Unchanging Kodo

Reflections on Kodo's 30th Anniversary

2011 is the year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Kodo's founding and the 40th year since the establishment of Kodo's antecedent group, Sado no Kuni Ondekoza. I have been giving much thought to the things we need to value most and what it is we must do to assure that we may thrive for another fifty or one hundred years.

I am often told that “Kodo's performance never changes." I think one can bring two interpretations to this remark. One is that it is intended favorably, as in “It's wonderful that Kodo never changes!" but it can equally be interpreted as, “Same old routine, isn't it?" Whichever meaning one takes, I think it's important that people continue to remark that “Kodo never changes" and in order to accomplish this it is vital that we continually strive for improvement.

It goes without saying that we must deliver ever more physically powerful, passionate performances filled with variety. They must be charged with that expressive power and unchanging primal Kodo emotion we have become known for. Can we somehow dig deeper yet and achieve an even more finely honed kind of expression? I think that is the road to Kodo's continued success. If we make only changes to the surface of our performance the audience will see through it and as a group we will not survive.

Since the founding of Sado no Kuni Ondekoza on Sado Island in 1971 many taiko groups have been established around the world. If we continue to present the very same thing on the stage over and over people will say, “Their performance has dropped in quality." If however, we maintain the same unchanging kata (form or style) as our base, continue to express ourselves one step ahead of our audience's imaginations, then that is the secret to maintaining the “unchanging Kodo" in its best sense. This however, is more easily said than done.

In the course of Kodo's history many members have come and gone from the group. What is vital for us today is that we learn and maintain the kata cultivated over the years, right back to 40 years ago in Ondekoza. If our performance is based upon a profound understanding of that fundamental “way" of ours, we can venture off into methods of free expression. This is what is meant when – in spite of an evolving repertoire – Kodo continues to remain fundamentally unchanged. And to carry on achieving this will require the spilling of much blood, sweat and tears.

The concept of kata is very difficult to express in words. kata is really only the skeleton, to which the addition of flesh and muscle is left up to each individual. If the time and place in which that individual lives isn't creatively expressed however, the style alone becomes meaningless.

In modern Japan there is the danger that when people attempt to learn kata what they are really doing is simply learning the flesh that has been laid over the skeleton of the kata, and in so doing will never surpass what has gone before or create something original. Tradition is not that which has passed, but rather each and every present moment.

Over the next fifty or one hundred years Kodo must heighten its consciousness, seeking new means of expression. We must continue to explore ever more deeply the primal emotions of an unchanging Kodo. That growth has only just begun. In order for our audience to continue to experience this unchanging Kodo, we will never flag in our search for an expressive power that is one step ahead of our audience's imaginations. I believe that this is the way Kodo should proceed as a member of this age.

We want to thank you for your continued support and wish you a wonderful 2011 from Sado Island.

Takao Aoki, Kodo Managing Director