Story and rehearsal photos by Gabrielle Nomura |

Studio portraits by Chad Coleman, other images courtesy of Eastside Nihon Matsuri Association

Pounding their drums with wooden bachi sticks, some of the drummers in Kaze Daiko may only be in elementary school, but the sound they’re making is powerful; it shakes the dusty walls of Seattle’s Japanese Community and Cultural Center.

Each of the nine members and three apprentices in Kaze Daiko, a performing youth troupe, takes a yoga-like lunge. From this position, they play the Japanese drum, or taiko. Apprentices include 8-year-old Grady Spors, who looks as if he weighs less than the chu-daiko (medium-sized drum) in front of him. The three college-age Matsudaira sisters, the most veteran members, giggle and chat between practicing songs.

Next month, the drummers will wear red happi coats and black tabi shoes when they perform at the Aki Matsuri festival on Sept. 10. Today, they rehearse in basketball shorts, sweatpants and T-shirts.

Their head instructor, Stan Shikuma, observes from behind his spectacles, arms crossed in front of his slender frame. He approaches one of the young drummers to demonstrate a sequence she’s struggling with.

It typically takes a year of weekly practice before new drummers have mastered the entire seven-song repertory.

But even before they become polished performers, just watching a rehearsal is exhilarating.

Graceful as dancers, powerful as martial arts masters, the young drummers strike their instruments to achieve a sound that, at times, is as thunderous and elemental as rolling thunder.

“If you’re close enough, you can literally feel the vibrations,” Shikuma says.

Taiko is a synthesis of rhythm, movement and spirit – the spirit stems in part from use in Buddhist temples, Shikuma says. Drums have been used in Japan for centuries, but it’s only within the 20th century that taiko has emerged as a performing art.

While benefits of being in a taiko troupe include performing at Mariners games, it also connects youth with Japanese culture – a motivating factor for those of Japanese ancestry.

Especially for the group members who commute from the Eastside.

With a lack of Japanese temples and community centers in Bellevue or around the plateau area, some of these young people regularly cross the water to practice taiko in Seattle – and to stay connected to their heritage.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Eighteen-year-old Jaymi Matsudaira of Sammamish is one of them. With her grandparents’ generation, the nisei, dying out, and an increasing number of Japanese Americans marrying people of non-Japanese ancestry, she fears the traditions are slowly fading.

That’s one of the reasons it was important for Matsudaira to study Japanese language in high school and commute to Seattle with her two sisters for taiko.

“I’m proud of being Japanese,” says Matsudaira, a fourth-generation American. “It gives you an identity and values: Be modest. Be humble. Persevere.”

COMMUTE
In addition to having more taiko offerings, Seattle is also where most Japanese events, such as the Bon Odori festival, take place.

This may be due to a more established community, says Shikuma, who points to historically Japanese neighborhoods such as Seattle’s Beacon Hill, Rainer Valley and the Chinatown International District, once a Japantown before World War II.

With the exception of the Eastside Nihon Matsuri Association, the businesses and organizations on the Eastside often cater to Japanese nationals as opposed to Japanese Americans, he says.

Take, for example, the Seattle Japanese School on 124th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue. In the U.S. for a limited time, businessmen send their children to the school on Saturdays so that they will be able to re-integrate into Japanese schools.

EASTSIDE PRESENCE
That’s not to say there are no Eastside Japanese Americans.

Somerset resident and lawyer, Yukio Morikubo, along with a dozen or so families in the South Bellevue area, attend Seattle Betsuin Buddhist temple – a hub for the Japanese-American community.

But while he regularly visits Seattle, Morikubo says he’s been pleased with the increase of Japanese cultural offerings on the Eastside, including Uwajimaya and the Aki Matsuri festival at Bellevue College, Sept. 10-11, which includes food, crafts, martial arts demonstrations and performances.

MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY
Tom Brooke, President of the Eastside Nihon Matsuri Association (ENMA), organizes Aki Matsuri.

While Brooke says he may be a “hakujin” (white person), he gained a passion for Japan in his eight years of living in Kobe – where he met his wife.

Aside from people of non-Japanese ancestry, some “hapas,” mixed-race Asian or Japanese Americans, possess a cultural pride their parents or grandparents never had, due to the pressures to Americanize in the wake of World War II.

“There’s a solid core group of people who are very connected to their Japanese-ness,” Morikubo says, adding that some of those people are of mixed-race.

HOPE
Today, the Japanese-American community in Greater Seattle includes people of different backgrounds, as well as people from the city and suburbs.

In the 11 years of Kaze Daiko, a quarter or more of the young drummers have come from Bellevue, Mercer Island, Issaquah and Sammamish.

New generations of taiko performers will help fuel the art form, one that’s already celebrated and listened to throughout the world.

“It’s kind of like jazz, which started off African-American,” Shikuma says. “Today, people all over the world listen to and play both jazz and taiko.”

A worldwide appreciation for taiko is one way Japanese culture will live on.

The culture isn’t dying, it’s changing – and gaining new demographics of supporters, Shikuma says.

Taiko will never shed it’s Japanese roots. But it will continue to grow with help from Germans, South Africans and Americans of all ancestry.

Top photo collage: Jaymi Matsudaira, a member of Kaze Daiko playing taiko, photos by Chad Coleman. Three middle images: Kaze Daiko in rehearsal in July. Photos by Gabrielle Nomura. Sixth, seventh from top and bottom: Images from Aki Matsuri, courtesy of ENMA.