Reconsidering Ethnic Culture and Community: A Case Study on Japanese Canadian Taiko Drumming

35ETHNIC CULTURE AND COMMUNITY • IZUMI •

RECONSIDERING ETHNICCULTURE AND COMMUNITY:

A Case Study on Japanese Canadian Taiko

Drumming*

masumi izumi

JAAS FEBRUARY 2001 • 35–56

© THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS

CONCEPTUALIZING ETHNICITY AND COMMUNITY

THNICITY” HAS LONG BEEN the most important reference point of

analysis in Asian American studies. Many past works on ethnicity

have treated it as something primordial, deriving from ancestry and

particular to a nation-state. They assume, for example, that Japanese

Americans possess Japanese ethnicity, Chinese Canadians, Chinese

ethnicity, and so on, when they discuss the content or nature of ethnicity.

However, because of the increased rate of intermarriage and the

subsequent rise of multiracials, and because of the influence of post-

structuralism on ethnic studies that render problematic fixed and rigid

subjectivities, it is difficult to determine who are included in an ethnic

group, or the constitution of ethnicity.1 Moreover, varying degrees of

assimilation among the different segments of Asian Americans and Asian

Canadians and their diversification by class positions have made it

impossible to describe a unified ethnic culture or a homogeneous ethnic

community.2 The following questions thus arise for ethnic studies in the

United States and Canada. Is it relevant to study ethnic culture and

community in a multicultural society, particularly of those ethnic groups

that appear to be well assimilated into the mainstream social structure?3

And if so, how can one understand ethnic culture and identity without

stereotyping or essentializing?

“E

36 • JAAS • 4:1

Many studies of Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians have

focused on biology or descent as the basis of ethnicity. For example,

Tomoko Makabe’s Canadian Sansei describes the sansei, or the third-gen-

eration Japanese Canadians, as a homogenous group, assimilated, middle

class, with few ethnic affiliations.4 Intermarriage is generally considered

a “problem,” because, relying exclusively on bloodline, intermarriage jeop-

ardizes the maintenance of the ethnicity and ethnic community.5 Judg-

ing from the little involvement in the ethnic organizations and the de-

creasing social interactions with the fellow Japanese Canadians among

her interviewees, Makabe goes so far as to predict the “extinction” of the

Japanese community in Canada.6

Stephen Fugita and David O’Brien, on the contrary, emphasize the

persistence of ethnicity in the Japanese American population.7 Their book,

Japanese American Ethnicity, points out that Japanese Americans main-

tain high levels of involvement in ethnic volunteer organizations and so-

cial relationships among group members, while achieving remarkable

upward social mobility. By attributing this persistence of ethnicity to tra-

ditional Japanese culture, however, Fugita and O’Brien fall into a similar

essentialism that limits Makabe’s analysis. Although Fugita and O’Brien

insist that the sansei retain their ethnicity as much as the nisei, or the

second generation, the meaning and the content of ethnicity may be dif-

ferent between sansei and nisei, considering the different social contexts

in which they spent their formative years. It is also problematic to assume

that the immigrant generation from Japan already had the “clear sense of

peoplehood” before they arrived in the United States, and this sense was

preserved unaltered for the last 100 years.8 Downplaying the diversity

among Japanese Americans and the particular experiences of Japanese

Americans as a racialized group in the United States (in contrast to those

of white European immigrants) for the formation of their particular forms

of ethnicity, Fugita and O’Brien fail to explain the complex process of the

construction of ethnicity and ethnic culture in North America.

Scholars of ethnicity who take a social constructionist view, in con-

trast, see ethnicity as something constructed through the interaction be-

tween the mainstream society and the ethnic minorities.9 For example,

according to Joan Nagel, the number of people who reported American


Indian as their race tripled in the U.S. Census between 1960 and 1990, a

figure that cannot be explained by population growth or immigration.10

Nagel attributes it to “ethnic switching,” where individuals who previ-

ously identified as one ethnic group switched to another in a later census.

This indicates that ethnicity, at least in this reckoning by the state, is not

completely determined by one’s bloodline, but is partly the result of per-

sonal choice. Studies of ethnicity, accordingly, must consider both “struc-

ture” and “agency” in the construction of ethnic identity.11 On the one

hand, ethnicity is imposed by the majority, and that naming is sometimes

arbitrary and novel, as in the case of “Asian American” or “Native Ameri-

can.” On the other hand, some members “choose” to identify with an eth-

nic group through certain cultural expressions and social activities or in

everyday life, by the way they dress, speak, or behave.

Makabe, as well as many other scholars, neglects the element of agency.

Sansei, in Canadian Sansei, appear unwilling to express or develop their

ethnic culture, and therefore are not acting as agents in the creation of

ethnicity. In contrast, this study adopts a social constructionist view, which

suggests a fluid definition of ethnicity. While not completely dismissing

the element of bloodline,12 this article considers ethnic culture neither

strictly “natural” or biological, nor primordial or pre-existing, but a for-

mation that is constantly shifting, being created and re-created through

the activities and negotiations among the members both inside and out-

side the ethnic community.13 The aim of this study is to display the pro-

cess by which ethnic identity is created and reinforced among Japanese

Canadian taiko drummers. I will offer a brief history of taiko in North

America, and will analyze the historical context in which taiko emerged

as a site of cultural expression. Taiko, I contend, forms an important part

of the sansei’s claim to uniqueness as an ethnic minority in Canadian

society, and provides the players with a means for political expression.

Finally, I discuss the complex relationship between taiko and Canadian

multiculturalism. This article reveals the tensions that converge and in-

tersect at the site of taiko drumming performances among the players,

the ethnic community, the mainstream society, and the Canadian state.

