Interview Part 3: Kaoru Watanabe talks Kodo, Odaiko, Chichibu Yataibayashi, and Miyake Jima Kamitsuki Kiyari Daiko

This is the third interview in my series with Kaoru. I highly recommend checking out the other two if you haven’t yet. It’s always a great pleasure to sit down with Kaoru and ask about his thoughts, experiences, and many interesting anecdotes. Beyond simply enjoying the conversation, I think we are providing important insights for anyone wanting to expand their knowledge and perspective.

This interview happened exactly one week after I had attended the Kodo concert titled Warabe. The timing was coincidental but I took the opportunity to ask Kaoru about his time with Kodo, especially relating to the philosophy and culture around learning and performing traditional arts such as the ohayashi (music) from Chichibu and the Kamitsuki district of Miyake Jima. This conversation includes a lot of history and information that are invaluable in understanding Kodo as well as these traditional art forms. As we referenced near the end, we had also planned to talk about fue but ran out of time because of the depth and breadth of this discussion. We will get together for that topic in the near future. I hope you share my feeling of gratitude to Kaoru for taking the time to thoughtfully engage in these fascinating conversations. The supplemental material he provided (below) is a great resource for delving deeper into the topics covered in this interview. Feel free to send me comments, questions, or requests anytime.

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Supplemental material from Kaoru:

Miyamoto Tsuneichi is a scholar who greatly influenced Den Tagayasu and recommended he set up the artisan village in Sado.
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Forgotten_Japanese.html?id=q2EbG_NM1xwC&source=kp_author_description

The following are all dances I have learned from local practitioners. The first one is the one we're not allowed to perform, while the others we are. With Shishiodori, I not only did tours performing it, but I made the costume by hand! The Kakinoura Ondeko is the first of these dances I learned. The town between Kakinoura and Iwakubi that I couldn't recall is Odawara. A note that perhaps many people don't realize is that at Kodo we learn as much dancing as drumming. This is only a partial list of the dances (and fue/taiko/uta that goes with it) that I learned during my short time there.

Kurokawa Sansa, Morioka Prefecture
https://youtu.be/kw4JXAXMVCE?si=xmHflYyj34ptSvkm

Onikenbai, Iwate Prefecture
https://youtu.be/2FGN80g5ZU8?si=GJWD0We2m51Co-Ow

Shishiodori, Iwate Prefecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXZTOoUiFUc

Kakinoura Ondeko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyI0yX1jtao

Iwakubi Ondeko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKpp2kKKTmE

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Website
http://www.watanabekaoru.com

Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBL_1I2mRPcVK2gvyRAeNA

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/kaorufue/

Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center
http://www.taikonyc.com

Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe's work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements. His signature skill of infusing Japanese culture with disparate styles on the shinobue flutes and taiko and other Japanese percussion has made him a much-in-demand collaborator working with such iconic artists as André 3000, Wes Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, Yo-Yo Ma, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo and Rhiannon Giddens. In 2024, Watanabe launched Bloodlines Interwoven, a festival celebrating music and diaspora, presented by Baryshnikov Arts and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Featuring a broad range of groundbreaking musicians, from Mino Cinelu, Nasheet Waits, Adam O'Farrill, Alicia Hall Moran, Layale Chaker, Martha Redbone, Du Yun, and many more, the festival was a paradigm-shifting musical exploration of cultural roots, identity, history.

Born to Japanese parents who were long-time St Louis Symphony Orchestra members, Watanabe began training at a young age, eventually graduating from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied Black American jazz music. He then moved to Japan and became the first American to perform with and lead the internationally acclaimed taiko performing arts group Kodo. Acting as Artistic Director of Kodo's Earth Celebration festival, inviting such artists as Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo, and other masters of music from across the globe, he first saw how profound cross-cultural collaboration could be: people who don’t share a common language can find ways to unite in musical conversation when done with a sense of mutual respect, open-mindedness, an open heart, and a desire to connect. In 2008, after ten transformative years in Japan, which left him deeply connected to his heritage and the land from which his parents came, he left Kodo. He returned to New York to weave together all the musical threads of his experiences.

Watanabe’s compositions draw lines between distant points—Japan and America, ancient history and modern politics, and Eastern and Western music. Looking for the sympathetic vibrations that emerge, he weaves together Buddhist chants reimagined as antipolice brutality protests, WWII-era ZERO kamikaze fighter planes, the Sengoku Civil War era, and the culture wars of today’s America. In his work, Watanabe introduces sounds from a distant past to the 21st century, expressing the many layers of his identity and culture. Watanabe has performed his compositions with such artists as Kodo, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble, and The Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with whom he debuted two pieces for shinobue, voice, taiko and orchestra at the Sydney Symphony Hall.

