Interviews

1. Celebrating traditional Japanese New Years with family

2. Learning Japanese at school and at home with family

3. Developing an original kata

4. Introducing Taiko in Vancouver

5. The philosophy of playing Taiko

6. Defining a Taiko player

Roy Hirabayashi

(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.

Celebrating traditional Japanese New Years with family

I, naturally, because my parents were so much involved in the Japanese culture, because that’s their background, we really embraced the Japanese holidays and the celebrations. So for our family, New Year’s is a very important day with the celebration of the foods and everything and the family coming together. And even now for us, that’s the one day of the year where the entire family really tries to come back together to celebrate New Year’s. We all return home, and we get together for that. And so, those are kind of the things that, for us, have been really important.

culture families holidays New Year

Date: January 26, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim

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

Interviewee Bio

Roy Hirabayashi, managing director and co-founder of San Jose Taiko, was born in Berkeley, California in 1951 to kibei parents. The middle of five children, he was raised in Oakland, California. After graduating from high school in 1969, he attended San Jose State University where he received degrees in psychology and philosophy.

He has worked for the San Jose State University Asian American Studies Program, Japanese American Citizens League, the Pacific Asian Coalition, and the Buddhist Churches of America. It was through his work with the YBA (Young Buddhists of America) that he became involved with taiko. Reverend Hiroshi Abiko of San Jose Buddhist Church asked Dean Miyakusu and him to start something for the youth after being inspired by Kinnara Taiko. They started the group and it has since evolved into one of the most influential taiko groups in the Americas. (January 26, 2005)