38 • JAAS • 4:1

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TAIKO IN NORTH AMERICA

According to the creation myth in Japan, taiko was started by Ame no

Uzume, a shaman-like female deity.14 One day, fed up with her naughty

younger brother, the sun goddess, Amaterasu Oomikami, hid herself in a

cave. The world became pitch dark, and the troubled deities gathered and

conspired to appease Amaterasu so that the world would be bright again.

They held a big party in front of the cave, and Ame no Uzume danced an

erotic dance, stamping her feet on a wooden tub. Gods at the party laughed

and cheered, and the noise was so loud that it provoked the curiosity of

the sun goddess to come out of the cave to see what was going on outside.

The world thus saw the light again.

Percussion is one of the oldest musical instruments, and taiko could be

as old as Japanese civilization, which is at least 2,000 years old. A haniwa, an

earthenware statue from the 6th or 7th century C.E., shows a figure with a

drum hanging from its neck. The figure carries a drumstick in its right hand.

Unlike this haniwa figure, present day taiko is usually played with two sticks,

bachi, one in each hand of the player. Playing with both hands, the player can

express complicated patterns of beats. Drums are sometimes hung from the

player’s neck, but they are usually set on wooden frames, sometimes verti-

cally, sometimes horizontally, and sometimes diagonally. Depending on how

the drum is positioned, the player will take different stances. One drum

can be beaten by one person, or by two or more people. With several

drums and players, taiko music can make intricate rhythmic patterns.

Taiko not only offers aural aesthetics but also visual aesthetics. The

players’ postures and the flowing movements are extremely important.

Playing taiko is almost like dancing. When many players play at the same

time on the stage, their harmonious movements make the drumming

visually attractive. With the powerful sound and energetic movements of

the drummers, taiko performances can inspire the audiences, and some-

times overwhelm them.

Taiko has been one of the most important musical instruments

throughout Japanese history. Taiko is played in most festivals and many

religious ceremonies. In various martial arts, taiko is used to set the rhythm

of the fighters’ movements, and drums were used in battles for stirring up

the morale of the soldiers and intimidating the enemies.


Taiko as a modern professional performing art was started in Japan

after World War II by groups such as Osuwa Daiko and Oedo Sukeroku.

It was carried to worldwide popularity by a group of young Japanese who

gathered on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture. They led a communal life,

went through athletic and spiritual training, and practiced taiko. The

group, initially named Ondekoza and later became Kodo, performed in

different places in Japan, and transformed taiko into a new art form. They

toured the world, made taiko popular outside Japan, and inspired some

Japanese Americans to form their own groups in the United States.

The first three taiko groups in North America were founded in Cali-

fornia in the 1960s and early 1970s: Kinnara Taiko in Los Angeles, devel-

oped by the Kinnara Buddhist Church; San Francisco Taiko Dojo, founded

by Seiichi Tanaka from Japan; and San Jose Taiko, which celebrated its

twenty-fifth anniversary in September 1998. As taiko became more known

in the United States through the tours by the taiko groups from Japan,

and later through Japanese American groups like San Jose Taiko, many

new taiko groups were formed in different parts of the country.

In 1979, San Jose Taiko was invited to perform in the third annual

Powell Street Festival, a Japanese Canadian community festival in

Vancouver. Some of the sansei who saw the performance were inspired

by the energy and power of San Jose Taiko.15 After the Festival, Mayumi

Takasaki, a sansei community activist and the coordinator of the Powell

Street Festival, went to California and asked Seiichi Tanaka to teach some

Canadian sansei how to play taiko.16 Thus in 1979, Katari Taiko, the first

Canadian taiko group, was formed in Vancouver.

There are currently over 100 taiko groups in North America, and 12

groups from Canada are listed in the Taiko Resource on the Internet.17

Five taiko groups practice and perform in Vancouver: Katari Taiko, the

original group; Sawagi Taiko, a women’s group; Uzume Taiko, a profes-

sional group; Tokidoki Taiko, a casual group; and Chibi Taiko, a children’s

group. Except for Sawagi Taiko, the groups are open to both gender, al-

though currently Katari Taiko’s members are all Asian Canadian women.

For all of the groups, membership is not restricted to people of Japanese

ancestry, although most groups have predominantly Asian members, in-

cluding part-Asian, multiracial people.

40 • JAAS • 4:1

RECLAIMING SPACE AND HISTORY: DIASPORA AND TAIKO

Superficially, taiko appears to represent a foreign, exotic cultural form, or

is an example of an ethnic musical expression in multicultural North

America. However, from a history of Japanese Canadian taiko, we come

to understand that the profound meaning of taiko is the creation of eth-

nic identity among the taiko players.

Japanese Canadian taiko began with Katari Taiko, and that group

was inspired by San Jose Taiko. Taiko in San Jose was initially started as an

activity for the Young Buddhist Association members in 1973, but soon

was joined by other young adults from the Japanese American commu-

nity and students in the Asian American Studies Program at San Jose

State University. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the sansei were

engaged in the Asian American movement, searching for ways to express

their cultural heritage with pride and dignity.18 Taiko was a means by

which those sansei expressed their culture. From the words in a brochure

published by San Jose Taiko: “They came as young Asian Americans in-

terested in reclaiming their roots.”19

Contemporaneously in Canada, although not as well known as the

stirrings in the United States, Asian Canadian student activities were

blooming on the West Coast. Directly influenced by the Asian American

students’ movement through a Japanese American professor from Cali-

fornia, Ron Tanaka, a group of Japanese Canadian and Chinese Canadian

students started to search for their history and heritage.20 Some of the

young Japanese Canadians went to Japan, and found that racial hierarchy

existing in North America was not universal.21 At the same time, they

discovered that Japan was not the “home” they were searching for, but

Canada was their home even though they were only accepted as “hyphen-

ated Canadians.”22

In the early 1970s, those sansei engaged in community activities in

Vancouver. Many of them had never been involved in the Japanese Cana-

dian community before.23 Some collected old photographs from the com-

munity, creating a historical photo exhibition.24 Others worked for Tonari

Gumi, a volunteer association for Japanese Canadian seniors.25 In 1977,

the community celebrated the Japanese Canadian Centennial, in which

various community events were held across the country, including the


first Powell Street Festival, which was held in Oppenheimer Park on Powell

Street. This area used to be called “Little Tokyo,” and was a thriving Japa-

nese Canadian community until the entire Japanese population was re-

moved in 1942. One of the sansei who was involved in the first Powell

Street Festival described the meaning of the festival:

