Tohoku students to play 'drums for rebuilding' in Germany

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture—After their percussion instruments were destroyed in last year’s tsunami, students at Ogatsu Junior High School here replaced them using old tires.

Now, the 31 students are preparing to perform traditional “wadaiko” shows in Germany with their hand-made drums that they call “fukko wadaiko” (circle drums for rebuilding).

Through the performances that start on March 16, the students want to send a message: “We lost our property, but we are hanging in there.”

The tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake swallowed the three-story school building.

Mitsuaki Sato, a wadaiko composer from the same prefecture, told the students in February not to be discouraged by their lost instruments.

“Use that anger in your performances,” Sato, 44, told them. “Don’t be shy.”

The fukko wadaiko drums consist of tires wrapped in clear vinyl tape. When the tape weakens, the drums are simply rewrapped.

The students use rolling pins instead of drumsticks.

Masayuki Kamiyama, the 44-year-old head of the Date no Kurofune-daiko (black-ship drumming) preservation group, has been teaching the students the techniques for traditional wadaiko drumming.

After the tsunami, Kamiyama nearly abandoned hope of keeping the tradition alive at the school, but words of encouragement from headmaster Junichi Sato changed his mind.

“We will prepare new drums,” Sato told the teacher.

The students performed fukko wa daiko in front of JR Tokyo Station in November last year. Footage of the performance was sent to a Germany-Japan society based in Wolfsburg. From there, arrangements were made to have the children perform in Germany.

The concerts will be held in five cities, including Wolfsburg and Berlin.

First-year student Rina Takahashi, 13, said she is looking forward to the trip to Europe.

“The harder I practiced, the more eager I felt to perform and convey our message,” she said.