Wynn Kiyama
Wynn Kiyama has worked as a freelance musician, musicologist and ethnomusicologist, and nonprofit arts executive on the American East and West coasts. He founded the Japanese street music group HAPPYFUNSMILE and was a performing member of Soh Daiko in New York and Portland Taiko in Oregon. His research on Bon odori has been presented in articles, a CD booklet, and museum exhibits. He currently lives with his family in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
Updated May 2024
Stories from This Author
Ministers, Dry Cleaners, Farmers, and Gardeners: The Original Taiko Drummers in the Continental United States—Part 2
May 9, 2024 • Wynn Kiyama
Read Part 1 >> Sacramento’s “Fukushima Ondo” Musicians In postwar Sacramento, an energetic group of singers, drummers, and flutists from the Fukushima Kenjinkai, theater company Yamato Gekidan, and the Buddhist Church of Sacramento performed live versions of “Fukushima Ondo” for the temple’s Obon festival. Harry Nobuyoshi Sato, print shop owner and gardener, played the shinobue (side-blown flute) while hotel worker and gardener Kisoji Frank Kobayashi and Katsumi Fred Matsunaga played the shime daiko. Kenkichi George Kurosawa, a farmer and gardener, …
Ministers, Dry Cleaners, Farmers, and Gardeners: The Original Taiko Drummers in the Continental United States—Part 1
May 8, 2024 • Wynn Kiyama
From somewhere in the crowd of dancers, the sound of a large taiko (drum) echoes through the summer evening. The drummer plays along to the recorded music broadcast over the PA system, striking deliberately with sweeping arms—a deep hit (“don”) to punctuate the downbeat, then sharp raps on the rim of the drum (“kara ka ka”) to accent the end of a phrase. It is a commanding presence, but in truth, the drummer plays in service to the Obon dancers …
