Reskinning the taiko drums used for classes and performances by the Taiko Center of the Pacific is a group effort that requires many hands. The students and families of this community are eager to help as they gather together over two long days to repair and revitalize their instruments.

Taiko Center of the Pacific founders Kenny Endo, left, playing an odaiko (Japanese for big drum) and Chizuko Endo, right, playing a taiko set, which includes a rope lashed shime daiko and small sumo odaiko, perform together with a small group of students at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center in Waikiki. The husband and wife team have been promoting their message of peace through music and collaboration around the world since founding their school for taiko well over 20 years ago.

Karyn Doi begins the long process of reskinning a taiko drum by carefully removing the tacks, which hold the skins in place, with a hammer and chisel in Kaneohe.

Marilyn Asakura, left, and Nicole share a laugh as they struggle to pull wooden rods out from a cowhide in Kaneohe. The rods are used to help shape and secure the cowhides during the stretching process.

Lani Villanueva glues thin bamboo sticks into holes left by the tacks that secure the drum skins in place. New holes will be drilled to secure the fresh skin once it has been stretched and shaped onto the drum barrel.

Eric Nouchi, left, and Ray Hose, right, shave and sand recently plugged holes in an odaiko drum so it can be reskinned while Kenny Endo, center left, Tanya Downer, center right, and Elizabeth Mager, far right, inspect a byou-uchi daiko (taiko drum carved from a single piece of wood) for repairs.

Kenny Endo, center, shows onlookers how to pound down the edges of a cowhide to make sure all sides are even as students, from left, Josie Hung, Elle, Nicole and Curren watch and help to stretch the skin across the top of a taiko drum.

A taiko community member walks atop a drum to massage and loosen the skin further as it is stretched into place as Eric Chang works on stretching the skin of another drum by pounding the edges down.

Students and taiko community members, from left, Lani Villanueva, Tanya Downer, Lynne Mayeda, Kenny Endo, Maureen Kearns and Elizabeth Mager work together to secure a cowhide to a taiko drum. The drums are set onto platforms layered with wooden palettes and car jacks where they are secured with ropes attached to the skins so they can be slowly tightened as they dry.

Taiko students Dawson Hose and Blaise Nomitsu hammer small tacks through a thick cowhide once it has dried to secure it onto the wooden drum barrel it has been shaped and stretched to fit. A taiko drum this size uses approximately 200 tacks to hold the skin in place.

Sho’on Shibata gently taps a drumskin to check the sound quality as it slowly dries onto a wooden drum barrel. The skin will continue to be stretched until the desired pitch is reached, at which time it will be tacked into place.

The Taiko Center of the Pacific adult performance group plays on their newly skinned drums for the first time at a Kaimuki celebration for the Chinese New Year, Jan. 18.