Interviews

1. Fun at concentration camp

2. A wrong ethnic assumption

3. The performing arts not for Nisei

4. Changing the taiko rhythm from Japanese to Afro-Cuban

5. Friction between Sensei and Kinnara in defining taiko

6. American influences on Japanese taiko

7. Appreciating Kinnara Taiko's approach to taiko

8. A Japanese American gardening dance

9. Taiko is a reflection of where you live

10. Playing traditional gagaku while creating an identity

Kodani,Mas

Senshin Buddhist Temple minister and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko.

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.

agriculture arts dance drum gardeners gardening Kinnara Taiko music taiko

Date: December 3, 2004

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim

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

Interviewee Bio

Rev. Masao Kodani is a Sansei minister of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko - the second taiko group established in the United States and the first Japanese American Buddhist group. Born in Glendale, California, Rev. Kodani was a young child when he and his family were incarcerated at Poston Relocation Center in Arizona during WWII. After his family's return toLos Angeles, they lived in a predominantly African American community near the neighborhood of Watts. Although they were Buddhist, his parents sent their children to Evergreen Baptist Church in East L.A. because they thought it would be easier for them to fit in. After graduating from Centennial High School, Reverend Kodani attended the University of California at Santa Barbara where he earned his degree in East Asian Studies. While at UC Santa Barbara, he became close with Reverend Art Takemoto of Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. Through Rev. Takemoto’s influence, Kodani traveled to Japanto study Buddhism at Ryukoku University. After his studies were completed, he returned to the United States and was assigned to the Senshin Buddhist Temple in South Central Los Angeles. In 1969, he established Kinnara Taiko with members of the temple as a Japanese American Buddhist ensemble with the objective of enjoying the Buddha-Dharma (Horaku)through the experience. Their composition, "Ashura" has become one of the most learned adapted pieces in the American taiko repertory. (December 3, 2004)