I think most of us from Tonari Gumi felt that Powell Street was very

important to the issei [first generation], because it was almost like we

were reclaiming the park that was theirs, reclaiming that area that was

theirs before the wartime. That was very significant, that they could

walk on Powell Street and see all the banners and all the stuff, and say,

“Hey, this is our park. This is our street.”26

The fact that taiko was born out of the Powell Street Festival is quite

significant. In order to understand the meaning of taiko, we have to un-

derstand the meaning of the Powell Street Festival for the sansei, most of

whom were born in the decade after World War II into a diasporic situa-

tion. After the internment, Japanese Canadians were dispersed across the

country. Nisei were discouraged from speaking the Japanese language or

to form a community. Being Japanese was associated with shame, guilt,

and the image of the enemy.27 Many sansei grew up without knowing

about the internment, or the history of the pre-war Japanese Canadian

community. Many of them grew up without having much contact with

Japanese Canadians other than their family and close relatives.

The historical photo project, Tonari Gumi, and Powell Street Festival

brought many young sansei together, some of whom later formed the

taiko group. All of those activities had the effect of sansei rediscovering

their own history, reclaiming their space, and reviving the ethnic com-

munity. The Powell Street Festival celebrated that achievement, and taiko

symbolized the recovered pride in their own history and the positive af-

firmation of their heritage.

Taiko can be understood as a cultural expression of Japanese Cana-

dians to counter their diasporic history.28 Taiko has provided a link for

the players to their land of ancestry. This link is both symbolic and con-

crete. While taiko players do not regard Japan as their “homeland” in a

literal sense, taiko has created cultural exchanges and communication

between players in Japan and those in the United States and Canada.29

42 • JAAS • 4:1

More importantly, taiko has connected Japanese Canadians with Japa-

nese Americans. This link has not been limited to the players, but also the

audiences, because it has brought about a sense of pride and belonging

among the people of Japanese ancestry watching and listening to taiko,

and those feelings have, in many cases, extended to peoples of Asian an-

cestry as well.

Playing taiko helps a scattered people to find their ethnic commu-

nity, which is not visible geographically for Japanese Canadians or Ameri-

cans. Taiko also helps the community to find its dispersed members, which

is necessary in order to maintain cohesiveness and continuity of the group.

Many ethnic organizations are facing a shortage of volunteers, and suf-

fering from a lack of interest in their activities, particularly among the

younger population. Taiko groups not only provide the volunteers, but

also the organizers for ethnic cultural events.30 This function of taiko as a

link between the community and the individuals was expressed by one of

the participants in the Northwest Regional Taiko Gathering:

One of the main reasons why I got into taiko was that I felt like I lost the

connection with the Japanese community to some extent because I was

separated from my own family, and I wanted something to root me in

the Japanese community in the place I was living ... one of the benefits

that I’ve had from being in Northwest Taiko is I know where the obons

[sic] are in the local area, where the cultural activities are.31

Two multiracial sisters in Katari Taiko stressed that it was through taiko

that they got involved in the Japanese Canadian community.

I think that was the reason for me to join taiko. Coming from Toronto

moving to Vancouver, that was the way to meet the people in the

community, and it was actually the first time that I’ve been really involved

in the Japanese Canadian community, because in Toronto it was only

my family that we knew, and it seems like we didn’t really fit in there.32

One thing about taiko is that it balances out my reality. I’m in the video

game industry, and so I spend all day working with young, mostly white

men. It’s a nice change to spend some time with a bunch of Japanese

Canadian women, you don’t have to always feel that you’re the only one.33


TAIKO AS FOLKLORE: FUSION AND HYBRIDITY

Although it links diasporic individuals to their ethnic heritage, taiko music

played and created in North America is different from that of Japan. In

Japan, taiko is in most cases played in a traditional setting, with tradi-

tional scripts and traditional ways of beating.34 In North America, many

taiko groups are creating their own pieces. Their movements tend to be

more theatrical, incorporating movements from tai chi and other martial

arts. Some groups are developing fusion between taiko and other musical

instruments, for example, with bagpipes, electric guitars, and saxo-

phones.35 Collaborations happen with other cultural forms like dancing

as well. The fusion is not limited to the musical instruments but is also

seen in the style of music itself. An example of fusion is “Been Down So

Long,” recorded in a Katari Taiko CD. The cover of the CD reads: “The

bass intro begins with a Vivaldi-derived blues melody and opens up to a

modal progression in the manner of the Celtic jazz of the Penguin Cafe

Orchestra. The solos reflect urban American blues from Chicago and the

irrepressible New Orleans swing style.”36

This fusion results from the way and the reason taiko groups were

formed in North America. One of the original founders of Katari Taiko

explained:

I started taiko because I had been in this band, Kokuho Rose, and we

had a lot of trouble. We wanted to be a kind of fusion band. And we

originally started with shakuhachi. But it’s a melodic instrument. And

we had guitars, which is also a melodic instrument [sic]. And the scales

were different, so they never quite got together. So we struggled with it

and we tried to do it and we finally gave up. . . . Taiko was a way to

combine, to do a fusion easier, because there was no scale. There was

just rhythm. So to me, this was the way to get my musical interests joined,

with my background which is totally Western, with a Japanese

instrument.37

Taiko players I interviewed were not interested in re-creating Japa-

nese culture.38 They wanted to express what they were, Japanese Ameri-

cans or Japanese Canadians. Their music is hybrid, a fusion, which re-

flects the reality of Japanese Americans or Japanese Canadians, members

of an ethnic minority in a dominantly Western society, different from the

44 • JAAS • 4:1

experiences of Japanese in Japan. The immigrants’ stories of matsutake

mushroom hunting, the plight of internment, the rage of sansei as they

discovered the internment, the generation gap, could all be the themes of

North American taiko pieces.39

One of the issues in taiko reflects an ambivalent reality of contempo-

rary Japanese Canadian community — the issue of intermarriage and

whether or not to include people who are not of Japanese descent. One

nisei woman expressed her conundrum as follows:

