Why taiko?

May 8, 2009

Why taiko?

Recently I’ve been getting this question a lot, both by Americans and by Japanese. Why am I studying taiko? To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it until recently. Still, it’s a valid question, so I thought I’d use this blog to think out loud. Figuratively speaking.

To be honest, I can’t really pinpoint the first time I came across taiko. I have a vague idea that it was either during my Duquesne or SMU years – can’t really be sure. I know there was a Kodo concert at SMU that I was unable to go to. That may have been the first time I really thought about it. At that time, though, I was still fully in orchestra mode, so I didn’t give it much thought.

After I graduated, however, things started to change. As I drifted away from the orchestral path I had been on for 6+ years, I found myself looking for other musical things of interest. Again, taiko crossed my path. I purchased a Kodo DVD (I think it was “Live at the Acropolis”). That started it all, I think.

Even now, I can’t really explain why taiko grabbed me. Something just kinda clicked. Whether it was the rhythm, or the physical side of things, I dunno. Maybe it was the combination of both. Whatever it was, I found myself watching that Kodo DVD over and over again (partly because I couldn’t find any other DVDs… This was before I really started using Amazon to order items. How that website has changed my life.)

At the same time, I was beginning to read more and more about Japanese culture. My interest in Japanese culture had initially stemmed from pop culture – music, movies, anime, manga; all the stuff I was interested in in American culture, just with a bit of a twist to them. I recognized that things were a bit different, and started seeking out things that told my WHAT exactly was different, and to some degree, WHY? Anime drew upon my long-running love of cartoons, while manga my love of comic books. Movies and music? Well, that’s just more fun stuff to watch and listen to. So what if I couldn’t understand the language? There are subtitles in movies, and for the music? Well, people listen to opera all the time without understanding a word of what they are hearing. So it was with me and Japanese music. I soon discovered the band Polysics, and my musical tastes were forever shifted. (I now count Polysics among my top 3 favorite bands of all time. They may be #1, actually, but that’s a post for a different day).

I bought all the books  on Japanese culture I could get my hands on – not just things on pop culture, but broader books on history and culture.Seeing how I was working at a Borders at the time, I was able to get my hands on a decent amount. To a degree, it was just like what happened with taiko – something about Japanese culture appealed to me, on a level deeper than just “anime/samurai/manga is cool.” I found myself wanting to know more and more – the more I read, the questions I had. Soon enough, I had bought all the books on Japan that my Borders had (amazing what a 33% discount will do for your book buying habits).

Around the same time, I started thinking about the little issue of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I no longer had an interest in pursuing the orchestral path. Beyond the fact that I hadn’t seriously practiced for quite some time, thus making it a BIT hard to get ready for an audition (assuming I ever wanted to take another audition, which at that point was looking quite unlikely), freelancing held no interest to me nor did teaching. Then, I somehow found out about this thing called “ethnomusicology.” (how exactly, I’m not really sure – I may have encountered the term in the bio of someone who had written something I had read) It was a totally foreign concept to me, having never encountered the term (or even the concept) in my previous academic life. Back then, the music of other countries/cultures/peoples/etc… was something to study a little bit on the side for Percussion Ensemble or something similar – Latin,African, Middle Eastern drumming. Now, however, the idea of looking at these types of music – SERIOUSLY, in a more academic fashion, beyond just learning how to play the instruments – appealed to me.

So, I gave it some thought. What if – and it was a big if, seeing how I was talking about totally turning around the direction of my life, including going back to school – what if I entered the realm of ethnomusicology? It would allow me to continue to pursue my interest in Japanese culture, Japanese music, and… well, really just about anything else I wanted. After all, “ethnomusicology” is a rather broad field. Pop music, taiko… heck, I even started to think about ways to explore soundtracks and such. Exploring the realm of video game soundtracks – again, another interest of mine –  is something I think I’ll do someday.  There’s a few angles from which I can pursue it, I think, but again that’s a post for a different day.

Soon enough, I began actively formulating thoughts and plans. If I DID go into ethnomusicology, what exactly would I focus upon? After all, one has to write a thesis, a dissertation, and all that. There has to be a focus. Taiko seemed the most natural answer. At the time, I didn’t know anything about all the scholastic literature on the subject, or the approaches that people were taking  – I just knew I wanted to study about taiko. I wanted to learn about how it worked in Japan, how it had developed the way that it did, etc. I’d figure out the details later.

That led me to Pittsburgh, and Pitt. Soon, I was taking Japanese language & culture classes, and eventually finding myself an ethnomusicolgy student in the Department of Music.

Once I DID start reading the articles and theses and dissertations on taiko, I knew I was in the right place. I found what was being written to be immensely interesting, but I also saw some gaps that perhaps I could maybe fill. At the same time, I saw ways to bring in my other interests little by little. I even saw the possibility of writing about, of all places, Walt Disney World (I think my interest in Japanese culture may only be topped by my Disney mania). And to write about taiko in Walt Disney World? GENIUS!

So, I found myself beginning work on my master’s thesis. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or the present, I guess, since I’m still engaged in the work. Or whatever.

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