Let there be drums

Hailing from a remote island in Japan, the Kodo drummers have made percussion a way of life. These masters and innovators of traditional Japanese drumming typically astound and inspire concert audiences.

By: Susan Van Dongen

One of the Kodo Drummers at work.

   In the ’60s, it was known as "dropping out." Today, the terminology may have evolved, but the general idea is still the same. It’s refreshing to know that people are still turning away from the mainstream to embrace art or a creative way of living. Take Daniel Rosen, for example.
   Working in Japan as a translator for a design company, Mr. Rosen visited the remote island of Sado a few years ago. This island of 70,000 people is known as the home base for Kodo, an extraordinary traditional Japanese percussion group that holds an annual "Earth Celebration" summer arts festival.
   To use another ’60s phrase, Mr. Rosen fell in love with the "vibes" on the island and chose to stay and live communally with the group.
   "Since Sado Island is two-and-a-half hours out to sea, it’s a kind of pilgrimage just to get there," says Mr. Rosen, who has worked as a spokesperson for Kodo for about five years. "It was one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had, seeing the way music and art can bring people together. I was working for a corporation and I was not really satisfied. I wanted to feel like I was doing something meaningful."
   That’s not an unusual reaction to Kodo. These masters and innovators of "taiko" — traditional Japanese drumming — typically astound and inspire concert audiences.
   Kodo appears in concert at New Brunswick’s State Theatre on March 7 and at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton on March 8. They’ll cross the river to perform at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia on March 15.
   In addition to playing an assortment of Japanese and Asian drums, Kodo employs dance and mime in performance.
   The musicians play a variety of other instruments, but the drums dominate the sound. The most majestic is these is the "odaiko," an enormous 800-pound instrument carved from the trunk of a single Japanese cypress tree.
   It takes two lean, powerful men to play this big boy. They traditionally strip down to the bare minimum of clothing, clad in only loincloths and headbands and approach the drum with a martial arts-like stance. Watching these muscular, perspiring men pound on this thundering instrument gives the performance an ancient, tribal resonance.
   "The power of taiko is very primal," Mr. Rosen says. "But all drums are. Voice might have been first musical instrument, but drums were second. It’s instinctual to want to bang on something, to communicate, to be heard. Just because (taiko) is Japanese doesn’t mean it’s foreign. Its power transcends language and culture.
   "These drums aren’t just heard, they’re felt. The sound goes right through the and touches everyone individually. Maybe it changes them just a little."
   Kodo formed in 1981, dedicating itself to the study and preservation of traditional Japanese performing and cultural arts. They made their U.S. debut the following year.

Sado Island, Kodo’s home base.

   The group’s two-year apprenticeship involves total immersion in that culture. Apprentices study everything from the tea ceremony to agriculture and food preparation, and are required to rise daily at 4:40 a.m. to complete a 10K run.
   "It’s a very regimented lifestyle," Mr. Rosen says.
   "People are culled from their initial written applications, then invited up to Sado Island audition. They stay in the apprenticeship center in the winter, so they get a taste of what they’re in store for. It’s a converted schoolhouse in very rural area of Japan with no heat."
   Mr. Rosen says this hardship quickly culls potential apprentices. People come away from the audition thinking either ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘Yes I can.’
   Even after they become full-fledged members of the group, Kodo’s players live communally, sharing duties which range from cooking to hauling their own equipment — no roadies for this company.
   "It’s a way of life," Mr. Rosen says.
   Historically, taiko would have been used for religious purposes. The drums — especially the larger ceremonial instruments — resided in the village shrine. They were used to summon the gods before prayer, or would have been taken outside and used as a backbeat for dancing during a festival. They also might have been placed in the center of the village and sounded to warn of an emergency.
   "After World War II, Japan was changing, becoming more secular," Mr. Rosen says. "Japanese were rediscovering their own percussion traditions, but also expanding on them, finding that taiko could be used in a orchestral or ensemble format."
   The highly choreographed way the drums are played is as important as the way they sound, Mr. Rosen says.
   "For example, in ‘Miyake’ the drums are played very low to the ground, which is a very strenuous stance," he says. "The form has been carefully maintained from a traditional piece. In that way, it’s been likened to the martial arts."
   "Because of the (choreographed) movement, people sometimes think they’ve been part of a ceremony, but this is not a religious group," Mr. Rosen says. "Each member has his or her own faith. It’s not based on any rituals."
   That said, he does recognize a certain hallowed element to taiko, and a reverence for the instruments themselves — especially the odaiko.
   "We do not treat the drums lightly," he says. "We respect the power of the drum and understand that in Japan they are sacred instruments."
Kodo performs at the State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, March 7, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $25-$40. For information, call (732) 246-7469. The group will also perform at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, March 8, 8 p.m. (sold out). Kodo appears at the Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, March 15, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $36-$48. For information, call (215) 898-3900.
For directions to the State Theatre, click here. For directions to McCarter Theatre, click here. For directions to the Zellerbach Theatre, click here.