On Sunday, November 3, 2024, Performance Works on Granville Island will reverberate with the sounds of taiko, with over 60 drummers and performers taking the stage. 反響/Echoes: Celebrating 45 years of Taiko in Canada is produced by the Vancouver Taiko Society (VTS) and features new works and works-in-progress by seven of Metro Vancouver’s many taiko ensembles.The works, commissioned for this concert through a grant from the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society, represent an opportunity for the participating groups to reflect on their place in the taiko sphere, and to stretch out artistically in an open, collaborative environment. For most of the players, the concert will be the first time to experience these new works and to share their own pieces with not only the audience, but the other groups.
反響 Echoes: Celebrating 45 years of Taiko in Canada
Sunday, November 3, 7:30pm (doors at 7:00pm)
Performance Works
Granville Island, 1218 Cartwright Street
Sliding Scale Tickets
In Advance: $20/ $25/ $30; 12 & under: $15
Purchase online at Showpass
Featuring new works by Chibi Taiko, Dahaza, Katari Taiko, Onibana Taiko, Sansho Daiko, Sawagi Taiko and Vancouver Okinawa Taiko.
Acknowledging and celebrating the deep roots of taiko in Vancouver, the birthplace of taiko in Canada, honouring our Japanese Canadian legacy of struggle, resilience, social activism and joy.
A Short History
Canadian taiko was birthed in 1979 at the third annual Powell Street Festival, in Oppenheimer Park on Powell Street, home to a large prewar Japanese Canadian community. Oppenheimer Park was the longtime home field of the fabled Asahi baseball team, a pre-war team that won multiple championships against bigger, stronger opponents, with a relience on speed, strategy, and defense, winning fans from across the city in the process.
The team was disbanded in 1942, its players sent to internment camps and road camps in the interior of BC, and sugar beet fields in Alberta and Manitoba along with 22,000 other Japanese Canadians. The mass forced exodus from the west coast effectively destroyed a community that had woven itself into the fabric of the province, with large populations in Vancouver and Steveston and small centres scattered up and down the coast and the Fraser Valley.
It wasn’t until 1949, four years after the war ended, that Japanese Canadians were given full rights of citizenship, including the right to vote and to live anywhere in the country. The community had learned its lesson from the war, and community leaders made the decision to assimilate – scattering across the country rather than congregating in identifiable communities. Japanese Canadians kept their heads down, working hard to rebuild their lives from scratch, their land, businesses, homes, fishing boats, and all other belongings having been sold by the government during the war without their knowledge or consent.
Less than half the community chose to return to the coast, the rest setting down roots east of the Rockies, with the majority in Ontario.
For Japanese Canadians who had returned to the coast, the Powell Street Festival, founded in 1977 during the Japanese Canadian Centennial, represented the resurgence of community, driven for the most part by a coalition of sansei (third generation Japanese Canadians), a handful of shin-ijusha (post-war immigrants) and some supportive nisei (second generation Japanese Canadians). The sansei, many learning for the first time of the wartime government policies and actions that destroyed the community in the 1940s, were driven by a sense of outrage at the injustices endured by their parents and grandparents. The Centennial and the birth of the Powell Street Festival provided a chance to resurface long-buried stories, to reclaim a sense of community, and to fight for justice.
When San Jose Taiko (SJT) performed at the 1979 Powell Street Festival, it was transformative, providing a blueprint for young community activists to give voice to their own experience through a Japanese art form that spoke to them with its exciting blend of physicality and driving rhythms. It was an art form steeped in tradition, but accessible in a way that many of the other traditional arts weren’t. With the encouragement of the San Jose players, the decision was made to form a taiko group in Vancouver.
This was easier said than done, of course. With no drums, no teacher, and the closest established group 1,500 kilometres away in California, it was difficult to know where to start. The first tentative practices were held that fall at the Steveston Buddhist church, using a single drum borrowed from the Steveston Kendo Club and a collection of spare tires propped up on chairs. The group members sacrificed their brooms to the cause, sawing the handles into foot-long drum sticks. The group adopted the name Katari Taiko, or “talking drums”, to reflect the collective nature of the group and the fact that all decisions were made by consensus during countless meetings.
