Exstasia Campaign #1

Yesterday (Sunday) we had this year's first Exstasia Campaign performances. For those who don't know, Exstasia is a big taiko festival sponsored by Asano Taiko, the city of Hakusan and various other groups and companies in the area. I've written about it the past couple years: 2007, 2008.

Anyhow, around this time of year, the groups that practice at Asano Taiko are sent out to do short performances on the weekends at local shopping centers and malls. We perform for about 30 minutes and then observers have a chance to buy tickets for Exstasia at the end of the performance. Yesterday's groups were Sasuke, jr., Yume Mitai, some members of Shin Matto Bayashi Hozonkai and Hono Taiko. By the end of the day, we had sold 13 tickets (8 adult and 5 child). They told us it was a pretty good result.

I was playing as a member of Yume Mitai yesterday (although I am also in Shin Matto Bayashi). Usually there are about 15 of us, but yesterday, there were only 7. Furthermore, I was asked to switch parts the Saturday night. Considering the last minute switch, having no chance to rehearse the new part before the performance, and our small numbers, we did pretty well. There was only one spot where I screwed up. There is a part in the song where everyone crouches down, extends their right bachi (stick) to the left and slowly turns back to the center. I have been playing the shime part since last fall, so I had not done this crouching part for quite a while. I forgot which way to turn and turned to the right instead of the left. Senda san, who was playing on my right, was quite surprised and we nearly crashed into each other. I quickly adjusted my movement to the correct side, but it must have been amusing for the observers to see the surprised look on both our faces. Needless to say, it only happened once, and the next two performances were free from any major, noticeable mishaps.

Last time I said I might have some video to post, but it didn't work out that anyone could take video for me. All that I got was some pictures. Enjoy...


Time for a break.


Lunch time.



Preparing to start the final performance of the day. Hono Taiko wearing Happi coats designed by Kansai Yamamoto for their recent performance in Bali.

And a couple pictures of Yume Mitai (1/2) performing.




I always see something I don't like, or I want to fix when I see pictures/video of myself. For example, looking at these pictures, I notice how my arm is still not as straight as I would like it to be. First I thought of the excuse, "well, my arms are pretty long, if I extend them all the way, I will get behind the tempo." But then I told myself, "No excuses, if your arms are longer than everyone else, you just have to learn how to move them more quickly so you don't get behind." That's right. Instead of thinking of excuses why you can't do something, you must figure out a way to do something that seems difficult.

I guess I did alright, though, because after the last performance of the day Mrs. Asano-san said to me, "You're getting pretty good at performing, aren't you."

Asano Taiko Spring Recital 2009

Last Sunday we successfully completed the March 2009 Asano Taiko Spring Recital, 今響きが風になる. Saturday began at 8:30 with loading up drums from the Asano practice space, the rental warehouse and Asano EX and then transporting them all over to the concert venue, the Matto Bunka Kaikan. (The same place we saw Exstasia two years ago.) Then we moved on to rehearsing.

For this recital I was part of the back stage crew. While most recital participants were only busy during their own rehearsal time, the stage hands were tied up all day helping the groups figure out which taiko to use, getting organized back stage so that the drums could be easily and quickly moved on and off and marking the location of the drums for each group.

Each group performing in the show had about a 20 minute time slot to figure out where they would place their drums on the stage, play through their piece once and make any final adjustments. Once the group decides where to place their drums, we marked the spot with little pieces of colored tape. For this recital there were so many groups playing, we ran out of colors and had to get creative with the way we used the tape.

On either side of the stage, the drums were all organized into different sizes and then "taiko corrals" were taped on the floor to make sure they got back into the right spot.


I had three rehearsals to participate in during the afternoon. Other than that, I was backstage trying to help keep everything running smoothly. After the last group finished their rehearsal, the stage hands had one last meeting to make sure that everything was ready for the next day.

The day of the concert, we still had to arrive around 8:30. There were about 3 groups that hadn't rehearsed the day before, so they were schedule to run through their numbers Sunday morning. Finally, the last thing we did before lunch break was to run through all of the transitions between the groups, just moving the drums on and off stage. This helps everyone, stage hands as well as performs, to remember what their responsibilities are during the transitions. It really helps the main event to run smoothly. Then it was time for lunch and to get the hall ready for the guests.

The doors opened at 1:30 and at precisely 2:00 the curtain rose on Hono Taiko and Hikari performing 天地響応 (Tenchi Kyou-ou), formerly known as 聖鼓 (Shoko). This was followed by the "Asano Taiko Kids" groups. First the beginning group (which my daughter played with) followed by the intermediate and advanced groups. My daughter was thrilled at the end of the day after the concert when they announced which students had "graduated" to the next level. From April, she will be allowed to move up to the intermediate class.


My first performance was with JIGEN and wasn't until about halfway through the program. So for the first half, I was busy helping out backstage. But eventually, our turn was approaching and it was time to get changed into our outfits. We came out and gave a good effort, but it was lacking in many areas. As I have mentioned in previous posts, JIGEN was given a rather challenging piece to learn for this recital and we probably could have used at least another month of practice time. Then again, maybe we should have practiced more on our own as well. At any rate, we made it through the song without falling apart.

(My mum took this picture and had the camera set wrong, but I kind of like the way it turned out.)

After JIGEN, I only had enough time to change for the next group, Shin Matto Bayashi Hozonkai. I play Odaiko for this group and was particularly looking forward to performance this time around because we had added Shamisen, which make the song a lot more interesting. After this performance, Jige san, of Hono Taiko, who was Emceeing the event, called me back out on the stage for an interview. After some pleasantries, she announced to the audience our plans to return to Michigan next year and play taiko there. I was a bit surprised by it. There were several people in the audience who didn't know about these plans (co-workers and students) whom I hadn't plan to tell for some time yet. Oh well, it's no big deal. Furthermore, it is encouraging because it is like a indirect "stamp of approval" from Asano Taiko and Hono Taiko on our plans. I mean, if they were embarrassed of us, or didn't want us to proceed, they wouldn't be announcing it at one of their sponsored events, now would they.



After the interview, it was back to the dressing room for one more costume change for my last group, Matto Yume Mitai. For this group I was playing shime taiko again. Although it was my first time to play the shime part for this song, it was our fourth or fifth time to perform it, so we are all pretty comfortable with the music. It was easy for me to submerse myself in the music and just enjoy playing without having to think about what phrase comes next or what to do next. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.



The only thing left was the finale, where we packed the stage with as many taiko as possible and as many people as possible and played Mushi Okuri, a traditional taiko piece from the Kaga area.

When the concert ended, the clean up began almost immediately. Pull up the tape from the floor, put the taiko back in their cases, disassemble the stands that can be disassembled, begin loading the drums back into the trucks and vans. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be completed, but with all the people we have helping, the concert venue is cleaned up and all the drums are back in their proper places at Asano taiko within about two hours! It always amazes me how smoothly and quickly this whole process is carried out.

I have more to say, but this is getting long and I seem to be running out of time, so I will save it for another time.

busy busy busy

I can tell it's getting close to recital time. Besides looking at the calendar, I can also tell because of our increased practices. This week, there is a practice nearly every night. Normally I practice Monday and Tuesday evenings. This week, my Monday group, has added practices Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and even a three hour practice on Sunday afternoon again. The following week we will have at least Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (dress rehearsal) practices, if not more. When we cannot practice at Asano (or when I practice on my own) we cannot usually play the drums, so we just use our knees as a substitute. We are practicing so much in this way, I'm actually starting to get bruises or something. This is actually my first concert with Yume Mitai (the Monday night group) so I don't know if they always ratchet up the intensity like this before performances or not. I do know, however, that we are sort of being evaluated by the Asano staff at this recital to decide whether or not we will be able to perform at a May concert, which is a bit of a bigger deal. So the pressure is on to produce a good performance. I'll give more details about the May event once our participation is officially confirmed.
In the meantime, I'll just keep banging away at my bruised knees. And here is a picture of me at the Asano Taiko museum next to a 6 shaku drum (nearly 2 meter diameter) and it costs about 30,000,000 yen. That's about USD 290,000 based on current exchange rates.

Matto Hi Matsuri

The Matto Hi-Matsuri took place last Sunday evening (8/5). I mentioned this in an earlier post. It was more or less what I expected. I hope that doesn't make it sound like I was unimpressed. It was definitely something to behold. Again, I'm certain my words are a poor subsitute for the actual experience, but I will share what I can. I will also share a few pictures, but their quality is not at my usual standards.

This festival was held in the middle of a large park in Matto, Japan. It is actually where I first saw the Extasia taiko festival back in 1999. Being a fairly large festival, parking was scarce and we had to park quite a ways away and walk back. As we approached the entrance to the park, we could hear the beating of taiko drums in the distance. Walking towards the field where the events were taking place, the drums grew increasingly louder and the wind began to blow the smell or smoke in our direction. Occasionally we could see sparks rising up into the night sky. I thought they might have started in on the main event (burning the huge hay barrels) earlier than we had thought. But when we reached the steps down into the field, we could see that they had not reached that point. There were four large bonfires around the field. In a large circle in the center, there were about ten large taiko being played. Each taiko was part of a smaller group of players, and each group was playing their own song, so there was no unison in what they were playing. As this was going on, groups of 20 - 50 people (or more, I'm not good at estimating numbers of people) carrying around the hay barrels that would be burned. The one pictured here is one of the larger ones, which weighed several tons and I think I hear that it was 7.5 meters long. It is pretty much all hay and wood, imagine how fast it goes up in flames. The people riding on the top stayed there until the very last minute, meaning that probably at least 60% or more of the thing was burning before they jumped off.

