Isshokenmei!
A taiko drama. These eventful practices happen once in a while, rousing us from complacency and stirring emotions, misunderstandingd and usually, eventual harmony and learning.
The Higashiichiki concert went in an exhausting 36-hour slog of packing drums, flailing around trying to look useful without having one's efforts undone by someone who could inevitably do it better, rehearsals, motivational talks, bowing, playing, resting and cleaning up. One felt on constant display, held to task for sitting in the dressing room at undesignated rest times..I forgot my moves at times during Kyo and 'NaRoChaJin', the djembe-based piece put together by Jin-san, me, Rox and Nadya, was a bit patchy, with an unco-ordinated exit etc. A party of mentally ill (I don't like that word, but ug) had reserved front seats- Seisho Daiko have done drum therapy sessions with them in the past and they clearly loved it. 'Jimmy', a local camp-as-a-tent celeb-in-sequins, came with his Doo-Wop band in matching silver satin suits and provided surreally un-taiko-like barber-shop style interval entertainment. Kaicho, the smoky old father of Leader, apparently did a mini interview and said there were 'various' gaijin in the group, including an America-jin and a Bulgaria-jin. He has clearly spent much time getting to know us..
We skipped Monday practice and it was obvious from the start of today that Leader was in a bad mood. The Juniors were there, little Yuuya (a quiet but v sweet 9 year old) crying on the ground...wonder why... Fuuka the twin did her usual interrogation to check I remembered her name- her persistance has borne fruit and now I no longer have to call her Snoopy for fear of calling her by her identical sister Ami's name.
But it got serious- the taikos were put in a circle and we began Kiiso, the warm-up piece that splits the group into two alternating rounds, one doing the slowish melody and the rest playing an ascendingly fast harmony of regular beats. Groaned to realise we had to do the thing twice, but soon Leader was standing in front of my drum, motioning for me to cry "Sei" properly and hit the drum harder. Mine and occasionally Nadya's drums got tapped by his bamboo stick and he eventually called for Jin to lead us into a third round, by which time most of us were exhausted. Afterwards, he told us in a disgusted scoff that we weren;t working 'isshokenmei' or as hard as we could, motioning to Erica who was quivering on the floor in a sweaty heap. Roxy, having done her final concert now, was told that she hasn't left yet and still has to work hard- instead of the required deferential pose and reply of 'hai' to any criticism, she looked him in the eye and said in English that she was working as hard as she could. He asked her why she'd been smiling as she replied, somewhat unwisely, that he'd said taiko should be 'tanoshii' (fun). It was the final straw- he roared 'Renshu wa kibishii!!', that basically practice time is for breaking one's back with effort so that at concert times you will be good enough to enjoy it. Rox walked out with dignity, receiving in her wake the now broken chucking of the bamboo and a yell that it wasn't 'chanto' (correct). There followed lots of lecturing and comments from Leader to the quaking Juniors as to how she'd made a fatal faux-pas in saying that taiko was tanoshii....the rest of practice was me being meek and trying to ignore Nadya next to me talking and humming as the rest of the group discussed the next concert- nothing gets under that girl's skin. Except the ink of a giant tattoo of the taiko symbol, which seems not to reflect any deep emotional commitment to Seisho Daiko- she suggested we find a new group.
But basically it's the same- Leader is not, and neither are the others, people of much power in life- all are low-income and taiko is their central locus of discipline and hierarchy, I suspect. But while I can externalise it and see Leader for the slightly bullying control-seeker he is, the kids were clearly shaken and apparently were outside crying. Felt sorry for his daughter Ana- who's going to want to go to her house for tea now?
The worst was his holding up Jin-san as an example of the lengths you should go to during practice times in order to become jouzu (good) at taiko- for five minutes of the lecture after Kiiso x3, she'd been panting like the rest of us but he motioned to her, and I saw she was white as a sheet, moaning and shaking- her hand past the wrist and entire bachi stick was dripping with blood which then bled onto the floor. TO hold Erica and this quivering wreck of an adult up as model devotees was not something I'd advocate in the motivation of children outside the bracket of a culture of fear. And you can justify any amount of mistreatment and suffering in the name of productivity, but I guess comparing taiko to slave labour is a little crude...
