Drumming up irresistible energy

Japan's 'demon drummers' cocked a snook at the weather gods recently by ignoring the storms and creating their own thunder.

Members of Ondekoza pounded on a giant 300-kilogram wooden taiko (drum) and struck okedo-taiko, smaller, barrel-like drums once featured widely in folk dances and now used in kabuki plays.

In the midst of this uproar, the trembling strains of a bamboo flute filtered through, evoking images of a rainbow. With a little concentration, one could even have seen the sun.

'During training, I run a lot, so I see a lot of beautiful sunrises,' said Yasuko Takakubo, 30, one of Ondekoza's two female members. 'I run even when it's cold. But when the sun rises, I feel very warm. My body remembers these experiences and it comes out when I'm playing my music.' Running is an integral part of training for not only Takakubo but the rest of the troupe as well. In their 1975 debut in the United States, members put on a show immediately after completing the Boston Marathon. The group, founded in 1969 by Tagayasu Den on the Japanese island of Sado, also won fame with their 1990 Marathon Concert Tour across America. This event featured 13 performers running 15,000 kilometres around the US in 1,071 days, giving 355 concerts and wearing out 121 pairs of shoes.

'Running is a form of training of our physical and mental strength,' Den said. 'Thus, running and performance are inseparable.' During the marathon tour, Ondekoza picked up Kelvin Underwood, 22, a musician from North Carolina. Entranced by their performance, he joined the group, vowing to learn taiko so he could blend Japanese sounds with his own to create something new. Back at the Japanese hot-spring town of Atami - where Ondekoza is now based - Underwood soon learnt not only the language of the land but also its rhythms.

While his membership in Ondekoza may jar the expectations of Japanese-music fans, neither he nor his colleagues consider it a problem. Sometimes, though, 'promoters ask: why are there foreigners in a group billed as Japanese?' said Shigeru Yamamoto, 33, who joined Ondekoza primarily because of his love of running. 'There have been foreigners since the very start of Ondekoza - from Europe, America, even Guinea,' Underwood said. 'And when the group goes to the US, Canada or Europe, there's a guy from Switzerland, Marco Lienhard, who joins us as a guest on shakuhachi (bamboo flutes Zen Buddhist monks used to play as part of their meditative exercises).' Apart from drums and the haunting, sometimes sinister, sounds of the shakuhachi, Ondekoza's music incorporates cymbal-like chappa, the shamisen or plucked lute, and the koto, a 13-string harp. For fun, the performers also play the violin or banjo and use abacuses, knives and toy drums as percussion instruments. This playfulness distinguishes Ondekoza from some of Japan's more famous drum troupes, among them Kodo and Oedo Sukeroku. Underwood added: 'Ondekoza has more power and energy and excitement.

Kodo and other groups are stoic. They're very serious. In Ondekoza, there's humour and there are a lot of emotions.' In true Japanese style, Takakubo and Yamamoto are more subtle in describing how Ondekoza differs from other troupes. While Takakubo attempts to express Den's overarching message of intercultural understanding, Yamamoto talks about using drums to energise listeners. There are inevitable similarities between Ondekoza and Kodo, however, if only because Den founded both troupes. While drummers from the commune he established on Sado island tour as Kodo, the breakaways were called Ondekoza, a play on the word oni, which means 'devil'. In reality, though, the performers are better described as mischievous imps.