He acted as an advisor and was a featured musician on Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, and he is featured on the Silkroad Ensemble’s Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home. He also created music for Martin Scorcese’s Silence and Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising, and perhaps his greatest accomplishment was providing the jazz flute stylings of the Pied Piper in Shrek 4ever After.

As an educator, Watanabe has taught courses at Princeton, Wesleyan, and Boston Conservatory and was an artist-in-residence at Loyola University. He has taught workshops across North and South America, Europe, and East and Southwest Asia.

Watanabe’s drums are provided by Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten, a mikoshi shrine and traditional instrument maker founded in 1861. His flutes are provided by Ranjo, a master craftsman based in Chiba Prefecture who makes instruments for many of the top musicians in Japan. One of the highest honors of Watanabe’s life is when Ranjo declared, “Watanabe possesses the greatest sound on the shinobue in the world.”

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Interview Part 2: Kaoru Watanabe talks music, food, taiko, and cultural appropriation

This interview is a follow-up conversation I had with Kaoru after we had previously talked about studying and etiquette in Japan. If you haven’t checked it out, I would recommend listening to it because provides some foundation for the topics covered in this second interview.

https://www.eienhunterishikawa.com/blog/interview-kaoru-watanabe-talks-japanese-etiquette-studying-teaching-and-performing

We had recorded this part 2 interview a couple of years ago and I recently edited the audio to make it available here. Listening to our conversation, I was struck once again by Kaoru’s perceptive insights about food, taiko, and how to think discerningly about cultural appropriation. He is a serious student of music and culture, and I always recognize his strong passion and integrity whenever we have a chance to hang out. Sometimes I think Kaoru and I are more than like-minded. There are times where he says something and it’s word-for-word the same way I think of it. Did he get that from me? Or did I forget I got that from him? Or just coincidence stemming from our personal tastes and past experiences? This conversation features a lot of those moments.

I’m not sure if the ideas in this interview might be perceived by some people as contentious. To me it was a genuine and honest conversation about how Kaoru and I think about these topics. I’m always grateful for his willingness to make time and discuss whatever I’m interested in asking him. I hope you find this interview as interesting as I did.

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Website
http://www.watanabekaoru.com

Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBL_1I2mRPcVK2gvyRAeNA

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/kaorufue/

Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center
http://www.taikonyc.com

Kaoru Watanabe, a New York-based composer and musician specializing in Japanese flutes and percussion, works with such groundbreaking artists as Laurie Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo-Yo Ma, Wes Anderson, Bando Tamasaburo, Simone Leigh, and Jason Moran. Watanabe is known for the artful and innovative ways he merges traditional Japanese music and theater elements with the contemporary Western world.

Originally from St. Louis, MO, where his parents played in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Watanabe played classical music as a child before going to the Manhattan School of Music to study jazz flute and saxophone. He then spent a decade in Japan, re-discovering and diving deep into his cultural roots as a member of the iconic taiko drumming ensemble Kodo. Watanabe studied a wide variety of traditional Japanese folk dances, songs, drumming, Noh, Kyogen, tea ceremony, woodworking, and rice farming to deepen his understanding of Japanese culture and the function and place of the performing arts within it.

As a solo artist, Watanabe seeks to collaborate with artists who embrace both tradition and innovation, such as Eva Yerbabuena, Imani Uzuri, Tamangoh, Adam Rudolph, Alicia Hall Moran, Rhiannon Giddens, Jen Shyu, Susie Ibara, Hassan Hakmoun, Zakir Hussein, Gamin, Vernon Reid, Wu Man, Tseyen Tserendorj, and many others.

As a composer, Watanabe writes for various, often unconventional instrumentations and explores a wide variety of compositional techniques. He has written orchestral works for the Sydney Symphony, premiering them at the Sydney Opera House. Watanabe composed music for the Academy Award-nominated Isle of Dogs soundtrack and three separate commissions for Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad ensemble. Watanabe's compositions often explore social justice, politics, history, and heritage. He has written a piece called Iki, meaning "breath," a mantra-like performance-art piece for Eric Garner. Watanabe has written for prepared koto about the Japanese fighter planes used in WWII, a symbol of both the beauty and genius of Japanese culture and the evil and destruction it perpetrated. During the pandemic, Watanabe developed a body of work that uses electronics to sample and playback his flutes, drums, and voice live, allowing him to create ensemble works solo that he titled INCENSE.

