Vancouver Taiko Society

The Taiko Community Alliance (TCA) is an organization formed in early 2013 to serve as a resource for the taiko community by the North American Taiko Conference (NATC) Advisory Council. The NATC has served to bring together taiko artists, instructors, and enthusiasts since its first conference in 1997. The TCA launch meeting took place at Stanford University on August 23 – 25, 2013. Its core values and guiding principles include respect, heritage & evolution, empowerment, inclusivity, and transparency. taikocommunityalliance.org

Membership Page

Saturday November 30, 7:30 pm
Chibi Taiko 20th anniversary concert
Vancouver Playhouse Theatre
Ticket prices: $25 adults / $20 seniors and students
Special guest performers: Yoshikazu and Yoko Fujimoto founding members of Kodo, plus Seattle’s Inochi Taiko

information & tickets:  tickets@chibitaiko.com

Coming of Age: Chibi Taiko turns 20!

by Jacob Derksen

As the Vancouver Taiko Society’s website states, Vancouver is the birthplace of taiko in Canada. Vancouver boasts the first ensemble taiko performance group, Katari Taiko; the first professional group, Uzume Taiko; the first all-women’s group, Sawagi Taiko; and the first children’s group, Chibi Taiko.

Chibi Taiko was formed by Katari Taiko alumnus, Shinobu Homma, on his return from Toronto in the autumn of 1993 so that his daughter, Kayo, would have an opportunity to drum with children of her own age. In addition to having been one of the early members of Katari Taiko, while in Toronto Shinobu helped found Wasabi Daiko, and he has been an active member in the Vancouver taiko community for the better part of three decades.

Nothing as time and labour intensive as forming and leading a youth taiko ensemble happens in a vacuum. When the group was first getting off the ground, Shinobu was assisted by former Katari members Naomi Shikaze and Joyce Chong and from its inception parents of the Chibi kids have played a role in keeping the group running. That commitment allows head instructor Shinobu to focus on teaching.

From its humble beginnings as a just a good idea, Chibi has covered a lot of territory. In addition to having the opportunity to study with professional taiko players like Art Lee, Kodo members Eichii Saito and Yoko and Yoshikazu Fujimoto, and members of Los Angeles-based TaikoProject, they have also travelled to Japan, where they had the opportunity to study and play with Betchar Taiko in Onomichi a small seaside town near Hiroshima. Over the years they have performed at numerous festivals, including Powell Street Festival, Regional Taiko Gatherings, North American Taiko Conference, Vancouver Folk Festival, Taikotronics, and numerous fundraisers including Ganbare Japan! in aid of earthquake relief. They’ve shared the stage with some great performers but now it’s time for Chibi Taiko to perform their very own coming of age concert as they celebrate their 20th anniversary.

To help make it a birthday celebration to remember, the twenty-plus members of Chibi Taiko (ranging in age from nine to 25) will be joined by several special guests.

Yoshikazu and Yoko Fujimoto are founding members of Kodo, and as such are legends in the taiko world. Yoshikazu Fujimoto will befamiliar to Vancouver audiences as the drummer who for years concluded every Kodo performance with a marathn solo on the huge odaiko. Yoko is a founding member of Hanayui, an all-female song and dance group.

Both are longtime friends of Chibi  and agreed to take part in their 20th Anniversary concert.

Seattle’s Inochi Taiko rounds out the programme. Inochi is made up of drummers who, like all Chibi members have been playing taiko since they were youngsters. The two groups run into each other over the years, hanging out at Regional Taiko Gatherings and discovering a common bond.

Join Chibi Taiko and theri special guests as they take to the stage on November 30, 2013 at the Vancouver Playhouse.

Jacob Derksen is a Victoria, BC-based taiko player. 

Osuwa Daiko Concert
Monday, November 4, 7:00pm
Vancouver Technical Secondary School
2600 East Broadway, Vancouver
T: 604.713.8215 | F: 604.713.8214
www.vtmusic.ca

Osuwa Daiko Workshops
Sunday, November 3, 2013
1:00pm Beginner workshop for general public
3:00pm Workshop for taiko players (or possibly evening)
Britannia Community Centre
1661 Napier Street, Vancouver
Info: Doug Masuhara
dmasu1@yahoo.ca
604-718-5800

Osuwa Daiko

by Jabob Derksen

Taiko is still not quite as widely known as karate or judo but an increasing people from all ethnic and cultural groups have at least heard of it if not seen it performed. This year Vancouverites have been provided a numerous opportunities to see some really great performances and November will be even more exceptional with a performance by Osuwa Daiko who have the distinction of being the very first contemporary Japanese drumming group.