Why not have hakujin [white] participants? Who among us has not

married or had relatives who married hakujin or friends who are really

keen about Japanese culture or language? I mean, how can you keep it

pure? It’s silly even trying to do it. . . . But I don’t know about seeing a

blonde up there doing taiko, you see, so. . .I don’t know. But I just don’t

see how we can say no.40

Because the community takes pride in seeing people who look like

them playing taiko and expressing their heritage and pride, Japanese Ca-

nadians hold mixed feelings about having people who do not look Japa-

nese or at least Asian on the stage. And yet the reality is that, because of

the extremely high rate of intermarriage, many sansei and most of the

yonsei, or fourth generation, are multiracials. In addition, an increasing

number of people who are not of Japanese or Asian ancestry have be-

come interested in taiko as its popularity has increased. This matter of

boundary and membership will continue to be an issue in the Japanese

Canadian community, not only in taiko, but in any cultural event expres-

sive of ethnicity.

TAIKO AS A SITE OF POLITICAL EXPRESSIONS: THE IMAGE OF “ORIENTAL

WOMEN”

One of the characteristics of North American taiko is that its players are

predominantly women.41 This is a remarkable feature, because in Japan

taiko is commonly associated with masculinity. A taiko player’s typical

image is a muscular man with hachimaki (bandanna) and fundoshi (loin-

cloth). Why are women playing taiko in North America, and what does

this mean in terms of their identity formation and political/cultural ex-

pressions?


Gender has been of importance since the beginning of taiko in

Canada. It is, in fact, closely related to the original motive for forming

Katari Taiko.

It was so exciting to see [San Jose] taiko. . . . I mean, we had seen taiko from

Japan, but it was all men. And we never kind of looked at it and said,

“Oh, I want to be like them.” You know, we didn’t want to be men, and it

looked like only men did it. But when San Jose came it was a mixed group.

And it looked like it was so much fun! North American taiko, you know,

Kodo calls it “Sunshine Taiko.” . . .It’s much cheerier, and it’s different.42

San Jose Taiko’s women players inspired Japanese Canadian women to

start playing taiko themselves.

Taiko players all mentioned the power of taiko, when asked what at-

tracted them to taiko.

It’s funny because I saw Katari Taiko for many years at the Powell Street

Festival, and it’s still strange looking at the pictures. I hardly remember

anybody that I saw perform. . . .But I just remember the power. My

grandma used to love taiko. I think it was her love and her passion for

taiko, and when she died, I thought, “Wow, it’s kind of a way for me to

remember her more.” I don’t know, it’s powerful. I love drumming.43

This power of taiko is related to the physicality of playing taiko. Kata, the

wide-open stance, the action of beating a large object with two sticks,

kiai, the screaming and shouting, the intensity of the drum beat, and

hachimaki, a bandanna which is used to prevent the sweat from falling

into one’s eyes, all compose the powerful physicality that is involved in

playing taiko. This physicality is something that has not been tradition-

ally associated with femininity in Japan, and it certainly goes against the

image of an Asian woman in North America. In this way, female taiko

players contradict the image of “quiet Asians” in North America, and par-

ticularly the image of the “Oriental woman.” A member of Sawagi Taiko

expressed her reason for playing taiko:

In North America there is a stereotype of how an Asian woman should

be; it’s quiet, docile, and gentle. When I had to grow up, I took odori

[traditional Japanese dancing]. And I just remember having to put on

the kimono and get my hair done, and I just felt this was so unnatural.

This is not me. But when I play taiko, I feel like it is the way to connect to

my ancestry. But also for me to be strong and for me to be really me.44

46 • JAAS • 4:1

One of the original pieces of Katari Taiko clearly expresses its femi-

nist view. The piece is titled “Mountain Moving Day” and is based on a

poem written in 1911 by a Japanese female poet, Akiko Yosano. The poem,

which is sung along with the drumming, reads as follows:

Mountain Moving Day is coming

I say so, yet others doubt it

Only a while the mountain sleeps

In the past all mountains moved in fire

Yet, you may not believe it

Oh, man, this alone believe

All sleeping women, now awake, and move

All sleeping women, now awake, and move. 45

Asian Canadian women, under the double burden of gender and ra-

cial stereotyping, find taiko a powerful and physically invigorating form

of cultural expression. These women are reclaiming the power of repre-

sentation, in order to create a counter-discourse of “strong Asian women”

against the dominant discourse of Orientalism.46

THE POLITICS OF TAIKO: ACTIVISM

Although the taiko groups in Vancouver are based in the Japanese Cana-

dian community, they are not performing only in community events. Some

groups are in fact very active in supporting other causes, namely, the First

Nations land claims, gay and lesbian rights, No-to-APEC, prisoners’ rights,

and feminist and anti-racist rallies.47 Who they won’t play for is also im-

portant. For example, Katari Taiko will not play for large multinational

corporations.48 When the new recruits are interviewed, the group is quite

open about its “left of centre” political stance.49 Katari Taiko and Sawagi

Taiko can be considered political by the way they are organized as well.

