Tengu Taiko Drummers

WELCOME TO THE TENGU TAIKO DRUMMERS WEBSITE

Tengu Taiko Drummers, based in York, North Yorkshire, provide entertaining and energetic Japanese style
drumming performances throughout the UK, for a variety of events and festivals.

There is also an active teaching programme run separately by Jared Hardwick through the Tengu School of Taiko, providing regular courses and workshops for both adults and children, as well as bringing this exciting performing art to schools, festivals and corporate events in many areas.

Click on one of the images below to find out more about us, or scroll down for the latest news!

BOOK A WORKSHOP FOR YOUR SCHOOL, EVENT, SOCIAL GROUP,
CORPORATE / TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY,
OR JUST FOR FUN WITH FRIENDS.

BOOK HERE

News

New intermediate classes starting at the Dojo in York 20/10/2025

If you're at a point on your Taiko journey where you want to up your game, work on drills to improve your skills, learn more challenging pieces and have the opportunity to perform to an audience, then these are the sessions for you!
Intermediate classes now available at our Dojo in York on Sunday afternoons, 1pm - 2.30pm
At least 1 year experience of playing Taiko is required to sign up!
Click here for full details.
To book your place, please email Jared at: [email protected]

New courses starting in November 2025 14/10/2025

LEEDS Monday evening course starts on 3rd November. Click here for full details
PICKERING Tuesday evening course starts on 4th November. Click for full details
YORK evening course starts on Thursday 7th November. Click for full details
YORK afternoon course starts on Thursday 7th November. Click for full details

Places need to be booked in advance for all courses, and can go very fast!
To book your place, please email: [email protected]

Our very first workshop at our new dojo in York! 02/09/2025

ODAIKO WORKSHOP - Saturday 13th September
A 3 hour workshop to learn the techniques to play the mighty Odaiko (big drum) and a piece to play together, to experience the power of this energetic style.
Click for full details

New Tengu Dojo in York - We need your help! 12/07/2025
We have a new permanent Tengu Taiko dojo training space and we need your help!
We are so excited to announce that we are now the proud tenants of a unit in Sutton on the Forest, a few miles north of the York outer ring road, which will be the new base for Tengu School of Taiko classes and workshops in York and home of the Tengu Taiko Drummers! This will open up so much more opportunities for intermediate classes, monthly workshops and more exciting things we have planned.
We plan to have the unit ready by the beginning of August, but we need to acoustically prepare the space before it is ready for use. So we need to install rubber flooring, sound absorbing panels, acoustic theatre style curtains, and a wall of mirrors. This is going to cost around £6000. So we have set up a crowdfund to try and raise £4000 to help fund the materials and make this an awesome dojo for everyone to train in.
Any amount of donation will be greatly appreciated, but if you can't donate, please help us by sharing the crowdfund, as this will also help massively.
Crowdfund link at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tengu-taiko-dojo-set-up
Thanks so much. We are looking forward to welcoming you into our amazing new dojo.
Jared and the Tengu Team.

Fantastic debut theatre concert 12/06/2025
What a great night it was for our debut theatre concert with Taikoist Takuya!
With a very full audience and a standing ovation at the end of our set, to sharing the stage with the very talented Takuya Taniguchi, we had a great time and some fantastic feed back from the audience. Here are some great photos from the evening, taken by upcoming photographer Sally Jane. You can check out her portfolio on instagram at www.instagram.com/sallyjane.photos/

Our debut theatre show with Takuya Taniguchi 18/03/2025
We are very excited to announce that we will performing our debut theatre show in May, and alongside top Japanese solo performer Takuya Taniguchi 'The Taikoist'!
The show will be held at the prestigious Memorial Hall Theatre at St Peter's school in York, on Saturday 24th May
Doors 7pm for a 7.30 start.
You can book your tickets via the Ticketsource website at:
www.ticketsource.co.uk/tengu-taiko-drummers

Taiko workshop with Takuya Taniguchi
On Sunday 25th May, we are also offering the rare opportunity to do a 2 hour workshop with Takuya.
Takuya will be teaching an original piece he composed, with a feel of traditional rhythms and movements from ancient Japan, The piece, which is influenced by the Nebuta Matsuri in Aomori will encompass the festival mood, and everyone will be immersed with great Japanese grooves. Nebuta Matsuri is one of the 3 most famous festivals of Japan. It's biggest feature is the massive floats of brave warrior figures, which are carried through the city.

