URYUYAMASAI FESTIVAL

Yesterday, I went to the Uryuyamasai festival, a three-day celebration of art, music and dance at the University of Kyoto of Art & Design. The festival covers the entire campus with countless activities and even more food booths! Everything is run by students, from the battle of the bands to catering to the art contest. It really is a wonderful exhibition of the many talents of the university students.


After exploring around for a bit, I participated in djembe workshop. The djembe is a West African hand drum made from wood and animal hide. Once again, it was really neat to see a drum “out of context,” although, I must proclaim, that now I firmly believe that it is impossible for any instrument to be “out of context.” That being said, it was really cool to learn how to play the djembe, an African instrument, from a Japanese instructor. The teacher, Kenji, spoke no English; but, fortunately, a student that sat next to me did, and loosely translated what Kenji was conveying to the class, which was small, with only seven students. For about an hour and a half, we learned how to evoke the three main sounds of a djembe, and a handful of rhythms. My favorite part was at the end, when the class was divided in two to play two different beats at once, while one of us soloed.

(Nobu, the boy I am staying with, setting up some of the equipment).

After the djembe class, I went to watch the taiko students perform. As you all know, I have been to many practices and performances of this group over the past month, so I was familiar with each number they played. Yet, without a doubt, this was the best performance by them I have seen, for a couple of reasons. First, I was sitting right in the front row: being that close to a taiko performance is an almost indescribable experience. The sound is so intense that you can actually feel the airwaves vibrating: you literally feel the music going through your body. Second, between the practice auditorium and the other various places I have seen them perform, I think this space was the most conducive to taiko music. (The performance at the Buddhist temple was very special, but as it was out in the outdoors, from a sound perspective, it was not ideal). Lastly, they played seven songs, which was by far the longest set I have seen. The last two numbers included all of the students; and those were my favorites, as it was really cool to see everyone playing. (I guess as I was a second-chair drummer in middle school, I’ve always liked the idea of everyone playing at once, so no one is excluded!)


Just when I thought my day was over, I stumbled upon an all-female African dance and drum troupe - all of the performers were Japanese. They sounded absolutely incredible. Unfortunately, I did ran out of memory on my camera (I had used a full 1.5 gigabits that day!), so I only have a few short videos and no pictures from it. I did make an audio recording, but need to see if it came out well. All in all, it was a great cap on a great day.

Below are a bunch of pictures. I will put the videos on a separate post. I am returning to the festival later this afternoon. I will update again, as soon as possible!