Demon drummers?

Fired off this morning via email:

Dear Mr. Tanaka (or whoever reads and responds to these inquiries in his stead):

I very much enjoyed last night's concert at Zellerbach Hall. You performed a new composition titled "Hayate" about a group of villagers who disguised themselves as demons and drove Uesugi Kenshin's army away without a fight simply with their drumming. As a lover of history, I would be very interested to know your source material for this story as I had never heard it before.

Many thanks, etc....

sengokudaimyo ? Anyone ever hear of this? Google turns up the following:
http://www.gojinjodaiko.jp/en_top.html

http://www.sohdaiko.org/reviews.html


http://www.hot-ishikawa.jp/f-lang/english/noto-area/event-detail.html#07

http://nohmask21.com/eu/gojinjyotaiko.html

Who knew?
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Good concert. Sacramento Taiko Dan, Jun Daiko (from Mountainview) and Wako Daiko from Japan also did sets. Serves only to remind me how much I suck and how badly I need to get over myself when I face the o-daiko.....
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layla_lilah and I had dinner beforehand at Jayakarta in Berkeley. layla_lilah actually lived in Indonesia and gleefully nommed her way through the nasi bungus special: rice, jackfruit, hardcooked egg, tofu, fried chicken and beef wrapped in banana leaves, while I had the udang saus mentega, shrimp in a savory brown sauce. Tasty, as authentic as it gets according to my dinner companion, and an excellent bang for the buck.
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Juana had posted a note to SCA-West about having passed a bookstore called Abandoned Planet in the Mission that was going out of business and selling all their books at 35% off. I BARTED over and determined that either it had been picked over before I got there or it was simply a matter of what used books they ended up having in stock in the first place. The art and history sections were pretty small, compared to the fiction/literature offerings which took up half the shop. I didn't see anything I absolutely had to own and proceeded to another bookstore I'd passed on my way up the street.

Upon opening the door to Forest Books, I released a waft of expensive Japanese incense and Loreena McKennitt pretending to be Middle Eastern onto 16th Street. Airy, well lit, festooned with Tibetan prayer flags and earnest posters and flyers about Buddhism and community events, the selection was well organized, interesting, and I didn't have to worry about breaking an ankle on a rolled up carpet just to look at what was out on the display tables. I resisted a coffeetable book of Ansel Adams photos. I did pick up two paperback novels: Murakami's An Artist Of The Floating World and Barry Unsworth's The Songs of the Kings, then headed to the art section. Decent selection of East Asian art books, some of which I already had. Taped neatly into a plastic envelope was a souvenir tour booklet titled JINGU: The Grand Shrine of Ise. It being taped shut and priced at $10, I asked the proprietor if it was OK to open it before doing so. Nifty little book with full color photos of the Jingu shrines in Ise, including architectural details, parading Shinto clerics performing rituals, festivals and bugaku dancers in full costume.
While paying for my books, I asked the proprietor which Shoyeido incense he was burning at the moment because he had boxes for sale on the counter and I knew it wasn't the Gozan. He asked if I needed a bag and pronounced the Onyabag I pulled out of my purse one of the nicest reusable shopping bags he'd seen. I should send him the link....

Essay contest draft

You ask why I want to go to Japan?

I want to sit beneath a blazing maple and compose poetry about an impermanent moment. I want to follow the gliding footsteps of such formidable women as Sei Shonagon and Ben no Naishi. I want to gaze into the depths at Dan no Ura and mourn the passing of a child Emperor and the horrific loss of millions at Hiroshima, for Japan is its history.

I want to linger before Kano Hideyoshi's The Maple Viewers and puzzle over the fate of the Gaki Zoshi. I want to weep at the kabuki and laugh at kyogen. I want to marvel at the virtuosity of shibori and yuzen embellishment of silk kimono. I want to watch masters at their crafts, creating beauty, for Japan is its art.

I want to breathe in the peace of a garden, and gaze at the heights of Fuji and walk beneath green forest branches and watch the moon rise above the sea, for Japan is its landscape.

I want to eat takoyaki that wasn't made with hamburger meat, and slurp ramen at a food stall. I want to nibble dorayaki and savor fresh caught sashimi. I want to sip sake and contemplate tea and taste incense, for Japan has its own flavors.

I want to dance at a matsuri. I want to ask for directions. I want to bow and be bowed to. I want to find friends I just haven't met yet, and play rock-paper-scissors over a cup or two of sake, for Japan is its people.

I fell in love with Japan through its history and its arts. To be able to visit, well, I hesitate to call it a dream for that idealizes and belittles it at the same time. The acquaintance I have made with Japan through books, film, literature in translation and the internet is rather like the Shining Prince hearing a lovely voice in another room or glimpsing a silken hem and thinking to himself, "I must find out who she is!"

It's that simple. I must find out who Japan is. I must meet her face to face.

Tanka challenge and Essay/photo contest

To know who she is
I would walk her narrow streets
And meet her people.
Like Genji I wish to see
Who lives inside that screened room.

http://www.japantravelinfo.com/2010/win.html

The Japanese National Tourism Organization is holding an essay/photo contest for trips to Japan and (and other travel prizes which would necessitate my scraping up the airfare to get there and use them). If you're interested, be sure to read all the details - prizes for the essay contest are not the same as the photo contest and you can only enter one of them. Since the destinations I was likely to prefer were for the essay contest, I just fired off an entry, which came in under the maximum 2010 keystrokes. (Not sure I'm ready to share what I wrote. Perhaps after the deadline has passed and I can't jinx it.)

Wish me luck!