Reflections on Kenny Endo’s week intensive, talking folk music with Okinawan musicians, re-visiting friends in Maui, and an incredibly Hawaiian taiko show!
No time for anything but taiko…
All in all, Honolulu is a pretty crazy place, and I’m not sure how I would feel about it if I were there as a tourist with no real purpose of visiting. Usually, I would head straight out of the city with the worst traffic in America, but as it was, I didn’t get out of the city once. Having taiko commitments in town every afternoon, and not having a car made exploring the island difficult, but once you’ve met taiko people, it seems, there isn’t much time for anything else anyway.
The Taiko Intensive Week flew past, and ended with an after party in the studio…great food and of course, talking that eventually got wrapped up at 11pm. It all seemed to go by so fast and I spent some time before and after the workshops with Joan and Peter from New York where we talked about school workshops for different ages, and the great results that kids get from themselves through taiko. A surreal moment involved being on a Honolulu bus on the way to Kenny Endo’s class, talking to someone from the East Coast about Shimabyashi (written by Jonathan Kirby) and it’s success in New York City Schools. There have been a few moments like that in this trip…the ones that wake me up and make me realise that I’m so far from home but that I’m in good company.
Senshin & English folk – -the Japanese / Celt connection
I’ve been back to spend time with Mrs K (Faye Kumagata) and Ikuko, where shopping for food for Obon dancers and workers. Ikuko, Faye and I talked taiko as we walked and drove around that day, interjected with conversations about noodles and seaweed…and also ended up at a tofu factory – it seems to be a natural mix to blend taiko and food together almost everywhere I’ve been so far. The Soto Mission Obon on Saturday night was beautiful, and this time I got not only to watch the very same Okinawan group, but to meet them too…
I spent a long time talking with the senshin player who could have read me the phone book and I would have listened intently; a story teller if ever I met one. We talked about the parallel with English folk music, as he was a big fan of Celtic music, and he made me quite sure that the heart of taiko here was the community who taught it, played it, listened to it, danced to it and loved it. It was another great evening and one that ended all too soon, but it ended with food as I rushed off to get the last bus with my new New York friends who had never experienced that before either…only three weeks ago the same had been true for me, and I felt so glad that I have had the chance to be here.
Summer Breeze and slack key guitar…the sound of Hawaii
The week ended with a concert at the University of Hawaii called Summer Breeze which could not have been more aptly named. The three teachers of the KETE Summer Intensives – Kenny Endo, Riley Lee and Jeff Peterson – came together on stage for the first time, and undoubtedly not the last. Shackuhachi, slack-key guitar and taiko blended together in songs of real substance and beauty…I really can’t remember the last time I was transported to places like that from listening to music, and to have spent time with two of the three for that week made it the perfect way to say goodbye to Oahu. And also the perfect way to make sure that I’ll be back just as soon as I can make it happen.
Saying goodbye….
I flew back to Maui very quickly to see Tony from Zenshin Daiko where Yuta is visiting and spent the day talking (and eating) before I fly back to California tomorrow. I’ll be sad to leave Hawaii, but as always, there are things to look forward to, and it was never going to last forever…
Leave a Reply