we need to learn quickly."
"You're not going to like it. You won't want to come back next week," he warned.
"Don't worry, I can handle it. I'll be back," I said.
"I'm serious. No more "Mr. Nice Guy," he gave one final warning.
"I promise, I won't give up," I said decisively.
He turned to the person next to him and said, "Man, I hate stubborn people."

Of course it was all in good natured fun, but he was serious when he said that he would teach us more strictly than before. The few times I visited his Juku last year, I was always warmly welcomed and although I was instructed and my technique was often corrected, no matter what I played, I was almost always praised. "Wow, how long have you been learning? That was really good," and other encouragement was often offered.

This time, however, my first lesson after telling Ishikawa sensei about our plans, was a bit different. I played my 2 or 3 minutes and the first thing he said was: "Wow, that really sucked." (more or less). Then he proceeded to break down what I had played, making small corrections here and there. Actually, he wasn't all that harsh in his criticism. Following the "that really sucked" comment, he was actually pretty kind, but perhaps he didn't let me get away with as much as he might of before. There are some other students with whom he is much stricter. Still, he has been holding us to a higher standard than before and we are learning a lot.

As I have mentioned in past posts, Kaga taiko is a very old and traditional form of taiko drumming with a history of over 400 years. In contrast to the more modern styles of taiko, where there are many different styles and a lot of freedom in rhythms and movements, Kaga taiko is filled with all sorts of intricacies and theory. Certain movements are okay, and others are not. Certain rhythms are fine, but there are some rhythms or phrases that should follow other rhythms or phrases. It's all very complicated and every lesson I take, I understand why he calls the modern styles of taiko "Kindergarten" taiko. (Of course, I still love the "Kindergarten" taiko as much as I enjoy Kaga Taiko).

I don't know how proficient we will be able to become at playing Kaga Taiko by the time we return to the US, but it is enjoyable and exciting to be learning a style of taiko drumming that is unique to this area of Japan.

A couple weeks ago, my father accompanied me to the Kaga taiko lessons and recorded the whole thing on video. My mother watched it later and she said that even though she couldn't understand the Japanese, she could tell that Ichikawa sensei was an excellent teacher. In fact, she even said that if Kaga Taiko were an Olympic sport, she imagines that he is what a top coach would teach like.

It was about a 20 minute lesson and I had to split it up into three parts to get it onto YouTube. It is there, though, and hopefully it will give you an idea of what learning and playing Kaga Taiko is like.







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Kaga Taiko Lesson

Did I say the last entry would be "short"? I guess I did. Oh well. I've got to work on being less verbose.

As promised, I will write more about Kaga Taiko today. I'll try not to make it too long. There is a lot I could say (and probably will, eventually) about Kaga Taiko, but this time, I will just try to describe what Kaga Taiko practice is like.

The practice begins at 1:00 on Sunday afternoons, but people kind of show up when they are able to. Some are there right at 1:00, others show up as late at 3:00. If you are there on time, Ichikawa sensei will begin by warming everyone up together. Everyone plays on a nagado taiko, if there are not enough, some people will double up. Ichikawa sensei will play a rhythm used in Kaga Taiko, and then we all imitate it until he says stop. Then he will introduce another, slightly more complicated rhythm and we imitate again until he says stop. Usually, by the end of the warm up he has given us about 5, increaslingly complicated patterns, and then the warming up is finished. It probably took about 15 minutes.

After a short break, he begins teaching. Sometimes he will demonstrate a technique, rhythm or movement used in Kaga Taiko, and then we will each take turns trying it out while he makes corrections. Usually, however, the teaching takes the for of mini private lessons of around 15 to 20 minutes.

You see, when playing Kaga Taiko, there are usually only three people playing at a time. One is playing flute, the other is playing ji-uchi (doko don, doko don...), or "kobachi", as it is called in Kaga Taiko, and the third is playing the solo. Therefore, you cannot have all 10 people or so playing at once, you have to give individual instruction. At Ichikawa Juku the teaching is mainly handled by Ichikawa sensei, and sometimes by the assistant instructor, Chiaki sensei.

After the warm-ups, Ichikawa sensei will choose a student and say, okay, play something. If it is your turn, you come up to the front, play the best Kaga Taiko you can. When you finish your little 2 or 3 minute solo, Ichikawa sensei will instruct you and help you fix some of your mistakes. The better you are, it seems that the stricter he is with his guidance. Since my wife and I are fairly new at this, he is still pretty nice to us, but he warned us that he is going to be stricter if we continue.

Anyway, to give you a feel for the lessons, here is a short video from my wife's lesson last Sunday. The man is Ichikawa sensei and the woman is Chiaki sensei.



The drums are covered to mute the sound a little so as not to disturb the neighbors too much.

Well, again, this is becoming longer than I intended and there is still a lot more to say about Kaga Taiko. So, I'll just have to save it for next time. Until then, enjoy the video, don't forget to give it a rating, leave comments, share it with your friends, etc. and come back soon...

Learning Kaga Taiko at Ichikawa Juku

The exit off of the highway is barely noticeable. There is no sign, and hardly any deceleration ramp, just a narrow street that quickly disappears underneath a bridge as soon as it leaves the highway. You follow that street through a small group of houses clustered together, then you come out into an open space with mostly rice fields on either side of the road. On the left is a slightly run-down textile factory, which also happens to be our destination.


We park in front of the building and enter through the side door. It leads into a large room with about 6 desks pushed together in the middle of the room covered in papers, coffee cans filled with pens, ash trays and so on. The walls are decorated with several posters of swimsuit campaign models from the mid-90s for tool companies and beer.


The room behind the door in the back of the office has only a table pushed into a corner, and a few chairs lining the wall. The windows have been covered with thick polystyrene and then covered again with sheets. In the center of the room is one large naga-oke taiko and about 6 nagado taiko.

This is Ichikawa Juku in Komatsu, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. It is one of the few places where you can learn Kaga Style Taiko, the 400 year old traditional style of taiko drumming unique to this area. We decided to attend this school as often as we could, following our December Kaga Taiko recital.

The Kaga Taiko courses we had taken only lasted from September to December. After the classes finish in December, we didn't have any opportunity to practice this style of drumming. In comparison to modern, sousaku taiko (what most of us probably are playing) Kaga Taiko is much more difficult to play and master. Therefore, if we want to continue it after we return to Michigan, we figured we needed to learn as much as we could.

Ichikawa Juku holds classes on Sunday afternoons, starting at 1 PM and lasting until...well, until the last person leaves, I suppose. It's a tough schedule for us. It probably takes 40 or 45 minutes to drive there and Sunday afternoons, there tends to be a lot of events that come up. In spite of this, we decided to attend as much as we could, at least until November or December, when we are hoping to return to Michigan.

The style of drumming and the style of teaching is much different than what we have been mostly doing/learning here. It is very complicated, challenging and interesting. And unfortunately, today, I don't have time to get into it all, so I must save it for next time. Come back soon to check for the update (with video!)