Yamato

Based in the thousand-year-old Asuka village, and with the musical instrument Wadaiko as its core, Yamato looks for new expressions in drumming.  We aren’t trying to inherit or pass on the traditional music of ancient times, but seek the creation of new Japanese stage performance based on Wadaiko.

Drums have existed since time immemorial and their sound never fails to stir people, whatever their age, language or origin.  When we, the Taiko drummers of Yamato, play our drums, we pour our hearts into them so that their sound will echo our beating pulse, which is the resounding essence of all living things.  When we perform in front of an audience, we feel the power and warmth of life’s rhythm, found in every corner of the earth, giving courage and strength to those who accept life as it is.

Yamato’s drummers must first find the ‘heart tone’ of the sound.  We try to expose the very heart of life, which is beating inside our bodies and is the origin of performance energy.  It is the heartbeat of a lonely runner, beating hard in his smooth flesh, and the embodiment of the soul that strongly supports it.   You can’t see it with your eyes, or touch it with your hands, but it exists beyond a doubt.  Our intensive training helps us make this heartbeat reverberate the world over, sometimes with gentleness, sometimes with overpowering force. For the drummers of Yamato, it is a celebration of the sound inherited by humankind at the beginning of time.

Yamato’s drums sound in places where people gather.  When the drummers’ beating resonates with the audiences’ heartbeats, ripples from their hearts gently overlap each other.  In this moment of performance, when an ‘encounter’ happens in space and time, great forward energy is generated, giving us the strength to continue on the journey of creation and expression.  This feeling is what we wish to share with our audiences. 

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