Sep 2 (Wed), 2020 / Last updated : Sep 2 (Wed), 2020 melanie Posts by Members, , ,

A Heartfelt Request for Continued Support and Assistance from Kodo Ensemble Leader Yuichiro Funabashi (Sep. 1, 2020)

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Sep. 1, 2020

In April, I made a public appeal on behalf of Kodo for ongoing emergency support. Many people from many places sent us support and words of encouragement. I offer my sincere thanks to each and every one of you.

In light of the current global situation, this year Earth Celebration, the annual festival we host in tandem with Sado Island, was held entirely online for the first time in its 33-year history. We asked for your support by way of crowdfunding and I would like to sincerely thank everyone who answered that call for help. Your kind encouragement is the reason that our group was able to band together to tackle the new challenge of creating a diverse lineup to broadcast online. We reaffirmed the power of Sado Island and how wonderful it is to spend time with you all. It was a truly fruitful experience. I am already looking forward to the next time we are able to welcome you all to Sado Island again.

Since March, when our European tour was interrupted by the pandemic, almost all of our performances were canceled or postponed. However, from September, our School Workshop Performance cast will start touring again. They will be taking extra care with a range of infection prevention measures in place. This year, many school events were also canceled, so we hope the sound of taiko will touch the students’ hearts as it resonates within their school during these live performances.   

Photo: Takashi Okamoto

 

My own first tour with Kodo, twenty years ago, was a School Workshop Performance Tour that visited junior high schools here in Niigata Prefecture. Although junior high school students are full of emotions, they don’t always show their feelings on the outside. So on my first tour, I remember trying to gauge their reaction, which meant I didn’t have the headspace to enjoy our daily performances. But years later, sometimes adults who were junior high students back then come up to me at our concerts in Niigata and say that our school performance was an experience they will never forget. Those words make me feel the legacy of our school tours, and the joy I had trouble sensing in them back then feels doubled this time around.

The months we spent at home this year while our activities were on hold has been filled with new challenges, including holding Earth Celebration online. This period, along with what we have built up to date through our School Tours, are both valuable assets to Kodo. As these difficult times continue, each and every one of us will pool our energy to keep our activities alive. We will work hard every day, hoping that the reverberations of our taiko can offer some comfort and a much-needed energy boost to many people.

I kindly ask all of you for your continued support and assistance.

 

Yuichiro Funabashi
Kodo Ensemble Leader

 

 

 

 

Call for Emergency Support

 

Jan 20 (Mon), 2020 / Last updated : Jan 20 (Mon), 2020 melanie Posts by Members, , , , ,

Happy New Year!

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Jan. 1, 2020 

New Year’s Greeting from Kodo Ensemble Leader Yuichiro Funabashi

I wish you all a very happy new year!

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who supported and appreciated our group’s work last year. It’s thanks to all of you that we were able to have a fulfilling year of activities. I would also like to offer my sincere condolences to the people recovering from the typhoons, flooding and other natural disasters that hit Japan and other parts of the world last year.

Looking back over 2019, Kodo kicked off the year with our “Evolution” North America tour. We also took this production to China, where we held our first tour there in 19 years. In Japan, we toured nationwide with “Michi” and our Interactive Performances.

In the summer, we returned to Tokyo’s Asakusa with “Iki,” a special program dedicated to the people of Asakusa. The locals helped us surprise the audience by bringing a slice of Asakusa’s annual festival to the performance. They joined us on stage carrying a portable shrine (mikoshi). It was a dream come true for us to share a taste of their traditional festival with our audience.

Later in the year, we had two wonderful opportunities to share the sound of Kodo with enormous audiences: the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup and the opening event for Japan National Stadium, home to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

The grand finale of our 2019 activities was Kodo “Sen no Mai,” a performance celebrating the 40th anniversary of Chieko Kojima‘s performance career. The work featured Chieko along with a cast of Kodo’s next generation. Under Chieko’s direction, they conjured a grand, beautiful realm on stage that enveloped the entire audience. It was a truly joyous production.

This year, first up for us is our “Kodo One Earth Tour: Legacy” tour in Europe. Back at home, we will visit schools and communities throughout Japan with our Interactive Performances. In May, we will premiere our long-awaited new work directed by Robert Le Page: NOVA.

Following our celebrations of Yoshikazu Fujimoto and Chieko Kojima’s performance careers, we are planning further commemoratives works to mark the milestones of other senior Kodo members who forged the foundations of our current activities.

Of course, we look forward to welcoming you all to our homeland, Sado Island, in 2020. We’ll be hosting our springtime Kodo Sado Island Performances in Shukunegi, and summer festival Earth Celebration. We’re working hard to make these events better than ever. Wherever we go, we share the sound of Kodo that was inspired by this wonderful island, and created at Kodo Village. We look forward to sharing the spirit of Sado Island with you, at home and on tour.

I sincerely hope this year is a great year for all of you. I kindly ask for your continued support and encouragement.


Yuichiro Funabashi
Leader
Kodo Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble

Jan 11 (Mon), 2021 / Last updated : Jan 11 (Mon), 2021 melanie Posts by Members, ,

Happy New Year

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January 1, 2020

Photo: Takashi Okamoto

New Year’s Greeting from Kodo Ensemble Leader
Yuichiro Funabashi

I wish you all a joyous new year.

