Carpe Diem #845 Niihama Taiko Festival

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I promised you earlier that I would announce our kukai winner, but during lack of time I haven't had the possibility to look at all of your votes. My apologies for that inconvenience I hope to publish the results later this week.

Today I have a wonderful festival to share, at least in my opinion, because I am a big fan of the Taiko (a kind of Japanese drum). Today we will visit the Niihama Taiko Festival. Let me tell you a little bit more about this festival.

Each year, from October 16th to 18th, the city of Niihama in Ehime Prefecture holds the Niihama Taiko Matsuri (drum festival) to give thanks for an abundant autumn harvest. Forty-seven floats, called taiko-dai, are paraded through the five districts of Niihama in a festival dating back 300 years. During the three days of the festival, the streets of Niihama fill with over 350,000 visitors to watch this annual event. Each 17 foot high, 36 foot long taiko-dai is a 2.5-ton float. About 150 men bear each heavy taiko-dai on their shoulders through the streets of Niihama in a competition for the best carrying style. In the middle of each float is a large taiko drum that gives the float its name. The drum is beat rhythmically throughout the night to urge on the float bearers who are dressed in the uniforms of Edo era firemen. (The Edo era lasted from 1600 to 1868.) Each taiko-dai float is elaborately embroidered with expensive gold and silver thread with designs such as dragons, wild birds, famous buildings, or characters from legend. The design of each taiko-dai is chosen by the Niihama neighborhood that sponsored the float and construction can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many neighborhoods chose designs that adorn the float with dozens of paper lanterns. You can see a video clip of the Niihama festival at night with its thousands of glowing lanterns on the bouncing and spinning taiko-dai hereafter.

Wow ... what a wonderful festival don't you think so too. It's similar with e.g. Thanksgiving everywhere around the globe, but this Japanese Festival is really stunning.

I remembered a haiku which I wrote in spring 2014 as we were on a pilgrimage along the 88 temples on the island Shikoku. I love to share that haiku here again:

Japanese drums
resonate through the spring-night -
evil spirits flee

evil spirits flee
as prayers for compassion
resonate through the night

©  Chèvrefeuille

Or what do you think of this haiku written in November 2013:

Taiko drummers
in the midst of the night
chasing ghosts

chasing ghosts
with their strong drumming sound
Taiko drummers

© Chèvrefeuille

And this one which wrote recently:

parade of floats
under the blooming cherry trees
sound of Taiko drums

© Chèvrefeuille

the sound of taiko
makes me excited
what a joy

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until October 28th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, a new CD Special, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #423, Sankaku-ji (temple 65)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As we go on with our Shikoku Pilgrimage today we have walked the trail for over two-third of the total length ... Today we will visit the last temple in Ehime Prefecture, Sankaku-ji (temple 65). Sankaku-ji we will find in Shikokuchuo with a population of almost 95000 people. Shikokuchuo is mostly known for it's paper- and paper-products industry.
As in the most Japanese cities Shikokuchuo has its own mayor festival, the Doi Taiko (Japanese Drum) festival which takes place on 13 to 15th October every year.

Doi Taiko Festival

So, maybe we can visit this festival as we celebrate our second anniversary this October. As you maybe know its my goal to visit Japanese Festivals in October and so this Doi Taiko Dai we will see again.

As we are on our pilgrimage, there is no celebration at hand, but just a tough walk along the 88 temples on Shikoku Island.
Sankaku-ji is devoted to Juichimen Kannon, the boddhisattva of compassion, the Far Eastern equivalent of the Christian Virgin/Mother Mary.

Sankaku-ji (temple 65)

Its a tough climb to Sankaku-ji, we have to enter it by a stairway, a pilgrimage by itself. Well ... no one has ever said that a pilgrimage was easy so ... that we all know now.

Japanese drums
resonate through the spring-night -
evil spirits flee

evil spirits flee
as prayers for compassion
resonate through the night

compassionate
she ... the full moon of March
lights the dark night

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 19th 11.59 AM (CET). I will post our next episode, Unpen-ji (temple 66), later on.
Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun with us all.

