Taiko and the Asian American Movement: (3 of 4)

Taiko in the Pacific Northwest

©Stanley N. Shikuma

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.