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Katari Taiko: Difference between revisions
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(Created page with "{{AAType |Image=Kataritaiko.jpg |Home page=www.kataritaiko.bc.ca |Location=Vancouver, |Arts=Arts, Music |Type=Group }} ==Who We Are== Katari Taiko operates as a collective. Our...") |
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|Image=Kataritaiko.jpg | |Image=Kataritaiko.jpg | ||
|Home page=www.kataritaiko.bc.ca | |Home page=www.kataritaiko.bc.ca | ||
|Location=Vancouver, | |Location=Vancouver, | ||
|Arts=Arts, Music | |Arts=Arts, Music | ||
|Type=Group | |Type=Group | ||
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We wish to achieve technical excellence as a group within a collective spirit. A basic assumption is that the strengthening of each individual member will result in the strengthening of the group as a whole. Thus, the responsibility of coordinating practices and group activities is rotated among the members. Each member is expected to be able to act as spokesperson for the group and to provide criticism and encouragement for the other members. Rules are kept to a minimum and established only as the need arises. | We wish to achieve technical excellence as a group within a collective spirit. A basic assumption is that the strengthening of each individual member will result in the strengthening of the group as a whole. Thus, the responsibility of coordinating practices and group activities is rotated among the members. Each member is expected to be able to act as spokesperson for the group and to provide criticism and encouragement for the other members. Rules are kept to a minimum and established only as the need arises. | ||
As the first taiko group to form in Canada, we hope to inspire other Asian Canadians to explore their community and culture. In keeping with this desire, we have given workshops to groups in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Seattle, Victoria, and Kamloops. We also give regular open workshops in Vancouver to enable the general public to get a feeling for taiko and to serve as cultural exchange between Canadians of diverse ethnic backgrounds. | As the first taiko group to form in Canada, we hope to inspire other Asian Canadians to explore their community and culture. In keeping with this desire, we have given workshops to groups in [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Hinode_Taiko Winnipeg], [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Raging_Asian_Women_Taiko_Drummers Toronto], [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Arashi_Daiko Montreal], Edmonton, Seattle, Victoria, and Kamloops. We also give regular open workshops in Vancouver to enable the general public to get a feeling for taiko and to serve as cultural exchange between Canadians of diverse ethnic backgrounds. | ||
Katari Taiko is but one of the elements in the revival and current development of the Japanese Canadian community and culture. Members of Katari Taiko sit on the boards of various community associations, were active in the redress movement, and work as coordinators and volunteers at the [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Powell_Street_Festival_Society Powell Street Festival], Vancouver's annual Japanese Canadian celebration. Other members have been involved in historical and cultural publications as writers, editors, and researchers. As well, we feel a commitment to the broader community and have given our support as performers to women's groups, the peace movement, environmental groups, and other local issues, such as native land claims. | Katari Taiko is but one of the elements in the revival and current development of the Japanese Canadian community and culture. Members of Katari Taiko sit on the boards of various community associations, were active in the redress movement, and work as coordinators and volunteers at the [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Powell_Street_Festival_Society Powell Street Festival], Vancouver's annual Japanese Canadian celebration. Other members have been involved in historical and cultural publications as writers, editors, and researchers. As well, we feel a commitment to the broader community and have given our support as performers to women's groups, the peace movement, environmental groups, and other local issues, such as native land claims. | ||
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==The Beginning: 1979 – 1981== | ==The Beginning: 1979 – 1981== | ||
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KT’s history story begins in the late 1970s, and has a lot to do with the development of the Powell Street Festival, a community festival that brings Japanese and Japanese-Canadian cultural traditions back to the old nihonmachi or “Japan-Town” on the Downtown East Side. The Japanese taiko group Ondekoza played at Powell Street in 1978, and the next year, San Jose Taiko played at the festival. Connie Kadota recalled that the San Jose performance in particular was “a real catalyst along with the fact that most, if not all of them were sansei [third-generation Japanese-Canadian] and mainly women.” Like the women and men founding other taiko ensembles in Canada and the US, the collection of individuals that became KT were also inspired by the social movements and liberation struggles of women, people of colour, gays and lesbians, and others. According to former member Lucy Komori, “a lot of the early North American taiko groups, started playing as an extension of their political work in the Yellow Power Movement (yes, there was such a thing). Racist policies of Canada forced separation, dispersal, and assimilation. Forming a group of all Asian members to play an ancestral music was not only culturally, but also politically, daring in the racist climate of North America.” And although taiko has its origins in Japan, from the very beginning KT has had non-Nikkei [Japanese descent] members. As Chinese-Canadian member Paul Yee put it, “taiko was an opportunity to reclaim visibility. All my life, I knew I had an Asian face. Most of the time, I had wanted to hide it, deny I looked different. But here, suddenly, my Asian face let me fit into a group that was Japanese, not Chinese, a group that wielded tremendous power through music.” | KT’s history story begins in the late 1970s, and has a lot to do with the development of the Powell Street Festival, a community festival that brings Japanese and Japanese-Canadian cultural traditions back to the old nihonmachi or “Japan-Town” on the Downtown East Side. | ||
