Interviews

1. The reason he came to the United States (Japanese)

2. First taiko performance in the United States (Japanese)

3. Differences in taiko style (Japanese)

4. Originality of each taiko group (Japanese)

5. Benefits of living in the United States (Japanese)

6. Promoting group identity through taiko contests (Japanese)

7. Taiko's sounds as Japanese cultural tradition (Japanese)

Etsuo Hongo

(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California

First taiko performance in the United States (Japanese)

(Japanese) I found there was a Bon Dance at the Long Beach Buddhist Temple in the “Rafu Shimpo”. I quickly went down there. There was yagura (wooden platform) and taiko with a Nisei or Sansei…maybe Nisei man sitting on a chair placing the taiko like this and hitting on it like this. I asked him, “let me play.” He said, “No.” He just wouldn’t let me play. So, I kept bugging him and bugging him persistently. Eventually he must have gotten tired. He relented and said I could play. I removed everything, like the speaker and the chair, everything around there, then started to play. After I began to play, I noticed that the dancers were looking up at me on the top of yagura and stopped dancing. I wonder if I did something wrong or my taiko didn’t follow the rhythm. I listened to the music carefully, but my taiko rhythm was okay. But everybody on the ground was looking up the sky. I also looked up the sky wondering what is up there to see, while I was beating on the taiko. Then when the music was finished, there was a sudden loud applause. Well, as I figure, the folks were surprised by my Tokyo-Style Bon dance taiko playing, which they have never seen.

Buddhism California drum Long Beach Buddhist Church music Obon religions taiko United States

Date: April 1, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko

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

Interviewee Bio

Etsuo Hongo, a shin-issei, was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He began his taiko training there, and was exposed to the idea of taiko in the United States when he read a 1968 Japanese newspaper article about San Francisco Taiko Dojo. Almost immediately after he came to the United States in 1973, he searched out a place to play taiko. He attended the Long Beach Buddhist Temple obon, where he was given his first opportunity to play taiko in this country. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to South America, where he spent the subsequent year visiting various Nikkei communities and continuing to play taiko in local festivals.

After his travels in South America, Mr. Hongo decided to return to the United States where he started his gardening business. In 1977, he established Los Angeles Matsuri Taiko. He now has five groups—totaling some 100 students. The other four groups are L.A. Mugen Taiko (est. 1988), Venice Koshin Taiko (est. 1992), L.A. Taiko Okida Gumi (est. 1996), and El Marino Rainbow Taiko, an elementary school program for 2nd through 5th graders. He passed away on October 28, 2019 at age 70. (June 2021)