Maker
Asano Taiko
Japanese drum makers since the sixteenth century
The Asano family has made taiko in Ishikawa for four hundred years, hollowing single trunks of keyaki and stretching cowhide over them by hand. The workshop supplies temples, festivals, and the touring taiko ensembles that carried the instrument out of Japan.
Models
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Asano Ō-daiko
Hand percussion · Japan
The ō-daiko is the largest taiko in an ensemble, often several feet across, carved from a single trunk and played standing with both arms. It is the drum a taiko performance is built around, and one instrument can take years to make.
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Asano Nagado-Daiko
Hand percussion · Japan
A nagado-daiko is hollowed from a single trunk of keyaki — sometimes a century of drying before the wood is cut — and headed with cowhide tacked down rather than tensioned, so its pitch is decided at build time and never changes.
Categories
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Hand Percussion
Congas, bongos, djembes, cajons, timbales, frame drums, and the small instruments that live on a percussion table: tambourines, cowbells, shakers, and claves.
Representative model
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Asano Nagado-Daiko
Hand percussion · Japan
A nagado-daiko is hollowed from a single trunk of keyaki — sometimes a century of drying before the wood is cut — and headed with cowhide tacked down rather than tensioned, so its pitch is decided at build time and never changes.