Taiko!
Since the very first festival I attended in Japan (wow, that incomprehensible evening on the island cruising around with Kentaro in his SUV seems a life-time ago) I have been captivated by Taiko drumming. The rhythms get into your chest somehow and it makes me silly-grin-happy to watch taiko... and playing taiko is better yet.
Last year towards the end of September, Rebecca and I joined an all-women taiko group up in Kanagi, about 20 minutes from Hamada. For the most part, those months last year were spent watching the others practising for festivals, but they always made time to teach us a few rhythms, and so every Wednesday and the odd Saturday that we were free, we trekked up there to get our taiko fix. Since we started again in February, we were been learning in earnest, in preparation for last weekend's festival. I have a a callous of which I am terribly proud.Our last practise was on Saturday and just when I thought I had mastered the rhythms... I managed to send my stick flying right to where I imagined a wee granny, or one of the cute taiko kids sitting during the next days performance. To calm our pre-performance jitters Rebecca and I met Ed for a quiet one after practise finished at 10ish. At around midnight it suddenly seemed like a stellar idea to repair to my house and watch Once Were Warriors. After which, of course, no one felt like going straight to sleep... it was almost four by the time I got to sleep. Sunday was HOT. Twenty four degrees HOT. I think that is hotter than it got the whole time I was home for Christmas. Doesn't sound hot to you? Try leaping around a drum for quarter of an hour. I was terrified, my hand were sweaty, my feet were slipping in my tabi (hoof feet, will post a picture) and my bee-antenna headband was giving my poor tired head a headache.
But once we started everything was OK, the rhythm took over and I was on a drumming high. Kiri-chan our ever patient and friendly sensei, had told me before-hand that i should smile nicely every time I made a mistake... as was to be expected there were a few rhythm errors and a wee issue with leaping out from behind the drum in my tabi... and somehow my smiles compounded so much (still smiling from the last mistake? stretch it a bit more) that by the end I was grinning like a crazy person and all the kids in the front row had stopped pulling faces to try and put me off and were looking rather scared. I can't wait to get back out there.
As a self-assured seven year old told me just before the concert...
7: "Once you've been out there as many times as me, it's just not scary any more."
Me: "How many times is that?"
7: "Hmmmm (in Japanese this is eh-to eh-to)... this is the second."
So I'm set. Next time (May I think) I will be cool, calm and collected like this guy.
Since the very first festival I attended in Japan (wow, that incomprehensible evening on the island cruising around with Kentaro in his SUV seems a life-time ago) I have been captivated by Taiko drumming. The rhythms get into your chest somehow and it makes me silly-grin-happy to watch taiko... and playing taiko is better yet.
Last year towards the end of September, Rebecca and I joined an all-women taiko group up in Kanagi, about 20 minutes from Hamada. For the most part, those months last year were spent watching the others practising for festivals, but they always made time to teach us a few rhythms, and so every Wednesday and the odd Saturday that we were free, we trekked up there to get our taiko fix. Since we started again in February, we were been learning in earnest, in preparation for last weekend's festival. I have a a callous of which I am terribly proud.Our last practise was on Saturday and just when I thought I had mastered the rhythms... I managed to send my stick flying right to where I imagined a wee granny, or one of the cute taiko kids sitting during the next days performance. To calm our pre-performance jitters Rebecca and I met Ed for a quiet one after practise finished at 10ish. At around midnight it suddenly seemed like a stellar idea to repair to my house and watch Once Were Warriors. After which, of course, no one felt like going straight to sleep... it was almost four by the time I got to sleep. Sunday was HOT. Twenty four degrees HOT. I think that is hotter than it got the whole time I was home for Christmas. Doesn't sound hot to you? Try leaping around a drum for quarter of an hour. I was terrified, my hand were sweaty, my feet were slipping in my tabi (hoof feet, will post a picture) and my bee-antenna headband was giving my poor tired head a headache.
But once we started everything was OK, the rhythm took over and I was on a drumming high. Kiri-chan our ever patient and friendly sensei, had told me before-hand that i should smile nicely every time I made a mistake... as was to be expected there were a few rhythm errors and a wee issue with leaping out from behind the drum in my tabi... and somehow my smiles compounded so much (still smiling from the last mistake? stretch it a bit more) that by the end I was grinning like a crazy person and all the kids in the front row had stopped pulling faces to try and put me off and were looking rather scared. I can't wait to get back out there.
As a self-assured seven year old told me just before the concert...
7: "Once you've been out there as many times as me, it's just not scary any more."
Me: "How many times is that?"
7: "Hmmmm (in Japanese this is eh-to eh-to)... this is the second."
So I'm set. Next time (May I think) I will be cool, calm and collected like this guy.
Taiko makes me happy.Thanks to the lovely folk who came to support us and take pictures.
(Pictures to come when my home Internet stops being a dick.)
1 comment:
Way cool Donna in Exile. What is your address please?
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