After parading the 5 or 6 hay barrels around the field, the taiko groups each took a turn playing a short song. After each group had played, they began playing all at once again as the hay barrels were brought back onto the field and into the middle, making a star shape and lit on fire. I was only able to get a couple pictures of the start of this before my card was full. I did get some pictures on my film camera of the inferno in its full glory, but I'll have to wait and see if they came out and post them at a later date. Anyway, here is the last picture I took:

When they first lit the fires, I was probably about 100 yards away. Once it got going, I could feel the heat from that far away. I did move in closer once it got going and that was extremely hot. As the fire was burning at its brightest, the groups that had been carrying these hay barrels were running around the fire with various banners. The drums were playing the whole time, of course. I was describing this all to a friend of mine here, and she said that it all sounded wonderfully primitive. I did feel something ... primeval about the whole thing as well.

This whole event was part of something called "Mushi Okuri", which I believe happens all over Japan, especially in agricultural areas. What Mushi Okuri means is "send bugs". It's getting to be late summer, and fall is approaching. Most people have probably noticed that the amount of bugs increases at this time of year. I always notice an increase in spiders and bees/hornets/wasps. Here, in Kanazawa, there are spiders all over the place, and the cicadas are practically flying into our apartment. Fall is also a time for harvesting crops, and bugs/pests are usually not good for agriculture. These mushi okuri festivals were meant to make a lot of noise and commotion in order to scare away, or send away the bugs before the harvest. That is why taiko were/are used in these festivals.

Kaga Style Taiko

We live in Kanazawa. That is a city on the western coast of Japan in the prefecture of Ishikawa. Ishikawa is partially a peninsula sticking out into the Sea of Japan, and the southern half is attached to the mainland. The Peninsula is called Noto and the southern half is called Kaga.

After attending the Exstasia concerts last week, we immediately began searching out taiko learning opportunities. There were several options listed in Taikology magazine (a publication all about taiko), like beginners class, advanced class, classes teaching a specific style and classes taught by different teachers, some more well known than others. The only class which started meeting in August, however, was a class for Kaga style drumming. Since we wanted to start as soon as possible, we registered for this class.

Last night was the first meeting. The class meets at Asano Taiko, in Matto. Asano is actually divided into three or four buildings. One building is the factory, another is a taiko/percussion museum and then there is a store, with a practice facility upstairs, which can be rented out by groups wanting to rehearse. It felt good to finally be receiving some proper instruction and to be able to play nice Asano drums.

As it turns out, Kaga style drumming is the Mittsu Uchi style drumming I mentioned in the previous two posts. I also stated that this style was rare these days. Funny how in the past two weeks, I've encountered it twice. As it turns out, I may have misunderstood what was said regarding Mittsu Uchi style in last Saturday's lecture (big surprise there). After discussing this with my wife, it seems that the style Mr. Mogi spoke of as being rarely performed these days was only based on Mittsu Uchi style. The style which has died out I believe is called Hokkai-Uchi. If I have a chance, I will research this style a bit more and perhaps elaborate on it at a later time.

So what is Kaga style? I had better not attempt to give any type of comprehensive explanation of Kaga style taiko seeing as I've only had one lesson. For now I will just give a description of what we did in class. We were split into groups of three. Each group had two drums to play on. On the floor was a nagado style taiko. Nagado taiko are shaped like a fat barrel and come in various sizes, from 30 cm all the way to nearly two meters. The body is usually made from a single piece of wood and the heads are stretched and tacked on. The nagado taiko we were using were probably around 45 cm or so. The second drum was an okedo taiko. This style of drum also comes in all different sizes. It is constructed more like a barrel from slats and the heads are tightened and held in place by ropes. The okedo drums we were using were maybe about 150 cm long and perhaps 60 cm or so wide. They were placed horizontally on stands just below shoulder height. (You can find better, more detailed descriptions of different taiko drums at the Rolling Thunder Taiko Resource http://www.taiko.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=39)

One person in the group of three beat out the ji uchi, or base rhythm. There are three basic types of ji uchi, the one used in Kaga style is an 8th note followed by two 16th notes repeated over and over. Taiko is usually learned through vocalizations of the drum beats called kuchi sho ga. This ji uchi would be vocalized as "ten te ke ten te ke ten te ke ten te ke" etc. The ji uchi was played on the okedo. The other two members of the group practiced three rhythms. All three were based on 8th notes, with rests placed at different spots. Here are the three rhythms in kuchi sho ga

1) don don tsu don don don don
2) don don tsu don tsu don don
3) tsu don tsu don tsu don don

The "tsu" represents rests. The last don is accented and followed by another 8th rest before repeating the rhythm again. We rotated so that each person had a chance to play on both drums and both parts.

