Decision between becoming a minister or musician

Decision between becoming a minister or musician Starting Japanese American taiko their own way Buddhist philosophy in taiko Japanese American taiko is not Japanese taiko Women playing taiko Parents didn't accept me playing taiko in the beginning Performing in the first Asian American play, "The Monkey Play" Performing the koto and taiko drum together, in Japan Taiko considered "Jazz" in the Philippines Thoughts on the term, "Nikkei"

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I studied at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. Reverend Kanya Okamoto was there along with Reverend Bobby Oshita, Reverend Ron Kobata, Ken Fujimoto, Ron Miyamura, Ken Tanaka and, actually, the abbot. He came for a summer session also. That’s the head guy now in Kyoto. He came. And we studied together. And we partied together. And we studied together. And we partied together. I went back again in 1974 to follow up some more studies and, again, attended school with other ministers and stuff. At that particular time, ’74, I got into another musical group known as Hiroshima. So I was either going into one direction in terms of becoming a minister or going to the dark side and becoming a musician and I took the dark side. [laughing]

Date: October 15, 2004
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

hiroshima music