Thursday, March 31, 2011

Ganbare Nippon!


Hi Hi .... Have you ever seen a Taiko drum performance? It's one of the most mesmerizing experience for one's ears and soul. Like Odori (dance), this art form can be seen throughout Japan in most festivals and events. Its thunderous sound and accelerated beats can pound right into your heart and open up all your senses. Taiko drums consists of groupings of drums in different sizes and shapes, complemented by other melodic instruments like koto and shamisen. I find the attraction of Taiko drum performance lies not only with the rhythmical skills of the drummers, but their 'martial-art like' choreography and unique ethnic costumes.


Nagata Shachu is a taiko performing troupe based in Toronto, they tour widely throughout Canada, US and Europe. They will appear in 2 fundraising concerts for Japan earthquake relief . The first one is in Guelph, Ontario :


The next one will be in the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center in Toronto. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience Taiko performance while supporting a cause close to heart :)

7 comments:

flowerbossa said...

Dear jaime-san,

A taiko performance is certainly something worth experiencing at least once in one's lifetime!

I hope the audience in Toronto will enjoy the exciting performances and send powerful vibes to Japan and the world^^

Love,
flowerbossa

Anonymous said...

Hi Jamie,
So there'll be two taiko drum performances held in Toronto for fund raising for Japan really soon. Great news! It seems to me that Toronto has quite a lot of Japanese living. Before I had a coworker whose parents had moved to Toronto and he was born there.
Taiko drum performance,yes,it's so fun. And your description of it is great.I once enjoyed it. It was performed by a high school student groug but so great. The drum beating seemed to come into my body and take me to a different world.

Love,yoko

Anonymous said...

Hi Jamie,

Yes, I recommend to go. Your description of taiko drum is great.I had a good time when I heard taiko drum performance, even though it was performed by a high school student group. It seemed that the beating sound came into my body and took me to a different world.
Oh, my working town has a drum group and kids also join it. Now people put efforts to succeed those traditional skills to the next generation.
I also suprised and happy to hear there'll be two performances held in Toronto for fundraising for Japan very soon.

Love Yoko

gosijo said...

Dear Jaime,

Thank you so much for bringing my attention to this. My whole family wants to attend!

Also on taiko drums, TWSSG OST composer Joe Hisaishi used them to great effects on a few pieces, notably Battle of the Gods (track 08).

jaime said...

Hi flowerbossa,

We enjoyed watching Taiko performance in all the Japanese festivals. We practically felt the energy emitted from the drummers and we became energized ourselves :)

The sakura in Tokyo must be very beautiful now, hope you have time to enjoy!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

Hi Yoko,

Nice to hear from you again. Yes, there are quite a lot of Japanese in Canada, more so in the west coast. Even though most of them are 4th/5th generations, yet the Japanese culture here is so rich. They observe all the festivals and keep the traditions going, so all the Japanese martial arts, odori, chado, ikebana have very high standard here. Better yet, these wonderful arts are being introduced and studied by non-Japanese too.

Btw, are you still dancing Nihon Buyo? I just finished 2 dance performances. I am grateful I can continue learning odori here.

Please take care! .... jaime

jaime said...

dear gosijo,

I am so happy to know that your family is interested to attend the Taiko performance. fyi, this is the link to book tickets ....

http://www.ticketweb.ca/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3613065&pl=jcccer

I think the seating is '1st come 1st serve', doors open at 7pm. I can't wait to see it too :)

love ... jaime