page_title: Eitetsu Hayashi
section_title: Ondekoza
hierarchical_section_title: Eitetsu Hayashi / History / Ondekoza
caption_attribution_description: English: Eitetsu Hayashi performing on an ō-daiko in a 2001 concert in Tokyo, Japan.
context_page_description: Eitetsu Hayashi is an acclaimed Japanese musician best known for his solo performance work in taiko. Hayashi joined the group Ondekoza at an early age. Later, after parting from group, helped found the taiko group Kodo, though he quickly left to begin a solo career. Hayashi has performed in notable venues such as Carnegie Hall in 1984 and was the first featured taiko performer at the institution. He is also the recipient of multiple awards recognizing the cultural value of his work.
context_section_description: Hayashi joined the taiko group Ondekoza at age 19 sometime after hearing a radio advertisement about a summer seminar featuring the designer Tadanori Yokoo on Sado Island. Yokoo did not arrive to the island, though Hayashi met and began training with Ondekoza leader Tagayasu Den shortly thereafter. At the time, Ondekoza was training to raise money to build a vocational college on Sado Island itself. In regards to the training itself, Hayashi described it as  "Spartan," because it emphasized a stoic nature in order to show a "strong spirit" during their performances. In addition to direct practice in drumming, even in freezing conditions, Hayashi also ran regularly as a part of his training with the group.
  In 1972, in order to begin building a repertoire, Hayashi and two other members of Ondekoza traveled to Chichibu, Saitama to learn the festival piece Chichibu Yatai-bayashi, and spent one week attending and observing practice sessions of the local performers.  However, learning the piece proved difficult; Hayashi explained, "Japanese folk music was...usually learned by memorizing a series of kuchi shoga....in addition to the fact that each player's method of playing the assigned part differed slightly and often featured an element of improvisation..." With considerable difficulty, Hayashi was able to transform the folk piece into a performance for Ondekoza, who used a completely different set of instruments.   Later in 1975, Hayashi debuted with the rest of Ondekoza in the United States by playing taiko immediately after running the Boston Marathon. Hayashi continued this tradition of performing immediately after running the marathon an additional six times after 1975. In total, Hayashi played with Ondekoza for 11 years.
caption: Eitetsu Hayashi solo performing in a 2001 concert in Tokyo
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