Kanto: The ultimate badass traditional performance

Kanto Pictures.

Yes, these guys are very badass, They have team unity, physical strength, cool uniforms. Now, "Kanto" is the actual name of the staff, "Sachite" are the people carrying the Kanto and "Ohayashi" are the musicians that played the flute and the drums. The performance would go like this, one of the members (I guess the Captain) would give a whistle, and the Ohayashi would play an intro before going into a continuous beat. The drummers would also cheer as they played. One of the Sachite would lift the staff and balance it for about 30 seconds before passing it on to another Sachite. The entire performance would go on for about 10 minutes. The Drummers would also alternate every few minutes without stopping the beat. The staff is relatively light and the strong wind today made things difficult. My roommate, Hiro who happens to be a Sachite told me that they follow some strict traditional rules (such as the fact that only men can be Sachite).

Watching these guys, I realized that they have a lot of team unity. It made me truly believe that the lack of team unity might have been the reason as to why the Varsity Men Squad of Stony brook crew did so poorly last fall. Its hard to describe the performance without being there, the drummers beat the drum until they were red in the face.