{"id":1845,"date":"2014-10-10T11:47:40","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T02:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2014-10-10T11:54:54","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T02:54:54","slug":"kodo-apprentices-in-fall-striving-for-a-place-on-stage-by-tomohiro-mitome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/posts-by-kodo-ensemble-leader\/20141010_1845.html","title":{"rendered":"“Kodo Apprentices in Fall: Striving for a Place on Stage” by Tomohiro Mitome"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is Tomohiro Mitome, leader of taiko performing arts ensemble Kodo.<\/p>\n

Now it is October and it has started to get\u00a0chilly here on Sado Island.<\/p>\n

“Kodo One Earth Tour: Mystery” and the “School Workshop Performance” tour are currently traveling around Japan. Some of you may have seen these performances already or will see one or both\u00a0of them during these tours. Personally, I performed in the recent “Kodo Special Performances on Sado Island 2014: Autumn” series. Thank you very much to everyone who came along.<\/p>\n

This month, I would like to talk about the apprentices studying at Kodo Apprentice Centre in hopes of becoming a member of the Kodo ensemble.<\/p>\n

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Kodo Apprentice Centre in Spring<\/p><\/div>\n

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To become a Kodo performer, first you need\u00a0to complete\u00a0a\u00a0two-year apprenticeship at the Kodo\u00a0Apprentice Centre (which includes passing\u00a0selection to advance to the second year), and then on completion, you have\u00a0to pass a\u00a0final selection to join the Kodo ensemble. Those selected become “junior members” for approximately one year, during which they gain experience on stage and at\u00a0a range of venues. After this probationary period, there is a further selection stage, which if they pass, they are offered a position\u00a0as\u00a0fully-fledged Kodo members.
\nAt the Apprentice Centre, the apprentices get\u00a0up at 5:00am in summer and 5:30am in winter, carry out\u00a0cleaning duties, followed by\u00a0stretching\u00a0exercises and fitness training. After breakfast, they prepare the instruments required for the day’s practise and do warm-up exercises, then commence their morning practice. After lunch, they have afternoon practice, then\u00a0after dinner, they practice either together or individually. They go to bed at 10:00pm in summer and 10:30pm in winter. This is their typical\u00a0daily\u00a0schedule. Sometimes, they come to Kodo Village, which is 40km away,\u00a0to practice and do various tasks. On these days, they prepare a packed lunch to cut down on their meal time to accommodate the travel time.<\/p>\n

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At the Centre, the apprentices need to concentrate on the goal\u00a0they are working towards, so we think they do not need the distraction of mobile phones and other electronic devices. Direct communication and connecting with people\u00a0is a fundamental skill that\u00a0should not rely on texting, email or the internet. Communication without email and texting is similar to the communication we need to have\u00a0on stage. So that is why\u00a0mobile phones and internet capable devices of any kind are prohibited during the apprenticeship. The apprentices are very busy practising everyday, except on their one day-off a week, and everyday they feel like they need more time to do everything they need to do. This means that even those of\u00a0them who previously couldn’t live without mobile phones and computers\u00a0easily get used to spending their time without them once they enter our intensive apprenticeship\u00a0programme.<\/p>\n

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The first year apprentices started the programme in April, and now that about half a year has passed, at last they have gotten used to their new lifestyle and become “apprentice-like” to us. Currently, they are practising Yatai-bayashi<\/span> and Miyake<\/span>, which are both representative pieces of the Kodo repertoire, and they are getting to the stage where they can perform these pieces in full. As they\u00a0work on their basic training, they also\u00a0have been building up their physical and mental strength.<\/p>\n

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Basic training means\u00a0repetition, and while it may not be interesting\u00a0for them, this\u00a0is a very important practice period to form\u00a0their own individual\u00a0base. If you don’t have solid foundations, when\u00a0you try to build technique upon that base, it will just crumble away.<\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0the apprentices\u00a0practise playing Yatai-bayashi<\/span>\u00a0for\u00a0a long time, non-stop, because this piece requires physical strength to play in its entirety. If they don’t have enough\u00a0power,\u00a0the rhythm will become out of time, the sound will become weak, and it will be a really poor performance of\u00a0the\u00a0piece.<\/p>\n

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Now, it is very important for the first-year apprentices to do practise that will improve their physical strength, so they make themselves much stronger as they learn pieces and\u00a0do their basic training repetitively. If you practise properly over and over, then technique will follow.
\nMeanwhile, the second-year apprentices are\u00a0maintaining good physical strength, so now during their practice, we are helping them to improve their technique and instead of doing their best individually, we are instructing\u00a0them to perform\u00a0together as one\u00a0powerful ensemble. We spend a lot of time teaching them in detail about\u00a0making use of power, accents, and nuance in their playing.\u00a0A good ensemble is created by\u00a0each performer’s own skills.<\/p>\n

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\nOnly three months remain for second-year apprentices.<\/p>\n

For them, each day is more important than ever before as they work towards their final recital\u00a0in December, though there are also many fall events and harvest activities\u00a0for them to fit in\u00a0around concentrating on their practice. They all want to become Kodo members, so I hope that they will all come together as a team and do their best, without any regrets.
\nThe first-year apprentices will also face selection\u00a0to become second-year apprentices around the same time, so all the\u00a0apprentices are nervous going into the three months ahead.
\nIn\u00a0Japan, there is a saying that it\u00a0is not easy to improve one’s “mentality, technique and body.” I would like them to remember their hopes at the time when they first arrived at the Apprentice Centre, to imagine themselves standing on the Kodo stage, and to do their very best.<\/p>\n

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About Kodo Apprentice Centre<\/a><\/p>\n

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Application Procedure<\/a><\/p>\n

First Intake: Applications must arrive by\u00a0Nov. 18 (Tue), 2014
\n*A limited second intake may be offered after the first intake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Tomohiro Mitome, leader of taiko performing arts ensemble Kodo. Now it is October and it has started to get\u00a0chilly here on Sado Island. “Kodo One Earth Tour: Mystery” and the “School Workshop Performance” tour are currently traveling around Japan. Some of you may have seen these performances already or will see one or both\u00a0of them during these tours. Personally, I performed in the recent “Kodo Special Performances on Sado Island 2014: Autumn” series. Thank you very much to everyone who came along. This month, I would like to talk about the apprentices studying at Kodo Apprentice Centre in hopes of becoming a member of the Kodo ensemble. To … \u25b6\u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[48,32,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1956,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions\/1956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}