They are both collectives, in which there is no permanent leader, and the

leadership is rotated among all the members. As they explained it:

Katari Taiko is a political group. [Those] that were in the group at the

beginning, they formed it as a collective specifically. . . . Most taiko groups

have a leader or even if they work collectively a lot of times, you would

still have a sort of the spokesperson, or a leader, someone who is deciding

the whole role. The thing about a collective is that each person is forced


to take responsibility. . . . You can’t sit in the back, and you have to learn

the skills to be a leader, and that was part of the overall reason that

Katari Taiko was formed, not even just to give people drumming skills,

but to give them other skills, leadership skills or whatever you call it,

speaking in public, organizing things. . . . To me that’s quite a political

thing.50

Numerous recent studies have indicated that music functions as an

important cultural terrain where subversive or critical political views are

expressed.51 With closer observation, we can see the “hidden transcripts”

in taiko performances as well.52 Taiko resists Orientalist stereotypes. Gen-

der and sexuality are extremely important issues, particularly for Sawagi

Taiko, an all Asian women’s group, which contains homosexual women

among its members. Homosexuality is not fully accepted in the Japanese

Canadian community, and the community is by no means unanimously

supportive of the struggles against the plight of other deprived groups,

such as Native Canadians. For Katari Taiko and Sawagi Taiko, however,

oppressions based on race, gender, and sexuality are very important po-

litical causes to fight against as a group.53

Another example of taiko and politics can be seen in the professional

group in Vancouver. Uzume Taiko’s main activity is performing in schools.

One of the stories they show in those performances is a tale about dis-

crimination against the burakumin, or the outcaste people in Japan.54 The

mainstream Japanese Canadian community is not necessarily willing to

accept the buraku problem as their political agenda.55 Taiko performances

contain some potential for tension in the ethnic community, especially if

the issues are introduced in an open political form. However, because

taiko is an art form, and one that appears to be a traditional Japanese art,

it is easier for the community to accept the performers. And thus, taiko

provides a subversive tool of self-expression for minorities within a mi-

nority, as instanced by homosexual Asian Canadian women.

MULTICULTURALISM AND TAIKO

One thing that should be emphasized is that taiko is one of the cultural

expressions that is part of multicultural Canada, and multiculturalism

cannot be uncritically celebrated without analysis. As Homi Bhabha ar-

48 • JAAS • 4:1

gues, multiculturalism, based on the liberal philosophy of relativism, cel-

ebrates cultural diversity while containing cultural difference, and thus

masks the ethnocentric norm provided by the dominant culture.56 Lisa

Lowe insists that multiculturalism aestheticizes and commodifies ethnic

cultures, which helps the state to forget the “material histories of

racialization, segregation, and economic violence.”57 What makes it even

more problematic is the fact that multiculturalism in Canada is an offi-

cial state policy. Multiculturalism as a state policy appropriates the

grassroots struggles of minorities for a recognition of their different cul-

tural forms, and creates a general image of “tolerance” for minority cul-

tural expressions by the government. It is true that ethnic cultural expres-

sions are “encouraged” by the Canadian government and mainstream

society through various grants and supports. Ethnic minorities, however,

do not necessarily express what the government wants them to express,

as was evident in an episode in the history of Japanese Canadian taiko

which crystallized the tension between official and grassroots

multiculturalism.

The performance was titled, “Rage,” a dance piece choreographed by

Jay Hirabayashi, a Japanese Canadian sansei, and a son of Gordon

Hirabayashi, who was imprisoned for protesting the U.S. wartime intern-

ment. “Rage” was a collaboration among Jay Hirabayashi’s dance com-

pany Kokoro Dance, with Katari Taiko and Takeo Yamashiro, a shakuhachi

player. It expressed the feeling Jay had, when he discovered his father’s

story of opposing the internment. The piece was performed at the Asia

Pacific Festival in Vancouver and also at the Dance Canada Dance Festi-

val at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.58 Hirabayashi performed a solo

dance at the redress rally in Vancouver in 1988.59 He explained the title of

this piece:

Rage is what I feel when I think of racial inequalities in this land. Rage

is what I feel when I see twenty East Indians packed into a truck heading

for subsistence work on some Lower Mainland farm. Rage is what I feel

when I see bloodied and passed out native Indians on Hastings Street,

abandoned by the country that systematically destroyed their cultural

roots. Rage is what I feel when I look at my children and remember my

uncle telling me that as a boy he used to swim in the ditches outside the

barbed wire fence while a soldier with a machine gun watched him.60


Katari Taiko, when asked to perform in a big governmental Canada Day

celebration in Vancouver, decided to perform “Rage.”

And we did it, and they were so pissed off. But I thought, we all thought,

it was perfect. This is part of Canada. This is one of the things that’s

happened in Canada. And this is something we should think about on

Canada Day. . . . I’m really proud of us for doing that. But we can only

do that, because we don’t have to be nice to people.61

The dance piece “Rage” is now renamed “The Believer,” and is per-

formed by Kokoro Dance with Uzume Taiko music. Hirabayashi explained

that the change of the title reflected the shift of focus from his own feel-

ing of rage towards injustice to his father’s faith in democracy and the

U.S. Constitution despite historical injustices.62 The performance incor-

porates slide projections, dance, and taiko, and is accompanied by a study

guide, which explains the history of racism against Japanese Canadians

and Japanese Americans and suggests some post-performance discussion

topics.63

Multiculturalism in Canada as an official discourse can attempt to

create the image of a tolerant Canada and negate historical racism and

past injustices for the purpose of reinforcing nationalism. Ethnic minori-

ties, however, through cultural expression, can exhibit the intolerant and

racist history of Canada, reveal the hypocrisy of the nationalist discourse,

and present political issues on the stage that is provided by the policy of

multiculturalism. The taiko players in happi coat and hachimaki are often

seen by the mainstream society as “good-will ambassadors” from an ex-

otic, foreign culture, but a taiko performance can, in fact, function as a

site of “alternative cultural production” in which the alternative discourse

is not even “hidden.” Presented with that, the dominant culture has little

choice but to accept its existence.64

CONCLUSION: TAIKO AS A SITE FOR THE CREATION OF ETHNIC IDENTITY AND

COMMUNITY

This analysis of Japanese Canadian taiko drumming uncovers multi-lay-

ered meanings contained in that cultural activity. I have shown the har-

mony and tension that exist around taiko performances, among the play-

50 • JAAS • 4:1

ers, their audience from the Japanese Canadian community, their audi-

ence from the mainstream community, and also the Canadian state. The

different intentions and interpretations of each participant intersect on

this particular cultural site.

