It Started With Compassion
BY IRIS SHIRAISHI
I met PJ Hirabayashi for the first time as a participant of San Jose Taiko’s (SJT) Summer Intensive sponsored by the North American Taiko Conference in 2001. Then as now, PJ exuded her trademark effervescence, a buoyancy that continues to spiral outward from her core being. The earliest manifestations of TaikoPeace.
Several years later, San Jose Taiko arrived in Minneapolis in late 2009 to perform in what was to be the last of my group’s (Mu Daiko, now Enso Daiko) joint guest artist concert series. PJ and her husband Roy led a revealing workshop centered around the birth of the Asian American movement and its influences on SJT’s core values. Our post-series gathering in the tight (but cozy!) confines of my home ended with everyone packed into my living room. I like to think that TaikoPeace had one of its roots here, when PJ read the Charter of Compassion accompanied by Roy’s fue (Japanese flute). It was the first step towards a new way of taiko ‘being’.
VALUES AND THE UNVARNISHED TRUTH
Fast-forward to the first TaikoPeace Intensive in 2013 held in San Jose, California. The timing of the Intensive was uncanny. A significant shift had been taking place within Mu Performing Arts (MPA), the organization that supported my group, Mu Daiko. And this in turn sparked a personal reexamination of my values and place within the new order. The Intensive was an invitation to pause, to reflect on one’s life, relationships, and values through a different lens. It offered the opportunity to envision a different way of being, to partake of the discoveries PJ had made in her own journey.
“The insights I had gained through the TaikoPeace Intensive became a lifeline, a beacon.”
Minnesota TaikoPeace Intensive participants (photo: Meg Suzuki)
In March 2014, I found myself in backstage preparations for what was to be my last Mu Daiko concert as Artistic Director. I distinctly remember thinking, “I can’t do this anymore,” but I couldn’t even figure out what the “this” was! I just could not make peace with the changing MPA values and submitted my resignation shortly after the concert. The insights I had gained through the TaikoPeace Intensive became a lifeline, a beacon.
DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO… FURUSATO?
I took a magical journey in the fall of 2018. Each and every part of this journey was an embodiment of one or several or all of the values that PJ and TaikoPeace seek to share and amplify: compassion, connection, sustainability, peace.
It began with the first TaikoPeace Retreat on the farm of Chris and Dan Kubo - Furusato. Again, as in the TaikoPeace Intensive, experiences and activities were arranged to give pause, guide, share, redirect, and clarify values. We cook and eat and sleep together; we journal; we view the expansive land and starry night skies; we practice the Lovingkindness meditation; we dance at obon; we play Ballico’s taiko, we learn about sweet potato farming (I wear my Yagi Bros hat proudly). We unveil Dan’s Peace Pole “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in four languages and we place spiritual touchstones of home on our TaikoPeace altar.
For me, the Retreat highlight was hearing the individual journey, the story and experiences leading each to Furusato and TaikoPeace at that moment. I listen with respect and humility. When it’s my turn, I share that I do not like that I had allowed myself to be shaped and molded by my taiko career. And I also share two needed watchwords/guideposts for my journey: clarity and courage.
“Something shifted for me on the flanks of Mt. Fuji-san.”
INSPIRATION AND AN UNEXPECTED BUT WELCOME SHIFT
For PJ, Sydney and me, the journey continued on to Japan. I was honored and humbled to be able to travel and meet with key individuals and organizations that shaped PJ’s TaikoPeace vision and values. It began with an afternoon-long performance in Tokyo of over 28 taiko groups, all players with special needs. We toured Liberty Osaka’s Human Rights Museum and the National Museum of Ethnology. We spent a day touring some of Kyoto’s beautiful temples with a Buddhist priest-in-training.
Under the auspices of the Kodo Cultural Foundation’s “Exadon” program, managing director Atsushi Sugano brought us to Sado Island to learn more about their work with older adults and dementia prevention. It brought me to tears when I played with a large group of the most energetic 70+ years-young taiko players ever. Time spent here became the impetus and inspiration for my own TaikoPeace-infused work with older adults and Alzheimer’s Disease.
The journey ended at Fuji Sanctuary. Something shifted for me on the flanks of Fuji-san. Maybe it was participating in the group meditation “IN for Awakening the Divine Spark”. Maybe it was experiencing each of the Seven Stations’ meditations. Maybe it was walking through a wide, open-air corridor of Peace Poles from around the globe, “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”
Senior taiko performance (photo: Sarah Senseman)
THE SPIRAL, THE PANDEMIC, AND AWE
At this moment, deep in our giant pause of COVID-19, I’m finally able to be more compassionate with myself and those around me. I practice meditation, yoga and the Alexander Technique. I try to connect meaningfully with at least one person each day. The TaikoPeace toolbox - mindfulness through intentional movement, journaling and meditation, connecting, collaboration - helps clarify my thinking and direction. They give me the strength and courage to ask the questions: “How can we harness the power of taiko for the greater good? How can I embody TaikoPeace values in my music, my presentations and performances in my life?”
My TaikoPeace activation has come through a return to my music therapy roots and work with older adults. I plan and present each session filled with gratitude, humbled and privileged to make music with lifetimes of wisdom and experiences. It is joyful work.
I’m set to begin Zoom taiko classes geared specifically for adults with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s and their caregivers. It’s a challenge to combine the latest developments in successful aging and teaching practices in order to draw out the best in each individual and the art of taiko. I hope that we can go far beyond learning how to drum and take advantage of the connections we can build and the community we create.
“Heiwa” (peace) composed last year in 2019, is my open source composition that was written in response to the question, “Can I create music imbued with TaikoPeace values?” This first attempt, patterned on PJ’s “Ei Ja Na Kai”, invites players and non-players alike to move and drum and sing together in unity and joy. I intend to keep creating on this platform.
I’m in awe as I view the growing mosaic of actions and projects that have arisen since that first Intensive. Compassion, gratitude, collaboration, and peace—these values spiral outwards from PJ and all of the initiatives that she, and now others, have set in motion. I’m honored to be a part of TaikoPeace.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Iris Shiraishi has been living and working in St. Paul, Minnesota for almost 40 years. She performs with ensemble-MA, a group of TaikoPeace musicians whose mission is to perform for and teach those without ready access to taiko.
