Taiko and the Asian American Movement: the Making of a Modern Folk Art

©Stanley N. Shikuma

(This is a heavily edited version of a longer paper by Stan that traces the development of Taiko in the Northwest. All errors are the editors. The full version of Stan's paper, "Making A Modern Folk Art: Taiko in the Pacific Northwest/Canadian Southwest Region" is available by e-mail)

Taiko in Japan
Taiko is the generic word for "drum." Taiko have played (and continue to play) an important role in Japanese art and culture. During the period of rapid industrialization of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, many traditional folk arts were neglected or ignored in the rush to "modernize" (and militarize) Japan. Many arts experienced a resurgence following World War II. Some experimented with new ways of using traditional methods, including the development of large taiko ensembles playing percussive performance pieces.

Taiko in North America
Taiko first appeared in North America as Japanese labor immigrated here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As in Japan, the drums were used in religious ceremonies, theater productions and most commonly in festivals like Oshogatsu (New Year's festival) and Obon (Buddhist festival to honor ancestors). In major West Coast cities like Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, a vibrant Nikkei community supported numerous artistic performances and cultural institutions. Much of this heritage was lost, however, when both the United States and Canadian governments incarcerated all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast in concentration camps during WWII.

Racist laws and attitudes shaped much of early Japanese American life here, including where Japanese could live, which schools they could attend, what jobs they could hold, where they could farm, and who could own land. Still, despite the racial, economic and political discrimination, most Nikkei communities managed a rich cultural life before the war. During the war, though, cultural suppression increased dramatically, followed in the post-war period by a heavy self-censorship lasting well into the 1960's. All of the early North American taiko groups formed in the context of these larger social and historical forces.

In 1969, Rev. Masao Kodani, Johnny Mori, George Abe and others started Kinnara Taiko at Senshin Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles. Kinnara pioneered in building "wine barrel" taiko and widely shared their design, a development that made taiko both available and affordable to players in North America. Through their temple connections and the Horaku ("temple entertainment") circuit, Kinnara has taught and inspired dozens of groups. They are known for their unique style of "leaderless" organization, stemming from their religious philosophy.

San Jose Taiko formed in 1973, led by Roy and PJ Hirabayashi and others. After receiving some early training from Tanaka Sensei, San Jose Taiko went on to develop their own unique style and original repertoire and have been leaders in developing and defining a North American style of taiko. Many of San Jose Taiko's early members were active in the Asian American Movement of the time, including work within the Asian American Studies Program at San Jose State University. While SJT has become a major performing arts organization, they still maintain ties and view themselves as a Nikkei community group.

It is important to note that all three of these pioneer groups formed at a time when the movements for Civil Rights, Black Power, Anti-Vietnam War and Ethnic Studies were sparking both a desire to explore Japanese cultural roots among young Sansei (third generation Japanese Americans) as well as an interest in what we now call "Word Music" among the general public. In many ways, taiko offered a way to break the stereotypes of Japanese as "the quiet Americans" who tried to "out-white the whites" in order to assimilate into mainstream culture. Taiko instead offered an opportunity to reclaim one's cultural heritage and to serve the community. Taiko was a radical development in the American cultural movement of the time.

A Second Wave

A second wave of taiko groups started forming in the mid-1970's to mid-1980's. Their appearance coincided with three major developments. First, the three pioneer groups had developed a body of knowledge -- from how to build "wine-barrel" taiko and stands to a basic taiko repertoire, drills, form and style -- which they were willing to share and teach to the new groups. Second, Ondeko-za, one of the most famous of the modern Japanese taiko groups, first toured the United States in 1977, giving players here their first glimpse of "Japanese style" taiko and providing a vision of taiko as a modern performing art.

Third, the Redress Movement among Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians was emerging and gaining momentum. This community-wide struggle for justice sparked new interest in questions of identity, culture and self-expression among younger Sansei and Yonsei (third and fourth generation Nikkei), many of whom found taiko a natural and forceful way to both assert themselves and serve their community. Virtually all the groups formed in this period were taught, inspired and heavily influenced by the three pioneer groups. This second wave can be characterized by their formation within a Nikkei community and by the large numbers of members who were community activists before starting taiko.

Third and Fourth Waves

Since the late 1980's, taiko has experienced a third wave of new taiko groups. This wave is both more diverse and more numerous than the previous two waves. (While only a handful of groups existed in North America in 1975 , today there are well over 100 groups.) More groups today are being started by players who studied taiko in Japan, with little or no connection to the pioneer groups and with few if any ties to a local Japanese American community. Taiko players today often come with an interest primarily in music and performance, and seem less interested in the politics, identity or community aspects of the early groups. Taiko has also expanded beyond Japan and North America to include groups in Europe, Australia and South America.

As we enter the 21st century, a fourth wave of taiko groups is bound to emerge, even larger and more diverse than the last. Taiko will become more popular, gain wider and wider audiences and also become more commercialized. As taiko become more affordable and available as band instruments, including mass-produced, synthetic taikos, we can anticipate many more people playing and performing taiko with little or no training. We might also expect to see a proliferation of "taiko dojo's" or studios of varying philosophies and quality. It remains an open question how such changes might affect taiko's significance and meaning to the Nikkei community.

