PJ'S JOURNEY — TaikoPeace

PJ’s Journey

“My TaikoPeace journey is dedicated to opening hearts and minds so people can realize their full potential. The taiko drum, when approached as an extension of the soul with respect and reverence, becomes a wonderful tool for personal empowerment and community building.”

— PJ HIRABAYASHI

I have to keep pushing myself because I have no idea what I’m capable of doing and capable of learning.

After nearly 4 decades of dedication to the San Jose Taiko performing arts ensemble in San Jose, California - as a performer, leader, artistic director, mentor, teacher and community builder, PJ Hirabayashi “re-wired” her passion for taiko drumming to create TaikoPeace:

Taiko Partnerships, Empathy And Creative Empowerment.

TaikoPeace is a genuine grassroots effort that aims to build a culture of peace, compassion, and equity energized not only by the vibrations and evocative visceral experience of drumming, but by the drum’s nature to unify people in ways that are completely accessible and nonthreatening with no requirement for musical experience. The movement invites mindful individuals, taiko players, artists, musicians, and creators from all walks of life to partake in the “tools” of TaikoPeace that PJ offers in her workshops and through her signature community building song and dance piece, Ei Ja Nai Ka.

BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE

The Charter for Compassion by TED prize winner Karen Armstrong is PJ’s core inspiration for TaikoPeace because of its alignment with her values and mission. It provided the vocabulary of compassion and credibility of purpose that she was seeking. PJ continues to evangelize and forward the charter through her work and considers it a foundation of TaikoPeace. She was even moved to recite the charter in Bethlehem alongside a teen-age Palestinian girl who spoke the charter in Arabic, a seminal moment that illuminated an intention for peace to a conflict-stricken environment.

To develop her own peace consciousness, PJ completed the Peace Ambassador Training Program with the The Shift Network and Compassionate Integrity Training with the Center for Compassion, Integrity, and Secular Ethics.

Celebrating Rebirth at 60

In Japanese culture, “kanreki” means rebirth and is traditionally a celebration of one’s 60th birthday. For PJ’s 60th, life-changing and unexpected epiphanies surfaced from allowing herself to experience and embody Butoh dancing that took her to a level of vulnerability she’d never felt before. Guided by long-time friend and Butoh instructor, Judith Kajiwara, PJ gave herself permission to dance in front of 100+ friends and family for her kanreki celebration - a moment that truly became a beautiful point of departure in her rebirth.

“I want to celebrate my kanreki. I want people to know this is a rebirth for me.”

— PJ HIRABAYASHI

An Eye-opening Trip to Palestine

In the summer of 2014, TaikoPeace cohort Hannah-Jasmine Brunskill, of Taiko Journey, invited PJ to Bethlehem. The purpose of the trip was to bring taiko drumming and PJ’s song Ei Ja Nai Ka to the Palestinian people as a gesture of peace and good will culminating in a performance at Bet La Hem Live, a local street festival with a global music theme that year. It was here in Bethlehem, a community walled by concrete and barbed wire in a military occupied area of the West Bank, that the potential for TaikoPeace came alive. Ei Ja Nai Ka was indeed performed at the festival after a week of group practices. This was an unforgettable celebration of two diverse cultures coming together in love, spirit, and positive energy, unified by the taiko drum.

*PJ Hirabayashi and former Mayor of Bethlehem, Ms. Vera George Ghattas Baboun.*

Mantras & Mandalas

Following her trip to Palestine in the same year, PJ made an extended trip to Japan where she visited Fuji Sanctuary, the headquarters for Byakko Shinko Kai, at the foot of Mount Fuji. This destination was a calling to PJ out of her role as peace ambassador because the sanctuary embodies transformation of the human spirit with an invitation to everyone to pray for peace on earth. What PJ took away from this visit were more seeds of peace practices that would manifest into her own TaikoPeace tools. She stood in front of a mandala feeling overwhelmed by not only its size but by its circles upon circles of the word “peace”, handwritten in global languages. She was so touched by these “bright words” mandalas that she began to create her own and now shares this practice as a TaikoPeace offering. The mantra of “May Peace Prevail On Earth” resonated throughout Fuji Sanctuary. The peace pole with this peace mantra is one of the touchstones of TaikoPeace, exuding the energy emanating from Fuji Sanctuary.

“Going out into the peace fields of Fuji Sanctuary, I became more aware of nature and the interconnection with myself.”

Julia Mandala Weaver.jpg — **SPIRALING ENERGY**

In a serendipitous moment of pure exhilaration, PJ came upon a piece of black and white artwork on the internet called the “Ocean of Chi”, created by artist Julia Mandala Weaver, whom PJ later met. The “Ocean of Chi” brings to life the swirls of infinite energy that define the heart and soul of who PJ is.

The Spirit of Japantown is the Spirit of Her Life

PJ and her husband Roy Hirabayashi have dedicated much of their life to keeping the spirit of San Jose Japantown, in San Jose, California alive and thriving. This same spirit of community, collaboration, cooperation, and creativity is what drives TaikoPeace consciousness. The roots of TaikoPeace were born out of PJ’s relationship with San Jose Japantown. How she relentlessly and graciously cultivated a culture of belonging, inclusion, and respect for the past - those who came before us is evident in the town’s welcoming culture that hosts many community gatherings every year.

TAIKOPEACE UNIFIES IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES

PJ and her TaikoPeace movement continue to manifest with focus on local community building. In 2019, PJ co-founded Creatives for Compassionate Communities, a coalition of artists and community leaders who fervently believe in the interconnectedness of creativity and the human spirit. The group seeks to inspire those who feel disconnected or disempowered; provide opportunities for creative self-expression that allows members of our broadly diverse community to create art that shares their deepest struggles, hopes and dreams; and build a compassionate community through the celebration of our creative birthright. Other TaikoPeace projects include online, live presentations of “Radiating Energy with Bright Word Mandalas” to artists, community leaders, healers, and taiko players and leading discussions of support and inquiry on themes of racial inequity and social change.