We can also see that ethnicity cannot be taken for granted as some-

thing primordial or something unilaterally imposed on minorities by

dominant society. In many cases of taiko players in this study, ethnicity

was created and reinforced by their encounter with ethnic culture and

their involvement in the activities of the ethnic community. Similarly,

ethnic community does not pre-exist, but has to be discovered and cre-

ated by those who seek their ethnicity, and in the process they take part in

the reproduction of ethnic culture and maintenance of ethnic commu-

nity.

At the structural level, the continuation of ethnic communities de-

pends on the continuous creation and recreation of the meaning of “dif-

ference.” Racialization functions to assign certain meanings to “differences”

among racialized groups. The creation of “difference,” however, is not a

one-way process, monopolized by the dominant power through catego-

rization and exclusion. Difference can be utilized by the minorities, as we

have seen in this case study, as a site of resistance to cultural homogeniza-

tion, or as a stage for alternative cultural representations. As such, the

locations of ethnic culture can contain critical, or even subversive politi-

cal messages in a way that does not cause great damage or sacrifice to

racialized minorities.

This case study clearly demonstrates the legitimacy of studying mu-

sic as a site of research in Asian American/Canadian studies. As Joseph

Lam suggests, the study of Asian American music must be “approached

with flexible perspectives developed from Asian American experiences,

namely those that Asian Americans acquire in their active and passive

responses to ethnic, political, and social forces in America.”65 In order to

analyze diverse musical activities by Asian Americans under the name of

“Asian American music,” the researcher must understand the specific Asian

American meanings and explain how the music is created and functions

as an expression of Asian American experiences. With such a stance, not

only the studies of music, but the studies of various expressive forms of


ethnic culture can avoid simplistic stereotyping or essentialization, and

deal with the complexity and specificity of the particular cultural sites. By

analyzing the performances, the performers, the audiences, and the his-

torical contexts, a study of popular music can uncover the complexity of

the power structure affecting the different groups involved, and the dy-

namics of various discourses contradicting and collaborating with each

other. Japanese Canadian taiko drumming displays both “hidden tran-

scripts” and “creative misunderstandings,” and thus, constitutes a power-

ful example of the countless alternative cultural sites in a diverse and com-

plex multi-ethnic, multicultural North America.66

Notes

*I conducted this research while I was living in Victoria, British Columbia in1997 and 1998 as a recipient of the Government of Canada awards. I wouldlike to express my appreciation for the financial assistance from the Canadiangovernment during my stay in Canada. I would like to thank the taiko playersand other people who shared their time and stories with me in the interviews.David Leong has provided me with the information on the historicaldevelopment of taiko both directly and through the website on NorthAmerican taiko. David Stowe deserves special thanks for encouraging me towrite this paper on popular culture, using the analytical styles of culturalstudies. I would also like to express my appreciation to Gary Okihiro for thecareful editing as well as his challenging questions concerning the theoreticalconstruction of this paper.

1. In 1997 (23:1), Amerasia Journal devoted an entire issue to multiracial AsianAmericans.

2. Lisa Lowe emphasizes the heterogeneity of Asian American community inorder to problematize the hegemonic relationship between the dominantand minority members within the Asian American community, and criticizesthe exclusion of differences. Lisa Lowe, “Heterogeneity, Hybridity,Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Differences,“ Diaspora: A Journal ofTransnational Studies (Spring 1991): 24-44.

3. Milton Gordon distinguished the political/economic/social/legal aspects ofassimilation and the cultural assimilation by different ethnic groups intoAmerican society. He called the former “structural assimilation.” MiltonGordon, Assimilation in American Life (New York: Oxford University Press,1964). In order to avoid the confusion of the term “structure” with the use ofthe term in the other parts of this article, the better words to describe thephenomenon may be “institutional assimilation.”

4. Tomoko Makabe, The Canadian Sansei (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,1998).

52 • JAAS • 4:1

5. The intermarriage rate of Japanese Canadians is over 90%. See AudreyKobayashi, A Demographic Profile of Japanese Canadians (Ottawa:Department of Secretary of State, 1989).

6. Makabe, Canadian Sansei, 169.7. Stephen Fugita and David O’Brien, Japanese American Ethnicity: The

Persistence of Community (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991).8. The pattern of immigration was in many cases village based, and the mutual

support systems in the early immigration years were often built on the quasi-kin units based on the sonjinkai [village associations] or kenjinkai [prefecturalassociations]. This suggests that their affiliation to the particular locality inJapan from which they came was stronger than their general identity as being“Japanese.”

9. Yen Le Espiritu argues that ethnicity is constructed both voluntarily and byimposition from outside, depending on the nature of the race relations in aparticular society. Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Panethnicity: BridgingInstitutions and Identities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992).

10. Joan Nagel, “American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Politics and the Resurgenceof Identity,” American Sociological Review 60 (December 1997): 947-65.

11. Joan Nagel, “Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identityand Culture,” Social Problems 41:1 (February 1994): 152-76.

12. The complex relationship between bloodline and ethnicity is mentioned inthe section on fusion and hybridity.

13. A number of works have been published on the redefinition of “culturalidentity,” criticizing the essentialist view of cultural identity. See Stuart Hall,“Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference,edited by Jonathan Rutherford (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990), 222-37.

