Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka (Hokubei Mainichi photo)

by KELLY NOGUCHI, Hokubei Mainichi

(Editor’s note: San Francisco Taiko Dojo will present the International Taiko Festival on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 23, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Tickets: 510-642-9988 or http://tickets.berkeley.edu.)

I met an unassuming Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka at a cafe in the Japan Center located near his taiko showroom. There seemed to be no indication that he was a world-traveled, internationally honored “father of taiko” in America.

With a winsome smile, he offered to buy me a pastry and something to drink while we talked about the upcoming International Taiko Festival — a spectacular program that is a tribute to the memory of Grand Master Daihachi Oguchi, Master Tanaka’s mentor, and a celebration of San Francisco Taiko Dojo’s 40th anniversary. When I declined his offer, he kindly brought me a glass of water.

With these few gracious gestures made within the initial moments of our first meeting, I was hooked. It became clear to me how he was, over the past 40 years, able to reach over 10,000 students in the art of taiko and spawn a legion of other taiko groups. Master Tanaka was someone special, a combination of charisma and familiarity.

Master Tanaka wore a National Heritage Fellowship cap, a reminder of the prestigious recognition that the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon him for his contributions to the country’s diverse cultural heritage, while he drank his beverage and reflected over the past 40 years.

For him, 40 years sometimes seems short, sometimes long, but he definitely feels that times have changed. “Before, no person came to interview me about taiko — taiko was just noisy,” he says, and now, here I was, intently listening to him speak about himself and taiko.
Master Tanaka contributes the art of taiko to the Japanese American communities.

“Each community has a temple, each temple made their own taiko, so community made taiko grow,” he explains.

The ancient art of taiko drumming seems to be evolving. Though Master Tanaka’s training has all the traditional elements of taiko, including hard work and discipline, taiko has changed from being a selective “no pain, no gain” art into an unrestricted “gain without pain” experience.

Taiko as Therapy

Out of his over 200 students, half are computer engineers. Master Tanaka notes. They come after a day sitting in front of a computer to play taiko.

“Everyone has anger, frustration, and all kinds of stress. If you hit anything else it is not good, but you hit a drum it is good, you hit harder and people will be ‘wow’... very therapeutic,” he observes.

So, taiko is therapy and Master Tanaka is now a “taiko therapist.” In an era where societal pressures are unrelenting, taiko becomes a refuge. “You forget everything when you drum, you feel good,” and in turn you are able to make others feel good through the music. The exclusive art of taiko used to choose people — now people choose taiko.

Master Tanaka says he was always confident that taiko would be big in America, and his goal in life was partly to make “taiko part of the English language.”

Being featured in movies like “Return of the Jedi,” “Apocalypse Now,” and Disney’s “Atlantis,” taiko seems to be on the verge of being part of the mainstream vocabulary. Sometime soon we will be able to look up the word tin every English dictionary and Master Tanaka would have accomplished his vision.

However, with this type of popularization comes some negative impact. “Taiko is very popular now, but the quality is going down a little. The taiko style and essence, everybody want to perform, but without hard training they can’t. They are just making sound,” Master Tanaka states.

Similar to Sushi

He likens the art of sushi to taiko, explaining how the spread of sushi has made it accessible and abundant, but the quality of the sushi served certainly has gone down in most restaurants. San Francisco is cosmopolitan and “people have a good eye and ear,” but some other areas of the country have yet to be able to distinguish between a 20-year veteran sushi chef and a sushi chef with five months’ training.

The same goes for taiko. “Taiko in short time getting so popular and spread so much. So problem, but shikata ga nai (it is what it is),” says Master Tanaka.

Looking to the future, Master Tanaka would like to relate to the community that “myself, after 40 years experience, will like to rebuild” and that he would like people to return to the basics of taiko and of life. “That is very important.”

He would like for people to relearn not just the technical aspects of taiko, but also body work, like tai chi and other breathing exercises. He says that because of taiko, “me at 65 can still play together with 25. No other sport, not football, not boxing” can a 60-year-old compete or collaborate on equal footing as in taiko. “Maybe golf okay,” Master Tanaka jokes.

I believe him. With his energetic spirit and perfect skin, he shows that taiko is definitely an activity with many benefits. Master Tanaka believes anyone can do taiko, that it is instinctual. He plans to create amateur performing groups that include different level of drummers.

Still, taiko requires physical and mental strength, so anyone interested in entering his performing group must be prepared to be committed to rigorous training that is more reminiscent of traditional taiko, much like the training Master Tanaka himself received, where the motto “no pain, no gain” continues to be used.

“Doctor Grand Master Tanaka,” I think, could be his new title. His contagious enthusiasm for taiko and life certainly made me feel alive and inspired, just like I imagine therapy would. This was after only talking to Master Tanaka about taiko, I can’t imagine how his actual taiko performance will leave me feeling.