Some Taiko experience is recommended for this workshop. (seasoned beginners through to more experienced) Places are limited and may go fast!
Price: £60 per person.
Time: 12.30pm - 2.30pm
Venue: Sheriff Hutton Village Hall, York Road, Sheriff Hutton, YO60 6RA
To book your place, please contact Jared at: [email protected]

The end of a busy year 11/12/2024
We have been very busy this year, with over 20 performances at many great events and locations including London, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and York, but one of our highlights this year was performing at Conwy Castle in North Wales. We finished off the year with a performance in Whitby on 8th December for the Krampus Run weekend, to a packed venue at the Whitby Brewery.
We have lots of exciting plans for next year, so watch this space!
We would like to thank everyone who has helped and supported us throughout 2024, and wish everyone a healthy and happy 2025!

Performances in June - August 12/06/2024
We have a busy couple of months ahead with 7 performances in June and August. These include local gigs at the Woodthorpe festival and Fulford Show in York, as well as further afield for Tattooed Planet convention in Manchester, Summer Matsuri Japanese festival in Liverpool and at Conwy Castle in North Wales to celebrate the twinning with Himeji Castle in Japan. For a full list of our performances this year, see our performance page HERE

Full day workshop in York on Sat 25th May 15/03/2024
A full day workshop, suitable for beginners through to intermediate,
covering 2 styles of playing - Odaiko and Miyake.
The day runs from 10am to 5pm with an hour break for lunch at Sheriff Hutton village hall, just outside York.
Click here for full details.

First performance of 2024 08/12/2023
We are already getting bookings for 2024 in Liverpool, Guernsey, York and Manchester,
but first will be kicking off with one in London on Saturday 13th January at Tian Tian Oriental supermarket in Ealing, for their Japanese New Year (正月 Shōgatsu) celebrations.

Check out our performance schedule HERE
(more will be added as they come in).

Cogito Ergo Drum 10/05/2023
We were proud to be part of a recent project put together by Jonathan Kirby of Kagemusha Taiko, called 'Cogito Ergo Drum' (a play on the phrase Cogito Ergo Sum, "I think therefore I am", written by René Descartes in 1637).
It involved over 100 players from 17 different European Taiko groups in 8 different countries, each with their own creative contributions.

Behind the scenes footage from Doctor Strange film 10/06/2022
Some behind the scenes footage has surfaced, of us practicing the patterns we had to play for our scene in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. You get to see more of the drums in this, than the actual film, which is a pity since they had amazing detail on them.

Look out for us in 'Doctor Strange 2' Marvel film 06/05/2022
We're really excited about appearing in the new Marvel film 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'.
In January 2021, some of us were involved in production for the film, along with a couple of members from Joji Hirota’s team and Tamashii Daiko!
We traveled down to Longcross film studios in Surrey on a few occasions, and filmed drumming scenes during a battle against the scarlet witch, at the Kamar Taj temple (a Tibetan style temple). Although days could be long, the experience of being on set, and also being involved in consultation with props department for the building of of the huge drums we used, was awesome. The drumming patterns we played were written by Danny Elfman too!

Performances in Guernsey and Birmingham 30/03/2022
We had a great time in March with performances in Guernsey for the 'Kabuki charity ball'
and in Birmingham for the Cherry Blossom festival. A big thanks to Evoke photography and Arta Gailuma photography for some fantastic pictures from both events, some of which you can see below.

Chinese New Year at Grantley Hall in Ripon 02/02/2022
This week, we had a great time at Grantley Hall, providing a performance for their Chinese New Year celebrations! Here's some pics, including our Shishimai lion, who got a little carried away with the party atmosphere.