Thunderous drumbeats, synchronized movements and sharp vocalizations fill performances by UCLA’s Kyodo Taiko, the first collegiate taiko drumming ensemble in the United States.
The student-run organization, founded in 1990, brings around 30 members together each year to learn taiko – a 12,000-year-old traditional Japanese art form – and engage with Japanese American history and culture. Taiko combines elements of music and athletics, said Eiji Harrison, who is entering his third year as a club member.
“I feel more free when I’m playing taiko,” said Harrison, a rising fourth-year anthropology and human biology and society student.
Members choreograph body movements alongside the rhythms they perform, allowing room for creativity, Harrison said. He added that the performances incorporate kiai – short, loud and focused vocalizations to express energy during a taiko performance.
Michelle Trinh, a rising third-year psychology student, said she joined Kyodo without any prior experience.
Regular practices and the time members spend together help create a close-knit community, said Trinh, who is entering her third year in the club. Members come from many different backgrounds and majors but work together to play as one, she added.
“Sometimes some students think that people at UCLA are all against each other – it’s so competitive – but I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way in Kyodo,” Trinh said.
“Kyodo” has two meanings in Japanese – “family” and “loud children,” according to the club’s website.
Arjun Brahmandam, a rising second-year applied mathematics student, said the club hosts workshops for students in the fall where members teach attendees about taiko fundamentals.
Members learn songs orally rather than through written sheet music, and the club passes songs down from one member class to the next, Trinh said.
Harrison added that the club has an education committee, which works to preserve Japanese American culture by giving history presentations to new members.
The club visits the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California’s Owens Valley, east of the Sierra Nevada, each spring, Trinh said. The center was one of the 10 camps where the United States government incarcerated Japanese immigrants ineligible for citizenship and Japanese Americans during World War II, according to the National Park Service website.
Before going to the site, the club holds group discussions where members learn more about the camp and unpack their own family histories, Trinh said.
“It’s such an eye-opening experience to even be on the camp site because you’re able to see the environment that the JA (Japanese American) community had to endure during that time,” she said.
The organization performs throughout the year at campus and community events, including the Nikkei Student Union’s annual Cultural Night at Royce Hall. The culture night draws more than 1,000 students, staff, alumni and community members and showcases Japanese American culture and experiences through music, dance and theater.
[Related: NSU Cultural Night to spotlight Japanese American identity through ‘Seishin’]
Kyodo Taiko also hosts an annual spring concert on the Hill where the club plays around 10 songs, Trinh said, adding that seeing audience reactions after months of preparation makes the performance especially rewarding for members.
“That day is always very special because we put in so much time and effort into a performance, and then we lay it out within these couple of hours,” she said.
Trinh said the organization performs throughout Southern California, adding that Kyodo Taiko’s performance at the 626 Night Market in Arcadia in June was one of her favorite memories with the club.
Kyodo Taiko’s members support each other during performances and beyond the sport, Harrison said.
“It is an empowering form of art,” he said. “That’s the spirit of Japanese American Taiko.”
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