14. Kojiki, translated by Donald L. Philippi (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press,1968), 81-86.

15. Interview with Linda Uyehara Hoffman, Vancouver, Canada, July 7, 1998;and with Mayumi Takasaki, Vancouver, Canada, April 27, 1998. Excitementcreated by the San Jose group during the Powell Street Festival is describedin a Japanese Canadian community newsletter as follows: “The featured guestperformers, the San Jose Taiko Group, were a great success. Their combinationof traditional techniques and western rhythms gave the audience a uniquechance to enjoy genuine Japanese American culture.... Though they havebeen influenced by groups like Ondeko-za and the San Francisco Taiko Dojo,the San Jose Group created a stage presence completely their own, one inwhich they appear very relaxed and warm while maintaining complexrhythms. A reflection of the impact of this group could be measured by allthe talk later of forming a Vancouver Taiko Group.” Japanese CommunityVolunteers Association Newsletter (Tonari Gumi Geppo), August 1979.

16. Interview with Mayumi Takasaki, April 27, 1998.17. Rolling Thunder Taiko Resource, www.Taiko.com.


18. Various cultural activities pursued during the Asian American movementare described in William Wei, The Asian American Movement (Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 1993), 44-71.

19. San Jose Taiko, Rhythm Journey: Expressions in Time 1973-1998 (MemorialAuditorium, Stanford University, September 26, 1998).

20. Interviews with Tamio Wakayama, Vancouver, Canada, January 17, 1998;Ken Shikaze, Vancouver, Canada, January 18, 1998; and Mayumi Takasaki,January 19, 1998. For sansei activities during this period, see also, Rick Shiomi,“Community Organizing: The Problems of Innovating and SustainingInterest,” in Asian Canadians Regional Perspectives: Selections from theProceedings Asian Canadian Symposium V, Mount Saint Vincent University,Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 23 to 26, 1981, edited by K. Victor Ujimoto andGordon Hirabayashi (Guelph: University of Guelph, 1982), 339-54.

21. Interview with Tamio Wakayama. Also see Tamio Wakayama, Kikyo: ComingHome to Powell Street (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1992), 11-12.

22. Interview with Mayumi Takasaki, January 19, 1998.23. Interview with Linda Uyehara Hoffman.24. The collection of photographs from the exhibition was later published in a

book. Japanese Canadian Centennial Project (JCCP), A Dream of Riches:The Japanese Canadians, 1877-1977 (Vancouver: JCCP, 1978).

25. Tonari Gumi, or the Japanese Community Volunteers Association, was startedin 1975 by Jun Hamada, a nisei from Toronto. It was started as an organizationto provide much needed social services to the issei, or the first generation,living around the Powell Street area. After it was opened, it became a placefor seniors to drop by for social and cultural activities, and also as a gatheringplace for some sansei as well. Many sansei learned about the community’shistory through socializing with the elders at Tonari Gumi. Michiko Sakata,“Tonari Gumi,” Rikka 4:2 (Summer 1977): 4-11. Interviews with Ken Shikaze,and Takeo Yamashiro, Vancouver, Canada, July 8, 1998; and interview withMichiko Sakata, Vancouver, Canada, October 6, 1998.

26. Interview with Ken Shikaze.27. In the interview with the author, Tamio Wakayama recollected that he felt

very uncomfortable growing up in post-war Canada, where many of thevillains and enemies in the movies looked Japanese. Interview with TamioWakayama.

28. Paul Gilroy argues that black music in Britain has functioned as a link amongAfricans dispersed throughout the world, and also among working-classyouths. Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The CulturalPolitics of Race and Nation (London: Routledge, 1987).

29. Stuart Hall emphasizes the inevitable transformation of the cultural identityof subjects of diaspora, and the impossibility of returning to the “imagined”homeland. Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.”

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30. For example, Katari Taiko has provided a number of board members of thePowell Street Festival Society and coordinators of the Festival. Interview withKathy Shimizu, Vancouver, Canada, May 14, 1998. Hinode Taiko in Winnipegprovides volunteers for the Japanese Pavillion at Forklorama. Interview withPamela Okano, Winnipeg, Canada, August 24, 1996.

31. Obon is a summer festival held in mid-August, when the spirits of theancestors are believed to return to the family. A statement made by one ofthe members in Northwest Taiko (Seattle) in a discussion on the topic, “Taikoas Folklore,” in the Northwest Regional Taiko Gathering, Bellevue,Washington, October 3 and 4, 1998.

32. Alia Nakashima in “Taiko as Folklore.”33. Lynda Nakashima in “Taiko as Folklore.”34. Some taiko groups in Japan are now exploring non-traditional music. Kodo,

while firmly based on the Japanese taiko tradition, is creating somecontemporary music as well.

35. Uzume Taiko in Vancouver is one of the most experimental taiko groups interms of the fusion with the musical forms of other heritage. CD, UzumeTaiko Ensemble: Every Part of the Animal (OO ZOO MAY Records, 1998).Third-generation Japanese Americans have also been trying to “synthesizeelements of traditional Japanese music with Western contemporary musicgenres as an expression of their ethnic identity.” Susan Miyo Asai,“Transformations of Tradition: Three Generations of Japanese AmericanMusic Making,” The Musical Quarterly 79:3 (Fall 1995): 429-53. Anotherexample is cited in Joseph Lam’s article. Kenny Endo brings Hawaiian andTahitian music into his taiko piece, “Yume no Pahu.” Joseph S. C. Lam,“Embracing ‘Asian American Music’ as an Heuristic Device,” Journal of AsianAmerican Studies 2:1 (February 1999): 51-52.

36. “Been Down So Long,” composed by Linda Uyehara Hoffman. Katari Taiko:Commotion [Mountain Moving Day Music (SOCAN), 1994].

37. Linda Uyehara Hoffman, interview with Katari Taiko, Vancouver, Canada,July 8, 1998.

38. Inteview with John Endo Greenaway, Vancouver, Canada, August 2, 1998.39. “Taiko as Folklore.”40. Tamio Wakayama, Kikyo, 101.41. This is one of the very commonly-heard comments on North American taiko.

