New York Wadaiko (Japanese drumming) concert 2002.

Nagisa Taiko participated "New York Wadaiko concert 2002" in May 4-5, 2002.




Central park:
Nagisa Taiko presented the opening performance of the event which 14 drumming team from Japan participated.
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Battery park:
Under the blue sky, many Japanese Taiko teams gave the sound of Taiko drums to the people in New York.




--- Many press reported our event as follows: ---
Healing to the Rumble of Drums
Japanese taiko showcase brings goodwill to the city

Akisada Matsumuro was worried.

"The stage is trembling," he noted with a nervous laugh. "I hope it will not crack."

Five young performers from the Fukuoka-based drumming ensemble Kawasuji Daiko Rakkoza had kicked off their Sunday set, destabilizing a small, mobile trailer- stage. The cherub-faced drummers couldn't have weighed more than 500 pounds in total, but each strike to cowhide felt like a rumbling two-ton punch. Seconds into their first song, a hard-charging number called "Iroai" (different colors), the platform was bobbing with the beat. In the tradition of the Japanese drumming form known as taiko, you could feel as much as hear the music.

Matsumuro was the organizer of this showcase, part of a string of free concerts presented Sunday and Monday in Battery Park and Central Park. The taiko (also spelled daiko and wadaiko) performances had been planned a few months after Sept. 11, a gesture of cultural goodwill to the city.

"It originated from the idea to cheer up the American people," said Matsumuro, whose "Japanese Drum Concerts in New York" solicited volunteers from the top amateur circles in Japan. "Three hundred people raised their hand," he said.

About half of them were able to make the trip. The first wave arrived Friday night at Kennedy Airport, accompanied by enough instruments to fill a midsize delivery truck. The drummers ranged from old salts to elementary school students to a particularly precocious 3-year-old.

It was a motley crew in attire alone: One male teenage drummer wore baggy jeans and a T-shirt announcing "Wanton Mutiny." Members from another taiko group had on ties and business suits. The Ikari crew from Osaka sported uniform bleach-brown hair and flashy blue and gray jumpsuits.

"I was scared," Ikari drummer Ryutaro Shimogori said of the trip to New York. The 28-year-old social welfare worker arrived with the first wave from Japan and helped transport dozens of heavy wooden drums to storage in midtown. "But I was looking forward to it," he added.

Taiko's history dates back at least 1,400 years, and it has experienced varied incarnations in village life, ancient wars and religious ceremonies. In the past 50 years, it has been increasingly celebrated as performing art in its own right and its theatrical, synchronized style found an eager crowd Sunday in Battery Park.

With a cloudless sky overhead, seven groups pounded out popular taiko standards as well as more intricate works. Young and old called out kiais (guttural cues) and struck dons (bassy direct hits) and kas (rim clacks) to the accompaniment of passing ferry horns, wandering street saxophonists and the rustle of the 25th annual Bike New York, which also started in the park.

"Woo-hoo," said a passing cyclist, after a set by Nagisa Taiko, a group whose song names reference varieties of sake, the rice-based Japanese alcohol. "That was great."

Reception party:
All 14 Taiko teams joined and enjoyed the party.

Manhattan:

Good bye, New York!: