Taiko, Part 1

St. Louis Osuwa Taiko is the fixture at the Japanese Festival (along with the sake, of course). It's a high-energy mix of percussion and choreography (short video here) and definitely for the fit. More of them when they take the stage at the garden's amphitheater. 
             

Kampai!

Next topic: the Japanese Festival at Missouri Botanical Garden, um, just two weeks ago. At the opening ceremony the Consul General of Japan in Chicago, Toshiyuki Iwado, Mayor Francis Slay and other dignitaries broke open a cask of sake and passed samples to VIPs (which did not include your faithful photographer). There is no L sound in Japanese and, to the constant amusement of those who speak European languages, even the most educated struggle with it. Consul Iwado, whose English was otherwise flawless, offered his congradruations and invited guests to have a sip from their wooden grasses.

Then they passed some snorts to the entertainers. Nothing better than taiko drummers sloshed on rice wine. I think of the bottom pic as the Three Graces.                    

Bard of Avon vs. Drummer of Tokyo

We think of Shakespeare as so very English. Entertainment in this nation of immigrants comes from all over the world. So it's not surprising that part of the green show diversions was Japanese.

Osuwa Taiko is the local troupe performing a traditional Nihongo art. It's hard to sit or stand still when they perform (except for the fact that I am the clumsiest person you may ever meet). The rhythms are as complex as any you may hear in Africa or Brazil. The energy is - well - above my current capacity.

The drummers bellow Japanese words at peak moments. Now, my Japanese is more than nothing but less than something. I once introduced myself to a rural hotel clerk in reasonably correct Japanese, a very simple thing to do. He bellowed at me: sugoi!  Which means amazing! Even though I couldn't understand a damn thing he said after that the connection felt so good.

Apologies for so few comments this week. When we start law school in the US they teach a bunch of old English legal aphorisms. One of them says that the law is a jealous mistress. She's really biting my ass this week.                          

Zombie Taiko Drummer & Friends

These shots are from the outdoor taiko performance later in the day. It was not until I started to edit that I noticed the performer in the orange jacket periodically rolled his eyes way up, to the point the irises were almost invisible. Spooky, No idea what it meant.       

Taiko!

Labor Day Weekend brings the annual Japanese Festival to the Missouri Botanical Garden. We went on Monday since the earlier days of the weekend were unbearably hot. Unfortunately, things were winding down a bit with one big exception.

The performers of Osuwa Taiko are always the hit of the festival. Osuwa means that the sensei or teacher who founded it was from the town of Suwa, Japan. The letter "O" at the beginning of a word indicates that it is given special respect. For example, the word for tea in Japanese is cha, but everybody calls it ocha because it's a big deal in the culture.

Anyway, taiko is always exciting, as demonstrated in the video below. It also looks physically exhausting and taxing to the memory (no sheet music for these long, rhythmically complex pieces.). We had never seen it performed in the garden's auditorium before.  Maybe tomorrow we'll get to the outdoor show.

I'm always afraid that I'll run into my Japanese teacher at this event. She was a taskmistress. Every time I'd make another stupid mistake in class she would glare at me and say hontou? (Really?)