Interviews

1. Understanding Sansei taiko (Japanese)

2. Soukou Bayashi: Dedicated to the Issei (Japanese)

3. Handmade taiko (Japanese)

4. Taiko philosophy (Japanese)

5. Coming to America

6. Differences between American-born Japanese and Japanese from Japan

7. Lack of taiko at Cherry Blossom Festival

8. Reasons for starting taiko in America

9. Meeting Kinnara Taiko

10. Drafted for Vietnam War

11. Happi coats in taiko

12. Tire Dojo

13. Traditional taiko style

14. Dedicated to the frontier spirits

15. Japanese musical education

16. Differences between American and Japanese taiko

17. Dream of "taiko" in the English dictionary

Tanaka,Seiichi

(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.

Meeting Kinnara Taiko

Every time we play drum, I think I attract people because that’s very quite unusual at that time. So people start to want to join. That’s also another reason I have to learn more music, more taiko. So every time I go to Japan. Part time job, and I gain money and go to Japan. Study. More study. And every time, bring the drum.

So until ’69, Koyasan-ho(?)—do you remember? Koyasan-ho in Little Tokyo. Nagano kenjinkai—like a Nagano prefecture people’s crowd—invite us to play taiko. So then I met the Kinnara Taiko group. Those people had a bookstore, Amerasia, American Asian, bookstore. This is the first time I ever met those people.

They are making their own drum. That was a big culture shock. I never thought to make the drum. My knowledge of taiko is always carpenter, special taiko carpenter, make the drum. But this is a revolution. Revolution. Those guys make the taiko revolution. Without their idea of using barrel, wine barrel—cut, (?) the skin. Some not as good as original Japanese taiko. But they can make it in an inexpensive way. I think that made taiko history in the United States. That’s very, very important [that] JA’s start to make—everybody—start to make own taiko.

drum Kinnara Taiko music taiko

Date: January 27, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka, a shin-issei, was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1943. After graduating from Chiba University of Commerce, he moved to the United States in 1967. He worked as a farm laborer, picking strawberries in Watsonville, before moving to San Francisco. In 1968, he attended the San Francisco Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival. He was struck by the absence of taiko drumming—something he associated with the festivals of his youth in Japan. Inspired to action, he borrowed taiko from the local Buddhist Temple and gathered together some friends to perform at the 1968 Aki (Autumn) Matsuri in Japantown. He returned to Japan many times in the years following to study taiko so that he could pass on his knowledge to others.Tanaka Sensei built upon the taiko renaissance that had begun in Japan in the 1950s and established San Francisco Taiko Dojo, the first taiko dojo (school) in North America, in 1968. Since then, he has trained thousands of students.

Today there are more than 200 taiko groups in the United States and Canada, many of which trace their roots back to Grand Master Tanaka and his San Francisco Taiko Dojo. Tanaka continues to teach fundamental taiko rhythm patterns and movements that are based on the martial arts. Although his taiko style originates in the Japanese festival tradition, he has been influenced by his American experiences and blends traditional taiko rhythms with jazz, Latin, and other rhythms.

Tanaka Sensei has received Japan's Foreign Ministers Commendation and the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellows Award in recognition of his work promoting the art of taiko. (January 27, 2005)