KJ Joins Kodo's Earth Celebration 2005

KJ volunteers Ben Newton and Jacob Young did some valuable PR — and had a damn fine time hanging out — at this year’s Earth Celebration held on Sado Island by KODO, Japan’s premiere taiko drumming troupe (featured in KJ #58, Freeing Spirit)..

On returning to Kyoto, Ben filed this report (photos by Jacob and Ben):

It was a long trip from Kyoto to Naoetsu. We decided hitchhiking was the cheapest means of transportation, and with a little luck, Jacob's outgoing charm, and just enough Japanese vocabulary stored away, we made it in about eight hours with just two rides. After taking a train down to Southern Kyoto, and finally finding a staircase entrance to a bus stop along the elevated expressway, we found a spot and stuck out our thumbs. We laughed at ourselves wondering, “Wait, can we do this?” for about 20 minutes before a couple picked us up in a sci-fi blue car designed to look like a dolphin. That first ride was short, but it was relieving.

The woman driving was very interested in us and our adventures in Japan. Her English was decent, but she was enjoying hearing us stumble through Japanese. We had a few good laughs, and when they dropped us at a rest stop just south of the Maibara junction, they bought us a map and identified the license plates that we should keep an eye out for. After a few hours here, we realized that targeting specific cars and directly approaching people was not an effective method. Often Japanese people do not know how to say “no” outright, but after a while we got the picture, and with the help of a couple we met going the other way, we wrote out signs for cities along the way to Naoetsu.

After about 20 minutes standing out by the exit, holding out our thumbs, waving our hands, smiling and dancing and playing the harmonica, we got a ride with a man who was willing to take us all the way to the port. He had one condition: no stops. He drove between 120 and 130 km/hr that whole way. At one point he slowed down to about 110 as he sailed past a cop.

When the ferry came in from Sado, we met a young French woman. As fellow travelers, we helped her to write out signs with some of our excess cardboard so she could hitchhike her way home. Feeling elated and exhausted, we boarded the boat and walked out onto the deck.

We soon met an interesting and reserved man who seemed to be in a perpetual state of meditation. He brought with him a small sack and a drum tightly wrapped in some cloth, both of which he left by the entrance of the cabin while he spent the three odd hours to Sado staring out across the water. As we came into port we sat out just gazing at the Island. Distracted by the nearly full midnight moon perched between gray clouds massed in the dark night sky, we found ourselves the last to get off the boat. Running down the ramp we found our friend, waiting for us just outside. Using just our extra clothes and cardboard signs for bedding, we pitched our tent in a small strip park along the coast near Ogi Port.

After the first night camping, we woke up with sore backs and great expectations. We had arrived on Sado a day early, so we had some time to check the scene, get grounded, and relax a little bit. I don't think either of us really anticipated how hectic and crazy it would become. After checking in with information we got a more detailed scoop on the events for the next few days. The Earth Celebration is a network of various aspects of mostly Japanese culture. People come from all over the nation’s islands, together with many western foreigners resulting in an interesting display of free spirits, artists, craftspeople, tramps, squatters and vendors.

The main events during the day are the continual workshops, which include drumming, calligraphy, dance, flute making and more, as well as the flea market and fringe festival. The fringe festival also continues into the evening where there are musicians, fire dancing, drumming, and other performances. But the main event each evening is the concert. Friday, the first night, Carlos Nunez from the Atlantic region of Galacia, northwestern Spain, often referred to as the seventh Celtic country, played the “gaita” or Galacian bagpipes. The second night was the traditional Taiko drumming that the Earth festival is famous for, and the third night integrated both of the music styles together.

At the fringe festival we maintained a booth selling the Kyoto Journal. However, on our first day, the journals had not yet arrived. This gave us a pause for concern, but there was little control we had over the situation. We spent the day walking around the island, meeting people, swimming and skipping rocks. We kept running into the man from the boat, who we began to refer to as Big Brother, who later we found was friends with the folks in the booth next to ours. The afternoon sun was extremely hot, and we found ourselves baking under the heat. There was little breeze and the cool water was the only real relief.

