Ondekoza (鬼太鼓座 ) ("demon drum group"), sometimes referred to as "Za Ondekoza", is a Japanese troupe specializing in taiko drumming.
Members of Ondekoza reside together in a living facility in the city of
Fuji, in Shizuoka, Japan. Based on Den Tagayasu's principle of "running
and drumming as one", running is a central part of the lifestyle of
Ondekoza members. As a means of physical and mental training, members
run twice a day, once in the early morning, and again in the afternoon.
Since the founding years of the group, Ondekoza members have competed in
various marathons in Japan and the United States.
Founded in 1969 by Den Tagayasu, in Sado island, Japan. Ondekoza was influential in the rise of the kumi-daiko
(group taiko) style of taiko. Not a taiko player himself, Tagayasu
helped transform taiko from a festival-based music form to a virtuosic
performance art performed on stage.
Part of a larger movement to rediscover Japanese folk art,
Tagayasu brought together a group of young men and women to Sado Island
to study and live. Largely without formal musical training, the
original members lived communally in an old school house while studying
taiko, shamisen, koto, minyo (folk music), and traditional dance.
The lifestyle was austere and rigorous with most days beginning with a
run before breakfast and filled with study and practice.
One of the keys to the groups success was the arrangement of traditional
melodies and styles into stylized, artistic musical pieces. Examples of
these are their songs yataibayashi, based on the Chichibu festival and hachijo and miyake based on the drum patterns from Hachijo Island and Miyake Island. Also groundbreaking was the Odaiko (Large Drum) solo,
a musical piece focused largely on one performer with only minimal
background drumming and percussion. Den Tagayasu and Ondekoza's
arrangements of these pieces, and their associated playing styles, have
been popularized by their widespread use by other taiko groups
throughout Japan and the United States.
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