The next tranche of the streamed films from the Japanese Film Foundation independent cinema has been released and I’ve just watched Shiver.
Shiver is a music film that shows off the astonishing performance of a world famous taiko troupe - Kodō.
Kodō, a Japanese taiko performance troupe which travels around and entertains the world, is based in Sado island, located off the coast of Niigata Prefecture in central Japan. The taiko is a traditional Japanese drum with limitless rhythmic possibilities.
Contemporary musician, Koshiro Hino stayed on the island for a month and composed songs for Kodō. The film is a record of the performance of these pieces, and directed by Toyoda Toshiaki.
With mystical lands and mythology as background, the entirety of the film is made of performance footage, interspersed natural imagery and mythical intimations. The film follows an arc of intensity building throughout, with a turning point midway through with the most moving and powerful song piece. The phenomenal skills of the entire group beating the drums without the slightest hitch or disruption is a breathtaking sight. They beat and breathe as one.
This is elemental, mythical, magical and mesmerising playing from beginning to end. Having seen the Kodō perform in London many years ago the sheer power and precision of their performance came flooding back.
Living and training as Kodō
Kodō live and train on a solitary island in Japan called Sado island. They spend a third of the year touring the world, a third of the year touring Japan and the rest of the year in Sado island. They have kept up this routine for several decades. Though Kodō’s history is long, the average age of the performers are young and they are gmainly in men and women in their thirties and twenties. (When I saw them in London several decades ago now, there were only men drumming, so progress there).
In the early 1970’s, in the days of student revolt, Kodō had a youthful dream to build a school for the traditional Japanese performing arts and crafts (Nihon Kai Daigaku, The Sea of Japan College). Sado Islanders’ receptiveness to that dream encouraged the original members to move here. To achieve this goal the group needed to develop the necessary resources and so ‘Sado no Kuni, Ondekoza’ was established and set out to bring the sound of the Japanese taiko to the world.
In 1981 the group re-launched under the name ‘Kodo’ and eventually moved to their current home on the Ogi peninsula, Kodo Village. In this beautiful natural environment Kodo is developing a centre devoted to creativity and exchange.
Kodo’s mission is to explore these possibilities, and in the process forge new directions for a vibrant living art-form.
In Japanese, the word “Kodo” holds a double meaning. It can be translated as “heartbeat,” the primal source of all rhythm. Indeed, the great taiko is thought to be reminiscent of a mother’s heartbeat as felt from the womb, and babies are often lulled to sleep by its thunderous vibrations. If read in a different context however, Kodo can also mean “children of the drum,” which reflects the group’s desire to play the drums with the simple heart of a child.
Gratitude
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