Interviews

1. Rediscovery of Japanese culture through taiko (Japanese)

2. Identifies as Japanese, but home is San Francisco

Shishimai (Lion dance) and Taiko player with San Francisco Taiko Dojo.

Rediscovery of Japanese culture through taiko (Japanese)

(Japanese) I guess you could say that I rediscovered Japanese culture as I began playing taiko. When I lived in Japan, I was not too conscious about Japanese culture per se because everything around you is Japanese. But once you leave that environment, you begin to crave Japanese things and also become aware of different ways of seeing things. And I began to appreciate the value system in the Japanese culture.

aesthetics culture drum metaphysics psychology taiko theory of knowledge values

Date: January 26, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko, Sojin Kim

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Nosuke Akiyama, a shin-issei, was born and raised in Yokohama, Japan. He came to the United States the same year that this country revised its immigration policy—abolishing the national origins quota system-- with the Immigration Act of 1965.

He has performed with San Francisco Taiko Dojo since its first public appearance at the 1968 Aki Matsuri. Initially participating on taiko, he is especially well known for his performance of shi-shi mai (lion dance). He currently works as a sales manager for Japan Food Corporation (JFC) International, but he continues to perform with S.F. Taiko Dojo and to teach shi-shi mai. (January 26, 2005)