Katari Taiko was the poster child for a community-based, grassroots DIY project. Youtube had yet to be invented and the group needed outside help. That help arrived in the person of Seiichi Tanaka, sensei of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, who was brought up to give the group a week-long intensive at their new home at the Strathcona Community Centre. Tanaka’s instruction gave the group a grounding in the art form and after some growing pains, the group was up and running. Although Katari Taiko was never intended to be a performing group, offers to perform began to roll in and the group’s first performance, wearing home made uniforms, was in Faro, Yukon.
Fast forward to the present, and there are now taiko groups all across the country in centres large and small, each with their own style and approach. From Victoria to Montreal, taiko forms the soundtrack for community gatherings, conferences, and festivals, anywhere Japanese Canadians gather. Metro Vancouver alone is home to a dozen or so groups – some with direct ties of Katari Taiko, with many former members breaking away over the years to form their own groups.
Vancouver Taiko Society
With its deep roots in Japanese Canadian history, identity and social activism, taiko in Vancouver has grown and flourished into a diverse, socially engaged and intertwined community with strong representation from youth to seniors, from all genders and identities. Just as the Asahi provided a point of pride for the pre-war JC community, Katari Taiko and all the groups that came after have provided a soundtrack for an ongoing community resurgence spurred by the 1977 Centennial.
According to taiko leaders from other Canadian and US centres, the Vancouver taiko community is unusually cohesive, with the Vancouver Taiko Society representing the bulk of the local taiko groups. In this capacity, the VTS has organized workshops with international taiko masters, Regional Taiko Conferences, and projects such as Durational Taiko at the Hastings Park Livestock Barns and Against the Current, which brought together local taiko groups and indigenous performers in a large-scale collaborative place based on the lifecycle of the salmon.
It is in this spirit of cohesion and collaboration that the Echoes concert was conceptualized, with each participating group commissioned to create a new work reflecting on Japanese Canadian history, present and future.
The Taiko Groups
Chibi Taiko | founded 1993
New works: Sanjou, Young Beating Heart / Yakudo suru Wakamono
Chibi Taiko cerebrated its 30th anniversary last fall. As a second generation taiko group sprung out of Katari Taiko, our mother group, our style of drumming is deeply rooted in the early style of the North American taiko inherited from Seiichi Tanaka of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo as well as San Jose Taiko, the role model for Katari Taiko’s development.
Dahaza | founded 2018
New work: Shinka no Nagare 進化の流れ
Dahaza is a wagakki (Japanese instrumental) group formed by Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos and joined by John Nguyen, Nori Akagi and Anny Lin. The group share their deep passion and connection with Japanese music and culture, focusing on new and traditional pieces that incorporate the taiko drum, shakuhachi, shamisen, and shinobue. “Daha” (Pounding Waves) is the title of a famous classical shakuhachi meditation piece which is a metaphor for breaking through one’s obstacles in life to reach success, happiness, and ultimately, enlightenment.
I was first introduced to taiko in 2008 while living and teaching in a small town in northern Hokkaido,. I didn’t realize at the time just how deeply this art form would be etched into my life after my return to Canada. My first experience of the Powell Street Festival was during the summer of 2017 when I visited from Calgary, where I was living. Each taiko group showcased such a variety of approaches. I was surprised to learn that taiko in Canada began here, had deep roots stretching back decades, and that many of the groups had sprung from the same origins. Shortly after moving to Vancouver in the fall of 2017 I sought to become a part of the community, bringing with me my own story and experiences with taiko. Our group, Dahaza, was born out of a desire to reconnect with Japan and share the culture through wagakki, weaving new sounds into the tapestry of the Vancouver taiko community including wind and string. I’m proud to be a part of this 45-year milestone of taiko in Canada and to be contributing to the ongoing history of Vancouver taiko, nurturing its roots through my own joy and love of the art. – John Nguyen, Dahaza
Katari Taiko | founded 1979
New work: Toki No Suna (Sands of Time)
Katari Taiko, the first taiko group to form in Canada, operates as a collective with the goal to develop a form of Asian Canadian culture that incorporates discipline, physical strength, grace, non-sexism, and musical creativity within a collective spirit. A basic assumption is that the strengthening of each individual member will result in the strengthening of the group as a whole. Thus, the responsibility of coordinating practices and group activities is rotated among the members. Each member is expected to be able to act as spokesperson for the group and to provide criticism and encouragement for the other members. The group hopes to inspire other Asian Canadians to explore their community and culture. They give regular open workshops in Vancouver to enable the general public to get a feeling for taiko and to serve as cultural exchange between Canadians of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Onibana Taiko | founded 2016
New work: Reverberations
Onibana Taiko is a kick-ass taiko meets traditional Japanese folks art forms meets feminist queer punk aesthetics. We play taiko combined with our uber tactile and full-body resonating beats with the driving sounds of tsugaru shamisen, and soul-piercing traditional and contemporary vocals. Onibana Taiko (Kage & NoriNori) identifies as queer and gender non-binary settlers of Japanese ancestry.
