Where does Taiko ensemble drumming (kumi-daiko) come from?
Ensemble taiko drumming, or kumi-daiko, comes from Nagano Prefecture in central Japan. Taiko drums are many centuries old, but a team playing drums of different sizes together began in 1951 with the former jazz drummer Daihachi Oguchi and his group Osuwa Daiko.
A jazz drummer's idea
Oguchi was trained as a jazz drummer in Nagano. A relative gave him an old piece of written taiko music in a notation he could not read. With help he worked it out, but to a jazz player the rhythm seemed too simple. So he shared the piece out among several drummers, each on a different taiko, like the parts of a Western drum kit: a high-pitched shime-daiko kept the tempo like a snare drum, mid-sized drums carried the melody and a big ōdaiko set the pulse.
From Okaya to the world
Oguchi founded Osuwa Daiko in Okaya, Nagano Prefecture, in 1951. Many of its first players were not professional musicians, and at first they played at inns and hotels. Television made them known, and ensemble taiko reached a world audience at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Oguchi helped found groups abroad too, including San Francisco Taiko Dojo, the first in the United States, set up by Seiichi Tanaka in 1968. In 1998 Oguchi led the drumming at the closing ceremony of the Nagano Olympics.
Why people think of Tokyo or Kyoto
Taiko drums do have a long history. Archaeological evidence shows drums in Japan by the 6th century, and gagaku, court music that arrived through China and Korea, uses drums such as the small kakko and the huge dadaiko; gagaku is still performed at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Over the centuries taiko also served in festivals, theatre and war. But the drum ensemble on a concert stage is young: Oguchi built it out of those older traditions in 1951.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Taiko ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Daihachi Oguchi ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Osuwa Daiko ↗ · inquirer.com ↗
