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Japanese American taiko is not Japanese taiko

The significance about that, he [Tanaka sensei] came down to Los Angeles, and he wanted to come to Kinnara’s taiko practice. It just so happens that he came down to play at a Broadway department store for a Asian, or Japanese, theme sales promotion—so these different Broadway department stores which I think are now Macy’s or something. So he came to Kinnara’s practice, and at that time we didn’t practice all year round because we mainly practiced during summertime for obon season. This might’ve been in the wintertime, he came down. And we had his young kid start to playing, and he came to practice with his skateboard, chewing gum, and we started playing. So in one sense, a very disrespectful of, in the traditional sense, of playing taiko. But for us, it’s like, “He’s here—great! He wants to play”—this young kid—“Let him play.” So he played. So it was very ironic, too, because he’s stayed at my house.

Then Kenny Endo, who used to play with Kinnara, moved up to San Francisco, and he’s living there. So he was practicing and playing with Tanaka Sensei. There was this big discussion in the corner about all this other stuff. Then next day, Kenny approached Kinnara. He came close to me. He goes, “You know, Sensei asked me,” very traditionally—you know, not talking directly—saying, “He wanted to know whether or not Kinnara could not use to word ‘taiko.’” He goes, “Why?” He goes, “Because you guys are not playing taiko. One way, you’re kind of being disrespectful to the drum. What you guys are playing is not taiko. You’re playing on these barrels. What you’re playing is not Japanese traditional rhythms. Nothing about it is Japanese.” And I’m sitting there, “Man. Not calling this taiko… And all these years, saying that we’re playing taiko.”

So I took this back to the practice, right, and it’s like… I was saying, “You know, Tanaka Sensei asked us not to call this ‘taiko.’ We’re not playing taiko. We’re disrespectful. Chewing gum. Laughing. We’re kidding around. We’re having too much fun playing taiko.”

And so we thought about it, and then all of a sudden at the same time, it was like, “Wait a minute. Everybody at Senshin considers it to be taiko.” They’re very, very proud of it. This is some years after. They finally got over the fact that… They accepted us, and they’re very proud of us because we were able to play all these different venues and stuff. We were getting kind of good. We thought we were getting good. So all of a sudden, we go, “Well wait a minute. We’re not playing traditional Japanese taiko. We’re playing Japanese American taiko.” Japanese American Buddhist taiko. So that kind of made us reflect upon what we were doing. To put a name on what we were trying to do. So that helped us.


drum Kinnara Taiko taiko

Date: October 15, 2004

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim

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

Interviewee Bio

John Yukio “Johnny” Mori is a musician and arts educator/administrator from Los Angeles.

Born November 30, 1949, he is the second son of his Issei father and Nisei mother. As a young man, he was an early activist, draft resistor, and general hell-raiser during the Asian American Movement in the 1970s, and ran the Amerasia Bookstore in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. The shop was a co-operative bookseller that also served as a community meeting place and political action and performing arts venue. Mori went on to travel the globe as a percussionist for the jazz-fusion band, Hiroshima, before retiring in 2003.

Mori is a seminal member of Kinnara Taiko, one of the first Japanese American taiko groups in the United States. For the past 20 years, he has also taught workshops on taiko and Japanese American culture to participants ranging from elementary school to university students. He currently serves as the Producing Director of Performing Arts at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles. (June 13, 2007)

Seiichi Tanaka
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Seiichi Tanaka

Understanding Sansei taiko (Japanese)

(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.

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Seiichi Tanaka
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Seiichi Tanaka

Soukou Bayashi: Dedicated to the Issei (Japanese)

(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.

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Seiichi Tanaka
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Seiichi Tanaka

Handmade taiko (Japanese)

(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.

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Seiichi Tanaka
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Seiichi Tanaka

Taiko philosophy (Japanese)

(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.

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Nosuke Akiyama
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Nosuke Akiyama

Rediscovery of Japanese culture through taiko (Japanese)

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

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Etsuo Hongo
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Etsuo Hongo

The reason he came to the United States (Japanese)

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

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Etsuo Hongo
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Etsuo Hongo

First taiko performance in the United States (Japanese)

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

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Etsuo Hongo
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Etsuo Hongo

Differences in taiko style (Japanese)

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

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Etsuo Hongo
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Etsuo Hongo

Originality of each taiko group (Japanese)

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

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Etsuo Hongo
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Etsuo Hongo

Benefits of living in the United States (Japanese)

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

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Etsuo Hongo
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Etsuo Hongo

Promoting group identity through taiko contests (Japanese)

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

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Etsuo Hongo
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Etsuo Hongo

Taiko's sounds as Japanese cultural tradition (Japanese)

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

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Kenny Endo
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Kenny Endo

Differences between Kinnara and San Francisco Taiko Dojo

(b.1952) Master drummer, artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific

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Kenny Endo
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Kenny Endo

Being free of the tradition

(b.1952) Master drummer, artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific

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Kenny Endo
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Kenny Endo

Collaborating with non-taiko groups

(b.1952) Master drummer, artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific

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