Carpe Diem #117, Sakura (Japan)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today our final piece of our little musical trip around the world. Today we are visiting Japan, the land of haiku. The folkloric music of Japan is called Sakura, that's the prompt for today, and I will take you to the world famous Japanese drums of Taiko.

Sakura - Cherry Blossom

"Sakura Sakura" (さくら さくら?, "Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms"), also known as "Sakura", is a traditional Japanese folk song depicting spring, the season of cherry blossoms. Contrary to popular belief, the song did not originate in ancient times; it was a popular, urban melody of the Edo period and was adopted as a piece for beginning koto students in the Tokyo Academy of Music Collection of Japanese Koto Music issued in 1888 (in English) by the Department of Education.The song has been popular since the Meiji period, and the lyrics in their present form were attached then. It is often sung in international settings as a song representative of Japan. I will reproduce the song text here:

In Romaji:

sakura sakura
noyama mo sato mo
mi-watasu kagiri
kasumi ka kumo ka
asahi ni niou
sakura sakura
hana zakari

sakura sakura
yayoi no sora wa
mi-watasu kagiri
kasumi ka kumo ka
nioi zo izuru
izaya izaya
mini yukan

English translation:

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
In fields and villages
As far as you can see.
Is it a mist, or clouds?
Fragrant in the morning sun.
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
Flowers in full bloom.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
Across the spring sky,
As far as you can see.
Is it a mist, or clouds?
Fragrant in the air.
Come now, come now,
Let's look, at last!

And this is the music of Sakura, Sakura:

The Music of Sakura, Sakura

It's a song in praise of the Cherry Blossoms. The Cherry Blossom is a kigo (seasonword) for Spring and I will offer that prompt in our next month of Carpe Diem. March will have a prompt-list with classical Japanese kigo (as I did in December 2012 for Winter).

And so it sounds:

Another wonderful piece of Japanese music is the so called Taiko (Japanese Drums).
Taiko (太鼓?) means "drum" in Japanese (etymologically "great" or "wide drum"). Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums, (和太鼓, "wa-daiko", "Japanese drum", in Japanese) and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming (sometimes called more specifically, "kumi-daiko" (組太鼓)). The performances can last between 5 and 25 minutes and typically follow a jo-ha-kyū (beginning, middle, end/rapid, sudden, urgent, and emergency) structure, which means the performance will speed up significantly towards the grand finale.

Japanese taiko drums have been developed into a wide range of percussion instruments that are used in both Japanese folk and classical musical traditions.

Taiko, in general, are 3 sticks percussion instruments. With the exception of the "ko-tsuzumi" and "ō-tsuzumi", all taiko are struck with bachi. They have heads on both sides of the drum body, and a sealed resonating cavity. Taiko are also characterized by a high amount of tension on the drums heads, with a correspondingly high pitch relative to body size. This high tension likely developed in response to Japan's wet and humid summers when most festivals take place. Many taiko are not tunable, and a drum with high head tension would counteract the slacking effects of humidity.

A Taiko Drum

These Taiko drums are great and the perfomance with Taiko is almost better than the most Western music. An example of a Taiko performance:

In my country, The Netherlands, we have a Drum group called 'Slagerij Van Kampen', they perform on regular base all over the world and this is how that sounds:

Well ... isn't it wonderful to end our little musical trip around the world in Japan? (And a little bit of The Netherlands? :-) 

Is it possible to write haiku on this prompt? I don't know ... I hope so. I will give it a try and I hope you will too.

in praise of Cherries
a geisha is playing the Koto
singing Sakura

singing Sakura
wandering beneath the Cherry Trees
Ah! what a joy

drumming sounds
dancing through the streets
Taiko band playing

Taiko band playing
thoughts of Slagerij Van Kampen
East joins West

Really ... I have done it ... I have written a few haiku on our prompt for today ... what a relief. I hope you enjoyed reading this episode and I hope (for sure) that you did like the music I have shared here. Be inspired and creative ... follow the heartbeat of the Taiko drums to write and share your haiku on todays prompt.

This prompt will stay on 'till February 10th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new Carpe Diem Special written by Chiyo-Ni later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). Hereafter I will already share Chiyo-Ni's haiku for this Special.

harusame ya utsukushiu naru mono bakari

spring rain
everything just grows
more beautiful