Editing Katari Taiko (section)

==The Only Constant is Change: Into the 21st Century==
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Through all this, the KT roster has ebbed and flowed, from as few as four performing members to as many as twelve. Recruiting, especially through public classes and workshops, was key to keeping the group alive and bringing in new blood (or fresh meat, depending on your perspective). Reiko Tagami noted that that “the process bears an eerie resemblance to, say, Grade 8 girls’ volleyball team tryouts: a roomful of complete strangers assemble because everyone wants to play, but no one is very good at anything yet. The room is a cacophony of stilted rhythm, errant elbows, and misdirected hits. The trainers wince audibly, wondering to themselves if this year’s ‘team’ will ever be playoff-ready.”

Increasingly, KT has welcomed members who are not of Nikkei, or even Asian, heritage. One of these was Naomi Taussig: “It was a dream of mine, to play taiko. A dream I never truly imagined I could actualize, since I am clearly not Asian. I am about as white and tall and visually ‘not Asian’ as a girl could be! And a Jewish girl to boot! Taiko still involves very deep feelings within me. Now however, it means so much more than ever before. Taiko means acceptance, enrichment, fulfillment – hard work and incredible reward. A willingness on the part of Katari Taiko to reach out and allow individuals to bridge their cultural gaps, and to bond as a unique community.” This reflects what has happened to taiko more generally across North America, as former KT board member Miki Maeba said around the time of our 20th anniversary concert: “Taiko has evolved into one of the mediums in which many communities (Asian Canadians, First Nations, peace alliances, gay and lesbian groups, and others) have come together.”

However, the roots of KT remain firmly planted in Japanese-Canadian and Asian Canadian experience. “A group, which on the surface, seems like a bunch of fun-loving, Chinese food-eating, potluck-hosting, group-meeting addicts,” said board member Les Murata, “is in fact an organization who contributed to a movement which helped raise awareness of the history and important issues of Asian Canadians, and continues to do so.” But KT is not simply about traditions of the past. Rather, it is a constantly changing and intensely creative hybrid. Former member Vivien Nishi perhaps said it best: “North American taiko … is hip, cool, unapologetic, and relevant to our own identity and contemporary life. It has a definite root. It may need some pruning, but it is truly a species of its own.”