ASANO TAIKO: THE PHOTOGRAPHS & VIDEOS

Below this post is a post that describes my experiences at Asano Taiko. I took many, many pictures, but rather than just posting them, I will post some of them with captions. Just so you know, this is not in chronological order. I do apologize if the spacing/text is off. There are also two short videos; so, enjoy!

The smoke warehouse.













Smoothening the interior of the drum.













The (chemical) timber dryer.









































Turning a tree trunk to a taiko.













I pondered buying this one, but decided it wouldn't fit in my carry-on.












A different huge taiko.























































Yasuo Asano leads the way.



























The store, which displays final products, but does not sell any drums.












Sticks galore!













Professor Tagaki and Yasuo Asano in the background.












A Build-Your-Own-Taiko Kit! Soooo cool!













African drums in the museum.













Big. Very big.













Softening the drum head.













I love this photograph.













Playing away.













Old taiko crafting tools called kougu.













A very old drum.













I love the writing on the drum heads.













Very small drums used in religious ceremonies, called the furitsuzumi.












Gaku-daiko, used for Buddhist and Shinto ceremonies and rituals. The detail of the painting is amazing.











The biggest drum I will ever play.



























The collection of drums used for religious purposes.


























San-no-tsuzmi.













The kakko.














I finally discovered what the spiral taiko symbol means: it is called a “tomoe,” and according to Asano Taiko, it, “it has long been a symbol of the spiral created by the energy of thunder and cloud, fire and water and universal creation in Asia. The spiral represents the meeting, clashing and flow of Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang. In Japan, the tomoe was considered to be the shape of the human soul and fetus. From that idea, the heavenly spiral of Heaven, Earth and Humanity, mitsudomoe (three comma design), was created.” Pretty neat, huh? In the photography, the symbol is black and gold.

Noda, Professor Tagaki and their little one.













To soften the leather on the drums, two things are done: first, sake is rubbed on the skin. Second, the skins are (carefully) jumped on. Here is a video: