Twelve Drummers Drumming

In the Wayback I actually went to both a taiko festival and took a lesson.  I loved it.  In my experience, everyone does.  When Five went with me to Kyoto, she got to experience the drums at Kiyomizu Dera and was as pumped as I was.  At our school's international day we had a group of drummers that performed, and The Director, with whom I was watching, felt the same way.  In fact, taiko is so awesome that if you've been paying attention, you  may have noticed me whinging a couple of times about the fact that I haven't seen more of it.  But I made up for all that last Friday with the ultimate (in my opinion, anyways) taiko experience - Drum Tao.

In my rambles through the interwebs not so long ago, I came across an ad for their new show, Mangekyo.  It looked AMAZING.  I mean, sure, I love taiko, but I love buff guys in cool costumes even more, and when you put the two together?  Magical.  There are women in Drum Tao, too (also very buff), and actually the leader of the group is a woman (who very clearly understands her fellow Japanese women - the audience definitely had a gender bias). 

 

This was one of those times where I'd discovered something way too good to keep to myself, so I emailed Sensei and my other two favorite work friends, The (aforementioned) Director and Horn Blower, to see if they were also interested.  This is how the four of us ended up wandering around a department store in Ginza Friday night trying to find the Alternative Theater.  That's a thing here...department stores seem to have galleries and theaters more times than you would think is absolutely normal.  Eventually we figured out we had to go downstairs and ride up from the first floor, but we got there in the end.

The thing is, it wasn't just a musical performance.  I think this is the first show I've been to since I moved to Japan, so I'm not sure how it compares to other concerts, if you can call it a concert.  Hot guys drumming would have been more than enough to hold my (rapt) attention, but this was so much more.  The costumes were fantastic.  They had the look of kimono and samurai armor to them, but they still managed to be modern and chou kakouii...I imagine there's a fine line between that and cheesy, but they nailed it.  The actual staging was fairly simple - there were three or so platforms, which different performers mounted to play or dance - but they also used projectors to add a multimedia element - flowers fluttering in the breeze, or a stream in the forest. 

I wish pictures were allowed at performances here.  Maybe I should start bugging organizations to give me press access - I write a blog, after all, even if I only have six regular readers.  As it was, I was too scared of getting kicked out to try and sneak a shot or two (this isn't Mongolia, after all...the Japanese love their rules and expect them to be followed!) so for the most part you'll have to imagine it.  If that's not good enough, maybe check out their official website?

After an hour and a half it was over.  We fought our way to the elevators, and then walked back to Yurakucho station to head toward home.  The Director and I discussed which guys we preferred - she said my choice looked too much like an anime character for her, and I told her that didn't bother me in the least (yes, we are both basically 13 years old, and no, I don't care).  I could have gone back and watched it again the next day with every bit as much enthusiasm.  Maybe I will when it returns in the fall.  Til then, I'm looking for places to take lessons, because that is a kind of exercise that I would look forward to.