Dog, Fox and Bear Lineages Try Playing Their Drums Together for the First Time — A Step From 'Head-to-Head' to 'Layering'
Ahead of next year's 'Three-Lineage Autumn Festival,' previously reported on the 17th, the dog-, fox- and bear-lineage associations held their first informal joint rehearsal on the evening of the 22nd at a Fukagawa shopping-district community hall, playing all three drums together for the first time. The previously reported 'head-to-head' idea from the 20th is, after discussion among the three chairs, converging instead on a single piece that layers all three sounds together.
As previously reported, Fukagawa's dog-lineage association on the 19th, Kameido's fox-lineage association on the 20th, and Fukagawa's bear-lineage association on the 21st had each begun drum practice on three consecutive days. On the night of the 22nd, the three associations borrowed the large hall of a Fukagawa shopping-district community center for an informal joint-committee session, sounding the dog, fox and bear lineages' drums together for the first time all at once. Koji Inui, 56, chair of the dog-lineage association previously reported in these pages, explained, "We'd each been practicing separately in our own halls, but there's only one venue for the real event. I reached out to the other two chairs because I wanted us to try playing together at least once, early on."
This marked only the second time the three drums had overlapped in the same space, following the previously reported encounter on the evening of the 21st — but this time it was the first formal joint practice with all three associations bringing their full membership. The dog lineage's 'aligning' drum, the fox lineage's 'calling' drum, and the bear lineage's 'settling' drum, in each chair's previously reported own words, mixed together; the first few minutes produced little more than overlapping noise, out of rhythm, but after about thirty minutes, the fox lineage's light sound began slipping naturally into the gaps of the dog lineage's heavy beat, with the bear lineage's low drum holding the whole thing together. One joint-committee member present said, visibly surprised, "At first it was just three sounds happening at once, but partway through there was a moment it suddenly sounded like one piece of music."
As previously reported, the 'head-to-head drum match' idea originally proposed by dog-lineage chair Koji Inui took firmer shape in a different direction at the 22nd's joint practice, following informal talks on the 21st with bear-lineage chair Toru Maruwa, 58, and Kameido fox-lineage chair Jo Saotome, 54, both previously reported. Inui said, "I was the one who proposed comparing them, but once I actually heard the three sounds together, I thought Maruwa's point — that layering them is more interesting than comparing them — made more sense." Maruwa proposed, "The dog lineage aligns, the fox lineage calls, and ours settles things down. If we rotate those roles in sequence, it might work as a single piece." Saotome agreed: "Rather than competing over which lineage plays better, looking for the sound only the three of us together can make feels more fitting for next year's festival."
The three bear-lineage apprentices previously reported on the 21st also joined the 22nd's joint practice. One, a second-year high-school student of the third-generation bear lineage living in Fukagawa, said eagerly, "I only knew my own lineage's drum, but playing alongside the dog lineage felt like using completely different muscles. I want to be able to play all three by next year." One dog-lineage apprentice laughed, "The fox lineage's drum is fast — I couldn't keep up at all at first. That's annoying enough that I'm going to practice."
As previously reported, the joint executive committee is expected to settle the festival's dates and venue in November; following this joint rehearsal, the structure of the performance itself — rotating roles among the dog, fox and bear lineages in sequence — will also be worked out in detail at that same November meeting. Saotome said, "My head had been full of stall preparations, but I never imagined the drums would turn out to be this interesting. I can hardly wait for next year's festival already."
The director of the community hall that hosted the session said, "As far as I remember, this is the first time all three lineages have sounded their drums together in our main hall. I'll lend it out as many times as it takes before the real thing next year." The night the three drums first came together as one has left a small but real step forward in Fukagawa's shopping district, on the road to next year's festival.
