day 325 - bashing bamboo

Bamboo as percussion...

Kokiriko - Ainokura Percussion.

When we stayed overnight in a gassho-zukuri (praying hands grass-house) in the Ainokura Valley our host demonstrated the kokiriko (Japanese onomatopoeia?) which was made from recycled bamboo from the roofs of old houses. Seasoned over decades - sometimes even hundreds of years - and impregnated with the smoke, soot and creosote from indoor fires, the percussion instrument had a very resonant cascading sound quality which accompanied traditional local songs and dances.

Bamboo chimes & xylophones are found throughout Asia, including Japan. These wind-chimes from our apartment sound a lot like Indonesian gamelan or Malaysian anklung.