After yesterday's conference in Hiroshima, I went back to Hiroshima this morning, to play taiko with Furutaka-daiko at Yoshijima, at the 'Etajima Kaki Matsuri' (Oyster Festival) held every year. The members who were free today were the good (i.e., non-cliquey) group, so I was looking forward to playing and to spending the day with them.
We caught the ferry from Kirikushi across to Ujina- the ferry is always a pleasant change from the cramped kosokutei from Koyo- and, having driven round to Yoshijima, set all of our taiko up. With six big taiko, two smaller shime-daiko, two middle-sized drums, and all the bases and stands, this actually takes longer than you might think. We were due to play three times- at the opening of the festival, then an hour later and two hours after that- and so we duly changed, and went on stage for our first performance. 'Matsuri daiko' went well (although somehow I managed to hit my knuckle hard enough to draw blood), but just as we finished the first drops of rain started to fall. By this time, though, the Mayor had taken the stage for his opening speech, so we had to wait, hoping that the rain wouldn't soak the taiko too much (and ruin the skin). In the end, it started raining hard enough that we had to fetch the taiko off the stage while the Mayor was still speaking.
Actually, the Mayor's speech merits mention. Going on stage just after we'd left it, he started by telling everyone all about me- that I worked for the town, that I was from England and a graduate of Oxford University, that I really enjoyed Etajima, and (rather unnecessarily, perhaps) that I played taiko. I was rather embarrassed, but it meant that any number of people came up to me afterwards just to say hello, or to tell me I played taiko well, so perhaps it wasn't so bad after all. I was also rather gratified that the Mayor saw fit to speak about me like this.
The rain stopped fairly soon afterwards, and so we all went for a stroll around the stalls. The girls bought everyone squid-on-a-stick, which turned out to be unintentionally hilarious because the hollow inside of the squid was filled with sauce, which made eating it rather troublesome! Oshita-kun and I, meanwhile, bought everyone mochi with bean paste inside. We were going to queue for oysters, too, but then we realised that it was only five minutes until our next performance.
The second and final performances were supposed to be three tunes each, and so we duly started playing, starting with 'Santoko' (with Oshita-kun and I on the kirin- the raised taiko), and going on to 'Matsuri Daiko'. Just as we started 'Matsuri Daiko', though, the heavens opened again; we made it to the end of the tune, but abandoned 'Miyake Daiko', and rushed to get the taiko off the stage before they were ruined completely. After that, it was obvious that the rain wasn't going to let up, so we called it a day, changed out of our uniforms, and went off for okonomiyaki in a little shop nearby. The okonomiyaki there, with negi and sesame topping, was damn good indeed, especially eaten from the teppan (hotplate). Afterwards, the girls went back to our 'dressing room', while Omatsu-san, Kawanoue-san, Oshita-kun and I drove into the centre of Hiroshima to visit the Taiko Centre. Well, the first centre we visited had been turned into a motorbike showroom, so we went on to the second taiko centre, just by the Atomic Bomb Dome... that wasn't there either. We did learn this time, though, that it hadn't gone out of business, but that it had moved to Dobashi, a couple of tram-stops away. We'd all bought umbrellas earlier, so we decided to walk, and eventually, having wandered around most of Hiroshima (it seemed), and asked a policeman (who had no idea), we stumbled across the 6th chome (neighbourhood division) of Sakai-machi, which somewhat illogically was sandwiched between the 2nd chome and the 3rd chome, and found the Taiko Centre. I'm not sure it was worth it, though, because there were no taiko at all, only the smallest range of taiko accessories (all inordinately expensive), and the man 'in charge' made it clear he knew nothing about taiko, and moreover had no interest in helping us. In the end (after a rather angry phone call from the girls, who hadn't expected us to be gone for so long) we walked back through the Peace Park, empty in the rain, and drove back to Yoshijima.
The taiko group seems to exist in a way more as a dining club than as a taiko group. When we play at festivals, etc., we (as a group) get paid, but afterwards we always go for something to eat with the money we've 'earned'. Notwithstanding the fact that we'd eaten huge okonomiyaki just a few hours earlier, on the way back to Ujina Port having packed up all the taiko, we stopped off for sushi at the place when one of the high school girls who plays in our group works part-time. It wasn't bad sushi at all, but I for one was still full enough not to need more than four or five plates. At least after we'd unloaded all of the taiko at Seinen-no-ie, nobody suggested going for something more to eat; we went to karaoke at Etajima Bowl instead... for three whole hours. A fun day.
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