Interviews
A Japanese American gardening dance
Yeah, Nobuko and some of us started saying, “Well, it’s time, instead of borrowing Kin records from Tokyo, we should start doing our own.” And so we began writing things – mixed Japanese/English and then finally in English. We’re still trying to get live orchestras – groups – to play it rather than tape that and play that record. It’s an on-going thing. One of them was the Gardener’s Dance, which, unless you’re born and raised here, you don’t have a clue what’s going on. People from Japan are going, “What is this?” because they have no experience of a Japanese gardener in California. So it was based on that. There was some resistance to it. Some gardeners thought that we were making fun of them, but the majority of gardeners who heard it, they really liked it. They thanked us for it, which is nice. But there was some objection to it because we used Japanese English.
Date: December 3, 2004
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Understanding Sansei taiko (Japanese)
(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.
Soukou Bayashi: Dedicated to the Issei (Japanese)
(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.
Handmade taiko (Japanese)
(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.
Taiko philosophy (Japanese)
(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.
Rediscovery of Japanese culture through taiko (Japanese)
Shishimai (Lion dance) and Taiko player with San Francisco Taiko Dojo.
The reason he came to the United States (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
First taiko performance in the United States (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
Differences in taiko style (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
Originality of each taiko group (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
Benefits of living in the United States (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
Promoting group identity through taiko contests (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
Taiko's sounds as Japanese cultural tradition (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
Differences between Kinnara and San Francisco Taiko Dojo
(b.1952) Master drummer, artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific
Being free of the tradition
(b.1952) Master drummer, artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific