Taiko drumming in America

1. Hiryu Sandan Gaeshi
2. Soh Daiko
 3. U.S. New York City but originally Japan
4. Taiko ensemble, aerophones, membranophones, idiophones,

Hiryu Sandan Gaeshi is one of the first songs a novice taiko drummer learns. In honor of the grandmaster of Taiko, Daihachi Oguchi, taiko esnembles around the world posted their videos of the song. You can find groups from the U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan, and all over the world performing this song each in their own way. Taiko drumming has taken on it's own cultural significance beyond that of traditional taiko drum use. Taiko in the modern sense is more a combination of drumming and martial arts that is an entertaining visual and aural experience.

I had the opportunity to learn taiko drumming from a colleague who has since moved to San Diego and started the La Jolla taiko ensemble. He went to a  Japan on a grant to learn taiko drumming several year back and returned to teach taiko drumming.

  When considering Koops' (2010) models of authenticity there are a number of things to consider. When viewing authenticity as a continuum, it becomes difficult to discover the "home setting" of this music. Is it most authentic to consider taiko drumming's home setting as Japan? What about previous uses for the taiko drum for ceremonies and as a village symbol? Can modern taiko drumming be truly authentic at all? The continuum model doesn't particularly makes sense for this music and leads to either dismissing the multiple manifestations of the music across the globe or creating miniature pockets of "authentic taiko for region  X  ". 

    The historical and personal model does leave room for the variety's of expression found in the many youtube versions of Hiryu Sandan Gaeshi. Attempting to maintain historical authenticity for modern tiako drumming, however, would require a great deal of money as each taiko drum is 1,000s of dollars. In a school setting if would be difficult to provide such and experience, but there would be value in learning the rhythms and arm motions of taiko drumming with an aural learning approach.
 
   The reproduction, reality, and relevance model does make sense in trying to maintain the original approach (each taiko group in the Hiryu project does some things similarly owing to the original intent set down by Daihachi Oguchi). It is also important to maintain reality. If I was teaching taiko drumming, it would be important for the experience to be realistic to what other, professional and semi-professional taiko ensembles do, omitting the shouts heard in taiko drumming or the oportunities for improvisation would be to deny a realistic experience.

  In the end, I think Ramos has a good point in getting beyond authenticity. Music is not a static product and there is no "ideal" taiko music. Yes, we should attempt to recreate the music in a realistic and relevant way, but trying to "recreate" authentic taiko drumming would miss the point that music is ever evolving. Simply watching a few taiko examples shows that there are some important aspects of taiko drumming that should be honored, but there is room for individuality for the ensemble. That is part of the global reality made possible by new technologies.