Sankofa, just today, brought a Shime-Daiko drum from North America into it’s repertory of indigenous instruments. We’re so excited…although the drum is small (and we know that in Africa, size doesn’t matter – with instruments that is 
), it’s qualities and it’s freshness in sound and texture, promises to bring a greater dimension of sound to the journey of indigenous revitalization Sankofa’s undertaken…
Here’s little bit about the Japanese Shime-Daiko drum, an extracted paragraph from Wikipedia online:
The shime-daiko is a small Japanese drum. The word “shime-daiko” comes from a larger word “tsukeshime-daiko” (‰ªòÁ∑†„Çŧ™Èºì) often shortened to simply, “shime-daiko” or “shime.” It has a short but wide body with animal skin drumheads on both its upper and bottom sides. The hide is first stretched on metal hoops, then stretched over the body. Similar to the tsuzumi and to African talking drums, both drum heads are bound together with cords so that the drum heads are bound by each other. Like the larger taiko drums, the shime-daiko is played with sticks called “bachi,” while it’s suspended on a stand. Being very taut, the shime-daiko has a higher pitch than that of normal taiko. Shime-daiko are used in various Japanese music ensembles, from nagauta (Èï∑ÂîÑ), hayashi (ÂõÉÂ≠ê), taiko (§™Èºì), to folk music, or min’you (Ê∞ë˨°) ensembles.
Don’t you just love the reference to the AFRICAN TALKING DRUM? A major reference indeed if you ask us…we’ve always understood that through musical historical understanding and education, in truth that is, the connections to Africa of the world’s indigenous cultures would become transparent and perhaps have a dynamically unifying and harmonizing effect on debilitating cultural divisiveness. Japanese culture, Asian culture in general, fascinates many in the world, I suppose most particularly in the Western world, for there lies therein an uninhibited flow of cultural intensity, scars of colonialism that haven’t crushed the POWER of the culture’s importance to the soul and spiritual identity of the peoples from such lands. Of course, on the other hand, perhaps it’s because Far-East Asian countries were so far from the British empire (and soon after the American empire) to start with, so their being ravenously plundered wasn’t to be so severe that the people themselves forgot completely what their geo-centric essence meant to them culturally…but that’s really another blog post
Here’s a really fantastic picture of a version/type of Shime-Daiko:
traditional japanese drum – on accompanying stand
The sticks used are in length similar to those used by western drumkit players, and the material is generally the same. However, they are several threads or centimetres thicker than drumkit sticks, yet maintain a lovely and pliable lightness…they’re the same structure throughout the length of the stick, meaning that they have not sharpened edge on either end of the stick, such as you’d find with drumkit sticks. Very light, very beautiful. A light tan colour. And they make the Shime-Daiko speak in a way only a performance of a Shime-Taiko can reveal – hey, what do you know, here’s one below:
Absolutely masterful!
For more info about Taiko drums in general, go here.
Our purpose with collecting and mastering these instruments of the earth (what we like to think of as the ultimate definition for the word indigenous when applied to music and instruments), is to, in combination with all African instruments we can find as researchers, ethnomusicologists and performers in Sankofa, to learn, and establish connections with the indigenous instruments of the world’s various ethnic peoples/ancient cultures, and in so doing, revitalize social interest, and active practice and playing, in these instruments. By so doing, we hope to achieve the unification of the world, through it’s ancestral cultures’ musical/cultural/artistic forms, MUSIC being a major connective tissue between souls, between minds, between emotional experiences of individuals…Sankofa’s mission is both to bring love and nourishment through quality African entertainment, and as educators, to bring understanding, historical transparency and truth, and also to encourage a closer relationship between the peoples of the earth through showing them that cultural threads are more defined in connection than they are separate, as we’ve come to accept over the years.
We’ll be posting pics of our own Shime Taiko drum, with stand and sticks, from a Japanese-American family specializing in their construction, in North America. They only make 70 of them a year, so we’re deeply honoured to have received this special gift, and the spirits of old Africa and Japan combined who fashioned and formed this brilliant instrument and its influence in the harmony of the land when it sounds!.
Remember, and always remember, “It is not wrong, nor shameful, to go back and fetch what you have lost“…SANKOFA!
Sankofa: Afro-Indigenous Fusion
Sankofa is an Indigenous Band playing African music. Some of the musicians are my friends and have hired me to build their site.
More about Sankofa: Afro-Indigenous Fusion
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Upon meeting Philen you are instantly struck by the man’s immensity of spirit, and while I’ve been blessed to struggle to get work in my life, he walked into it and quickly hired me. Working for Philen has made me realise that things can be effortless, and I wonder why I’ve chosen the life of strife.
