Announcing
Taiko Camp 2006 In The Sierra Foothills
Taiko Camp 2006
A Thesis on Taiko
by Daniel Benson
Taiko, a performance art originally from Japan,
has spread quickly since its origin in the early 1950s, establishing
professional and amateur groups across five continents. As taiko has
spread, it has changed, accommodating the needs of both its
performers and its expanding audience base. In a process of
professionalization that mimics such established Japanese "high
arts" as noh, taiko has developed from an inchoate collection of
folk and religious rituals and popular entertainments to become an
independent performance art, with a body of rules to govern style
and a self-identifying "taiko community" that follows them. In the
process, taiko has become the symbol for a range of social
movements, from Japan's post-war nativism to Asian-American
pan-ethnicity, all of which have exerted influence on taiko's
development, either in concert or at odds with the forces audiences
exert through their selective patronage of particularly entertaining
taiko groups. Although these conflicts arise from taiko's particular
history, the tension they place on the art form mirrors the
development of many other performance arts. As the innovations of
taiko's first practitioners became the traditions of the next
generation of taiko players, the shape of the art form has changed,
balancing taiko between innovation and standardization.
