A Different Perspective on Stress

Stress-busters: These Drums Play You
Janice Rosenberg

Ten women dressed in tights and big T-shirts stand in a circle in the basement of the Center Gym in Moab, Utah. Counting aloud in Japanese, stretching and flexing their fingers, they gather energy for an evening of Taiko drumming. At the signal from leader Margaret Hopkins, each moves into place beside a barrel-sized drum, picks up her bachi sticks, and stretches tall. A back beat player begins slowly on a smaller drum. As she picks up speed, her thunderous pounding issues a spiritual call that the 10 women answer.

Grinning with pleasure and swirling like dancers, the women begin to move with grace and power through the throbbing rhythms of the first song, their traditional routine, "Twelve Skins." They follow a choreographed configuration around the room, occasionally shouting out Japanese commands and pausing only to beat the drums in powerful, complex patterns.

Here in Moab, population 4,779, a small group of women have dedicated several evenings each week for the past 10 years to learning and performing the modern art of Taiko drumming. Music therapist Annette Kearl founded the Moab Taiko group, or dojo, seven years ago after learning the art from Tiffany Tamaribuchi, master drummer and artistic director of Sacramento Taiko Dan in California. Kearl has since left Moab, and today Margaret Hopkins, principal of the Helen M. Knight Intermediate School, leads the Moab Taiko Dan. The group performs frequently, recently for the opening of the Moab Film Festival.

"When I first heard the drums I was riveted," Hopkins says. "Drumming is a good exercise. There's also the music and the element of community with the other drummers. And it can have a therapeutic and healing effect. We work to achieve the drum songs in our bodies so much that it almost feels like the songs play us."

Drumming has been a part of Japanese culture for more than 2,000 years. Individual drums were used to rouse soldiers on the battlefield, entertain court royalty, send signals across long distances, and accompany both Buddhist and Shinto ceremonies.

Modern Taiko ensemble playing began in 1951 when jazz drummer Daihachi Oguchi organized Japan's first ensemble dojo. In 1968 his apprentice Seiichi Tanaka started the first North American Taiko dojo in San Francisco. Currently there are about 150 Taiko dojos in the United States and Canada (see taiko.com).

Tiffany Tamaribuchi, a disciple of Tanaka, says drummers increase their endurance by learning and training, but must also run, swim, or practice yoga to maintain the physical stamina needed to play well. Taiko also has spiritual as well as health benefits.

"Taiko is a meditative process, much like Zen," Tamaribuchi says. "How you play impacts your life and the things you do in your life impact how you play."