Here Comes the Sun Goddess

Who knew that a trip to IKEA could be so fruitful? We spotted these bumblebee yellow stools on sale for $2.99 — added a rubberlike mousepad on top — Voila! A drum is born for $4! And now, JT has a classroom set of drums ready to go for next year.

We've all heard the quote before,"Necessity is the mother of invention." But, just for a second, can we consider how mothers can inspire invention? I think of how Kevin Costner's oil centrifuge gives a little glimmer of hope to all who are anxious about the health of Mother Earth. What does this have to do with drums, you might ask? Off we go on another artistic trail — in search of the the history of the drum — and we discover that taiko was inspired by a woman — the Sun Goddess.

The Bowdoin Taiko website has a great accounting of the history of taiko. Here a few interesting moments in the history of taiko that we gleaned from their taiko history webpage.

Uzume, the Heavenly Alarming Drummer
The earliest written record of Japanese percussion lies in the earliest written document of any kind in Japanese. Finished in 712 AD (the Nara period), this 'Chronicle of Past Times', the Kojiki, describes the goddess Uzume luring the Sun goddess, Amaterasu out of her hiding place by dancing and stamping out a beat on a 'sounding board' ('tsuzumi' in Japanese).

Here’s a fascinating bit of info — the modern day taiko drumming ensemble comes from the innovations of a jazz drummer!

Oguchi Daihachi and Osuwa Daiko
As stated on the Rolling Thunder Taiko webpage, the modern kumi-daiko movement owes at least half of its initial development to Daihachi Oguchi (family name given first), a jazz drummer who created many of the standards still used in kumi-daiko groups both in Japan and out.
“Daihachi Oguchi, who created the kumi-daiko style, is given much of the credit for the current taiko boom. Oguchi was a jazz drummer, who happened upon a old piece of taiko music… Coming from a jazz background, he wondered why taiko were never played together, and broke with tradition by assembling a taiko drum ensemble."

The innovation to play Taiko as a purely musical offering (as opposed to tying the music solely to Japanese religion and ritual) started right here in San Francisco with Sensei Seichi Tanaka.

Seichi Tanaka
In America, pre-Daihachi taiko established itself with the first Japanese immigrants as early as the late 19th century. It was not until 1968, however, when Seichi Tanaka established the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, that people played the drums outside temples or Obon dances. Within a year, three groups, following the ensemble taiko model created by Oguchi Daihachi, were up and running: San Francisco Taiko Dojo, Kinnara Taiko in Los Angeles, and the San Jose Taiko in San Jose. These three groups are the wellspring of most (if not all) of North America's taiko groups.

Here some of JT's shared resources...

Taiko.com has a great glossary for those who want to familiarize themselves with the language of taiko. And a resource tutorial.
Slideshare.net has a taiko drumming presentation that can be shared with kids.
Drumdojo.com has more inof on the style of drumming and the positions.
Here's an example of written kata.

KQED's Spark has an streamable episode on Grand Master Tanaka and SF Taiko Dojo, along with links and resources.



Keep an eye out next year when a new generation of drummers try their hand at calling Amaterasu out of hiding for a morning dance!