Sado. 1. Island of Exile.

Every year, towards the end of August, Kodo holds a 3-day-long festival at their home base of Sado-ga-shima, or Sado Island. The event, called Earth Celebration, consists of three large evening concerts by Kodo in combination with a guest artist, as well as numerous "fringe" performances by various visiting artists, a range of classes and workshops, and a big outdoor market for all sorts of food and stuff. Generally speaking, it is one big outdoor party attended by a couple thousand Japanese artists, old hippies and young hippie wannabes, and assorted gaijin. All held on the remote Sado Island.

Click here to get an interactive map of Japan centred on Sado Island.

Sado-ga-shima has always been a remote part of Japan and it remains so today. For over a thousand years it has been a land of exile, a repository for people whom the government considered inconvenient, but who were too high-profile to be executed outright. While spared immediate death, those exiled to Sado were simply not expected to return. And subsequent discovery of gold on the island around 1600, and the consequent need for cheap labor, gave the Edo Shogunate the ingenious idea to transport to Sado large number of the Tokyo homeless. And while transportation to Sado was not a death sentence, the harsh working condition in the mines ensured a short life expectancy.

Southern coast of Sado-ga-shima.
Click on image for a close-up

In recent years, Sado has suffered in different ways. The migration of young people to the big cities has denuded the countryside, and this has been particularly true of remote Sado-ga-shima. Over the last 50 years, the population of the island has gone down by a factor of two and now stands at around 60,000. And as young people move away in search of jobs, only the old folks are left behind to tend to the traditional industries of farming and fishing. As in centuries past, Sado today remains truly a backwater and even in this era of rapid transportation getting to Sado from Kyoto takes 5 hours by train and then 3 hours by ferry.

It is in this context of post-war rapid industrial growth that a group of young people decided to move to Sado in the 1970s, to devote themselves to training in traditional musical arts and practicing the remote rural lifestyle. Today's Kodo is still deeply rooted in these ideals, living and training on Sado Island. And while Sado may be remote, its remoteness holds plenty of something that Kodo members wanted: traditional arts that they could study and draw on.

Demon drummers going door-to-door in Ogi town on Sado. One of the surviving folk traditions on the island.

Girl in traditional costume rowing tourists in Ogi harbour in one of the traditional tub-boats. Doesn't her dress remind you of one oft worn by Kodo's Chieko Kojima?

It is on Sado that Kodo holds its annual Earth Celebration festival, to both give something back to their island neighbors, and to bring the world to experience the remote beauty of Sado-ga-shima. And is there that we traveled one weekend this August...

Tedo-san, getting on the Sado-bound ferry

Sado. 1. Island of Exile.

Every year, towards the end of August, Kodo holds a 3-day-long festival at their home base of Sado-ga-shima, or Sado Island. The event, called Earth Celebration, consists of three large evening concerts by Kodo in combination with a guest artist, as well as numerous "fringe" performances by various visiting artists, a range of classes and workshops, and a big outdoor market for all sorts of food and stuff. Generally speaking, it is one big outdoor party attended by a couple thousand Japanese artists, old hippies and young hippie wannabes, and assorted gaijin. All held on the remote Sado Island.

Click here to get an interactive map of Japan centred on Sado Island.

Sado-ga-shima has always been a remote part of Japan and it remains so today. For over a thousand years it has been a land of exile, a repository for people whom the government considered inconvenient, but who were too high-profile to be executed outright. While spared immediate death, those exiled to Sado were simply not expected to return. And subsequent discovery of gold on the island around 1600, and the consequent need for cheap labor, gave the Edo Shogunate the ingenious idea to transport to Sado large number of the Tokyo homeless. And while transportation to Sado was not a death sentence, the harsh working condition in the mines ensured a short life expectancy.

Southern coast of Sado-ga-shima.
Click on image for a close-up

In recent years, Sado has suffered in different ways. The migration of young people to the big cities has denuded the countryside, and this has been particularly true of remote Sado-ga-shima. Over the last 50 years, the population of the island has gone down by a factor of two and now stands at around 60,000. And as young people move away in search of jobs, only the old folks are left behind to tend to the traditional industries of farming and fishing. As in centuries past, Sado today remains truly a backwater and even in this era of rapid transportation getting to Sado from Kyoto takes 5 hours by train and then 3 hours by ferry.

It is in this context of post-war rapid industrial growth that a group of young people decided to move to Sado in the 1970s, to devote themselves to training in traditional musical arts and practicing the remote rural lifestyle. Today's Kodo is still deeply rooted in these ideals, living and training on Sado Island. And while Sado may be remote, its remoteness holds plenty of something that Kodo members wanted: traditional arts that they could study and draw on.

Demon drummers going door-to-door in Ogi town on Sado. One of the surviving folk traditions on the island.

Girl in traditional costume rowing tourists in Ogi harbour in one of the traditional tub-boats. Doesn't her dress remind you of one oft worn by Kodo's Chieko Kojima?

It is on Sado that Kodo holds its annual Earth Celebration festival, to both give something back to their island neighbors, and to bring the world to experience the remote beauty of Sado-ga-shima. And is there that we traveled one weekend this August...

Tedo-san, getting on the Sado-bound ferry