is the founder and current leader of the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

-based

taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming m ...

group,

Oedo Sukeroku Taiko is a taiko group from Japan. It is considered the first taiko group to begin touring professionally and, sometimes, the first professional taiko group. The group formed in Tokyo in 1959, and is one of the oldest recognized taiko groups in Japan. ...

. Under Kobayashi's leadership, his taiko group, founded in 1959, was the first to tour professionally. He is considered a master performer of taiko. Kobayashi was well known for attempting to assert intellectual control of the group's performance style, which many believe has influenced taiko performance among many groups, particularly in North America.

Early performance work

Kobayashi was born in

Hongō, Tokyo is a district of Tokyo located in Bunkyō, due north of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and west of Ueno. History Hongō was a ward of the former city of Tokyo until 1947, when it merged with another ward, Koishikawa, to form the modern Bunkyō. T ...

in 1944. In his youth, Kobayashi regularly performed competitive drumming at

Bon festival or just is fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist–Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people retu ...

s in Tokyo, in part to impress the large crowds which included many young women. Kobayashi would consistently place in the top five performers, sometimes even placing first. Kobayashi later joined a drumming group for Bon festivals called Oedo Sukeroku Kai, which was headed by his older brother, Seikō Kobayashi. After some performances where Kobayashi reportedly enjoyed "showing off" on stage, he formed a taiko group formed which would eventually become Oedo Sukeroku Daiko. Coincidentally, some of the other top performers in those same Bon competitions were later to join Kobayashi in Oedo Sukeroku Kai, and thereafter, under his leadership, in Oedo Sukeroku Daiko.

Oedo Sukeroku Taiko

Kobayashi founded Oedo Sukeroku Taiko in 1959 out of the Yushima Tenjin Shrine in the Bunkyō Ward in Tokyo. Among taiko groups in Japan, it is one of the most recognized, and Kobayashi's leadership and skill is considered masterful. He developed what is known as the ''Sukeroku style'' of taiko performance, which includes the use of slanted taiko stands, and certain movements along a diagonal plane to the drum. During the 1990s, Kobayashi made a statement to the North American taiko community based on the

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

related to ''Sukeroku style'' performance. At the time, use of another group repertoire was generally taken care of informally between groups. For instance, if a group wanted to learn a new piece from a recording or from a student from another group, permission was obtained usually by simply asking the leadership of the relevant group. However, in 1999, Kobayashi sent a letter to his former student

Seiichi Tanaka is the first Japan-trained teacher of kumidaiko, or taiko, in the United States and is largely regarded as the father of the art form in North America. Early life Tanaka was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1943 and immigrated to the United States in 19 ...

, leader of the

San Francisco Taiko Dojo 'San Francisco Taiko Dojo'', founded in 1968 by Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka, was the first taiko group in North America, and has been seen as the primary link between the Japanese and North American branches of the art form. Additionally, Tanaka's b ...

, and asked him to present it to the 1999 Taiko Conference in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. This letter requested that all groups playing Oedo Sukeroku Daiko's pieces to cease performing them altogether if they had not received permission from Kobayashi. Many North American taiko groups borrowed the repertoire from the group, and as such, the message came as a shock to the community. This response prompted a second letter from Kobayashi, who stated specifically that groups who wanted to use their repertoire (which he termed ) would need to be trained either by Kobayashi in Tokyo, or by Tanaka in San Francisco. As many groups could not afford the fees associated with the required training, and due to disagreement whether Kobayashi was justified in his demands, many groups did not comply, and Kobayashi gave up on his demands.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayashi, Seido Taiko players People from Tokyo Living people 1944 births