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History | What is Taiko? | Taiko in North America | Taiko Drums
Practice Information Executive Director: Evan Nishizu Artistic Director: Akemi Imai Concerned about rides or need directions to the temple? Email kazan.taiko@gmail.com. Founded in the Fall of 2002, Kazan Taiko is one of the newest collegiate Taiko groups to join the ranks of existing groups like UCLA Kyodo Taiko, UCI Jodaiko, and Stanford Taiko. With the extensive knowledge and guidance of Taiko Project's artistic director and USC Alumn Bryan Yamami, founders Koichi Sanchez and Bridge Mei, along with the enthusiastic and devoted founding group, created USC's first Taiko group. Kazan Taiko's formation is a testament to the growing popularity of Taiko not only on the college level but for all of North America as well. Kazan Taiko's goal is to provide a place to learn more about the deep-rooted tradition of Taiko while allowing players to express themselves through music and movement with both traditional and modern influences of dance, music, and culture.
Taiko (lit. "big drum") is a sacred practice introduced to Japan from China during the Yamato period, in the fifth and sixth centuries. It was traditionally used during warfare, as a means of rallying soldiers, frightening and deceiving enemies, and issuing commands1. Later, taiko was used to communicate with the gods, to attract or ward off animals on hunts, to send messages between villages, and as a timekeeper and ritual instrument in Buddhist monasteries2. Taiko became a popularized art form during Japan's feudal era, when Buddhist monasteries supported troupes of actors that gave rise to the Noh theatre. Noh performances were accompanied by taiko, yielding drums that would become the standard for modern taiko. Another theatre form to enjoy increased attention during the feudal era was the kabuki theatre, which introduced several different kinds of taiko drums to accompany the dramas on stage3. Taiko also played a major role in folk music and at festivals throughout Japan, accompanied by a wooden flute and a small hand drum called tsutsumi. It is now a mainstay during Obon season, as one of the major instruments played at bon dances, and has become a performance art in and of itself. References Japanese immigrants brought taiko to North America during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to continue the practices of their ancestors. Nikkei communities on the West Coast supported these practices until the incarceration of Japanese Americans during the Second World War, after which many Japanese traditions were forgotten. In 1969, Reverend Masao Kodani, Johnny Mori, and George Abe began the Kinnara Taiko group at the Senshin Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, eventually inspiring other taiko groups to form. The movement sparked by the formation of Kinnara Taiko became a means of regaining some of the Japanese identity lost during the early twentieth century1. Interest in taiko was renewed in the mid-1970s and 1980s because of the development of an information base surrounding the building of drums and performance, the first American tour of a Japanese taiko group, and the Redress Movement of Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians1. Today, taiko is gaining increasing popularity as an art form, becoming a means of expression that is a mixture of traditional and contemporary styles and rhythms. Reference Taiko is a drum consisting of an open-ended wooden barrel sealed at both ends with stretched cowhide or horsehide and played with wooden sticks called bachi. There are two major types of taiko, which differ in the way the skins are fitted to the drum. Drums in which the hides are either tacked directly onto the barrel are called byodome-daiko, while drums with hides held in place by tension produced by hemp pulled across the body of the drum and passed through the hides at opposite ends are called tsukeshime-daiko. A third kind of taiko, the okedo-daiko is made from staves of wood with a hide stretched across the ends1. There are several other types of taiko that differ based on size and function. These include the nagadou-daiko (miya-daiko) used in festivals; the o-daiko, the largest of the taiko drums; the chu-daiko which is a size between that of the nagadou-daiko and the o-daiko; the wa-daiko, which can be flat or on a slanted stand; the eitetsu okedo-daiko, which is a miniature version of the okedo-daiko; the hira-daiko, which is a flat drum hung horizontally on a frame; and the uchiwa-daiko, a "fan" drum that consists of a metal hoop with a hide stretched across it2. Taiko are traditionally accompanied by a wooden flute and a small hand drum called tsutsumi. Reference |
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