See San Jose Taiko Web Page, www.taiko.org; and Katari Taiko CD, KatariTaiko: Commotion.

42. Interview with Linda Uyehara Hoffman.43. Chris Toda, interview with Katari Taiko.44. Leslie Komori, interview with LOUD, Vancouver, August 1, 1998.45. CD, Katari Taiko: Commotion, “Mountain Moving Day,” composed and

produced by John Endo Greenaway.46. I use the word “Orientalism” in the sense that was used by Edward Said: “a

Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the


Orient.” Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1978), 3. Inorder to create a counter-discourse and to reclaim the power ofrepresentation, the Orient must “write back” or “talk back.”

47. Interview with Kathy Shimizu. Interview with LOUD. It is important to notethat not all taiko groups in Canada or in the United States have strong politicalpreferences. It is rather the opposite. The scope of analysis of this research islimited to the groups that I cover in this case study. This, however, does notundermine the value of my study, because it is not my intention to generalizeJapanese Canadian ethnic culture, but rather emphasize the specificity of acertain cultural site and the necessity to avoid the essentialization of ethniccultural expressions. It is more important that the cited cases exist, ratherthan establish that it is the general trend among Japanese Canadian culturalgroups. There are a number of cases in which a person’s involvement inpolitical activities created or reinforced the ethnic identity of the individual.The Japanese American redress movement was one example. Yasuko I.Takezawa, Breaking the Silence: Redress and Japanese American Ethnicity(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995).

48. Interview with Kathy Shimizu. One example that was brought up during theinterview was the fact that Katari Taiko played at the rally for the Lubicons,who were fighting against Daishowa, a large Japanese pulp and papercompany.

49. Interview with Katari Taiko.50. Interview with Kathy Shimizu. Also see, John Endo Greenaway, “Kathy

Shimizu: From Portage and Main to Powell and Main,” in Greater VancouverJapanese Canadian Citizens Association (Vancouver JCCA), The Bulletin,July 1995: 15-19.

51. Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black. George Lipsitz, Time Passages: Collective Memoryand American Popular Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1990); George Lipsitz, Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernismand the Poetics of Place (London: Verso, 1994); and David W. Stowe, SwingChanges: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America (Cambridge: Harvard UniversityPress, 1994).

52. James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990). Scott argues that depending onthe degree and form of oppression, resistance of the subaltern groups has totake different forms. In the open interaction between the subordinate andthose who dominate, deference, submissiveness, consent, and silence arecommonly seen, the attitudes which he calls “public transcript.” Heemphasizes the importance of the off-stage counter-discourse, exemplifiedby gossips, folktales, carnivals and festivals, etc., which can be the site ofsubversive cultural expression, the “hidden transcript.”

53. Tamai Kobayashi wrote that Wasabi Daiko based in Toronto had an overtlypolitical focus as well. She gave some examples of the group’s performancesand benefits: “Redress Commemoration, Earth Spirit Festival, Lesbian and

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Gay Pride Day in 1991 and 1992, East Asian Youth and Alienation Conference,Canadian Peace Alliance Benefit 1993, etc.” Tamai Kobayashi, “Heartbeat inthe Diaspora: Taiko and Community,” Fuse Music Issue (1994): 24-26.Unfortunately, Wasabi Daiko does not exist at the moment.

54. The story is about a drum maker from the undercaste class and the drummaster from a noble family. This performance was produced by Uzume Taiko,and the inspiration for this production came, when a taiko group, Ikari,from a buraku area in Japan came to perform in Vancouver in 1995. Interviewwith Uzume Taiko, at the Northwest Regional Taiko Gathering. About theIkari Taiko group, see the Vancouver JCCA, The Bulletin, October 1997, 36-39.

55. The representative of Ikari taiko group, Akihiko Asai, mentioned that hehad learned that there was still discrimination against the buraku people inthe Japanese Canadian community. Vancouver JCCA, The Bulletin, October1997, 39.

56. “The Third Space: Interview with Homi Bhabha,” in Identity: Community,Culture, Difference, edited by Jonathan Rutherford (London: Lawrence &Wishart, 1990), 208.

57. Lisa Lowe, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics (Durham:Duke University Press, 1996), 30.

58. Tamio Wakayama, “Kokoro Dance,” Vancouver JCCA, The Bulletin, February1987, 17-18. Katari Taiko brochure.

59. Vancouver JCCA, The Bulletin, April 1988.60. Jay Hirabayashi, “Rage,” Vancouver JCCA, The Bulletin, May 1987, 21.61. Interview with Linda Uyehara Hoffman.62. Interview with Jay Hirabayashi, Vancouver, Canada, July 8, 1998.63. Kokoro Dance, The Believer Study Guide.64. I am borrowing the term “alternative cultural production” from Lisa Lowe’s

argument. “Alternative cultural productions do not offer sites of resolutionto the dominant, but rather often represent the ways in which the law,capitalist exploitation, racialization, and gendering actually attempt toprohibit alternatives; some cultural forms can succeed in producingalternatives in the encounter with those prohibitions.” Lisa Lowe, “OnContemporary Asian American Projects,” Amerasia Journal 21:1/2 (1995):49.

65. Lam, “Embracing ‘Asian American Music,’” 44.66. George Lipsitz points out that the misunderstandings by artists and audiences

in popular culture can sometimes enhance the artistic products or reveal thedeeper truth in the culture and structure of society. Lipsitz, DangerousCrossroads, 157-70. In this article’s context, I am using the term to expressthe different perceptions and interpretations of taiko performances bydifferent participants in the cultural site of taiko performances – the players,the audience in the Japanese Canadian community, the audience inmainstream society, and the Canadian state.

Reconsidering Ethnic Culture and Community: A Case Study on Japanese Canadian Taiko Drumming

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