KODO IN HIROSHIMA

December 13, 2007

My apologies for a lack of recent posts: I have been bopping around Japan, really exploring the country before I leave next Wednesday, after about two-and-a-half months here. I still cannot believe how quickly the time has passed; yet, paradoxically, it feels like I have been here for ages.

For the past few days, I have been in Hiroshima, which was a very introspective experience. I strongly encourage anyone that makes it to Japan to visit the city, not only to pay due respect to the city’s tragic history but also because it is just a really nice place. In regards to my research, on the ground level of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, there is a giant taiko drum that is painted in a magnificent design. The drum, which has a rich color combination of black, gold, green and red, is held up upon a wooden turtle - I was unsure of the symbolism, but it was very neat.

Music can bridge the gap between so many cultural misunderstandings: while it is extremely naïve to believe that international issues can be resolved from a simply “jam session,” I do think that music can help us learn about, and thus appreciate, other cultures. Through music, we can learn how similar we all really are.



Moving along: my primary reason to visit Hiroshima was because Kodo was performing at Hiroshima Yubin Chokin Hall last night. Since I arrived in Japan in early October, I have been looking forward to this opportunity, to see the premier taiko group perform live. When I was much younger, I saw two Kodo performances (in Manhattan and SUNY Purchase); but, as I was less than ten-years-old, I remember very little from those shows, and did not really appreciate the musicianship.

Unfortunately, photography, video- and audio-recording was prohibited. Truth be told, words can never wholly describe a concert experience: live music is to be heard and seen, not merely “described.”

After the almost sold out crowd filed in the concert hall, the show promptly began at 6:30pm. Kodo performed two sets, with twelve songs lasting over two-hours. Although Kodo is a percussion group, there were a handful of numbers that had vocals in addition to the drumming.

Kodo has twenty members: with the exception of the finale, at no point were all of the members on stage at the same time. The number of performers on staged varied; sometimes there were only two, but more often between six to ten members.

Because Kodo frequently performs traditional festival pieces (that they, of course, have made unique arrangements for), dancing also is an intricate element to their concerts. Furthermore, due to the physical nature of the music, when the members are performing, it is as if they are dancing while playing. So, all this creates an amazing visual spectacle.

The night began with a duet, “O-daiko Hounou,” a traditional piece with one vocalist and one performer playing a giant o-daiko. After several minutes, the two performers together played a standing nagado-taiko, one on each side. The rhythm was fairly basic, but it was so perfectly delicate that it appeared like the two men were painting the drum with the beat.

The second number, “Jingi-no-Taiko,” is a Kodo original: the song begins with three female members, wearing elaborately beautiful dresses, playing the katsugi-okedo-taiko, a medium-sized drum that is almost like a marching drum. Five male members, playing a small bell with a hammer, surround the women, while they all sing.

During the next number, entitled, “Yae no Furyu,” five nagado-taiko drums (the standard taiko) were set up in a V position, with two members playing each drum. At the climax of the song, which is a traditional piece arranged by the group, it truly sounded as if all ten performers had transmogrified into one giant being playing one giant drum. (I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but the sound was so tremendous and the ten drummers were so perfectly synchronized, that if your eyes were closed, you would have never guessed it was more than one person playing). It was absolutely incredible to see such perfect unison among so many players: it was almost as if the drummers were shadows of one another. Of course the sensations of sound are the core of a Kodo performance, but, in a way, the visual aspect almost is the most exciting part. The coordination among the ten players simply was amazing.

Another really neat aspect about “Ya no Furyu” is that at the beginning of the song, as it starts to really pick up, the members are shouting back and forth: there is something to be said about the intensity of hearing the drummers shout while playing such a furious beat. I wish I knew what they were saying – if it is just to display raw emotions or if it serves to keep everyone in time (I would guess the former, though). Hands down, this song was the highlight of the concert.

