Galway Advertiser 1995/1995_08_03/GA_03081995_E1_019.pdf 

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OA'S GUIDE TO GOINGS

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OOINO OUT

Ichiro Inoue & The Thunder of the Mighty Drums

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f all the spectacular shows that Galway was treated to during the Arts Festival, cer tainly the most unusual was the Wadaiko Ichiro Drummers who filled the Big Tent at Fisheries Field with the thunder of their mighty drums. Katherine Seale spoke with Ichiro Inoue, the founder of the Wadaiko Ichiro Drummers, with the assistance of manager and interpreter Yogo Ieleaki.

Those of you who attended a performance by the There are two main types of drum, which come music so he notates his Wadaiko Ichiro Drummers last week are probably in many different sizes. The'Miyadaiko'is made from compositions in the form still reeling from the experience. Somehow the thun a single, hollowed log, over which the cowhide skin of sheet music. But an derous, impeccably synchronised drumming connect ('tawa') is stretched and then nailed on. It is played in element of the 'old ways' ed straight away with our deepest, primeval instincts. a special, splay-legged performing style called persists: he also writes the The visual spectacle was equally memorable: the 'miyake', and these drums can only be tuned by the words underneath the sight of eleven young performers in traditional cos factory that produces them. staff. tume, striking vast drums which altogether dwarfed The 'Okedo', the other type, is assembled like a Choosing drummers them, gave a vivid sense of the incrediblefitnessand whiskey barrel, from staves which are bound togeth for the Wadaiko Ichiro energy required by the performers to sustain a show er, with the skin bound on at the sides. By contrast Drummers is crucially such as this one. with the 'Miyadaiko', the 'Okedo' can be tuned by the important. Musical ability 'Wadaiko' means, simply, Japanese drumming, while drummers themselves. Similar to the 'Okedo' is the and drumming experience Ichiro' is the first name of Ichiro Inoue, the alert, 'Shime Daiko', which is a small drum before which are not, however, the bright-eyed man in his early 30s who founded the the performers kneel, and which has to be regularly most important criteria group and who, in addition, also composes all of the bound and rebound so as to keep the cowhide tight for Ichiro, although, as he pieces the group performs. enough and taut enough to pro explains, these things are Inoue was a member of duce its distinctive sound. certainly an asset. But Ondekoza', one of the two Ichiro wanted to create what he looks for above main traditional drumming new, original music which, as all is the 'character' of the groups in Japan (the other is he explains, "is adapted to the person - his or her sense Kodo'), and was its musical modern mind". However, of motivation. director from 1987 to 1989. studying percussion in other Because, he explains, a highly motivated individual, However, 'Ondekoza' and cultures revealed to him that sometimes with little or no prior drumming experi Kodo' both play exclusively there are many similarities ence, can make huge progress in a short period of traditional Japanese drum between rhythms worldwide. time. Manager and interpreter Yogo Ieleaki says that pieces, and Ichiro was con So in order to ensure that his this is because Ichiro has a unique teaching gift, sumed by the desire to com group would be unique and although, he notes with a smile, he is too modest to pose his own works. So he left individualistic, he wanted to say so himself. the group and in 1991 formed keep a distinctly Japanese Joining a group of drummers like the Wadaiko the Wadaiko Ichiro Drummers. flavour in his new group; Ichiro Drummers is not simply like joining an orches A testament to the strength hence the use of traditional tra in the West. It can be a means of transforming your of the vision that motivated this young man is the fact Japanese costumes, drumming styles and perfor whole life. Ichiro tells how he has seen the 'bad boys' that he had to purchase all the drums used by his new mance techniques. of high school, who speed around the city on their group himself from the 400 hundred year old familyThe result is a group of highly-trained and highly- motorbikes, or skinheads in and out of trouble, turn run drum factory in Japan, Asano Taiko. Luckily, the skilled musicians who play traditional instruments over a whole new leaf once they get involved. director of the company was very enthusiastic about but to make contemporary music. While Ichiro con Perhaps it has something to do with the intense phys the new drum group and also very supportive. tinues to study the percussion instruments and music ical training and discipline which is necessary to play In fact, so much did he believe in Ichiro's project of other cultures, he is insistent that when it comes to the drums with energy, proper technique and preci that when the time came to deliver the invoice for the composing all the host of influences to which he has sion, but Ichiro has seen it happen again and again. drums, he made it clear that Ichiro could postpone opened himself pass through a kind of 'filter' in his The Wadaiko Ichiro Drummers train for at least payment as long as he deemed it necessary. So, says imagination, so that each piece he composes, while seven hours every day, and rehearse for two hours Ichiro, it's just like paying off a mortgage - little by having links with traditions of various kinds, is before every performance. Much of the training is to little. Maintaining the group is quite a struggle, but uniquely his own. build physical fitness - running, push-ups, weightIchiro insists that money is not the most important Where does he find his inspiration? He says it training, just like for any sport. Then comes hours of Consideration right now. "What's important", he says, can strike him anywhere - in the car while driving, drum practice, which can be very monotonous - play "is developing the music. Perhaps the money will in a crowded place, or even on the toilet The impor ing very simple rhythms over and over again, making come later", he laughs. tant thing is, he responds to it immediately, covering them precise and perfecting technique. "Taiko' is the Japanese word for drum. There are any piece ofpaper that happens to be handy with the Thus, Ichiro says, training is quite simple, often bor between three and four thousand traditional drum ideas that have come to him. ing, but absolutely necessary to develop the sheer ming groups in Japan. Almost every village has one, Traditionally there is no such thing as sheet music physical stamina and mastery so essential for a per and the drums are played on civic and religious occa for drummers in Japan. Instead the rhythms are con formance. sions - a kind of Japanese 'Beat on the Street', or veyed through words (Think of scat-singing or, What did Ichiro think of Galway? A very thought maybe the Japanese equivalent of the ceili at the indeed, the diddly-id-eo used by Irish musicians to ful man, he takes lime with his answer. Firstly, he crossroads. convey a tune). Ichiro, however, has studied Western says, he gets a strong sense of an island people': a

"what he looks for above all is the 'character of the person - his or her sense of motivation."

culture that has its own identity and is not really a| 'mixed culture'. In this sense, he feels it is similar I Japan. However, he is astounded by the number of people walking about. In Japan, everybody drives,] even to a destination a few hundred yards away! He was also struck, when the drummers performed at the Spanish Arch last Monday afternoon, by the quality of listening. "Here people really listen, really look at what is happening", he says. "I have the impression that you are a theatre public." Ichiro is also amused by the fact that Irish people do not appear to be so fashion-conscious; in Japan, he says, women in particular are fashion-obsessed. They must always dress in the most up-to-the-minute styles, much to the dismay, he says laughing, of their boyfriends who are expected to fork out for each new whim of fashion!. Ichiro and his crew appeared to be relaxed and very happy during their stay in Galway, and they certainly took Galway audiences by storm. One man's dream has brought these young people right across Europe to the Festival Big Top on the banks of the Corrib. In a sense, what Ichiro has done for drumming in Japan is to make it 'hip' and 'cool' in the eyes of young Japanese people. A 1500 year old tradition is in no danger of becoming extinct and I, for one, will be following with great interest the future musical development of this devoted band of percussionists and their inspiring' composer/leader as the sound of the 'taiko' echoes] with thunderous resonance right across the world.

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