The performance art often referred to in the West as taiko has gained tremendous popularity since it emerged in post-war Japan. The word taiko actually just means drum in Japanese and may refer to any of a number of different styles or sizes of drums that have been used in Japanese music for centuries. The contemporary style that we’ve become familiar with is more properly known as kumidaiko, or ensemble drumming, the term applied to the style of drumming that was developed in 1951 by a Japanese jazz drummer named Oguchi Daihachi.*

Kumidaiko grew out of both festival drumming and the more religiously focused temple and shrine drumming but is inexorably infused with elements of jazz. As the story goes, Oguchi was sought out after a piece of written music was found in an old miso warehouse owned by one of his relatives. The music itself came from the journal of a Meiji era ancestor who made reference to drumming activities that even in the late 19th century included the revival of older traditional styles of drumming that were in danger of being completely forgotten.

The particular drum style referred to is kagura-daiko, an ancient drumming tradition that plays a role in Shinto ritual. According to Oguchi this style had gone out of use a hundred years earlier and no one could interpret the score. As Benjamin Pachter relates in his doctoral thesis, Wadaiko in Japan and the United States: The Intercultural History of a Musical Genre, Oguchi explained his predicament as a jazz-trained drummer attempting to interpret this ancient score as akin to that of a Western-style cook taking an order for sushi. Nevertheless, Oguchi persevered and was eventually able to decipher the music. What he did back in 1951, however, is what has proved so revolutionary. In a perfect fusion of traditional and contemporary Oguchi put together a set of various styles of Japanese drums such as those used in festival drumming, in kabuki and noh, and he arranged them in a manner not dissimilar from his Western-style drum kit. In addition to teaching the kagura-daiko piece to others so that they might perform it with him at the Suwa Grand Shrine, he also increased the tempo of the music to make it more like the jazz he was familiar with. The rest, as they say, is history.

While Oguchi-sensei passed away in 2008 his legacy lives on in his daughter, Oguchi Kasumi, his grandson, Yamamoto Makoto, and the other members of Osuwa Daiko. In fact, given the tremendous influence that Oguchi-sensei and Osuwa Daiko have had world-wide, it can be said that Oguchi’s legacy lives on in every taiko player who plays the contemporary style he developed just over sixty years ago. Vancouverites will have an opportunity to see Osuwa Daiko perform on November 4, 2013 at the Vancouver Technical Secondary School, 2600 E. Broadway Ave. Doors open at 6:30pm.

*In this article I will follow Japanese convention with the names of Japanese nationals and give their family names before their given names.

Jacob Derksen counts meeting Oguchi Daihachi as one of the highlights of his taiko life. 

Great show at the Vancouver Ballroom last night as part of the Heart of the City Festival – in order of appearance: Sansho Daiko, Katari Taiko + Sawagi Taiko, Sansho Daiko (again!), Uzume Taiko + LOUD, and ending with the group that represents taiko future – Chibi Taiko – who rocked the house down with the youthful energy and drive. As HOTC Executive Director Terry Hunter said afterwards, there is so much variety between the groups, it’s great to see all the groups on the same stage. Grabbed this photo with my iPhone during Chibi’s set (yup – proud dad). See below for photos from the evening.

Thanks to all who came last night – both drummers and audience alike.

john

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Chris Randle photos, courtesy Vancouver Moving Theatre/DTES Heart of the City Festival

Friday, November 1, 8pm
Taiko Roots: in the Heart of the City
Sansho Daiko hosts Katari Taiko, Uzume Taiko, LOUD, Chibi Taiko and Sawagi Taiko in a special performance at the Heart of the City Festival celebrating the roots of taiko in Canada.
Vancouver Ballroom
456 Prior Street (at Dunlevy)
Tickets: $10 suggested donation, available at the door on a first-come-first-served basis.
www.heartofthecityfestival.com

The roots of taiko in Canada can be traced directly to a small but significant patch of earth in Oppenheimer Park on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Although recently covered in new grass as part of a long-overdue renovation of the park, the spot was for years a dusty baseball diamond, home of the legendary Asahi baseball team. The Asahi were the pride of the pre-war Japanese Canadian community that called Powell Street home, their prowess on the field going some way towards mitigating the racism and discrimination that the community faced on a daily basis.

