Oedo Sukeroku Taiko

Oedo Sukeroku Taiko
Official 2013 T-shirt Logo for Oedo Sukeroku Taiko
Background information
Also known as	Oedo Sukeroku Daiko
Origin	Tokyo, Japan
Genres	Taiko
Years active	1959 (1959)-present
Labels	Playasound
Website	oedosukerokutaiko.com

Oedo Sukeroku Taiko (大江戸助六太鼓, Ōedo Sukeroku Daiko) is a taiko group from Japan. It is considered the first taiko group to begin touring professionally and, sometimes, the first professional taiko group. The group formed in Tokyo in 1959, and is one of the oldest recognized taiko groups in Japan. Oedo Sukeroku Taiko has an eponymous style of performance, typically called Sukeroku style. They are also credited with popularizing taiko performance in North America.

The name of the group comes from the former name for Tokyo, Edo, and a main character named Sukeroku Hanakawado in a kabuki play called Sukeroku Yukari no Edo Zakura. Sukeroku is a hero in the play, and is thought to represent the traditional spirit of Edo.

In 1959, Oedo Sukeroku Taiko formed in the Bunkyo ward in Tokyo under Seidō Kobayashi and three other men, using the Yushima Tenjin Shrine as a practice space. The initial group included three others including Kobayashi: Onozato Motoe, Ishizuka Yutaka, and Ishikura Yoshihisa. One account of why Oedo Sukeroku Taiko started was that it emerged from a competitive atmosphere among young, male drum performers to stand out and impress young women at Bon festivals in the summertime, and in fact, Kobayashi and the other performers had previously been in a Bon performance group called Oedo Sukeroku Kai.

Some initial members of Oedo Sukeroku Taiko left to start independent groups; one of them was a similarly named group simply called Sukeroku Taiko founded by former player Imaizumi Yūtaka after a dispute with Kobayashi over money and the band's direction split them apart. However, Oedo Sukeroku Taiko continues to perform in national exhibitions in Japan as well as internationally in countries such as Belgium,Indonesia, and India. In the 1969, a student of the group, Seiichi Tanaka, founded a group in San Francisco called the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, and also teaches Sukeroku-style performance.