Lifestyle May 12, 2019
Swinging swords and drumsticks: Personal fitness draws on tradition
by Hanako Montgomery
Shindo and taikobics give personal fitness regimes a Japanese twist with kendo moves and taiko drumming.
Stage Sep 22, 2016
Kabuki's Bando Tamasaburo V takes Kodo drum troupe in an artistic new direction with 'Spiral'
by Nobuko Tanaka
To celebrate its 35th anniversary, the internationally renowned Kodo drumming troupe staged three days of performances at Tokyo's Suntory Hall in mid-August, with a different theme for each show. On the first night, Kodo played together with the New Japan Philharmonic; on the second, the ...
Music Jan 29, 2016
A taiko drum ensemble of young performers from disaster-stricken Fukushima Prefecture are busy sharpening their thunderous drumbeats as they prepare for their upcoming performance scheduled for March 22 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Almost five years after the catastrophe, members of the Yamakiya Taiko group still ...
Music Jan 14, 2016
Tao takes an innovative approach to drum shows
by Nobuko Tanaka
The slogan goes, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Drum troupe Tao, however, thinks a successful show in Sin City could be the springboard to bigger things around the world. The globe-trotting wadaiko (Japanese drum) performance group has entertained some 6.5 million people in ...
Music Dec 10, 2015
'Taiko' pioneer Eitetsu Hayashi to mark 45 years of drumming to his own beat
by Chiho Iuchi
It's the image that comes to most people when they think of a traditional taiko (Japanese drum) performance: A man standing in front of a giant drum, back to the crowd and furiously banging away to create a powerful rhythm. Surprisingly, though, this way of ...
Music May 1, 2015
The 'Punk' drummers of Tokyo Dageki Dan mark 20 years of bangin' tunes
by Daisuke Kikuchi
The rehearsal space for drum group Tokyo Dageki Dan seems more like a football locker room than a spot to experience one of the country's most honored musical traditions. Seven drummers joke around while prepping their wadaiko, Japanese drums that can measure anywhere from 30 ...
Stage Nov 12, 2014
by Nobuko Tanaka
As world leaders in the performing art of Japanese drumming, Kodo state on their website that their mission is: "To explore the limitless possibilities of the traditional Japanese drum, the taiko (aka wadaiko), and to forge new directions for this vibrant living art form." Based ...
Books / Reviews Mar 17, 2013
Playing to the beat of the gods
by Stephen Mansfield
TAIKO BOOM: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion, by Shawn Bender. University of California Press, 2012, 259?pp., $29.95 (paperback) No one can fail to be impressed by a live performance of Japanese drumming, the primal elements of stretched animal skin and wood striking a chord ...
National Feb 25, 2013
Traditional Japanese musicians wow U.S. audience with tribute to disaster victims
The 38th annual Music From Japan Festival kicked off with a Japanese drum and flute concert in New York on Saturday, delighting the audience while paying tribute to residents of the area struck by the March 2011 disasters and ensuing nuclear crisis. Japanese-American musicians Kenny ...
Travel Oct 17, 2010
Okitsuru: An island in the middle of Yokohama
by Jon Mitchell
At a 2009 concert, Seijin Noborikawa, the grand-daddy of Okinawan folk music, told the audience about where he felt most at home when he visited mainland Japan. He described a neighborhood where passersby chatted in uchinaaguchi language, where shops served pig-trotter noodles and island ...