The wartime relocation and internment of the Japanese Canadian community spelled the end of the Asahi and for years afterwards, the diamond held only faint ghosts of the shouts and cheers that once echoed off the buildings that frame the park.

Then, in 1977, as part of the Japanese Canadian Centennial, the Powell Street Festival was born in Oppenheimer Park. The main stage was placed over home plate, marking the return of the community to its symbolic home field, its own field of dreams.

Katari Taiko at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Photo by Tamio Wakayama.

The Centennial celebrations also sparked something in a community that had largely gone to ground, reigniting pride in a heritage that had been relegated to the back of the closet in an attempt to assimilate into mainstream society. The Festival became a yearly event, bringing together multiple generations of Japanese Canadians in a celebration of the culture that bound them together.

Music was a big part of the festival from its inception and for the 1979 Festival, the San Jose Taiko Group from California was invited to perform. The set they played that day was revelatory to those of us that witnessed it—an explosion of sound and energy that was rooted in Japanese culture yet clearly North American in its execution. For my friends and I, mostly sansei (third generation), this was unlike anything we associated with the culture of our parents and grandparents. There was nothing refined about it; instead, it was primal and somehow revolutionary. Most of all, it looked like great fun.

In the aftermath of that performance, encouraged by the members of San Jose Taiko, Canada’s first taiko group was born.

The first few practices were held in Steveston, using a drum borrowed from the Steveston Buddhist Temple and spare tires propped up on chairs. Sawed off broom handles served as drum sticks. No one had a clue what to do.

Unlike the martial arts or traditional Japanese arts like odori or ikebana, there were no senseis, no teachers to learn from. In fact, there was no precedence. This was pre-internet, pre-YouTube. One couldn’t Google “how to play taiko.”

Seiichi Tanaka had introduced taiko to North America ten years earlier and was based in San Francisco, where he ran the San Francisco Taiko Dojo. We pooled our resources and brought him up to Vancouver for a week-long intensive at the Strathcona Community Centre. He instructed us in the basics of taiko, taught us two songs and also showed us how to make our own drums. Then he left town.

We were on our own.

Using San Jose Taiko as a model, we set ourselves up as a collective, with rotating leadership. We had endless meetings, which gave birth to our name, Katari Taiko, which literally translates as talking drums. We set ourselves up in the Strathcona Community Centre and began rehearsing three times a week.

Our first performance was in Faro, Yukon, our second (or was it our third?) was for the Queen at the Asian Centre at UBC. Not long after forming we found ourselves performing before 80,000 people at a peace march on Sunset Beach. They were heady days.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and although we had formed in a kind of vacuum, it wasn’t long before we were being invited to perform for other Japanese Canadian communities across the country, giving workshops to those interested in forming their own groups. As groups started to form in cities like Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton, we began to realize that we were part of a vanguard, that taiko was a movement that had taken on a life of its own.

Katari Taiko was the only game in town for quite a few years but as time wore on, restlessness set in. Shinobu Homma and Lucy Komori relocated to Toronto where they formed Wasabi Daiko. In 1988, Eileen Kage, Leslie Komori and I left to form Uzume Taiko, Canada’s first professional taiko group. In 1990, Eileen and Leslie left to help Linda Uyehara Hoffman,  Joyce Chong, Lisa Mah, Sachiko Yamaguchi and Alisa Kage form Sawagi Taiko, Canada’s first all-women taiko group and then in 1996, formed LOUD with guitarist Elaine Steff. Shinobu and Lucy returned to Vancouver and formed Chibi Taiko, Canada’s first children’s taiko group in 1993. This year Chibi Taiko celebrates its 20th Anniversary with a performance at the Vancouver Playhouse (see related article).

Today, 34 years after Katari Taiko set out to change people’s perceptions of Japanese Canadian culture, the world has changed. Taiko is used to sell beer and cars. There are groups all across the country. In Vancouver alone there are ten or so groups, including one based in Okinawan eisa drumming.

Yet still, we return, year after year, to Oppenheimer Park, to the Powell Street Festival, to the roots of Canadian Taiko. Those roots run deeper than ever, with drummers who started out as young kids with Chibi Taiko now in their twenties, taking taiko in Canada to a whole new level.

