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Monday, 28th April, 2008

Interview of Mr. Asano by Takafumi Suzuki
Special thanks to Hiroko Torigoe

The thrilling beat of the drums! Akitoshi Asano, who formed Asano Drums(Asano Taiko) into a company, is the 17th generation to hold the Asano name. He is one of the driving forces behind bringing Japanese taiko drums to the world, but the drums themselves are steeped in their local area. PingMag MAKE talked to Mr. Asano about the motivations behind his achievements.

Huge taiko bodies line the factory floor

When was Asano founded?

In 1609. In those days we made armour and saddles. Drum-making was based on that, and has been passed down the generations. We made shamisen and bags and such, as well.

So when did you start to really focus on Japanese taiko drums?

35 years ago (in 1972). From around 40 years ago or so drumming gradually started to become a performance art.

So in those days drumming wasn’t really a very popular form of entertainment?

That’s right. Performance drumming really started to take off in around 1973. The guys on Sado island made a great effort in getting Ondekoza going. That was the beginning. Renting concert halls, selling tickets and performing for money. Up until then the taiko had been performed at festivals or events, but not on stage as entertainment.

So before then you just made leather goods?

No, no, we farmed as well (laughs). Even when I was in my late 30s we had to farm the fields and make drums too. In the old days, the family would divide up the work in the fields and leather work. If you got the harvesting done before 10 o’clock, you’d be making drums whenever time allowed. In those days the pace was slow though, so making drums kept us busy. Taiko became the mainstay when I formed the company in 1970.

Why did you decide to focus on taiko?

Asano drums have always been very high quality. That was a lot down to my father. And the water from Hakusan Mountain here is very clear, and makes wonderful leather. And on top of that, there’s a festival here called “Mushi Okuri” where the drums must make a higher-pitched “shan-shan” sound, different to the usual “ton-ton” of a regular taiko. To get that sound you must tune the drum to a point just before it breaks, so a high level of technical know-how just developed naturally. And also, in the Edo period, if there were no top-knotch leather craftsmen, there was no good quality armour. In those days there were bullets flying and swords swinging, so you didn’t want to mess around. So the leather workers would use drum-making to polish their skills.

I imagine you need to know about sound to make a drum. Did your father teach you that?

Yes, that’s right. I had to help out from around 3rd grade. I hated it. The tannery smelled awful from the fermenting rice-bran they used. I couldn’t stand that smell. And my father was really strict. If the left side of the drum made a slightly different sound to the rightside, all hell was to pay. Even if the festival was the very next day, I’d have to take off the leather and start again. But it’s thanks to those days that I learnt to feel the sound with my fingertips.

It’s quite unique that you have managed to promote the taiko as both a cultural asset and a business. I imagine balancing the two has been quite difficult?

It is difficult, yes. Right now we keep things going with 5 different activities - the factory, a shop, a magazine, a research hall and a practise hall. It just so happened that I’ve got the sound in my fingertips, and if I’m going to make taiko, I know they’ve got to be the real thing. And so as a businessman I need to make that profitable.

Does that make you challenge every possibilitiy as you go about bringing in new ideas?

No, no - it’s not so much about my own ideas, as that fact that I’ve simply been passed all this by past generations, and now it’s my turn to look after it. It’s a relay race, where I’ve been given the baton to pass on to the next generation. But if I’m going to pass it on, I might as well make it as good as I can, that’s all. Happily the results have turned out ok. But it’s not as splendid as you make it sound.

Even so, I think you have a very active point of view.

When we started this company we had no money, I had 4 kids and a tiny little car and things were really tight. Back then, I got the chance to go to Boston, thanks to the drums, and saw a performance with taiko competing against an orchestra. We only had rice to eat in those days, but in Boston there were people on the roadside eating celery in sandwiches (laughs), and people drumming after running a 40 km marathon that same morning…. it gave me lots to think about. (laughs)

You must need a huge amount of energy to build up a drum facility as big as this.

One thing was to make something that would break through the prejudice against leather workers, bacause leather work has been connected to social discrimination problems for many years. If I built a big, beautiful facility they wouldn’t be able to say anything. Forming the Hono Drums was the same. The company image changed once the Hono Drums became famous. In the old days, it was inconceivable that a highschool girl would join a leather company after graduating. I just wanted the world to know about taiko, and so I went for it with all I’ve got.

Leather drum skin before attaching        Carvings complete the drums

The Hono Daiko perform amazing drumming all over the world now, but what made you decide to form the group in the first place?

I knew Ondekoza and The Kodo Drummers, and saw them go out into the world, and always wondered if I couldn’t do something too. Then by chance the girls that became the Hono Drums came to see me. At first I just thought, well, if they perform at a few banquets and it goes down ok, that’s enough. But they got better and better. They were invited to Washington, and Red Square in Moscow, and Mongolia, and Senegal, and Cuba, to applause wherever they went. But back then, even though they weren’t famous yet, Kozue Hibino made them costumes, and Kansai Yamamoto directed them – so a lot was thanks to all their help.

3-woman taiko unit is pretty neat.

In the old days, women weren’t even allowed to touch the drums. If a woman beat a shrine drum she’d be in deep trouble. But I think women are strong, so man or woman, doesn’t make much difference to me. Some women make better drums and carvings than the men. There are about 40 women working here, which is about half of the employees.

Mr. Asano checks the sound with his fingertips

I’d like to keep the traditional sound alive. Recently a lot of cheap synthetic drums from China and elsewhere are on the market. But you know, there are sounds that only wood from the keyaki tree (Japanese Zelcova) can produce. So I’m determined we stick with keyaki. I started planting a keyaki woodland area five years ago. In fifty, eighty, a hundred years it should mature into a fine keyaki forest. I only wish I’d started planting sooner! (laughs)

Asano Taiko
587-1 Fukudome, Hakusan city, Ishiakwa

Akitoshi Asano
Born in Hakusan-city, Ishikawa. Asano Taiko President.