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What is an Okedô-Daiko?
An okedô-daiko is a type of Japanese taiko drum, probably originally from a Korean design. They were traditionally made from buckets, hence the name, which literally means bucket body. The heads are attached with ropes, which allows tuning. They come in all sizes, from coffee can sized to colossal examples with heads wider than a man is tall.

I will focus on the smaller variety, called by many names including oke-daiko, tsuridai, eitetsu-gata (from developer Eitetsu Hayashi's name), nebuta, and katsugi. Unlike many taiko drums, which are made from hollowed-out trees, these okedô are rather lightweight. They can be worn over the shoulder during festivals for dancing and movement. This style can be universally referred to as katsugi, which means "to carry" or "to shoulder" in Japanese. I will use the word "katsugi" to refer to a small, shoulder-slung okedô.

In contrast to the typical nagado-style taiko drum, a katsugi body is normally straight-sided or with only a slight bulge and of thin walls. The heads are thin, made of cow or horse hide. In most forms of okedô, these heads are not fixed directly to the body. They are stretched across metal rings. The drum body is sandwiched between the heads, and the heads are laced together with ropes. There is a great photo of a variety of rope-tuned drums on the inside of the Tataku: The Best of Kodo II CD.

Okedo Family Tree

The Changgo
A Korean drum, called a changgo (sounds like "jangu"), has had a major influence on Japanese rope-tuned drums, both in history and in more recently. The okedo-daiko of Japan are very likely descendents of Korean traditional rope-tuned drums. Both the changgo and okedo have heads sewn to circular rings, rope tuning, and are often worn over the shoulder for dancing during festivals. The main difference is in the bodies. While the okedo has a slat-construction, bucket body, it's Korean cousin has an hourglass-shaped body, much like the Japanese tsuzumi.

Recently, Kodo has been looking towards Korea once again for inspiration. In playing their katsugi, they have adopted a style of play from Korean Samul Nori drummers. The changgo is played with two sticks, one made of thin, flexible bamboo, the other a hard mallet.

My Korean-made changgo

The Daibyôshi
This is a stave-construction okedo-daiko used in kabuki theater. They commonly have black bodies and laquered patterns around the edges of the horsehide heads. They have a high pitch and are played with thin bamboo sticks, similar to the right-hand changgo stick (see the photo at right).

Kodo has also designed, with associated drum maker Otodaiku, a drum inspired by the changgo and daibyôshi called the shimejishi. Like the changgo, it has a horse hide on one side and a cowhide on the other. It is played in a similar manner with similar sticks. The main difference is, once again, the body. The shimejishi has a straight-sided hollowed solid wood shell, which also distinguishes it from the daibyôshi.

The Taiko Set
One of the more recent developments in kumidaiko (Japanese group taiko) groups is what is usually called the taiko set. It is an arrangement of two or more taiko drums arrayed in front of a single drummer. Four seems to be the most common number and the set normally includes a tsukeshime daiko (shime), a nagado daiko (one-piece wooden drum wih a tacked head) of various sizes, and one or more okedo.

Some modern groups, such as Gocoo, has a stage lineup mainly made up of taiko sets. Kodo uses one as a centerpiece of their impressive "Zoku" and four sets in the challenging "Chonlima".

The Purpose of this Website

Why I Made an Okedô-Daiko
When I began accumulating materials to make a katsugi, I was not yet in a taiko group. It seemed I may not get a chance to play in one, but I was determined to at least have a drum. I considered the common nagado-daiko that Americans make from wine barrels, but then I found a cheaper, more versatile alternative.

The first time I paid any special attention to a katsugi was during a Kodô concert. The arrangement of their piece, "Bird Island", included various okedos worn over the shoulders of the players as they made their way through the audience, and onto the stage. They also used them in the encore piece, "Itsuka Mata". These performances were implanted in my mind. Later, I saw the same drums again in a 1992 video recording of "Irodori", which features Leonard Eto and Ryutaro Kaneko as dueling lead katsugi drummers playing nebuta, type of katsugi from the northern region of Honshu in Japan. In the 1997 Live at Acropolis video "Akabanar" featured rope-tuned drums of various sizes and pitches. The players seemed to be having so much fun. I thought to myself, "I want to have fun, too!"

The katsugi appealed to me for a number of reasons.

• I wanted something I could wear and with which I could move around while playing (kakaie style). Katsugi can be played over the shoulder or on a stand.
• I wanted something versatile, in case I never become a member of an ensemble. I often practice drumming by attending drum circles in the San Diego area. It seemed to me a katsugi would fit in nicely.
• If I did join a group, I wanted to be able to contribute something a taiko group may not have. Most have the wine barrel nagado-daiko; but okedo-daiko are less-common in North American taiko groups.

I'm not rich, and an okedo-daiko, while much cheaper than a nagado carved from a tree, still costs quite a bit. I could buy a synthetic Remo okedo for much less, but I wanted a wooden drum, as close to traditional as possible. Some features of this drum are not unlike West African instruments, such as jembes. Both have rope tuning and metal rings. Since I had made African-styled drums before, I felt confident enough to tackle an okedo, and set about researching its construction.

I learned quite a lot from searching the Internet and talking with people in California taiko groups who had made okedô. I soon had a picture of what constitutes these instruments. Though the best way to learn Japanese drum-making is to study under a master, I did not have the time or money for such an endeavor. So, this description is just one poor American's approach to building okedo-daiko.

In these pages, I have described the construction of some katsugi. The first was a learning experience. It isn't exactly what I was trying for, but it has been a wonderful drum. With subsequent drums, I corrected my earlier mistakes. They sound and feel like a true Japanese katsugi.

Why I Created These Pages

When I set about making the first okedô, I found very little information on the subject. There are a few websites that describe how to make a nagado-style taiko drum from barrels, but I found none (in English) about assembling an okedô-daiko. This was a learning experience, and I hope to pass on my experiences with that first drum and the improved later drums to save you some frustrating trial-and-error.

I also hope to learn more from people who visit this website. Please contact me if you have more information, or want to share your love of katsugi. I can receive Uni-Code Japanese e-mail and read (enough) Spanish in addition to English.

Acknowledgements

The information I did find was almost all in one spot. Arn Shimizu put together a great description of the process of building a tsukeshime-daiko (shime). I borrowed from his technique liberally, since okedo are of similar construction to shime. This information is available on Rolling Thunder Taiko Resource, the finest and most complete English-language taiko website on the planet. My thanks to David Leong for including Mr. Shimizu's article on his site.

I visited Los Angeles taiko groups and gathered information there, too. Victor Fukuhara of Kokoro Taiko Kai had made katsugi similar to the one I wanted to build (plus one huge okedô-daiko). He gave me tips and recommendations.

Both shells were constructed by Keller of Indiana. They were edged and the first one finished by Ted Best of San Diego Drum & Percussion.

The steel bars for the first drum were processed into rings by Jim at Form Fab metalworking in Santee, California.

Rings for subsequent drums were fashioned by Yendor.

About These Pages

Much of the information is based on what I learned from Mr. Shimizu's page. If you are interested in building a rope-tuned taiko drum, I recommend you read Mr. Shimizu's article. Arn Shimizu's instructions worked perfectly.

Almost all images on this website are thumbnails, that is, you can click on each image to get a larger, clearer picture. I hope to add hand-drawn diagrams later.