“Thought-provoking, informative and fresh, Bender’s multi-faceted ethnomusicology of taiko promises to endure as the definitive scholarship on the topic for some time to come." -E. Taylor Atkins, author of Blue Nippon

“Immensely readable, unique and thoughtful, Taiko Boom is a must-have for anyone interested in taiko, and there are many--it’s difficult to overstate the explosion in popularitytaiko has experienced globally. Flashy and powerful, it’s unlike any other music. Bender presents here the first thorough look at this art form in Japan, detailing the origins and meaning of this style.” - Jennifer Milioto Matsue, Associate Professor of Music, Asian Studies and Anthropology at Union College

Shawn Bender is a Cultural Anthropologist and Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at Dickinson College.

Taiko Boom

Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion

By Shawn Bender

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Copyright © 2012 The Regents of the University of California
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-520-27242-2

Contents

List of Illustrations, ix,
Acknowledgments, xi,
Note on Translation, Japanese Names, and Romanization, xv,
Introduction, 1,
PART ONE THE EMERGENCE AND POPULARIZATION OF TAIKO,
1 · Taiko Drums and Taiko Drum Makers, 25,
2 · Genealogies of Taiko I: Osuwa Daiko, Sukeroku Daiko, Ondekoza, 48,
3 · Genealogies of Taiko II: Ondekoza to Kodo, 73,
4 · Placing Ensemble Taiko in Japan: Festival Creation and the Taiko Boom, 105,
PART TWO DISCOURSES OF CONTEMPORARY TAIKO,
5 · (Dis)Locating Drumming: Taiko Training, Embodiment, and the Aesthetics of Race and Place, 119,
6 · Woman Unbound? Body and Gender in Japanese Taiko, 142,
7 · The Sound of Militarism? New Texts, Old Nationalism, and the Disembodiment of Taiko Technique, 170,
Epilogue: Taiko at Home and Abroad, 190,
Notes, 203,
References, 227,
Index, 241,

CHAPTER 1

Taiko Drums and Taiko Drum Makers

pariah (noun) 1. an outcast. 2. any person or animal that is generally despised or avoided. 3. (initial capital letter) a member of a low caste in southern India and Burma. Origin: 1605–15; paraiyar, pl. of paraiyan lit., drummer (from a hereditary duty of the caste); deriv. of parai, a festival drum

RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARY, 2010

FOR MOST JAPANESE, taiko simply means "drum." In this book, the term is used in a more technical sense to signify a subset of Japanese percussion. Japanese drums are typically differentiated based on their size, shape, and material composition. Drum shells hollowed out from blocks of wood are classified differently from drum bodies made up of individual wooden slats, like a wine barrel. Drums also differ based on the kind of dried animal skin used for playing surfaces and the methods of attaching skins to the drum body, either by ropes, tacks, or bolts. Drums also are sounded in distinct ways (by hands, sticks, or mallets) and are employed differently in the three main genres of Japanese performance: music of the imperial court (gagaku), music accompanying the classical stage performing arts (koten geino), and music used in religious ritual or the folk performing arts (minzoku geino).

Prior to the emergence of ensemble taiko drumming, taiko drums were used most extensively within the folk performing arts. This historical context contributed significantly to the development of taiko in the postwar period. In contrast to the classical performing arts of the stage or music of the imperial court, the lack of strict control over performance and instruction within the folk performing arts gave individuals the flexibility to use these instruments for performance ensembles. The fact that there was specifically a taiko boom is therefore not merely coincidental but reflects the particular structural location of these instruments within Japanese musicality.

Just as the popularity of ensemble taiko has brought taiko from rare and restricted use in the classical arts to the focal point of dynamic stage performance, it has also raised the cultural standing of taiko makers in Japan. Previously relegated to outcast status for the occupation of drum making, which for generations had been deemed "polluting," taiko makers from the latter decades of the twentieth century onward enjoyed both high demand for their drums and growing recognition for their art. The higher profile of the instruments and those who make them is both evidence for and a consequence of the taiko boom. Instruments and instrument makers have thus moved from marginal positions to the center of Japanese cultural life.

TYPES OF DRUMS AND DRUM PERFORMANCE

The Drums of "Gagaku": The Music of the Imperial Court

Gagaku is the music and dance of the Japanese imperial court. It has its origins in older court music from China and Korea, which was brought to Japan in the fifth century, and from India, which arrived in the seventh and eighth centuries. In 701, imperial authorities established an imperial music bureau to oversee performances of court music. At the time of the bureau's establishment, most musicians in the imperial court remained Chinese or Korean, and the creation of a distinctly Japanese variety of court music did not occur until the middle of the ninth century, when a group of noblemen under the leadership of former emperor Soga arranged the divergent mass of styles that made up contemporary gagaku into the form they take today (Malm 1959, 89).

Since the Soga reforms, court music performances have been divided into two parts: one devoted to music of Indian and Chinese origin (togaku) and the other to music of Korean and Manchurian origin (koma-gaku) (Malm 1959, 89). Each of these is further subdivided into instrumental music (kangen) and dance music (bugaku). The type of drums used changes depending on whether instrumental music or dance music is being played. For example, the dadaiko, the largest of all the gagaku drums, is used only in performances of dance music. It has a carved-out wooden body and is covered on each end by cowhide drum skins that are held to the drum by long ropes tensioned with wooden pegs. A decorative wooden flame envelops the front head of the drum, which is imprinted with a mitsudomoe pattern (a yin-yang symbol with an extra teardrop). When struck with a felt-tipped mallet, the drum produces a low and resounding boom. Impressive as it is, the drum is used sparingly for percussive effect (for example, when a dancer stomps his foot on the stage). In performances of instrumental music, a gaku-daiko is used in place of the dadaiko, to similar effect. The gaku-daiko, which is about half the size of the dadaiko, is suspended from a wooden frame, and its cowhide drum skins are held on by a series of drum tacks.

Gagaku ensembles also make use of two smaller drums, the san-no-tsuzumi and the kakko. Like the dadaiko and gaku-daiko, these drums are used alternately in performances of togaku and koma-gaku. The san-no-tsuzumi, a small hourglass-shaped drum of Korean origin, is played only during performances of koma-gaku. Positioned on its side, the drum's front is struck with a thin stick in one of a limited number of short patterns. The kakko drum is a barrel-shaped drum of Indo-Chinese origin that has two rope-fastened deerhide heads. In contrast to the san-no-tsuzumi, the drum is struck on both sides during performances of togaku in one of three simple patterns: a slow descending roll, a tap with the right stick, or a press roll with the right hand.

In sum, the four drums of gagaku are used for effect more than for sophisticated timekeeping. Musicians and performances of gagaku are strictly regulated by the Music Department of the Imperial Household Agency. The regulations have helped preserve gagaku since the ninth century (much of the original Indian, Korean, and Chinese court music has long since disappeared), but they also have prevented significant innovation. Although some musicians have left official court music to experiment with combinations of court music and orchestral music (Lancashire 2003), to my...