Drummer promoted taiko style

Daihachi Oguchi, the Japanese master drummer who led the spread of the art of “taiko” drumming to the U.S. and throughout Japan, has died after being hit by a car in Tokyo, an official at his ensemble said. He was 84.

Oguchi was crossing a street when he was struck by a car Thursday.

He was rushed to a hospital but died of excessive bleeding early Friday, said Yuken Yagasaki of Osuwa Daiko, the group in Nagano prefecture (state) in northern Japan that Oguchi had led.

Oguchi helped found top U.S. taiko groups, including San Francisco Taiko Dojo, which has performed in Hollywood movies and on international tours since its founding 40 years ago.

A former jazz musician, Oguchi was one of the first to elevate the traditional folk sounds of taiko to modern music played in concert halls, not only festivals and shrines.

He led and starred in the performance of drumming and dance at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

“Your heart is a taiko. All people listen to a taiko rhythm ‘dontsuku-dontsuku’ in their mother’s womb,” Oguchi told the Associated Press then.

“It’s instinct to be drawn to taiko drumming.”

Charming, fiery and vivacious, Oguchi had been scheduled to perform with Kodo, a well-known taiko group, later this year, although he had been in failing health.

Along with Kabuki theater and “ukiyoe” woodblock prints, taiko is one of Japan’s most popular -- and respected -- art forms in the West.

Part dance and part athletics, modern taiko can be dazzlingly visual and acrobatically physical.

Taiko drums, especially the big ones that tower over the drummers, make dramatic booming sounds.

A taiko drum is made from a single hollowed-out tree trunk with cowhide strapped tightly across it.

Oguchi is survived by his wife, Saeko, and two daughters, both taiko drummers, Chinami Ushioda and Kasumi Oguchi.