The Higashiichiki concert went in an exhausting 36-hour slog of packing drums, flailing around trying to look useful without having one's efforts undone by someone who could inevitably do it better, rehearsals, motivational talks, bowing, playing, resting and cleaning up. One felt on constant display, held to task for sitting in the dressing room at undesignated rest times..I forgot my moves at times during Kyo and 'NaRoChaJin', the djembe-based piece put together by Jin-san, me, Rox and Nadya, was a bit patchy, with an unco-ordinated exit etc. A party of mentally ill (I don't like that word, but ug) had reserved front seats- Seisho Daiko have done drum therapy sessions with them in the past and they clearly loved it. 'Jimmy', a local camp-as-a-tent celeb-in-sequins, came with his Doo-Wop band in matching silver satin suits and provided surreally un-taiko-like barber-shop style interval entertainment. Kaicho, the smoky old father of Leader, apparently did a mini interview and said there were 'various' gaijin in the group, including an America-jin and a Bulgaria-jin. He has clearly spent much time getting to know us..
We skipped Monday practice and it was obvious from the start of today that Leader was in a bad mood. The Juniors were there, little Yuuya (a quiet but v sweet 9 year old) crying on the ground...wonder why... Fuuka the twin did her usual interrogation to check I remembered her name- her persistance has borne fruit and now I no longer have to call her Snoopy for fear of calling her by her identical sister Ami's name.
But it got serious- the taikos were put in a circle and we began Kiiso, the warm-up piece that splits the group into two alternating rounds, one doing the slowish melody and the rest playing an ascendingly fast harmony of regular beats. Groaned to realise we had to do the thing twice, but soon Leader was standing in front of my drum, motioning for me to cry "Sei" properly and hit the drum harder. Mine and occasionally Nadya's drums got tapped by his bamboo stick and he eventually called for Jin to lead us into a third round, by which time most of us were exhausted. Afterwards, he told us in a disgusted scoff that we weren;t working 'isshokenmei' or as hard as we could, motioning to Erica who was quivering on the floor in a sweaty heap. Roxy, having done her final concert now, was told that she hasn't left yet and still has to work hard- instead of the required deferential pose and reply of 'hai' to any criticism, she looked him in the eye and said in English that she was working as hard as she could. He asked her why she'd been smiling as she replied, somewhat unwisely, that he'd said taiko should be 'tanoshii' (fun). It was the final straw- he roared 'Renshu wa kibishii!!', that basically practice time is for breaking one's back with effort so that at concert times you will be good enough to enjoy it. Rox walked out with dignity, receiving in her wake the now broken chucking of the bamboo and a yell that it wasn't 'chanto' (correct). There followed lots of lecturing and comments from Leader to the quaking Juniors as to how she'd made a fatal faux-pas in saying that taiko was tanoshii....the rest of practice was me being meek and trying to ignore Nadya next to me talking and humming as the rest of the group discussed the next concert- nothing gets under that girl's skin. Except the ink of a giant tattoo of the taiko symbol, which seems not to reflect any deep emotional commitment to Seisho Daiko- she suggested we find a new group.
But basically it's the same- Leader is not, and neither are the others, people of much power in life- all are low-income and taiko is their central locus of discipline and hierarchy, I suspect. But while I can externalise it and see Leader for the slightly bullying control-seeker he is, the kids were clearly shaken and apparently were outside crying. Felt sorry for his daughter Ana- who's going to want to go to her house for tea now?
The worst was his holding up Jin-san as an example of the lengths you should go to during practice times in order to become jouzu (good) at taiko- for five minutes of the lecture after Kiiso x3, she'd been panting like the rest of us but he motioned to her, and I saw she was white as a sheet, moaning and shaking- her hand past the wrist and entire bachi stick was dripping with blood which then bled onto the floor. TO hold Erica and this quivering wreck of an adult up as model devotees was not something I'd advocate in the motivation of children outside the bracket of a culture of fear. And you can justify any amount of mistreatment and suffering in the name of productivity, but I guess comparing taiko to slave labour is a little crude...