Bachi

Some other woods commonly used to make bachi are (Japanese names in parentheses): maple (楓, kaede), pine (松, matsu), cypress (檜, hinoki), magnolia (朴, hō), beech (椈, buna) and bamboo (竹, take).

[1] Magnolia is one of the lightest and softest woods, most suitable for playing smaller drums with a sharp attack and less decay.

It is also too soft to strike the rim of the drum (in kuchi shoka, it is called a ka) without denting the wood.

Taiko drumming is a highly visual art form, and so bachi are sometimes decorated with bells or tassels for use during performance.

Similarly to guitar picks, bachi were traditionally made of tortoise shell (鼈甲, bekkō) or ivory (象牙, zōge), but these materials are rare and expensive (and illegal to trade in some territories, due to protection of endangered species), therefore making bachi in these materials highly expensive and impractical.