Taiko in the Pacific Northwest

Taiko first came to the Pacific Northwest when the early Japanese immigrants brought over their religious and cultural practices in the late 19th and early 20th century. Organized, performing taiko groups, however, have only existed here for about 20 years, largely centered in the two cities of Vancouver, BC, and Seattle, WA. Although taiko has rapidly spread in the 1990's, the majority of taiko groups in the Pacific Northwest still hail from either Seattle or Vancouver.

Each taiko group in the region has its own unique history. In this section I look at several groups within the region who are known for their commitment to the Nikkei community and for developing taiko as a modern art.

KATARI TAIKO, the first taiko group in Canada as well as the region, started in 1979. Early training came from Seiichi Tanaka. Most founding members were involved as volunteers or staff for the Powell Street Festival. (PSF was started in 1977 as a means of pulling the dispersed Japanese Canadian community back together.)

From the beginning, Katari operated as a collective with a clear goal of empowering both the individuals in the group as well as the community they represented. Early Katari members, most of them women, were quite politically conscious and saw KT as a means of fighting stereotypes of both Japanese Canadians and Asian women.

Katari Taiko's work with other artists has led to many innovative and memorable additions to Nikkei art and culture. Hirabayashi's multi-media piece on the internment of Japanese Canadians, "RAGE" incorporated taiko, dance, martial arts and audio-visual text. KT's work over the last 20 years demonstrates why taiko remains such a valuable cultural resource for the Nikkei community with rich possibilities for exploring and developing our own unique folklore.

SEATTLE TAIKO GROUP formed in April 1980 following an awe-inspiring performance by Ondekoza at the Seattle Center. Started by a group of young activists in the local Japanese American and Asian American community, STG relied on community donations of space, materials and money to get up and running.

Several former members of STG went on to help form several other Northwest Taiko groups. In 1992, Kokon Taiko Ensemble and Seattle Taiko Group merged to form Seattle Kokon Taiko.

During my tenure as Artistic Director of Seattle Kokon Taiko (1992-97), we did pieces based on the bombings of Hiroshima-Nagasaki, an Okinawan folktale, a traditional fishermen's song, a lion dance and matsutake hunting. With each piece I tried to provide a narrative or background information to explain where the piece came from and what it was about. My hope was to build a modern folklore series -- pieces to tell a tale, evoke a memory, or spur a reflection relating to Japanese American history, traditions and culture.

PORTLAND TAIKO, a relatively new but rapidly rising star in the regional taiko scene, also has worked extensively on what I call "folklore" pieces. Started by two Stanford Taiko alumni, Ann Ishimaru and Zack Semke, in 1994, PT quickly gained the support of the local Nikkei community. PT has since started a children's program, a school outreach program, a semi-annual concert series and a touring group. PT also recently won a national grant to commission a new piece by taiko master Kenny Endo, to premier in fall 2000.

PT has developed a unique community-based creative process involving local community members in dialogues and workshops about a particular issue, development of a creative work, and refining the resultant piece. Thus far, they have used the process to look at inter-generational issues in the Asian American community, the legacy of the Tule Lake internment/segregation experience, and the complex relationships between the Japanese American and Filipino communities in Portland.

A Modern Folk Art

From its beginnings as a community activity to its development into a modern performing art, taiko has consistently been a source of pride and cultural rejuvenation for the Nikkei community. For many taiko groups, I would further argue that taiko is being used to develop or create a modern folklore here in North America.

Folklore can be viewed as the accumulated wisdom, values, customs and beliefs of a cultural community. It is an ancient and useful way to preserve and pass on a common cultural heritage, and in this way serves to bind people together into a coherent, sustainable community. It helps us shape our individual identity, place ourselves in a social-cultural context vis-a-vis our neighbors, and locate ourselves in the larger world community.

In Nikkei communities of the Pacific Coast, forces of racism, discrimination and segregation altered and curtailed the growth and development of our folklore. World War II and the incarceration camps almost crushed it. Policies of forced assimilation and cultural genocide, similar in some respects to those practiced on native or indigenous peoples, took a heavy toll. Nihonmachis and Little Tokyos were destroyed, Japanese language was suppressed, the family structure was turned upside down, and anything Japanese became a source of suspicion and shame during the period of mass incarceration and beyond into the post-war years.

Taiko began in the United States and Canada largely as a rejection of the notion that Nikkei children should be ashamed of their heritage. It was a means of asserting one's identity and, initially at least, a means of defining oneself in opposition to the prevalent stereotypes and expectations of society. Simply playing taiko was a liberating activity for many Sansei youth. Today, however, taiko is no longer viewed as a rebellious activity but as a performing art. It is no longer confined to small community street fairs and church bazaars but now appears in nightclubs and concert halls and can be heard on TV and in movies.

Taiko is a tradition in and of itself. Like ikebana or kendo, taiko carries its own aesthetic and inherent beauty. Taiko is rich with possibilities for imparting values, conveying customs, telling stories, reflecting on our history. It can draw from the old and develop in new directions. Taiko as folklore can help preserve and develop Japanese AND American (or Canadian) culture and be a path to a common ground of understanding and respect between people of differing backgrounds. This may be the greatest challenge -- and the greatest legacy -- for taiko in North America and the Pacific Northwest/Canadian Southwest region.