Kage has been creating new works based on the taiko form for many years. Recently their interest lies in digital audio creations, Japanese and English lyrics, and live soundtracks.Kobayashi has been evolving as a composer from the three-chord punk rock genre, to avant-garde vocal works inspired by composition studies at UBC, to Japanese instrumental works with a recent focus on the burgeoning rock shamisen genre.
As Noriko and I (Onibana Taiko) create our new composition for the Echoes project, I felt safe to experiment. Perhaps this is in part due to the original impetus that drove the formation of Katari Taiko in Vancouver when I joined the group in 1982 as a youth. At that time, I was surrounded by activists who were driven to break negative stereotypes of Asians and to be powerful on stage all while honouring our heritage. Not only did I learn taiko skills, but I learned about community, empowerment, and activism. I learned how to express myself as a queer mixed race youth. This environment provides a strong foundation for creative expression. I am looking forward to seeing my taiko friends and all their new expressions presented at the show.
“My relationship to taiko evolves over the years and currently I am focused on taiko as a way of communing with our ancestors both biological and otherwise. Particularly as we experience many deaths around us, I am reminded that all of us will become ancestors when it is our time. As we gather to play and celebrate the taiko form, I am reminded that we are forging this path with our ancestors. As we transition into becoming ancestors ourselves, in essence, the taiko will be our access to this world. – Kage, Onibana Taiko. Former member of Katari Taiko.
Sansho Daiko | founded 2010
New work: Kuroshio: lure of moon, pull of tide
Sansho Daiko takes its name from sansho, the spicy red pepper that is one of the ingredients of shichimi togarashi, the Japanese seven-spice powder added to dishes to enhance the flavour. Sansho Daiko can trace its roots directly to the birth of taiko in Canada, while most recently integrating members who trained in Japan. The members of the group share a love of experimentation and exploration. Through mask work and the use of pre-recorded sounds we are exploring an ever-more ecological approach, seeking to become closer to the earth and sea through our practice.
Thinking back to that day at the Powell Street Festival, watching San Jose Taiko, it was as if the earth opened up beneath our feet. With their first beat, their first kiai, San Jose Taiko showed us a way. I was going to say a way forward, but it was not that. It was simply a way. A way to look both forward and backward at the same time. A way to look both inward and outward. It was a way to summon music from thunder. A way to express who we were, as children of the children of those who worked the sea and the fields – the dispossessed, the interned, the maligned. The strong. This was music that you put your back into, that rose up through the earth, through the hara. It was an exhalation of breath, a meditation, an exultation. It was the sound of gambare – persistence; of gaman – endurance. It was tactile, connecting us to something deeper, something older, something honest and real. – John Endo Greenaway, Sansho Daiko. Original member of Katari Taiko
Sawagi Taiko | founded 1990
New work: Gratitude
Sawagi Taiko is the first all-women taiko group in Canada. We are a multi-generational group of women of East Asian and Indigenous ancestry, brought together by our shared passion for Japanese drumming. With thunderous drum beats, stirring vocals, and martial-arts inspired choreography, we share the empowerment and exhilaration we feel through taiko with our diverse audiences. We harness the power of the drum to support feminist and social justice ideals.
Vancouver Okinawa Taiko | founded 2004
Works: Mirukumunari (collaboration with The 60+ and GO Taiko Junior) / Eisa & Sanshin
Vancouver Okinawa Taiko was founded in 2004 to promote and preserve eisa – Okinawan style drum-dancing – and to share Okinawan cultural heritage. We hope to deliver the Okinawan sprit through the beat of our drums and harmonies of our dance.