It probably doesn't sound like much when I write it here, but it was a very enjoyable 75 minutes and a good work out. My arms were a bit sore the next day and I had three blisters on one hand.

Since Thursday, we returned to Asano Taiko to buy new sticks and visit the Museum. We also went to a neighborhood festival this afternoon where we heard a small taiko group, and we are now preparing to go out this evening to the Matto Hi-matsuri, where there is almost certain to be more taiko. So I have plenty more to write about, if I have a chance. The Hi-matsuri is a fire festival. From what I've seen, it looks like they basically light huge haystacks on fire. Fire is always exciting. Hopefully I'll have some nice pictures to post.

Extasia Ecstasia taiko festival concerts

This past Sunday we were able to enjoy nearly four hours of taiko performances. The day was split into an afternoon concert and an evening concert. Following the afternoon performance, my wife and I simply looked at each other. We were literally at a loss for words, other than "wow". Anything we could have said would have taken something away from the experience. At several points, we were nearly moved to tears. We found out later, when the town mayor gave some opening remarks for the evening concert, that he also had been moved to tears.

I also feel that a "play by play" description of the groups and their performances would be a disservice to them. Taiko of this caliber cannot be described, it must be experienced. Perhaps there are a few aspects of the afternoon and evening, which I can share, however. I was rather ... "excited" ... that the first performance of the afternoon featured three genuine Geisha. Many people outside of Japan seem to be aware of Geisha, but I would venture to guess that their ideas regarding them are most likely inaccurate, especially if they are based on somewhat recent movie, "Memoirs of a Geisha". Unfortunately, this movie, was not an accurate portrayal of Geisha. In fact, many Japanese were offended that in making a movie about something so closely associated with Japanese identity, that no Japanese actresses were cast in lead roles. (not to say that the Chinese actresses are not attractive). At any rate, a geisha is a skillfully trained in many traditional arts, such as music, dance and other things. It is rare to see geisha, even in Kyoto. At least during my two years living in Japan and my subsequent yearly visits, I never saw a real Geisha until Sunday. Some may believe they have seen Geisha in Kyoto, especially around the Kiyomizu Temple area, but these are often tourists who pay to have a formal picture taken in Geisha/Maiko dress, and then take some time stroll around the tourist areas following the photo.

Anyhow, I have strayed a bit from the topic. What I mean to say, is that seeing as how Geisha are a rare sight, I felt privileged to be able to enjoy their dance at Ecstasia.

Another group that played was from Kagoshima, in the south west area of Japan. It was made up of all girls (maybe about 20) between around 4th or 5th grade through high school. Their performance was one of those that nearly brought tears to my eyes, simply because of their passion in playing the drums. I think one of the rules of this group contributed a great deal to their moving performance and stage presence. The rule is: "You can't accomplish anything on your own". I'm certain this idea has formed their mentality and helped them to have a feeling of unity as they learn to play taiko together. In order to achieve their performance level, everyone must rely on each other, help each other. If one person struggles, the whole group struggles. If one member performs poorly, it reflects on the whole group. I suppose it's sort of like the saying, "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link". I think this may be a very Japanese idea, or way of thinking. Westerners, maybe Americans especially, like to be in the spotlight and strive to be a standout in the group, or on the team, but I think the result of this unified thinking is much more impressive.

I've often thought of this regarding sports teams as well. We like to see the star players perform, it's entertaining and impressive to watch, but one or two star players can easily be beaten by a good all around team.

Hono Taiko was the finale for both the afternoon and evening concerts. It's kind of funny that I mentioned the Mitsu uchi style taiko in my last post and said that it wasn't really performed any longer. At least that is what Mr. Mogi, who gave the lecture said. Wouldn't you know that Hono Taiko performed the Mitsu Uchi style for one of their selections in the afternoon concert. Perhaps it will be revived after all.

There were many more groups, but as I mentioned, to try to describe them all here does not do them justice. I just have to recommend that someday you come to Matto to see Ecstasia for yourself. It's worth it.

Now we move on to plan for our trip to Sago Island to visit Kodo's Earth Celebration on the 17th and 18th of August. In the meantime, we will start taiko lessons at Asano Taiko this Thursday. Stay tuned for more updates.