Banging on: The sacrifices you make to become a trained taiko drummer.
RYOTARO LEO IKENAGA REVEALS HOW HE SPENT TWO YEARS LIVING IN MOUNTAINS WITH NO TV OR INTERNET, GROWING HIS OWN RICE, DURING HIS TRAINING TO BECOME A KODO DRUMMER
“IT’S like being an athlete,” is how Ryotaro Leo Ikenaga describes his two-year apprenticeship with famed Japanese taiko drum ensemble Kodo.
Born in Michigan, USA, Ryotaro attended the elite Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he studied economics and Asian studies. With a love of music, he was already classically trained on piano and cello, also playing guitar, but looking for a new challenge, he tried out taiko, a dynamic drumming style, after seeing the uni’ student group perform during the equivalent of freshers’ week.
He eventually became the group’s music director and, when he graduated, soon decided to turn his back on international finance, and applied to Kodo. Successful, he relocated to Kodo’s own village, on Japan’s Sado Island, which has residential buildings, workshops, a recording studio, rehearsal spaces and an apprentice centre.
“You live in the mountains for two years, without television or internet or basic civilisation. You plant and harvest your own rice, by yourself, and you wake at 5am and run every day. The exact opposite of the life I had lived,” explains Ryotaro, whose parents were initially shocked by his decision to forego a potentially lucrative banking career for a challenging Kodo apprenticeship.
“During those two years you practise a lot of drumming, alongside all those other things, as well as studying different traditional Japanese arts, such as Noh theatre, and you participate in local festivals, tea ceremonies, but the drumming is always the main focus.
“The physical experience of getting that big sound – it’s very very demanding, but at the same time it’s not all about power or muscle. You need to know how to use your body correctly, to be flexible and to train and eat right.”
Kodo are one of the world’s premier taiko groups, regularly touring the globe, performing at major venues, collaborating with leading companies, and recording albums and soundtracks. Their appearances range from playing at music festivals alongside The Stokes, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Madness, to the Royal Variety Performance, totting up over 6,500 shows in 50-plus countries.
Says Ryotaro: “What started as a group of young people who were exploring folk traditions and folk cultures from all over Japan eventually evolved into a taiko drumming group, called Ondekoza and that became Kodo almost 40 years ago.
“Since then we’ve explored all the possibilities of taiko and Japanese drumming, and we’ve explored and integrated folk culture into our performance.
“We’ve also branched out and collaborated with many artists overseas. We perform all over the world and we’ve brought in new rhythms, songs and dances, and all these different influences, musical and artistic, back into our own performance.
“We’ve integrated beats from our neighbours in Korea, from Africa, from Native Americans. We have a lot of lifelong friends all over the world, and integrating all these things has been part of Kodo’s DNA all along. It is constantly evolving, but we do have pieces that have been in our repertoire for 40 years. But even they are evolving, because the Kodo drummers are getting younger, and everyone has a different background.”
Kodo’s latest show is Legacy which sees the troupe revisit many signature pieces from across their history.
“Legacy features a lot of classical pieces, and it shows the essence, the DNA of Kodo that we’ve carried for four decades, but it also has a lot more dynamics. It’s a great mix of tradition and innovation. It’s Kodo 2.0!
“Most of the members now are very young – the average age is 24 – and these are pieces that have been performed since before we were born. It’s a new generation looking at the Kodo tradition.”
Discussing how taiko’s appeal transcends cultural divides to appeal to everyone, Ryotaro says: “The drums have been used in spiritual, religious ways, but drums in general exist in every culture around the world. It is the most primal instrument, and the simplest form of instrument. We all have this primal, tribal instinctual reaction to drums. That’s why taiko drumming appeals to everyone around the world.
“Also, Kodo has a double meaning – it means ‘children of the drum’ and it also means ‘heartbeat’ – because taiko drums sound like the mother’s heartbeat that we’ve all heard in our mother’s womb. We all have this shared memory.” ●●Kodo: Legacy visits Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, on Friday February 14. For tickets call 024 7652 4524 or see warwickartscentre.co.uk