Pre-Festival Webinar: Japanese American Folk Music, Traditions in Motion
Japanese American music is more than a simple set of translocated or adopted musical traditions; it has been shaped by complex histories of immigration, labor, confinement, hybridity, and community organizing. Music has played an important role in the formation of distinct Japanese American and Asian American identities, such as with the development of North American Taiko, as well as a locus for Japanese American involvement in a shared Americana. This panel looks at different experiences by Japanese American musicians, exploring ways in which music moves in community.
Pre-event Panel for the 2023 Davis Cherry Blossom Festival featuring an intergenerational panel of Japanese American Artists. Panelists include Carlo Watanabe (Nissei, Davis Diplomacy), Roy Hirabayashi (Sansei, San Jose Taiko), Michael Yoshihara (Yonsei, Chidori Band), and Sydney Shiroyama (Yonsei, TaikoIN').
Pre-event Panel for the 2023 Davis Cherry Blossom Festival featuring an intergenerational panel of Japanese American Artists. Panelists include Carlo Watanabe (Nissei, Davis Diplomacy), Roy Hirabayashi (Sansei, San Jose Taiko), Michael Yoshihara (Yonsei, Chidori Band), and Sydney Shiroyama (Yonsei, TaikoIN').
Meet the Panelists
Carlo is a multi-instrumental American folk musician who has played with the likes of Pete Seeger, Jay Unger and others. He has, over the years, managed and promoted folk festivals on the east coast in connection with his work in Public Radio. Carlo is a survivor of the Japanese American Incarceration. |
Roy is a founding director of San Jose Taiko (SJT) in 1973, moving the taiko art form forward through innovation, collaboration, and outstanding performance, training, and education programs. SJT is the third taiko group to begin in the United States and is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. Roy helped create a new Asian American art form infusing the traditional rhythms of Japanese drumming with musical and cultural influences from their cultural context as young people in the 1970s U.S. landscape.
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Michael is the owner of Yoshihara Financial and a San Jose native dedicated to music, teaching saxophone to young musicians and performing with bands such as the San Jose Chidori Band and J-Town Jazz Ensemble.
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Sydney is interested in discussions around disability justice, bringing awareness to the Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhist experience, decolonizing wellness practice, and cultural appropriation. She has led presentations that explore these themes, such as her presentation in 2021 entitled Is Taiko “The Next Yoga”?: How Appropriation in the Wellness Industry can lead to Erasure of Japanese American Buddhist Communities. Sydney is currently a student at the Institute of Buddhist Studies pursing a Master’s in Buddhist Studies and she is a hopeful ministerial aspirant. |