[4] Hayashi was born on 2 February 1952 in a mountainous town called Tōjō in Hiroshima Prefecture and grew up in a Buddhist temple,[5] where his father was a monk in the local Shingon sect.

[6] Hayashi joined the taiko group Ondekoza at age 19 sometime after hearing a radio advertisement about a summer seminar featuring the designer Tadanori Yokoo on Sado Island.

[7] In addition to direct practice in drumming, even in freezing conditions, Hayashi also ran regularly as a part of his training with the group.

However, learning the piece proved difficult; Hayashi explained, "Japanese folk music was...usually learned by memorizing a series of kuchi shoga....in addition to the fact that each player's method of playing the assigned part differed slightly and often featured an element of improvisation..."[8] With considerable difficulty, Hayashi was able to transform the folk piece into a performance for Ondekoza, who used a completely different set of instruments.

[8] Later in 1975, Hayashi debuted with the rest of Ondekoza in the United States by playing taiko immediately after running the Boston Marathon.