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Interview: Yumi Torimaru talks taiko, fue, shamisen, and music culture in Japan

I had a fun time talking with Yumi for this interview. I think we have a mutual understanding especially because of our strong connection to both Japanese and North American arts and culture. When I first moved to Portland, Yumi kindly bought me lunch and welcomed me to the area with warm enthusiasm. It’s always nice to have a friendly greeting because going to a new location can be somewhat challenging. Since then, we’ve become friends and colleagues who also share an appreciation for high-quality natto along with other food and drinks.

Yumi’s group Takohachi is always fun to watch. As I mention in the interview, my favorite part is their distinctly unique style where energetic original pieces are mixed with a minyo (Japanese folk arts) feel. In this way, I would love to see more taiko groups that simultaneously embrace their own voice and appreciate a deeper connection to the roots of the instruments and music which came from Japan. Yumi is also very active with other projects where she collaborates with various musicians and other artists.

We covered a lot in our conversation including her early musical experience, finding taiko by chance in the US, the pros and cons of getting a natori (stage name), quitting her day job to be a full time musician, her recent trip to Japan, her many great teachers, and much more. There is a lot of material on her websites and social media so please check out the links below. Yumi sent me four audio excerpts which are interspersed throughout the interview:

Sakura in Spanish Wind by Toshi Onizuka (guitar/percussions/arrangement), Yumi Torimaru (shamisen/shinobue), Otsuki (vocal)

Tawaratsumi Uta from Nanbu (Aomori)
This was made with my tsugaru shamisen teacher (Ryuhiro Oyama), his sister (Chigusa Takehana, vocal), and her two daughters (Marino/ Minori Kajiwara, taiko/Narimono) with my shinobue.

Portland Raincolors by Yumi Torimaru

Sora no Tori by Yumi Torimaru

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Kotori Japanese Music
www.KotoriJapaneseMusic.com

Takohachi
www.takohachi.org

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Yumi Torimaru founded her music ensemble, Takohachi, in 2006 in Portland, Oregon. Takohachi became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2007 to preserve traditional Japanese music and dance and create innovative taiko drum performances using Japan's strongly moving music and rhythm element. She has created hundreds of Takohachi shows to educate and entertain throughout Oregon at schools, libraries, festivals, and cultural events.

In recent years she established a smaller ensemble, Takohachi’s Q-Ensemble, to perform flexibly with high demand. She also has undertaken a solo project Kotori Japanese Music focusing more on cultural content. With all the newer projects, she freely expresses her originality in music using Taiko drums, Shinobue (bamboo flutes), and Tsugaru Shamisen (Japanese lute). The smaller ensembles and Solo projects allow her to do more collaborations with other musicians and artists in different genres. Duo units, Maido Mind (shinobue and piano/voice), and Takohachi X (multi-Japanese instrumental) are actively performing. She enjoys being an ambassador to introduce Japanese culture through music to American communities and exporting new work with a fusion of American Experience back to Japan. With Takohachi, she wants to build a special two-way relationship with Japan to bridge the two cultures.

In 2016, she became an apprentice of Ryuhiro Oyama, the distinguished Tsugaru Shamisen (Japanese lute) master of one of the biggest Tsugaru Shamisen Associations (Oyama-Kai) in Japan. He is well known for his deep knowledge of the Tsugaru style Minyo (folk songs). In 2020, Yumi started to take online professional shinobue training by a world-renowned musician, Yasukazu Kano.

Interview: Barbara Merjan talks percussion, taiko, and working on Broadway shows

I have always enjoyed hanging out and talking with Barbara and this interview was another one of those occasions. We first met when I was visiting Kaoru Watanabe in Brooklyn, realizing we both work in a variety of genres a percussionist, drummer, and taiko player. Barbara is a highly accomplished and experienced musician who speaks with thoughtfulness and humility. I was always happy to see her participate in Edo Bayashi classes taught by Suzuki sensei or myself because I knew that she was appreciating the musical intricacies found all throughout that music. We might find ourselves working in incredibly eclectic musical situations, but in fact, it all seems to be connected by the somewhat bizarre reality that we just hit things for a living. I found Barbara’s stories about the Broadway scene very interesting, especially about the issues of gender discrimination as well as the trend toward high-tech production where the musicians are placed in separate rooms rather than in the conventional orchestra pit.

Barbara sent me some video links of some projects she has worked on. The links are below and I would encourage everyone to check them out. She also sent me some audio tracks for me to include in the interview. They are:

I Wonder As I Wander - Julia Simpson’s Christmas album
Mad Coyote Madly Sings - The Character of American Sunlight (Jerome Kitzke)
The Swan and the Vulture - Teetering on the Verge of Normalcy (Guy Klucevsek)

Thank you to Barbara for generously making time to record this conversation. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did interviewing.

