FUKUOKA (Kyodo) -- As a ferry with decorative taiko drums on its hull eases into the port of Iojima, a tiny island in southwestern Japan, a welcoming rumble of rhythmic sounds from the shore resonates within the boat.

The drumming coming from the island, however, is not from the traditional Japanese taiko but from students practicing the djembe, a West African goblet drum played with the hand.

The drum was introduced to the Pacific island, a part of Kagoshima Prefecture, some three decades ago by a top djembe musician visiting from Guinea. It has since become a performing art passed down through the generations in a long-standing music exchange with the West African nation.

The villagers are now teaching the drum to people across Japan, with a total of 83 people visiting to learn the instrument on a six-month program so far.

Local children, meanwhile, are hard at work as they prepare to play the djembe for the World Expo 2025, which will be held in Osaka, western Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13.

Located four hours by ferry from Kagoshima city, the prefectural capital, Iojima is one of three islands that make up Mishima village, along with Takeshima and Kuroshima, and lies in the northern part of the Ryukyu Islands.

All of the municipal boats that ferry people to the islands proudly display djembe decorations.

A hollowed log, commonly covered with an untreated rawhide drumhead of goatskin, the djembe produces low, medium and high pitch staccato rhythms, similar to a tambourine. It is traditionally played with three other drums for a variety of ceremonies.

"Anyone can become your friend if they start playing the djembe," said Kurumi Takahashi, 35, who stayed in Iojima, along with her remote-working husband and her 1-year-old daughter, in 2024 as a student learning the djembe. "It is a simple yet profound instrument that cannot be faked," she said.

The Takahashis learned about the Mishima Djembe School while traveling around the country in their camping trailer. Although her husband did not participate in the program, he sometimes practiced with his wife.

Kurumi was in the school's 18th graduating class, studying alongside five men and women in their 20s and 30s.

Practice is conducted in a music studio and the participants help out with village activities. Accommodation and training fees are free, while the village provides 30,000 yen ($190) per month as compensation for the help it receives.

The djembe, which in West Africa is traditionally played only by men, was introduced to Iojima in 1994 by the late Mamady Keita, a renowned player of the instrument who had the aim of interacting through music with the children of the small Japanese village.

Known as a djembefola, an honorary title bestowed upon those who have become proficient in the instrument and understand the intricacies of its rhythms, and a member of the group Sewa Kan, Keita had been active as a top player in Guinea's national dance company.

A djembefola is said to communicate with the spirits of nature and "make the instrument speak" to tell emotional stories, using rhythms and the wide range of tones the instrument produces to get their message across.

Taking a cue from Keita, Kenichiro Tokuda, 56, a former public employee of the village, and others began gathering local students after school to practice the instrument. "We wanted to keep this exchange alive," said Tokuda, who was also exploring opportunities to keep the local community thriving despite rapid depopulation.

According to the school, the initial 19 children from the village to try their hand at the djembe were bewildered by their first exposure to it, but hearing the cheerful rhythms of Keita's playing and his words of encouragement allowed them to find joy in taking on the challenge.

"You don't have to play well. If you enjoy playing the drums, everyone who hears you will be happy, too," Keita told them.

After much practice, the children went on a performance tour that summer with Keita -- first to nearby Amami-Oshima Island and then to Hiroshima and Okayama on Japan's main island of Honshu. They were met with thunderous applause.

Keita continued to visit Iojima frequently, and children from Mishima and Guinea began mutual visits in a friendship exchange that has deepened to this day.

Tokuda traveled abroad to Guinea in a volunteer capacity to receive formal djembe instruction before opening the Mishima Djembe School where he is currently the principal.

In early November on the island of Kuroshima, 70 minutes by ferry from Iojima, djembe students at Mishima Osato Gakuen, a school with a total of 16 elementary and middle school students, practiced "Mishima," an original composition by Keita. There was no sheet music, but they absorbed the rhythms of the drum as they played.

"It's difficult for everyone to keep the complicated rhythm together, but I feel a sense of accomplishment," said 14-year-old Nao Suzuki, a second-year junior high school student there.

She is among the djembe students from the village set to perform in commemoration of Guinea's National Day at the World Expo in Osaka on June 10.

Mishima village is also working on settlement measures and creating places to work on the islands, but as of December 2024, the population, which had exceeded 1,000 in the 1960s, stood at 344 in 197 households. With no high school, many of the children leave the islands behind after graduating from middle school.

"I want them to be proud to say they come from the islands of the djembe," Tokuda said.

(By Takehiro Higashi)