Kona Daifukuji Taiko’s talented students will be accompanied by a pair of former members for a special concert benefiting the youth group Jan. 2 in Honalo. ADVERTISING Kona Daifukuji Taiko’s talented students will be accompanied by a pair of former
Kona Daifukuji Taiko’s talented students will be accompanied by a pair of former members for a special concert benefiting the youth group Jan. 2 in Honalo.
The Down Home Concert gets underway at 1 p.m. at Daifukuji Soto Mission’s social hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for children younger than 18.
“Whatever we raise goes back to the kids, maintaining the equipment, uniforms, workshops and trips,” said Akemi Iwamoto, Kona Daifukuji Taiko sensei. “It’s our goal, in the near future, to get everyone to Japan. Whenever we travel we want to make sure everyone can go so we try to fundraise as much as possible.”
The group, which comprises beginner- and performer-level students ranging from 9 years old to high school seniors, last traveled in summer 2014 to Los Angeles for the World Taiko Conference, she said. There, they not only took part in workshops and other events, but also performed on the big stage.
“They did an amazing job,” Iwamoto said of her students. Because of a busy schedule and funding, the group was unable to travel off-island this year.
Joining the students will be former Kona Daifukuji Taiko members Kristy Oshiro and Dawn Nakamura. Oshiro is a professional taiko artist based in the Sacramento and San Francisco areas of California who started playing at age 9 in Kona. She has performed and given taiko workshops across the U.S. and around the world. She tries to come home every year to share her manao with the youth.
“I want to help them improve their skills, kind of give back to the group that helped me start my life and gave me all the life skills and tools to be the person I am today,” she said.
Her love for taiko developed watching the group perform in the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival.
“I loved how the sound kind of vibrated through your body and you could really feel it. I thought it was the coolest thing,” she said.
Admitting it’s not common for someone to take taiko and make it his or her life career, she said what she learned from her sensei and time at Kona Daifukuji can help anyone succeed in life. She admitted it was hard and her sensei could be strict particularly when they performed at big venues on the South Kohala Coast.
“My experience is very rare, but it doesn’t matter if the kids stay with taiko through college or not what matters is the experience that they are getting right now and what taiko is giving to them right now and the life skills they are gaining,” she said. “No matter what, they can look back on it and see that they benefited from it if the community can support them and give them the funds to go to Japan to learn.”
Kona Daifukuji Taiko is a youth group formed in the late 1980s by the Rev. Ryuji Tamiya of the Daifukuji Soto Mission of Kona. The original members of the group were members of the Daifukuji Soto Mission youth group and Sunday school. Today, the group comprises 17 students; seven who perform and 10 at the beginner level.
“Taiko has become a performing art that draws on so many of your senses — not only is it a big visual art form with lots of movement and large drums but it’s also musical,” said Oshiro.“There’s something about rhythm and drumming that affects people at their very core because the sound moves through you and you can feel the vibrations within you. It’s really a powerful art form.”
Info/donate: 322-3524, www.daifukuji.org.