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Barbara Merjan is a drummer and percussionist who has worked in a variety of musical contexts, including Jazz (Newport Jazz Festival, 1980, 2002), Broadway (Cabaret, Sunset Blvd., Cats, Miss Saigon, Fiddler on the Roof, Big, Elf, The Unsinkable Molly Brown….) Pop/Rock (Robert Palmer, Lesley Gore, Women of Woodstock) and Contemporary American Classical (Mad Coyote Ensemble, Linda Fisher).

In addition to these musical styles, she has been studying, performing and teaching Japanese taiko for the past 15 years - Wesleyan University (2016-2020), Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center.

Ms. Merjan has also recorded in all these genres.

For many years, Ms. Merjan brought music workshops into the NYC public schools via Music Outreach. The workshops were an introduction to music for younger grades with an added focus on reading skills.  Along with musical introductions we always told a children’s story with musical accompaniment.

Bachelor of Music:  Ithaca College 1981
Master of Music:  NYU 1991

Video Links
An excerpt from a piece I performed in with Fumi.  It is Blood Moon.  We did it in Jan. 2020.
https://www.garrettfisher.com/blood-moon

A video from a perfomance a in 2016, of Paha Sapa, by Jerome Kitzke:
https://youtu.be/WRSPPj12vcY

Mad Coyote Madly Sings, also by Jerome Kitzke:
https://youtu.be/Us-d3xv-wyQ

4th movement of Yukiwatari by Midori Larsen.  We performed at the end of 2019:
https://youtu.be/ciD7mTyTLUs

Interview: Fumi Tanakadate talks piano, taiko, fue, and writing music

Photo by Michael Holmes

It was fun talking with Fumi for this interview. We first met several years ago during one of my Brooklyn trips to visit Kaoru Watanabe. Even though we haven’t had many opportunities to play together, I have always appreciated her clear musicality. Fumi is one of the most solid taiko and fue players I know and her work spans a wide range of musical genres and artistic disciplines. And of course she is highly accomplished on her main instrument, the piano. I’m sure that if we were based in the same town, our musical paths would be much more interconnected. Hopefully there will be increased chances to work together in the near future.

In the interview, Fumi talks about her musical beginnings in Tokyo and how she ended up as a member of the taiko class at Wesleyan University. We also discussed her experiences as a student of Kaoru which eventually resulted in performing in his groups and helping to teach at his taiko school. I also enjoyed hearing about composing for fue and piano because we all seem to have different approaches to writing for this somewhat unusual instrument combination. Finally, it was enlightening to discuss Fumi’s current nohkan and Edo Bayashi studies, especially because of who her teachers are. Thank you to Fumi for taking time to record this conversation.

Included in the interview are excerpts of music recordings that Fumi sent me. They are:
Sketch 01 - Fumi Tanakadate
Kimigayo - Hiromori Hayashi, Yoshiisa Oku (arr. Fumi Tanakadate)
Momotaro - Teiichi Okano (for Crossing Jamaica Avenue)
Senkou Hanabi - Fumi Tanakadate
Uplifting - Fumi Tanakadate

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Fumi Tanakadate is a versatile music artist, specializing in piano, Japanese percussion and bamboo flute, who has a unique combination of an expertise in European Classical music and a background in traditional folk dance and music from Japan.  Fumi studied and worked extensively with Kaoru Watanabe, performing at such venues as Joe’s Pub, National Sawdust, Pioneer Works, the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, the Rubin Museum of Art, Super Deluxe in Tokyo and at PASIC, Percussive Arts Society International Convention.  Fumi has also collaborated with Shane Shanahan of the Silkroad Ensemble, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Chieko Kojima and Yuta Sumiyoshi of KODO, Alicia Hall Moran, Sonoko Kawahara (theatre director), Parijat Desai (dancer), Garrett Fisher (composer), Satoshi Takeishi, and Kiyohiko Semba. 

One of her recent projects was an unconventional trio with an erhu player Ying-Chieh Wang from Taiwan and a janggu player Woonjung Sim from South Korea, sharing and creating a new perspective on traditional music as part of Contemporary Music Platform, a residency at National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan.

Photo by Bedouin Hao

Fumi currently teaches at Wesleyan University and serves as the primary instructor at Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center, giving classes and educational workshops at local schools and colleges. She has also taught at North American Taiko Conference, East Coast Taiko Conference, and European Taiko Conference.

As a classical pianist, Fumi has performed throughout Japan, tri-state area, Austria, and Spain. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Wesleyan University and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Manhattan School of Music.

Fumi’s webpage
http://www.taikonyc.com/fumi-tanakadate