<Begin Segment 4>

BY: So you've been involved with taiko for a very long time. So what keeps you involved and inspired? What is it about taiko that is so meaningful to you?

SS: There's a number of things. So taiko, one of the original draws is taiko is an art form, music, and it's more than just music. Like in Seattle Kokon Taiko we say that taiko is a synthesis of rhythm, movement and spirit. So the rhythm is a musical element, the patterns we play, the movement is the choreography we do, because unlike a lot of other instrumentation type arts, we actually move around a lot while we play. Between drums, around drums, and sometimes we incorporate dance into what we do. And then the spirit part is, I think, more culturally related. So we look at it from sort of two points of view. One is that the spirit is the energy that we develop as individuals and as a group that we transmit to our audiences, so we share that energy between each other and the audience and the instruments that we're playing. And so all of that energy is bouncing around. The other aspect that is, I think, even more culturally based, is the feeling that the drum is, in a sense, a sacred instrument, that it incorporates elements of earth, meaning the metal that goes into the tacks and "kan" rings. The vegetation, the wood that the drum is made out of, there's animals, the hide that it comes from, and there's the people, the person who plays it. And so one of the other views of taiko is that there's all these voices from the earth, from animals, from humans, from the trees, that are embodied in a drum, and when we hit it, we give voice to those elements. And so we're not just responsible for what we're doing, we're responsible for giving voice to all these different elements of nature and earth. And so that kind of appeals to me, that feeling that there's a connection to something bigger and in some cases more ancient that we're doing.

It's also culturally relevant because of the heritage behind taiko, where the music comes from. Drums are used all over the world, but taiko are kind of unique in their size and the size of the sticks we use, and the style of playing that we do. And it relates directly back to the style we play in particular, relates directly back to the festival and music of old Japan where people, peasants, fishermen, villagers, would gather around, like Obon is a prime example, or Oshogatsu, New Year celebration, is a prime example of where people would gather together and as a community, do things, and it would be to the beat of the drums. Of course, in the old days, the drums were always there to be a support element to what was going on either at the shrine or the temple where blessings were going on and the drum would be keeping a bass beat for the chanting or background for the service that was going on, or the festivals where there was dancing going on, the drum would be keeping the bass beat and there might be other instruments that were providing the melodic element, so people would be dancing. But people didn't go to look at drums, they went to dance or they went to pray or they went to get purified. And then even in, when it became part of the theatrical elements, kabuki, noh, bunraku, there's always taiko involved in the orchestra. But you don't go to the theater to listen to the taiko, you go to see the play. So taiko in the old days was essential for all of these things, but it also was not a central focus of attention. So that changed postwar with Daihachi Oguchi in Osuwa Daiko in Japan and Sukeroku Daiko in Tokyo, one of the first professional taiko groups in Japan in the '50s. So taiko as a modern performing art really comes in the postwar period, post-World War II period, and then it travels to the U.S. via Seiichi Tanaka who is the earliest leader in North American taiko, shortly followed by Kinnara Taiko in L.A. and San Jose Taiko.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.