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One of the most enjoyable experiences I had in Osaka was when I was fortunate enough to go along to watch a Taiko group called 'Ikari' practise. Ikari are a group of Buraku drummers, and this is important because the Burakumin have always been the people who have made the Taiko drums (because making the drums involves leather production which was an outcaste occupation), but they were not allowed to play the drums until now. Ikari is one of the first Buraku Taiko groups to have emerged and when you sit in there and watch them play, you can feel the anger and the spirit of the Buraku people, coming back now to fight against hundreds of years of oppression. It really is an awesome experience.

I read about Ikari in a book called "The Other Japan: Voices Beyond the Mainstream" by David Suzuki and Keibo Oiwa, and I knew that I wanted to meet them. After being in there and seeing them practice (and nearly going deaf as a result), I knew that my life was so much smaller than I had previously thought it was. It is truly experiences like that, that teach you the most about yourself and your position in the world.

A couple of days later Ikari played in a Taiko concert at the Liberty Osaka museum and I went along with a couple of people from BLHRRI. There were two other groups, one who were extremely skilled and another who played some quite good stuff, but Ikari were something else altogether. As I said above, you can feel their drumming reach down into your soul. You have to experience it to believe it.