One of the events that is very dear to us, and we started—it’ll be coming up on five years—is called the Maui Matsuri. And it’s a Japanese community event. And there were three groups that were instrumental in starting the festival. It was the Japanese Cultural Society of Maui, the Kiwanis Club of Kahului and Maui Taiko. And the three of us got together, and we started to sponsor and be involved in the planning and organization of this Matsuri. And next year will be our fifth anniversary for it. And every year now, we have 3,000 to 4,000 people that join us for the 5 hours. So, that’s a key community activity that we do.
We get involved in other things like the Maui Marathon. It’s a drumming marathon for us because we are sort of the tail end of the marathon, which means that we play for every single runner from the person who’s winning and is in first place to the very last runner. So, we’re literally playing taiko for 3 to 4 hours. And these runners come from all over the country. And it’s interesting because we’re playing taiko, and this Japanese camera crew will come around and shoot us because they’re so surprised that there’s Japanese taiko at a Maui Marathon. And the community events run the gamut from festivals to just events for children and seniors.
Date: July 9, 2004
Location: Hawaii, US
Interviewer: Art Hansen, Sojin Kim
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
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