Page "Taiko" Paragraph 45

Modern taiko was established in 1951 by Daihachi Oguchi.

He is credited with forming the first actual Taiko ensemble referred to as kumi-daiko and starting the modern popularity of Taiko performances.

Daihachi Oguchi was originally known for his jazz drumming performances.

As the story goes, he was going to play a drumming piece for one of the local shrines and decided to add somewhat of a jazz-style flair to the piece.

Coming from a jazz background, Daihachi Oguchi speculated why the Taiko drums had never previously been played as an ensemble before.

From this simple idea Daihachi Oguchi put together various Taiko of all different shapes, sizes, and pitches to be included in his ensemble.

The drums were also arranged in the same type of manner that a jazz drum set would be expected to look like.

Since an actual Taiko ensemble had never really performed together and the people he had playing with him were in no way professional musicians, he based the rhythms of their performance on the simplistic arrangement of the shrine music that had been previously played ; which allowed for nearly any person with the interest in Taiko could play along.

It was from the foundation of the first Taiko ensemble that Daihachi Oguchi continued on to lead the successful Taiko group named Osuwa Daiko.

At 84 years old, Daihachi Oguchi died on June 27, 2008, after being hit by a car across from his home in Nagano, Japan.

Oguchi is widely attributed as the GrandMaster of modern Taiko.

He formed or helped to form nearly 200 taiko groups in Japan, Singapore, Canada and the U. S.