Diverse membership in San Jose Taiko

Experiencing discrimination as a child Feeling empowered by taiko Taiko as self-expression Sense of lineage between Sansei and Issei through Taiko Learning from and appreciating the Nisei experience Diverse membership in San Jose Taiko Bringing Japanese American taiko to Japan A “principally-based” taiko group in England creating a global taiko community

Transcripts available in the following languages:

We’re definitely more multi-mixed—multi-mixed (laugh). Racially mixed. So I cannot say now it’s exclusively Asian American or Japanese American. But going back to just the term, using Asian American, it was a time where we had also Filipino American who were a member that was very prolific in composing for San Jose Taiko. And it was the experience of Asians here in America that were finding that voice. We were exploring. We were discovering, too, where we could take that expression. Had to get a sense of self to really… I almost felt like this was a place for us to discover who we could be or who we are and that the people who were non-Asian coming into the group at the very early years had to respect that. They could not come in to water down the experience and expect anything else from what we were trying discover or generate.

Date: January 26, 2005
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

identity multi racial san jose taiko taiko