Ryujin Daiko Zentsuji
January 1, 2001
by Eri Wilde
On December 31 2000,
slightly before the end of the last day of 20th centry, my family
took me to a shrine near our home to see the annual Japanese drum show held
at a shrine near our home. This shrine is called the 'Gokoku Jinja' Shrine,
which means the guard of the country. There were a lot of people who got together
in the shrine that night, and I had very exciting moments there. I just could
hardly believe in my eyes when I spotted an incredible scenery upon arrival.
A very brave foreigner had jumped in the Japanese team that happened to get together then to play the drum of welcome for the advent of the new year. There were three lines of the drums on stage, and all the drums except the rear line, which has the biggest drums (in the world), were going to be played by almost complete laymen, including this fascinating man. I never hesitated to prepare to take the nice shots of him.
All of the laymen were told to play in accordance with the leading drums played behind them as correctly as possible, and they couldn't hide their grinning. Soon the countdown for the new year started. They did their best not to miss the first tick of the clock for the new year, and gave us the audience the best show as they ever could. We gave them a thunderous applause. We also could see some of other special shows.
We saw little kids playing the drums with only very thick half-sleeved shirts
on. Their cheeks were red and some of them were shivering in freeze. But they
never broke their attitude, and gave us a lovely kiddy drummy.
In the end, we saw the Ninja Foxes (not the Ninja Turtles) playing drums on stage.
We decided to come back to home before we completely got frozen. My father took this photo for us. My brother, me, and my mother (not sister). LOL!
Hmm... I'd love to see David playing the Japanese drums some day!!! 8o)