I’m sure last year was a difficult one for everyone due to the effects of COVID-19.
For Kodo, the harsh circumstances caused by the pandemic are ongoing. While we were able to resume our touring in Japan, with meticulous measures in place to prevent the virus from spreading, we were forced to put our international tours and other plans on hold until the global pandemic situation improves.

It’s been a very challenging situation, which has led Kodo to search for a range of forms of expression. We have developed the strength to tackle new challenges and rediscovered the charms of Sado Island, the power of taiko, and the joy of being able to perform in front of audiences. Throughout the past unprecedented year, we received aid and encouragement from many people. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all of you for cheering us on.

This year, it’s Kodo’s 40th anniversary. Our history is a force that keeps us together and drives us forward. We will strive harness the power of the past four decades, using it to share the resounding sound of taiko from our home, Sado Island, for the next fifty years, century, and beyond.
I pray that the COVID-19 pandemic will end very soon, and that 2021 will be a great year for all of you.

I kindly ask for your ongoing guidance and encouragement throughout the year ahead.


Yuichiro Funabashi
Leader
Kodo Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble

 

Jan 11 (Tue), 2022 / Last updated : Jan 11 (Tue), 2022 melanie Posts by Members, ,

Happy New Year

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Jan. 1, 2022

New Year’s Greeting from Kodo Ensemble Leader Yuichiro Funabashi

I wish you all a very happy new year!

We celebrated Kodo’s 40th anniversary last year. We were really pleased to be able to hold commemorative tours and school tours, along with special events including “Inochi” with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and concerts at Bunkamura Orchard Hall.

Being able to share our sound with audiences in person again made 2021 a joyous year for us, despite the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Your support and encouragement gave us strength, and I want to sincerely thank all of you for cheering us on.

Last year we released new albums and DVDs, and shared our sound and spirit with the world through a range of offerings online including Kodo Taiko School, digital streaming, and our Heartbeat Radio series. While travel was restricted, we were so happy to connect with people far and wide in through these projects.

2021 was a milestone year, marking four decades of history for Kodo. We felt the immense power of that history throughout the year. It will drive us forward as we step into the next decade, heading towards Kodo’s 50th and 100th anniversaries. In 2022, we will continue to broaden the possibilities of taiko expression as we tackle new challenges head on.

We look forward to sharing time and space with you all this year. We also look forward to learning more here on Sado Island, and bringing the sound of Kodo to people all over Japan and around the world.

I sincerely hope that 2022 is a great year for each and every one of you.
I kindly ask for your continued guidance and encouragement.

 

Yuichiro Funabashi
Leader
Kodo Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble

Jan 1 (Mon), 2024 / Last updated : Dec 28 (Thu), 2023 melanie Posts by Members, ,

Happy New Year

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Jan. 1, 2024

New Year’s Greeting from Kodo Ensemble Leader Yuichiro Funabashi

I wish you all a very happy new year.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who offered us their support throughout the past year. Thank you very, very much.

Last year, we toured in the USA and Canada with “Kodo One Earth Tour: Tsuzumi” and China with “Kodo One Earth Tour: Warabe,” returning to these countries for the first time in four years. Here in Japan, we toured with main stage productions “Calling,” “Shoso,” and “Cycles,” as well as our School Workshop Performance tours. We also held three concert series here on Sado in the spring, summer, and autumn. We enjoyed a wide range of thrilling collaborations, which included: “Yugen” with Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando, “Oni” with Niigata dance company Noism, “Hatsune Miku x Kodo” with vocaloid Hatsune Miku, and our long-awaited reunion concert with The Voices of South Africa on the main stage at Earth Celebration 2023. The list goes on. It sure was an action-packed year of performances.

In 2023, many of the Kodo concerts that were postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic were able to go ahead at long last. The year was filled with joyous reunions with collaborators and audiences, and feeling of profound gratitude as we shared the sound of our taiko with more people in person.

We’ll begin 2024 with our “Warabe” Europe Tour during the winter months. From spring, we’ll perform throughout Japan with our One Earth Tour and School Workshop Performances, followed by the premiere of “Evermore,” a new work we will present exclusively at Asakusa Public Hall. At the end of this year, we are excited to share another new touring production with you all. At home on Sado Island, we look forward to welcoming locals and visitors to our Special Performances in Shukunegi in spring, and our annual festival Earth Celebration in summer. We will also hold the Kodo Summer Concerts and Autumn Concerts that we launched in 2023, hoping to share more of the charms of Sado Island with everyone who comes along.

With the chaos of wars and the impact of climate change, it is difficult to predict what lies ahead. But I promise we will keep striving to foster a world where myriad cultures and ways of life resonate with one another. Kodo will remain dedicated to its mission to connect people, traveling the globe with taiko under the banner “One Earth.”

I sincerely hope that the year ahead is a great one for all of you.
2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon, and we’ll do our very best to make it a year of great growth.
I kindly ask for your continued guidance and encouragement.

 


Yuichiro Funabashi
Leader
Kodo Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble

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