Maker

Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten

Tokyo taiko and festival instrument makers

Founded in Asakusa in the nineteenth century, Miyamoto Unosuke makes taiko, festival percussion, and the portable shrines they are played beside. It is one of the two names most associated with the instrument outside Japan.

Models

  • Miyamoto Shime-Daiko

    Hand percussion · Japan

    The shime-daiko is small, tuned very high by rope or bolt tension, and holds the pulse an ensemble plays against. It is the one taiko whose pitch a player sets rather than inherits.

  • Miyamoto Okedo-Daiko

    Hand percussion · Japan

    An okedo-daiko is built from staves like a barrel rather than carved from a trunk, which makes it far lighter and rope-tunable — the taiko that gets carried through a festival rather than stood on a frame.

Categories

  • 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

  • Miyamoto Shime-Daiko

    Hand percussion · Japan

    The shime-daiko is small, tuned very high by rope or bolt tension, and holds the pulse an ensemble plays against. It is the one taiko whose pitch a player sets rather than inherits.