Interviews

1. Experiencing discrimination as a child

2. Feeling empowered by taiko

3. Taiko as self-expression

4. Sense of lineage between Sansei and Issei through Taiko

5. Learning from and appreciating the Nisei experience

6. Diverse membership in San Jose Taiko

7. Bringing Japanese American taiko to Japan

8. A “principally-based” taiko group in England creating a global taiko community

Co-founder and creative director of San Jose Taiko

Taiko as self-expression

January 1974 is when I decided to be a part of it (San Jose Taiko). And it was elation because this was the first time, from my whole Asian American awareness identity experience, that I’m getting involved in a different way. Self expression, creative mode—that was so uplifting because everything was, like I said, rhetoric and very serious and organizing. But to be able to find something that I can find creative expression was just so great. And to see the creativity of people coming together and going “Yeah! Yeah!”—the freedom—was something that I really enjoyed. I felt also that there was this sense of community, camaraderie. And again, I found within this group this very lateral way of connecting and interacting with each other. So this hierarchical power structure did not exist.

arts California communities drum music San Jose San Jose Taiko taiko United States

Date: January 26, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim

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

Interviewee Bio

Patti Jo “PJ” Hirabayashi is among the most prominent women taiko players in the United States. Born and raised in Northern California, she attended Cal State Hayward where she became involved in Asian American movement activities before transferring to UC Berkeley. After graduation, she spent a year living in Japan before returning to San Jose where she was a graduate student in Urban and Regional Planning at San Jose State University. While there, she became acting director of the school’s Asian American Studies Center. She wrote her master’s thesis about the future of San Jose’s Japantown.

Hirabayashi joined San Jose Taiko in January 1974 as a charter member of the group. She is now the creative director of the ensemble, and she draws inspiration from the Asian American civil rights movement. She performs, trains, teaches, develops repertoire, tours, holds public workshops and conducts school outreach programs.(January 26, 2005)