Saying goodbye to Sendai, returning to Tokyo and a last session, interview & more eating with Oedo Sukeroku!
Today we travelled back to Tokyo having had an emotional goodbye with Mr Kubo and his family…I will hold that place in my heart…so many conversations, smiles, connections…it seems strange to leave after so little time, but it was “see you again soon” rather than goodbye. Jonathan and I were rather quiet on the train ‘home’.
But thankfully there was not much time to be glum; we had an hour back at base before heading off to Kanda station for the last time. We were going for our last session with Oedo Sukeroku, and although the taiko playing was rich with content and new things to work on, I suspect it will be the hour spent before that, talking, that will have had the greatest impact on me. Seido & Yuriko Kobayahsi, Mizuho Zako, Jonathan and I sat around the Oedo Sukeroku table and talked honestly about what it means to play wadaiko, where it comes from, what it says, how it’s said…some of the conversation will stay with me for a long time in my taiko life…one of the longest-serving wadaiko founders talking to me about why he teaches young people, what he thinks of taiko being played in Europe by non-Japanese folk, why he first played taiko…it blew me away, and I have learned so much from the experience…One of my favourites: “Let the taiko talk”.
So, after our session, a few of us headed down the street and did what taiko players do best…eat, drink and talk taiko! More conversations I never knew I would have…about taiko group splits, new directions, visions for the future, and it was great to have Masashi tell us that our way of doing things in the UK made him think of things in a new way, that we were giving them challenges to think about too…it wasn’t just the one-way street I feared it would all be considering our positions down the taiko road…more beers, and big hugs to say goodbye to some friends I didn’t know only a week ago…the taiko world getting smaller, thankfully, and stronger…makes me very happy to be part of it.
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