What Did We Buy at the Asano Taiko Sale?

Unfortunately, we didn't have any luck in the Asano Taiko drawings this weekend. We got about 10 raffle tickets, but we didn't win anything. A couple people I know did win 10,000 yen gift certificates, though.

We might not have had any luck in the drawings, but in another sense, we did have some luck. We had a certain budget for the drums we could purchase and it so happened, that there was an Ohirado Taiko that didn't go over our budget too much. For the Odaiko of our group, we had decided on getting a large Oke daiko. It is the type that is tightened with ropes and is much lighter, compared to an Ohirado Taiko. There were two reasons we had made that decision. One was price and the other convenience. The price was half of what a Keyaki Ohirado would cost, and since there are only two of us at the moment, we thought it would be easier to move it around. But when we saw this Ohirado on sale for just a little bit more than the same size Oke daiko, we couldn't pass it up. Here it is. Our very own Ohirado Taiko.

It's 3.5 Shaku. 1 shaku is about 30 cm, or 1 foot, so that makes this drum 105 cm, or about 3 1/2 feet in diameter. It's just the size I wanted. Of course, it looks cool to have an even bigger one, but anything much bigger than this starts to get impractical. It's too heavy to move around, you need a bigger truck to transport it and sometimes it won't fit through doorways. So this is just right for us.

One reason it was so much less than we had expected is because it is not made of keyaki (Zelkova), the preferred wood for taiko drums. Most Odaiko, or Ohirado Taiko are made out of either Keyaki or Bubinga (from Africa). The one we are buying happens to be made of Bubinga. Actually, it is hard to even find Keyaki trees large enough to make the really big Odaiko. Besides, I honestly like the grain of Bubinga wood a little better than the Keyaki for this type of drum. Just look at the beautiful patterns:

Right now we don't have any place to store it so Asano is holding it for us until we can clean out our closet. (Oh yes, and until we pay for it, also). So I guess we were lucky enough this weekend. I'm sure I'll write more about the various events and workshops in the days to come. (but first I have to finish my taxes.)

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.