The fifth song, “Miyake,” another traditional piece arranged by Kodo, was quite outstanding. As the lights begin to brighten the stage, the audience only sees one drummer standing above five different drums. The performer begins an electric solo that lasts several minutes. Splashing in an array of sixteenth-note triplets while demonstrating his ability to constantly change the tempos, he seamlessly moves across the nagado-taiko, tsukeshime-taiko, okedo-taiko-eitetsu, gakko and kokoro drums. Slowly, a woman wearing a stunning red dress begins a slow dance, while next to a small nagado-taiko that is on a riser. Her movements were reminiscent of the oni-daiko performances at the harvest festival on Sado Island I saw: she played the drum in the same gentle manner. It was a fascinating juxtaposition of this lady in red playing a drum softly and slowly, while another man was producing an extravagant rhythm.

The next song, “Hana-Hachijo,” was the most light-hearted of the night. Three male performers slowly came out with their backs to the audience, with small katsui-okedo-taiko drums strapped to their chests. Their movements were so comically animated that the whole audience was in stitches. It is very difficult to describe their little step-and-dance, but it just looked (intentionally) very silly and awkward.

When it seemed as if there was not going to be any real music attached to this bit of the show, they then demonstrated a countless number of extremely complicated tricks with their drumsticks, all in unison. This was actually my single favorite moment of the whole night.

The following number, “Ranka,” a Kodo original that was composed this year, was one of the more visually elaborate songs. There were three drummers playing five different drums, including the hirado-taiko, which, as I learned on Sado Island, is often referred to as the “Big Mac” drum, because of its hamburger-like shape. In front of the drummers was a woman on a man’s shoulders wearing a dragon costume – with a red mask and everything. At one point during the song, the “dragon” even played a beat on a small drum. Watching this song was like watching a mini-festival.

The final song of the first act, “Un,” was composed this past year by my friend, Shogo Yoshii, who drove me to the festival on Sado Island. I believe that the younger members of Kodo are obligated to write a song, as part of the initiation. Like the previous song, it was a very visual experience: there were four dancers wearing golden costumes and lion masks that had huge wigs. It was very interesting that this was one of the newest Kodo songs, yet it seemed to be the most “traditional,” in the sense that it looked like it was a classic festival song and dance. Regardless, it was a great conclusion to the first half of the concert. Shogo did a fantastic job writing this song!

The second act was fantastic; but, due to the length of this post, I will not go through each song, but instead my two favorites. “Monochrome” demonstrated the seemingly limitless stamina of the Kodo players. Sitting down, seven drummers played the tsukeshime-taiko, the highest pitched Japanese drum, similar in size to a snare drum. In the beginning, only one drummer would play would play at time; but, the instant he would stop, someone else would begin, so it sounded continuous. At times, it sounded like the drummers were echoing one another. Eventually, everyone was playing together. The collective precision was phenomenal: the drummers were able to make it seem as if you are listening to show in perfect surround sound. Being that the song had such a fast tempo and was so long, the fitness of the players was unparallel to anything I’ve ever seen before.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the second act was, “O-daiko,” perhaps the most famous Kodo song. For this number, two members play each side of an o-daiko drum that is absolutely enormous, probably about five feet wide, maybe even bigger. (Think that a snare drum is normally about fourteen inches in diameter; so this drum is just huge). Each player is only wearing a sumo-thong (that is not an actual term, but I don’t know what it is really called); the audience could see one of the players, as the drum completely blocks the other player at the back of the drum. Because the o-daiko drum is so large, the sound is so great that the listener is able to literally feel the music. There is such a powerful force created by drum that the sound waves are, in a sense, tangible.

I have seen some amazing performances while in Japan, but last night really made me understand that the sheer ability of Kodo transcends tenfold anything that I have previously witnessed. They are on another level of talent: it is no wonder that they are the top taiko group in the world, and that the word “taiko” is directly associated with Kodo.

The venue.













Drum at the Peace Museum.