SHIEN

Another day, more fantastic research opportunities! This afternoon, I visited Professor Tagaki at Kyoto University of Art & Design. I cannot explain how helpful she and everyone else at the Japanese Drums Education Center (the Taiko Department) have been. Professor Tagaki has arranged for me an interview with the executive administrator of Asano Taiko, the most renowned taiko crafting company in the world. Asano Taiko was founded in 1609 (!!!) and pretty much is the Rolls Royce of taiko: check out http://www.asano.jp/en/about/index.html
and look at the “Products” section of the webpage. Asano Taiko is in Ishikawa Profecture, which is several hours north and east of Kyoto; it is on the coast of the Japan Sea. Actually, it is one of main ports to Sado Island. The interview will be on November 8th. (After doing some research, I discovered that Hideki Matsui is from Ishikawa).

As if that weren’t enough, Professor Tagaki and the other members of the Taiko Department gave me two really awesome shirts with their group name (Shien), and a really nice towel that has prints of different Japanese drums. It was such a thoughtful gesture, and it’s been so neat getting to know Professor Tagaki, the other members of Shien, and the students of Professor Tagaki’s taiko class.

I just realized that I haven’t really written about Shien; so here is a little background information. Professor Tagaki founded Shien in 2000; there are eleven members in all, although I have only met five. The group performs nationally and internationally. Accordingly to a handout about Shien, the members, “all excel in concentration and spiritual strength, but they still keep challenging themselves through everyday training for a performance that unifies the energy of the drums and the drummer’s spirit.” (This fits so perfectly into the parameters of my research, you probably think I’m making this up!)

After my really great meeting at the Taiko Department, I went to watch a performance by Shien. The show was in this really nice building that is normally used for tea ceremonies, and is located on the absolute top of the campus; in fact, I might very well be the highest point in all of Kyoto. There is a splendid view of the entire city and the surrounding mountains. Shien performed three songs: “Hado,” “Nagare,” and “Yatai-Bayashi.” The first two compositions were originals, and the last was a traditional festival song from the Chinchibu District in the Saitama Prefecture (outside of Tokyo). There were five members of Shien performing today, Professor Tagaki, Noda, Yoshida, Kohara and Suziki (although the last two only played on the second number).

There were three types of drums used: nagado-daiko, shimedaiko and okedaiko. Rather than me trying to describe just how fantastic the performance was, below are a bunch of videos from it. It is true that the videos fail to fully convey the excitement of the show, but they are still pretty cool. Enjoy!