photo : Kosei Yoshida
Born in 1963 in Hiroshima, Eiichi spent his childhood living in a number of towns with his family. He enjoyed the Boy Scouts and practiced kendo. His favourite hobbies include camping, canoeing and splitting wood for the wood stove in the home he built 5 years ago near Kodo Village with his wife and Kodo member Naomi and 2 boys Yuki (9) and Yusaku (5).
His first connection to music was teaching himself Simon and Garfunkel songs on the guitar.
Before entering high school he was afflicted with the then quite prevalent sanmu-shugi (the 3 nothingnesses syndrome), 'unimpressed, unmoved, no responsibilities'. He lost interest in school, guitar, kendo and just went through the motions. In his final year of high school he went to a Kodo (then called Ondekoza) performance and found himself captivated, particularly by the Shishi Odori dance. He felt both moved and impressed by something for the first time in years. He was accepted into Kodo's 4 day summer school on Sado, and during the self introductions said 'I'm Eiichi Saito from Hiroshima. When I graduate from high school I want to join Kodo.' It just slipped out naturally. The very pudgy Eiichi was told by more than one member that if he expected to join he'd better start jogging right away.
The next spring he found himself after an all night sleepless train ride and early ferry at Kodo's schoolhouse. It was still cold so he tiptoed quietly past the bodies of several members deep in siesta near the only stove in the building and ate a couple of bowls of soba left over from lunch. At the sound of wooden clappers the silence was broken and in he went to practice. He knelt for 10 minutes on the cold wooden floor watched of all things a Shishi Odori rehearsal. 'Get up behind us and follow along!' called out a member. And so it was that sleepless, dazed and confused Eiichi found himself in Kodo. After a full afternoon dancing he discovered to his horror that it was time for the evening run. Off he set with Odaiko player (and keen runner) Yoshikazu Fujimoto. 60 minutes of running through a pine forest. Yoshikazu sprinted ahead leaving still roly poly Eiichi gasping in his wake. That evening at dinner of brown rice and veg the cooks of the day announced the luxury of '2 shiitake mushrooms each!' Upon doling them out they said 'Okay, there are 3 mushrooms left!' A great cheer erupted and an elimination round of 'paper, scissors, rock' broke out to determine the recipients of this windfall. Eichi took all this in in wonder.
After a wind-howling night he arose at the dreaded hour of 5:50 and descending to the dining room found only silence. Disoriented he went back to his room and waited. By 9 bodies began to stir, sleepily fixing themselves something to eat and around 10 he worked up the courage to whisper, 'Psst, about today...?' the reply, 'Sundays are holidays now.'
To his delight he shed 15 kilos in a month but for at least a year the early mornings and the dread of running made him consider quitting each day. After 15 years in the group Eiichi is now one of the leading drummers and the understudy Odaiko player, an instrument at which he feels completely confident but which he feels he needs at least another 5 years to truly make his own. He claims to be not so much a musician as a performer as it is less the music that moves him than the joy he feels in bringing that music to life and the pleasure he receives from the joy of the audience. He is a very enthusiastic leader of Kodo workshops which he says is not about teaching taiko but more about ensuring that the participants have fun playing them. He finds he learns much from teaching that enriches his own playing. He enjoys the complete freedom in workshops to improvise with the music and hopes to bring ever more of this freedom into Kodo's performances.
