Tag: taiko

Natsumatsuri: Bon Odori

Emily Leventhal Leave a comment

While the Museum prepares for Natsumatsuri on Saturday, August 10th, we thought we’d get everyone pumped by putting a spotlight on some of the upcoming activities! Look forward to more of these posts explaining Natsumatsuri traditions.

Ondo dancing at the 2007 Orange County Buddhist Church Obon.
(Photo: Vicky Murakami-Tsuda)

 

This August, come get your groove on at JANM! The Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple will be teaching bon odori, or traditional Japanese folk dances often performed at obon festivals in the summer.

During a bon odori, dancers line up and perform to traditional folk songs along with the beat of a taiko. The dancers, nowadays often multi-generational and multiethnic, circle the drummer, who is perched on a raised wooden scaffold. The songs vary from festival to festival, with different regional favorites (such as Tokyo ondo or tanko bushi, the coal miner’s dance). Some odori use props like kachi kachi (small wooden clappers) or different types of fans.

Although the style dates back all the way to the late Heian (794-1185) period, the first bon odori in Los Angeles was in 1933 or ‘34 at the nearby Hompa Hongwanji temple. Today, you can find bon odori at obons all across California, from Los Angeles to San Jose.

See for yourself what a bon odori looks like in this video of a Nishi Hongwanji obon!

 

(Video: Ralph Moratz)

2013 Natsumatsuri Family Festival
FREE ALL DAY!
Saturday, August 10, 2013
11AM – 5PM

1PM: Obon History & Traditions
What is Obon all about? Rev. Bill Briones of Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple will discuss the history and traditions of Obon in Japan and the United States

2:30PM: Obon Dance Demonstration
Get ready to dance! Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple will show you how to dance traditional Obon dances

For full schedule of activities: janm.org/natsumatsuri2013

Fun for the whole family at Natsumatsuri!

Emily Leventhal Leave a comment

JANM-2013-NatsumatsuriWe are cutting the origami paper, ordering the bounce house, and lining up the entertainment…and you know what that means! JANM is gearing up for our annual Natsumatsuri family festival! On Saturday, August 10th, from 11 AM to 5PM, join us to celebrate summer with crafts, cultural performances, and activities—all for free.

This year, we’re going retro with lots of traditional summer festival activities. Get your blood pumping with a taiko lesson from JANM docent Hal Kiemi before learning what obon is all about. As always, there will be tons of fun activities and crafts all day, from screenprinting tote bags to making wacky paper hats.

It’s not all old school—we’re making new traditions this year too! Japanese mariachi singer Roger del Norte will perform with MEXICAPAN and singer Lupita Infante for the first ever mariachi concert at JANM.

Also, if you haven’t already, walk through our exhibits Visible & Invisible (closing on August 25th) and Portraiture Now!

Check out the schedule for the full list of awesome activities.

See you soon!

Target Free Family Saturday is right around the corner!

Lynn Yamasaki Leave a comment

This is Evan.

Look!  Evan has a new wooden harmonica and cardboard guitar!

Evan makes noise.  Um, I mean, Evan makes music.

Don’t you want to be noisy… um, I mean, musical just like Evan?

Good news!  You can!  Come on down to the Museum this Saturday for our March Target Free Family Saturday. (March 9th).  We’re ready to celebrate music with fun performances and lots of opportunities to make some noise!  On the crafty side of things we’ll be making harmonicas and stringed instruments just like Evan’s.

There will be a drum circle for you to join and performances by the Turath Ensemble, who will perform traditional Middle Eastern music and drumming.  A family day favorite, TAIKOPROJECT will perform as well.  We’re all set for a JANM jam so come join us.

On top of all this musical excitement, we are also so excited to welcome our friend Sonya from the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn, Michigan.  One of our current exhibitions, Patriots and Peacemakers: Arab Americans in Service to our Country comes to us from AANM.  Sonya will be leading tours of the exhibition throughout the day with a special talk at 1:30.

Hope to see you!

Special thanks to Evan for such a dynamic demonstration of what fun we will have on Saturday.  He deserves an award for being a good sport.

Discover Nikkei -Taiko Groups

Discover Nikkei Taiko Database returns!

Vicky Murakami-Tsuda Leave a comment

In 2005, we opened the Big Drum: Taiko in the United States exhibition. It was the first exhibition since my joining the Web unit at JANM where we really developed a lot of cool resources online in conjunction with an exhibit. I had the opportunity to work with curator Sojin Kim, our web technologist Geoff Jost, and volunteer writers to develop & upload a lot of great historic and contemporary photos, activities, and articles on the exhibition site.

I also worked with Discover Nikkei coordinator Yoko Nishimura and staff at our Watase Media Arts Center to add many wonderful video interview clips on our Discover Nikkei website.

The other major component we developed was a database of taiko groups in the U.S., but also included some other groups outside of Japan. We set up the database using some basic info collected for the exhibition. Then, we contacted all of the groups and invited them to log in and update/add to their group info, and upload some photos & audio clips.

Although most never logged in, there were quite a few groups that did participate. The most notable was San Jose Taiko who added extensive information about their group’s history. Others included Portland Taiko, Fubuki Taiko, Somei Yoshino Taiko, and University of Tasmania Taiko Society.

It was always so interesting to look at what groups had added information because it showed the growth and popularity of taiko. There were groups all over the U.S. (even in places where there aren’t many Japanese Americans), and many in Canada, and even in Europe (there are 4 groups listed in Belgium)!

After the initial activity during the exhibition run, not many of the groups updated their info. When the redesigned Discover Nikkei site went live in July 2009, we launched it without the Taiko Database, always intending to add it back in once we had some time to work on it.

It’s been 2 years, but I’m really excited that we recently launched our new & improved Taiko Groups section! It has the old database info, photos, and audio clips, but presented in a new layout with easier accessibility, and incorporates events posted by the groups onto their taiko group pages.

San Jose Taiko has already started updating their info and we hope that other groups will join them soon.

Check out the new & improved Taiko Groups >>

P.S. If you are with or know of any taiko groups, please encourage them to update their pages! It’s a great & free way to share your group’s contact info, general info, history, photos, audio clips, videos, and upcoming events!

If you need help with your group’s login info, or if your group is not already listed and you’d like to be added, contact editor@discovernikkei.org.

Discover Nikkei -Taiko Groups