No longer a novelty in a time when music from all over the world can be accessed with the click of a mouse, taiko as a uniquely Asian/North American artform continues to mature and develop.

In 2011, following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Tohoku region of Japan, members of all the Vancouver-area taiko groups came together under the banner Taiko for Tohoku to perform and raise funds for the relief effort. For those of us who were there at the beginning it was powerful to share the stage with so many other drummers.

The Taiko for Tohoku collaboration set the stage for more collaboration between Vancouver-area taiko groups. On Sunday, September 22, members of five Vancouver-area taiko groups banded together to perform at the Walk for Reconciliation as 70,000 people marched in the rain to support First Nations residential school survivors. For those of us who had been there in the early days, there were powerful echoes of the Peace Marches of the early eighties and a feeling that we were part of something bigger.

The Vancouver Taiko Society (VTS) was formed in 2003 with the long-term goal of serving as an “umbrella” organization for taiko in British Columbia. A non-profit organization comprised of representatives from several of the city’s taiko groups, the VTS looks to build upon these collaborative efforts as a means of fueling collective energy and promoting further collaborations.

Taiko was born out of the regeneration and re-energization of a community, rooted in history, shared culture and the desire to give voice to a generation. Those roots, stretching out across the country and the world, remain healthier and stronger than ever.

by John Endo Greenaway

Place des Arts is pleased to offer an ongoing adult taiko drumming class. In this handson, beginner-level class, students will learn rhythms, stance, movement and basic technique needed to play arrangements of simple pieces. Also covered will be some historical background, terms, and rhythmic games, as well as audio and video examples.

Teacher: Eien Hunter-Ishikawa

www.placedesarts.ca/music-programs/group-music-classes.aspx

TAIKOPROJECT is pleased to announce plans for the 2014 World Taiko Gathering, the first-ever convening of taiko groups from all over the world, scheduled for July 18-20, 2014. Presented by TAIKOPROJECT in association with the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Southern California Taiko Community, the 2014 World Taiko Gathering is expected to bring together over 500 participants from taiko groups throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. Activities will include three days of workshops, discussion sessions, taiko performances, and community-building activities. worldtaikogathering.com

Saturday & Sunday October 12 & 13

Uzume Taiko Studio, Frances Street, East Vancouver

Come and learn how to play the largest drum in a taiko ensemble, the odaiko! The two days of instruction will include basic technique, copious drills, and specific individual feedback. You will learn how to look bigger, sound better, and feel more relaxed and confident when playing the odaiko. Taiko players of all levels are encouraged to signed up, as well as beginners who have never touched a taiko before.

Workshop Dates: Two separate workshop sessions offered. Participants can register for 1 or 2 sessions. Please note that the second session will be a continuation of the first, not a repeat.
Saturday & Sunday Oct 12 & 13, 2013
Time: 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Cost: $75.00 per single session and $140.00 for two sessions
Location: Taiko Studio, 1254 Frances Street (off Clark)
For more information or to register please email info@uzume.com or call 604.254.8801

Kristy Oshiro has been playing and teaching taiko for 21 years. She has been performing at the Powell St. Festival and the Pride in Art series in Vancouver for the past 8 years as a member of Jodaiko, an international women’s taiko group founded and led by Tiffany Tamaribuchi. Kristy is currently an instructor and performer with Sacramento Taiko Dan (also founded and led by Tiffany Tamaribuchi), Creative Director of Placer Ume Taiko, and performs internationally with Taikoza based in New York City.

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On September 22, 20 members of the Vancouver Taiko Society gathered together to perform for the Walk for Reconciliation in support of First Nations residential schools survivors. It rained. It poured. But it failed to dampen the spirits of the 70,000 people who took part in the walk. As the walkers entered the finish area we drummed our hearts out for the assembled masses. It was a grand day. We were happy to be there to share the spirit of reconciliation.

There’s a new festival in town, and Sansho Daiko is opening it! Nikkei Matsuri runs August 31 and September 1 at Nikkei Centre in Burnaby. Styled after a traditional Japanese street festival, Nikkei Matsuri brings a canadian twist and promises to be a great time for people of all ages. Our group will be kicking off the festivities with a half hour set on Saturday, August 31 at 11:45am.