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TI: So you're born January 1, 1951, so that makes you sixty years old this, this month.

RH: Yes.

TI: So anything special that you did as a sixty year old, for your birthday?

RH: Nothing special, yet. In, I guess traditionally a kaneki, you're supposed to have a party and traditionally you have this party before you actually turn sixty, and you're supposed to, the person that's having the birthday is supposed to throw this party for your friends and family, and because we were kind of busy at the time it didn't quite happen that way, but there are friends, or people who want to have this party for me still, or for me to have this party. [Laughs] And so it's actually happening a little bit later, actually, in March we're having a gathering, so that, that event is still to come. But I've been looking at the year sixty as a really significant year for myself in other ways, though, and so it's not so much retirement, but because the significance of turning sixty and what that means in a Japanese custom where they say you've gone through five cycles of your life, lunar cycles, and then at this point supposedly you turn back to your childhood, but at the same time you have this wealth of knowledge of the past sixty years, so it's not like you're becoming a baby and just not able to do anything, but you're, it's a time for you to kind of rebirth and start again and, but with new knowledge or more knowledge behind you. And so with that in mind, I've really kind of targeted this year as, as a significant turning point for my life. The main thing that's happening this year for me is that I've been the director for San Jose Taiko since the beginning and so I'm stepping down from my title in July to turn over the organization to the next generation of leaders, basically, and so that's my, that's been my goal the past several years, to try to get to that point for this year to happen.

TI: And so were you always pointing to sixty as the year, I mean for, I mean, not always, but maybe the last couple years you thought sixty was gonna a significant milestone for you to do this?

RH: Yes, yes. We kind of, PJ, my wife and I are, she turned sixty last year and so we were just kind of targeting around this time that we were gonna try to do this, so we kind of picked that. This is our, we're going into our thirty-eighth year with the organization. Some people said, "Why didn't you stop at forty or fifty, whatever?" But sixty year, the birthday sixty was more significant for me, that seemed a good time for both of us to kind of move on and kind of start, not so much leave the organization, but it's our opportunity to do more in different ways and other kind of projects, and for me it's to also get back a little bit more into artistic side because I've had to step away from that and been more on administrative side the past several years, but I still have a strong interest in the music side, too.

TI: So what do you see yourself transitioning into, like on a more day-to-day basis? Do you, what, what do you see this change, how's it look?

RH: Well, I'm hoping to do more organizational management work with other organizations and different kinds of activities in that way. There's some artistic projects we're trying to develop, also, whether it's on my own or with PJ or with some other artists that, we've been talking with people trying to see if we could develop something. There's some friends who, who we've known for a long time within the taiko field that are about to, we're all about the same age, so we've been thinking, you know, taiko's gone a long way since we got involved and we see a lot of younger folks really energetic and doing a lot of things, but how can we, a little bit more on the senior side of things, do, still do it, but have our own style or own way and also collectively present some new, new stuff that we want to do still? And so it may be, maybe not quite as energetic as what the younger folks are doing now, but still, musically, we hope it's still very strong. [Laughs] And that's what we want to be doing.

TI: Fascinating. Okay, that, that's really interesting. So, so that is actually a good, maybe, segue into, people are trying to think, so who is this man and what has he done?

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.