Taiko

Oni-daiko / Demon Drum Dance

Iwakubi, Sado Island

September 2007

Percussion is generally agreed to have been the world's first form of instrumental music, and in Asia especially, drums have a long history of functions beyond simple entertainment. In ancient times, the territory of a Japanese village was defined by the area in which a drum beaten at an agreed spot was audible, and the sound of the drum was the signal used to call inhabitants together. Even today the custom still survives in remote places, and every country festival features an element of taiko, in which both adults and youngsters take it in turns to pound large, deep-toned drums with short, thick, heavy drumsticks.

Angus Waycott, Sado: Japan's Island in Exile (Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 1996), p. 122.