Ancient Japanese traditions, meditation and existential philosophy, discipline of the body and mind, devilish rhythms on drums, percussions and instruments of absolute fascination. The Munedaiko Trio lives in the heart of the Marche in the province of Pesaro and Urbino in Colbordolo, a town of 294 inhabitants, three brothers of Japanese origin, Mugen, Naomitsu, Tokinari Yahiro, illustrious custodians of the art of Japanese Taiko, among the eight children of a family of Japanese artists, teachers and intellectuals who have chosen our country to live and work. On stage bare-chested, the young performers ‘hit’ the instruments alternating silences with unstoppable and pyrotechnic rhythms, unleashing contagious musical delirium.
“My passion for Taiko was born thanks to a Japanese master I met in Italy – Tokinari Yahiro tells Adnkronos – An internal process of awareness and love that has grown and developed over the years. What really interested me was the profound meaning of a discipline that expresses itself in its totality, not only musically, but also physically and mentally”.
A training that involves the entire body through running, free body exercises, an aesthetic that releases energy and virility. A heroic and erotic body that of the Munedaiko Trio that Tokinari resolutely denies. “Our physicality? – he replies – Nothing erotic, we have learned to know how to dose the energies of the body, even if often more elasticity is needed than a real physical impetus to ‘play’ our instruments. We want to show the expression of the movements to the public – continues Tokinari – in the maximum tension of the bodies, often in absolute concentration”.
And speaking of daily training, Mugen Yahiro intervenes: “it is important to know how to balance moments of tension and relaxation, even to reach extreme physical effort in order to educate the mind, to strengthen our sensitivity towards universal values that do not divide cultures, but rather increase relationships and comparison”.
Their musicality is explosive, contagious, almost hypnotic, visionary. “We work on traditional pieces alongside pages arranged or written by us – explains Naomitsu Yahiro – Of course in every show there is always an important part of improvisation, but everything is shared between us. We talk, discuss, compare, we live in absolute mutual respect even if within the show we allow ourselves ‘monologues’, sometimes our shouted, broken, guttural voices rather than giving rhythm to the staging serve the interpreter to instil that vitality that our music needs”.
In ancient times, drums were used in war, as a ‘cry’ to incite soldiers, to give orders, encourage, scare, but also to celebrate the harvest, to create moments of community between people, as a tool to dialogue with the divinity. And today this ancient Japanese art and culture is transformed into a contemporary spectacularity that has already subjugated the theater with Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ with Nina Pons directed by Andrea Baracco (debut at the Franco Parenti in Milan and on August 26th on stage in Siena) and dance with a new production, currently being defined, born in collaboration with the Sicilian director and choreographer Roberto Zappalà that will debut next spring in Catania.