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MONTHLY NEWS November 1996 Japan's Largest Drum Completed |
The largest wadaiko, or Japanese drum, ever to be built was completed in August for an exhibition at a museum in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. The barrel-shaped drum has a head with a diameter of over 2 meters (6 1/2 feet), 6 centimeters (2 3/8 inches) bigger than the previous record holder, a drum kept at a Tokyo shrine.
Weighing about 4 tons, the drum was built by Asano Taiko of Ishikawa Prefecture, a drum maker that has been in the business for four centuries. It took 12 people nearly an entire year to build the drum from wood imported from Cameroon in Africa. The block of wood, which measured nearly 3 meters (9 7/8 feet) in diameter, was taken from a tree estimated to be around 900 years old. Each of the two drumheads, moreover, required the skin of an entire cow. "The biggest challenge of this undertaking was procuring wood that was big and hard enough," recalls managing director Akitoshi Asano. "We traveled to various parts of Africa several times a year, and it took us three years to locate this wood, which is available only in Cameroon." |
 
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Photos: (top) The newly built wadaiko undergoes a sound check. (above left) Building the drum took an entire year. (above right) The completed drum being wrapped for shipment. (Asano Taiko) 
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