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Inside of a doh is shaped and textured using carver's gouges. Slow and quiet work, this step alone can take several weeks on a large drum.

Subtle curves on these Shime Daiko bodies wait to be finished (above). (Below) Shime Daiko stacked as laminated blanks beside the lathe. The lathe is used to turn the blanks while they are being shaped by hand inside and out.

Using the Sashigane to layout Tomoe geometry. I paint the design a little at a time over a few days.

As much as possible my workshop tries to reflect a calm and peaceful environment. My methods of production are slow, methodical and patient. I do have machinery, but I try to use it as little as possible, mainly for the initial milling of wood and roughing work. I enjoy more the use of traditional carpenter's tools. The quiet focus of taking shavings with a hand plane or cuttings with a chisel as opposed to choking in thick clouds of noise pollution and sawdust. 

Such work progresses slowly. A single shime daiko head can take up to ten hours to hand stitch. Attaching a head to a nagado takes two weeks. I am not a factory, but an individual who believes in the art of the shokunin and tries diligently to aspire to that level of craftsmanship. Yes, I could produce these faster if I brought out a power sander or a router, but I choose not to. 

Do the spirits of these drums reflect this? Born in a workshop of calm and peace rather than one buzzing with electricity and a rapid turnaround?

There are many ways to arrive at a beautiful finished Taiko. All instrument makers will be different, and the spirit of each maker's drums will be different. But each player has a different spirit also. Shop around and then follow your heart to find the instrument whose soul you feel you will most bond with. Perhaps you will choose one of mine, perhaps not. The way I choose is simply my way and the drums I make are simply my drums. And the spirits of these drums are each to themselves. May you find the drum you seek and may peace be with you.

The Sashigane, Maru-nomi, Tsuchi, and Kanna. These indispensable tools are the soul of my workshop. 

Skinning a Nagado. The process takes about ten days per head (above). (Below) a battery of Taiko in rough form after being milled and laminated but prior to being rough shaped. The walls of the blanks at this point can be up to five inches thick for larger drums.

The increase of even an inch or two in diameter increases the time, work and engineering exponentially. At 51 inches, this particular drum took 15 months, the majority of which was just building the tools and jigs needed to support it during the construction.