Wynn Kiyama
Wynn Kiyama has worked as a musicologist, ethnomusicologist, nonprofit arts executive, and freelance musician. His research on Bon odori has been presented in articles, a CD booklet, and museum exhibits. He lives with his family in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
Updated April 2025
Stories from This Author
Bon Odori in the American Concentration Camps — Part 2
June 27, 2024 • Wynn Kiyama
Read Part 1 >> Manzanar The Obon festival at the Manzanar concentration camp in 1943 opened with an interfaith dedication of the Ireito (Consoling-Spirits-Tower), a concrete obelisk memorializing those who passed away in camp. Bon odori was held on August 14 and 15 at the large firebreak next to the high school and featured a yagura, spotlights, and a large taiko. Recalling similar scenes at the Nisei Week Festival in Los Angeles, the reporter for the Manzanar Free Press estimated …
Bon Odori in the American Concentration Camps — Part 1
June 26, 2024 • Wynn Kiyama
In the spring of 1942, people of Japanese descent living on the American West Coast were incarcerated by the U.S. government in temporary detention centers hastily built on fairgrounds, racetracks, former labor camps, and livestock facilities. Despite facing innumerable hardships and uncertainties, the new communities quickly established schools, sports teams, work crews, adult classes, religious groups, and other activities and organizations. As spring turned to summer, Independence Day was celebrated in the detention centers, not without some deep resentment, and …
Ministers, Dry Cleaners, Farmers, and Gardeners: The Original Taiko Drummers in the Continental United States—Part 2
May 9, 2024 • Wynn Kiyama
Read Part 1 >> Sacramento’s “Fukushima Ondo” Musicians In postwar Sacramento, an energetic group of singers, drummers, and flutists from the Fukushima Kenjinkai, theater company Yamato Gekidan, and the Buddhist Church of Sacramento performed live versions of “Fukushima Ondo” for the temple’s Obon festival. Nobuyoshi Harry Sato, print shop owner and gardener, played the shinobue (side-blown flute) while hotel worker and gardener Kisoji Frank Kobayashi and Katsumi Fred Matsunaga played the shime daiko. Kenkichi George Kurosawa, a farmer and gardener, …
Ministers, Dry Cleaners, Farmers, and Gardeners: The Original Taiko Drummers in the Continental United States—Part 1
May 8, 2024 • Wynn Kiyama
From somewhere in the crowd of dancers, the sound of a large taiko (drum) echoes through the summer evening. The drummer plays along to the recorded music broadcast over the PA system, striking deliberately with sweeping arms—a deep hit (“don”) to punctuate the downbeat, then sharp raps on the rim of the drum (“kara ka ka”) to accent the end of a phrase. It is a commanding presence, but in truth, the drummer plays in service to the Obon dancers …
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