Sweat and tears for drum troupe
http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/strongartsstron [2008-7-7]
Tag : chinese taro
THEY live on a mountain in monastic isolation, get up at 5am eachday to perform a demanding dawn ritual before cooking, cleaning andwaiting hand and foot on their occasional guests. They run ahalf-marathon, followed by a punishing two-hour workout and martialarts training just to warm up for the main task of practising theirinstruments 10 hours a day.
Monks, hoteliers, soldiers, musicians — the members of Japan'scelebrated percussion outfit Drum Tao are in some way an amalgam ofall four. There is no performing troupe quite like them in theworld.
These exponents of the martial art of taiko drumming live in asecluded community in the verdant Kuju Highlands on Japan's mainisland of Kyushu. Apart from a herd of Jersey cows and a golf clubdown the hill, just about their only neighbour is the majesticvolcano of Mount Aso, and it isn't going to complain about thenoise.
When they descend from the mountain, it is not with tablets ofstone but with muscles of steel that they use to commit assault andbattery on their massive drums for shell-shocked audiences aroundthe world.
Tao take their name from the Chinese Kanji character for "way" or"road", and their philosophy is certainly not about taking the pathof least resistance.
After touring Japan for 11 years, the group had its internationalbreakthrough at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe with its ferocious mix ofdance, drumming and the softer voices of the Japanese flute(shinobue) and horizontal harp (koto). Two years ago, Tao came toAustralia for the first time and is back again for a two-monthtour.
Taiko is a centuries-old tradition that sprang from festivals andreligious events in Japan, such as praying for rain or a goodharvest. Supplicants appeal to the gods by channelling theirstrength through the thunderous voice of the drums.
Its use as entertainment emerged in the 1970s but was taken toanother level when former supermarket marketing manager IkuoFujitaka founded Tao in 1993. Inspired by the success of Cirque duSoleil, this is high-gloss tradition; an archaic art form wrestedfrom the past and plunged into the showbiz present, complete withmicron-precise choreography, impressive lighting and merchandise inthe foyer. The dichotomy between the past and the ambitious futurebecomes apparent with a visit to Grandioso, Tao's home base abouttwo hours' drive from Kyushu's biggest city of Fukuoka.
As the suburbs recede and the roads narrow, the view gives way tothickly forested mountains cloaked in a misty rain. This is theserene rural Japan seen in prints by Hokusai or Hiroshige. Thewhimsy is shaken on my arrival, when the 20 young performers emergeto welcome me and grab my luggage. They do not look much like thenuggetty ascetics I had imagined. Dressed mainly in black, almostall of them have the power-socket hairdos of the cyber-punks ofTokyo's Shinjuku district.
THEY live on a mountain in monastic isolation, get up at 5am eachday to perform a demanding dawn ritual before cooking, cleaning andwaiting hand and foot on their occasional guests. They run ahalf-marathon, followed by a punishing two-hour workout and martialarts training just to warm up for the main task of practising theirinstruments 10 hours a day.
Monks, hoteliers, soldiers, musicians — the members of Japan'scelebrated percussion outfit Drum Tao are in some way an amalgam ofall four. There is no performing troupe quite like them in theworld.
These exponents of the martial art of taiko drumming live in asecluded community in the verdant Kuju Highlands on Japan's mainisland of Kyushu. Apart from a herd of Jersey cows and a golf clubdown the hill, just about their only neighbour is the majesticvolcano of Mount Aso, and it isn't going to complain about thenoise.
When they descend from the mountain, it is not with tablets ofstone but with muscles of steel that they use to commit assault andbattery on their massive drums for shell-shocked audiences aroundthe world.
Tao take their name from the Chinese Kanji character for "way" or"road", and their philosophy is certainly not about taking the pathof least resistance.
After touring Japan for 11 years, the group had its internationalbreakthrough at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe with its ferocious mix ofdance, drumming and the softer voices of the Japanese flute(shinobue) and horizontal harp (koto). Two years ago, Tao came toAustralia for the first time and is back again for a two-monthtour.
Taiko is a centuries-old tradition that sprang from festivals andreligious events in Japan, such as praying for rain or a goodharvest. Supplicants appeal to the gods by channelling theirstrength through the thunderous voice of the drums.
Its use as entertainment emerged in the 1970s but was taken toanother level when former supermarket marketing manager IkuoFujitaka founded Tao in 1993. Inspired by the success of Cirque duSoleil, this is high-gloss tradition; an archaic art form wrestedfrom the past and plunged into the showbiz present, complete withmicron-precise choreography, impressive lighting and merchandise inthe foyer. The dichotomy between the past and the ambitious futurebecomes apparent with a visit to Grandioso, Tao's home base abouttwo hours' drive from Kyushu's biggest city of Fukuoka.
As the suburbs recede and the roads narrow, the view gives way tothickly forested mountains cloaked in a misty rain. This is theserene rural Japan seen in prints by Hokusai or Hiroshige. Thewhimsy is shaken on my arrival, when the 20 young performers emergeto welcome me and grab my luggage. They do not look much like thenuggetty ascetics I had imagined. Dressed mainly in black, almostall of them have the power-socket hairdos of the cyber-punks ofTokyo's Shinjuku district.
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