Master Japanese drummer Daihachi Oguchi is credited with inventing kumi-daiko, the taiko ensemble, in 1951.
After founding his own ensemble, Osuwa Daiko, he led the spread of modern Taiko throughout Japan and the U.S. A former jazz drummer, Daihachi Oguchi took ancient rhythms, broke them down and created new arrangements and compositions to accommodate an ensemble of drummers.
One day, he was asked to interpret an old sheet of taiko music for Suwa Shrine, which was found in an old warehouse.
Oguchi also led and starred in the performance of drumming and dance at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Olympics.
All people listen to a taiko rhythm dontsuku-dontsuku in their mother's womb," Daihachi Oguchi told The Associated Press at that time.