That evening we bought some drinks and explored the coast near our camp sight. Just up the way there appeared to be some sort of dump site. It was filled with old wood, pillars, barbwire, massive heaps of crushed cans, and assorted scraps of metal. It made for an interesting counter image to the beautiful lush greenery, blue sea, and forested hills that filled the natural architecture of Sado. Most of the island is not heavily populated, making the towns small and welcoming and the abundance of natural scenery fertile.

We met another friend coming off the last boat that evening, Yukio. Feeling rather dirty and tired, we all went off to the sento at the top of the hill, where we were able to wash the sweat and grime and rejuvenate our bodies for the days to come. I found it at times difficult dealing with the sento due to sunburn on my thighs. Refreshed and rejuvenated we went to eat dinner and went to bed early, readying for the event.

The next day we were excited but nervous. The boxes of journals had arrived, and now we were to begin our work. We were positioned between a glassblower and a hat and t-shirt maker, and from this position we set up our base and fashioned a table out of the boxes and some spare sheets that Jacob had been using as his covers. It was definitely a ramshackle escapade, sloppy and fun. We drew as much attention from the ridiculous set-up as we did for the journals, I believe. That first afternoon was extremely slow, but picked up as more and more people came off the incoming boats. This did give us, however, a lot of time to meet new friends and interact with the folks that travel to all the festivals year round. We even met a man who appeared in a photo in the Kyoto Journal story that covered Sado a year ago.

The crowd at Sado is definitely a particular one. It is such a conglomeration of different types of hippies and interesting folks that it made me realize the strength and potency of Japan's alternative culture. But it is interesting how in Japan the traditional culture is integrated into the alternative culture, and in some cases, due to the influence of Western commerce, returning or basing oneself in tradition can become an alternative culture. Coming from the US, I kept thinking how amazing the festival was and how it could grow enormously with more publicity. But after talking with a friend I came to realize that the festival wants to be small. The town can't hold more and doesn't want more, and no one wants to sacrifice the intimacy of the event with the popularity of a mass audience.

The next three days have completely blurred together, the beginning and ending points the only clear moments. Most interesting was the way in which our tent became a sort of mecca for the English speakers at Sado. On the first day we kept inviting people out of the sun to sit and chat, and this provided us with an opportunity to get into interesting conversations about the Journal and Japanese culture. Many people stayed for hours reading, drinking, and just hanging out. By the last day, we had become a home base for many new friends. Most of the time we had four or five other people behind the table, chatting, meeting each other, and even helping us sell magazines. Some had heard our sells pitch so many times that they starting hawking people walking by, and one friend traveled around the fleamarket selling to people. Many of our new friends were just hiding from the sun, but many we will see in the future, many are interested in subscriptions, and a few are interested in contributing to KJ. We did sell many magazines, but more importantly it seems that we got the journal into the hands of many unfamiliar with it, and we built contacts with people that may be friends of KJ in the future.

The final night however was by far the most interesting and amazing experience. The final concert combined the musicians, and to hear the mix of the traditional taiko drumming with Nunez's bagpipes was incredible — it worked so smoothly and perfectly, blending in heavy rhythms topped by pipes, flutes and a violin. At the start just a handful of people were dancing along the sides, and as we got out of control, staff pushed us back to the fringe. However, by the end the entire crowd was up and dancing, we pushed the staff out of the way and rejoiced in a giant orgiastic display of the last drops of energy we all contained.

People were dancing and jumping, running through the crowd, swinging arms and dancing hand in hand with strangers, the energy of the festival meeting a peak where the differences between two people were insignificant. The songs blending into each other and it seemed as if the one song would just go on indefinitely. The movement was organic and seemed to grow right out of the ground. The heat of the sun had vanished, but the warmth of bodies in motion covered each of us in a thick layer of dripping sweat. It didn't matter where you slept that night, on a bench, in the grass, at the hostel, or in an old borrowed tent without a sleeping bag — we all slept deeply, peacefully, thoroughly, elated at the experience and saddened by its conclusion.

The next day hordes of campers, some sleeping just outside the gates on the concrete, huddled into line at the port, shuffled onto the boat, and said goodbye to Sado Island and the Earth Celebration.