On Saturday, October 13th, I had my second taiko performance. This performance went above and beyond the
usual gig, however, as my group hosted the event, which featured two guest
artists, both professional taiko
players, and performances from the local elementary schools I teach at, and
several other taiko groups from Tome
city. I fully intended to write a blog
about it earlier, but I became terribly ill right after this event, partly due
to overworking myself leading up to the event, and the lack of heat in my life
at the time when the warmth of summer quickly faded. So, without further adieu, here is a quick
summation of how my performance from over a month ago went, and the pictures I
took. I also have three pictures of me
performing, for those of you wondering how ridiculous I look in a taiko getup.
Set up
From
about 2 p.m., we gathered at the local temple, and began setting up. The men were putting together the tents and
other structures, while the women and kids were preparing the vegetables for
the soup we sold later, as well as the onigiri
(rice balls) for us to snack on before the performances. After the preparations were mostly complete,
we threw three of our senior members in the back of a Cushman pick-up truck,
the largest I’ve ever seen, and off they went, with signs displaying
information about the concert that night, to drive around town and recruit
last-minute audience members. The three
were playing some of our tunes while driving, and one of my junior high school
students, Kai, was on a loud speaker, making the verbal announcements as they
drove.
The Concert
The
concert itself began at 5:30, and started with a performance from each of the
local elementary schools. Many of my
students proceeded to harass me upon realizing I exist outside of school, and
they all performed their pieces well.
Yokoyama Elementary performed a famous local dance meant to ward off
potential fires. This dance resulted
after a devastating fire that ravaged Yokoyama in ancient times. Yanaizu Elementary performed similar works,
also involving some taiko drumming
along with yokobue (Japanese
transverse bamboo flute) playing.
After
they finished performing, my group performed a piece to start off for the local
visiting groups. I did not play this
piece, as I had not yet learned the parts.
I stood back and watched as the other members played. After our performance, the guest groups
played, and I was surprised to see Sang, a fellow ALT in Tome, dressed in taiko gear. I soon learned he was part of another local
group that performed later. I managed to
get some good pictures of his group performing that I gave him later. They performed several pieces, many of which
involved impressive movement from drum to drum, as well as playing on each
other’s drums. It was slightly
reminiscent of marching snare lines that do tricks, but better.
Then came
the guest artists. Their performance was
inspiring and powerful. At one point, as
shown in the pictures, the man dressed in nothing more than a loin cloth, and
his female companion dressed in a similarly cold outfit. Mind you, this concert happened just after
the cold began to set in, and I had been freezing my tail off even with pants
on. The cold didn’t seem to bother these
performers. Instead it seemed to enhance
their abilities, perhaps giving them a meditation or focus point external to
the music. Either way, all the pieces
they performed were delivered with precision and power. It was incredible listening to the sound they
were able to produce on the o-daiko,
the big drum. To strike such a huge drum
and still produce a discernable note with an attack and significant sustain
takes a lot of muscle and properly directed energy. They also performed on the various other
drums, including the smaller “snare drum-like” shime-daiko, the double-headed okedou-daiko,
and the wine-barrel-sized nagado-daiko.
After the
guest artists had completed their performances, my group joined with Sang’s to
perform the finale. The piece is called Tsuzumine and was the only piece in my
repertoire at the time. The part I play
is on the okedou-daiko, the
double-headed drum I mentioned earlier, and playing it alongside new members of
another group added to the fun. It was a
bit hectic as Sang’s group and my group had never rehearsed together, so
inevitably we had been practicing at different tempos (for some reason, they
don't believe in metronomes here, and I have a rant about that for another
day). But we ultimately began and ended
the piece together, and mostly stayed in the same place through the middle, so
we called it a success, bowed to thunderous applause, and proceeded to clean up
the drums before partying at the favorite restaurant across the street.
Pictures
Here is the decorated advertisement vehicle:
This is Sang's group performing:
These are pictures of the professionals:
These are my friend Aki's pictures of me performing with Kumi, the other okedo-daiko:
