The Kodo Drummers

A professional taiko ensemble from Japan's Sado Island is called Kodo Drummers. The ensemble has contributed to the local and global popularity of taiko drumming, which uses a variety of percussion instruments. For instance, they frequently travel to Japan, the US, and Europe. According to the Japanese, the word "Kodo" has two meanings: "Children of the Drum" and "Heartbeat," the main component of rhythm. Although taiko is their primary musical instrument, they also play with vocals and traditional Japanese instruments like the shamisen and fue (""Kodo, Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble""). The troupe repertoire comprises of pieces composed by Kodo members, songs based on the traditional Japanese rhythms and compositions written for Kodo by contemporary songwriters. Since their introduction at the Berlin Festival in 1981, the group has had almost four thousand performances spending a third of the year touring in Japan, a third overseas and the remaining period preparing new material and training in Sado Island.

History and Establishment

Kodo was officially debuted at the Berliner Philharmonie shortly after being formed in 1981. At times, the troupe name (Kodo) is considered to have been a rename from the Taiko group Ondekoza. Undeniably, Kodo was born from the existing members of the Ondekoza group. The leader, – Den Tagayasu, left the troupe and afterward was followed by the lead performer Eistetsu Hayashi. Den formed a new team and continued to use the name Ondekoza, which necessitated the other members to decide on a different name. Hayashi, before departing after finding a solo career suggested the name “Kodo.” He created the name basing on the dual meaning of the term: the first meaning being “Heartbeat,” originated from a comparison between the sounds of taiko drum to that of a mother’s heartbeat on her child in the womb. The second meaning being “drum children,” was based on the response from mothers that their music soothed children to sleep.

In the succeeding seven years, the group toured Japan, Far East, South and North Americas, and Europe. After this, the troupe founded Kodo village at Sado Island, as well as started an international art festival, which is the annual Earth Celebration on the island and is managed by the Kodo Cultural Foundation and the city of Sado.

During the Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles in 1984, Kodo had three sold-out performances, which were a ten-week event that preceded the Summer Olympics in the same year. The group similarly held its first workshop known as Kodo Juku in 1989 which focused on the initiation of its training regimen and its approach to taiko performance. These workshops are scheduled and held four times a year and require no prior background to drumming. Moreover, the non-profit Kodo Cultural Foundation was founded in 1997, and later three years after, the Kodo Art Sphere American organization was established in North America. This body began to hold workshop tours in 2013.

Members and Membership

There are thirty-two performing members of which twenty-six are men and six are women. Moreover, twenty-eight staff members are involved in Otodaiku and Kitamaesen. The Kodo Cultural Foundation consists of twelve staffs. As a result, there are approximately one hundred people in Kodo, including apprentices and part-time workers ("Performances & Workshops – Kodo, Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble"). The apprentices aspiring to become performers spend two years training and living together in a converted school on the Island of Sado (Chan 29-30). Afterward, they are selected to join the group as juniors in which they are put on probation. The probation period lasts for one year during which the members practice and train extensively before becoming full members of the troupe.

Associated Entities

Three bodies handle the troupe activities. Otodaiku is the corporation that manages the group copyrights, sales and the development of musical instruments that are used during performance and recording. Kodo Cultural Foundation organizes the group’s non-profit activities in the Sado island’s Taiko Center. Kitamaesen is in charge of managing members’ employment, salaries and tour booking among others.

Reputation and Achievement

Without a doubt, Kodo is the most respected and well-known taiko group in the globe and has been identified as the ambassador group for performing taiko outside Japan. Their training regimen that at a given time involved long-distance running twice in a day forms one of the components to their high reputation. During the performance, the players wear a sole loincloth referred to as fundoshi which is a component of their attire. According to the group internal publication, the attire is used to aid the players focus their strength while performing. Similarly, others argue that the use of the fundoshi represents the masculine component of the performance. In the 1989 Olympics after the troupe performance, a Los Angeles Herald – Mark Swed, claimed that “the sweaty loin-clothed drummers especially their glistening back muscles were strikingly lit as the players hit the great o-daiko with massive sticks in the performance.”

During the third International Visual Music Festival, Kodo received the MIDEM musical video award in 1994. Also, it has been awarded the Japanese Foreign Ministry Award as a result of their cultural contribution. In 2012, Kodo was the recipient of the Matsuo Performing Art Award for Japanese music.

Works Cited

"Performances & Workshops – Kodo, Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble." Kodo.Or.Jp, 2017, http://www.kodo.or.jp/en/performance_en.

Chan, Heidi. "“A Musical Journey Beyond All Borders”: Musical and Cultural Border-Crossings of Toronto Japanese Taiko Ensemble Nagata Shachu." Canadian Folk Music/Musique folklorique canadienne 47.4 (2014).

Kodo, Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble." Kodo.Or.Jp, 2017, http://www.kodo.or.jp/en/.