The Japanese taiko group Ondekoza played at Powell Street in 1978, and the next year, San Jose Taiko played at the festival. Connie Kadota recalled that the San Jose performance in particular was “a real catalyst along with the fact that most, if not all of them were sansei [third-generation Japanese-Canadian] and mainly women.” Like the women and men founding other taiko ensembles in Canada and the US, the collection of individuals that became KT were also inspired by the social movements and liberation struggles of women, people of colour, gays and lesbians, and others. | |||
According to former member Lucy Komori, “a lot of the early North American taiko groups, started playing as an extension of their political work in the Yellow Power Movement (yes, there was such a thing). Racist policies of Canada forced separation, dispersal, and assimilation. Forming a group of all Asian members to play an ancestral music was not only culturally, but also politically, daring in the racist climate of North America.” And although taiko has its origins in Japan, from the very beginning KT has had non-Nikkei [Japanese descent] members. As Chinese-Canadian member Paul Yee put it, “taiko was an opportunity to reclaim visibility. All my life, I knew I had an Asian face. Most of the time, I had wanted to hide it, deny I looked different. But here, suddenly, my Asian face let me fit into a group that was Japanese, not Chinese, a group that wielded tremendous power through music.” | |||
And so in late 1979, with a borrowed taiko and lots of old tires, KT began to learn to drum, first at the Buddhist Church in Steveston, a community with its own rich Nikkei heritage, and later at the Strathcona Community Centre in Chinatown. In the winter of that year, we invited Seiichi Tanaka of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo to give us a workshop. The only taiko sensei (teacher) in North America, and often credited with introducing the art form to the US and Canada, Tanaka-sensei stayed a week, teaching us the basic technical skills as well as some of the history and philosophy of taiko. Rick Shiomi remembered it this way: “There were some memorable moments, such as all of us at Strathcona Community Centre doing our ich nis for what seemed forever, while Tanaka-sensei went out for a walk. And of course, there was the infamous time when Tanaka-sensei made us go to hell and back again to get the last beat of one song together. I remember his disdain burning us like a torch and turning soft ore into steel. As Tanaka-sensei always said, no pain, no gain.” | And so in late 1979, with a borrowed taiko and lots of old tires, KT began to learn to drum, first at the Buddhist Church in Steveston, a community with its own rich Nikkei heritage, and later at the Strathcona Community Centre in Chinatown. In the winter of that year, we invited Seiichi Tanaka of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo to give us a workshop. The only taiko sensei (teacher) in North America, and often credited with introducing the art form to the US and Canada, Tanaka-sensei stayed a week, teaching us the basic technical skills as well as some of the history and philosophy of taiko. Rick Shiomi remembered it this way: “There were some memorable moments, such as all of us at Strathcona Community Centre doing our ich nis for what seemed forever, while Tanaka-sensei went out for a walk. And of course, there was the infamous time when Tanaka-sensei made us go to hell and back again to get the last beat of one song together. I remember his disdain burning us like a torch and turning soft ore into steel. As Tanaka-sensei always said, no pain, no gain.” | ||
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==Making a Commotion: The 1980s and 1990s== | ==Making a Commotion: The 1980s and 1990s== | ||
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As word got out that Vancouver now had its own taiko ensemble, KT found many opportunities to perform. In 1982 alone, we played at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and the Eardrum Festival locally, and the Winnipeg Folklorama further afield; we also held our first public workshop that year, and some members even were able to tour Japan, including a visit to Sado-e, the island home of Kodo, perhaps the world’s best-known taiko ensemble. | As word got out that Vancouver now had its own taiko ensemble, KT found many opportunities to perform. In 1982 alone, we played at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and the Eardrum Festival locally, and the Winnipeg Folklorama further afield; we also held our first public workshop that year, and some members even were able to tour Japan, including a visit to Sado-e, the island home of Kodo, perhaps the world’s best-known taiko ensemble. | ||
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Marie Berg | Marie Berg | ||
Joyce Chong | Joyce Chong | ||
Debbie Davis | Debbie Davis ° | ||
Eri Flores | Eri Flores ° | ||
Jacinthe Fortin | Jacinthe Fortin | ||
Esme Friesen | Esme Friesen | ||
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Linda Uyehara Hoffman | Linda Uyehara Hoffman | ||
Shinobu Homma | Shinobu Homma | ||
Daien Ide | Daien Ide ° | ||
Naomi Iiyoshi | Naomi Iiyoshi ° | ||
Sumi Imamoto | Sumi Imamoto | ||
Jim Inkster | Jim Inkster | ||
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Nancy Lee | Nancy Lee | ||
Lisa Mah | Lisa Mah | ||
Joy Masuhara | Joy Masuhara ° | ||
Les Murata | Les Murata | ||
Waylon Miki | Waylon Miki | ||
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Wally Oyama | Wally Oyama | ||
Alison Roy | Alison Roy | ||
Manami Saito | Manami Saito ° | ||
Naomi Shikaze | Naomi Shikaze | ||
Kathy Shimizu | Kathy Shimizu | ||
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Robin Susanto | Robin Susanto | ||
Troy Suzuki | Troy Suzuki | ||
Reiko Tagami | Reiko Tagami ° | ||
Mayu Takasaki | Mayu Takasaki | ||
Naomi Taussig | Naomi Taussig | ||
Coll Thrush | Coll Thrush ° | ||
Christine Toda | Christine Toda | ||
Jim Wong-Chu | Jim Wong-Chu | ||
Jan Woo | Jan Woo ° | ||
Sachiko Yamaguchi | Sachiko Yamaguchi | ||
Etsuko Yamanouchi | Etsuko Yamanouchi | ||
Atsuko Yamashita | Atsuko Yamashita ° | ||
Paul Yee | Paul Yee | ||
{{From|http://www.kataritaiko.bc.ca/KT-history.htm}} | {{From|http://www.kataritaiko.bc.ca/KT-history.htm}} | ||