IrishOboe

Leslie Soule planned and arranged for any interested JETs to meet up in Tokyo for a Kodo concert. Kodo is a famous taiko (Japanese drumming) group. Perhaps the most famous bit of trivia about them is that they are famous for playing long sequences of music in a sit-up position with their legs extended with the drum in-between and their torsos leaning back at 45 degrees to the ground. Taiko is about the visual as well as the rhythm, and Kodo pushes the limits. They live on an Island that’s dedicated to traditional arts for a third of the year practicing and preparing new music, then they tour Japan a third of the year and they tour the world that last third. I’m not a big taiko fan, but it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. I’m glad didn’t, because it was possibly the best performance I’ve ever been to.A few of us met up at a Mexican restaurant in Tokyo. I never thought of myself as a big Mexican fan, but it sure was tasty after having been without for ten months!

We met more people at the concert (about eight in total) and we all had seats together in the second balcony. The hall was relatively small, so we were quite close to the stage. I think they were perfect seats.

I don’t know how to describe the concert and still catch up with my updates for the rest of the week. It was absolutely amazing! A common complaint of mine with entertainment is that creativity and art are completely lost and the arts are reduced to showing off technical ability in random form to an easily amused audience. This was certainly not the case here.

In the first place, it was the collaboration work of kabuki (old Japanese theater) and taiko. They brought in a famous kabuki dancer (kabuki is only done by men, though he played the part of the sun goddess). They brought the two traditional art forms together in a new creative way to tell the traditional story of Amaterasu. It’s the story of how the storm god angers the sun god so she goes into hiding. With the world in darkness, all the other gods try to dance and sing to get Amaterasu to come out. Eventually they convince her to come out and the world has light again. It’s a short story, but it formed the bases for a wonderful two hours of entertainment.

Amaterasu was played by the kabuki artist and he was all dressed and painted in a fairly traditional way (I’m guessing). Check out the website for a cool picture. The storm god was played by a taiko drummer, and of course the other musicians formed the background and provided the music, but they didn’t just sit there on the side, they were often moving and helping the story along. It was so wonderfully creative!

Part of what made it so amazing was the way they integrated different artistic genres. They had a cool, though simple stage set of taiko drums, a two story box frame holding gongs for playing and for decoration that separated into two parts to represent the cave opening. They lighting was also well done and not flashy, of course there was the kabuki dancing, drumming, and they all danced with the drums and moved them about, and they used koto and other traditional instruments as well as singing (and screaming). Plus they used beautiful, large pieces of cloth for dancing and to symbolize different events like thunder clouds and sunshine. All of this was integrated in a beautiful way.

I can’t describe it all, but some of the highlights were the dance between the sun goddess and the storm god. The sun goddess was so elegant and patience and danced with a beautiful golden cloth while the storm god had deep blue and purple slightly marbled cloths that he (with the help of others) shook and billowed like a storm. Naturally, a drum group could provide excellent music for a storm. As they danced the storm god got angrier and angrier and beat wilding on all the moving drums around him. Finally at the end of the first half the sun goddess ran into the split in the stage frame and other drummers followed close behind grabbing a huge golden cloth that lay hidden at the front of the stage. The cloth covered the whole stage then disappeared in the crack of the frame just as the light extinguished. It was such a cool effect.

The second half was perhaps my favorite, as much as I loved the first half. Of course it was dark so one lone taiko drummer came out with a candle and played a simple song (of rhythm) to the closed cave frame. Others came out and lit lanterns and in the dim light we watched their pleading with the sun goddess. This was a perfect setup for any kind of creative ensemble music and they played duets and trios, some of which were funny and told a story though they used no words. They showed amazing ability but their ability served their artistic purpose rather than existing for the sake of showing off. This is the point in a ballet where I would get bored watching one pair dance together then the girl dance a lone, then the guy dance alone, then dance together and on and on endlessly. This was not so with taiko. They kept the performances varied and interesting and smoothly gliding from one group to the next. Eventually the whole ensemble came out and they played together with deafening power while the goddess who finally was able to lure the sun goddess out of the cave danced with all her little might. When the sun goddess finally did come out a crack of light came from the split in the cave frame as they opened it and the sun god was in an even more brilliant costume and looked breathtaking. They danced a celebration dance at the end drew the whole performance to a great conclusion. I could have watched the whole thing again right then. I’ve hardly done all they did justice, but I hope if you hear that Kodo is coming to town that you’ll jump at the chance to see them.