[drums banging] [Tiffany] When I first started to play taiko, it was always men drumming, men playing the big drum.

And then it was me.

♪ taiko drums, bansuri flute, and bright synths ♪ Hey, I'm Tiffany Tamaribuchi, and we're in Sacramento, California with If Cities Could Dance.

And we love taiko!

[Tiffany] As a professional taiko performer who tours internationally and teaches, I'm one of the few women in the world who does that.

I'm hoping that I'm not going to be the last one.

It's a way to connect people to my Japanese culture.

It's a way to say, "Look, we're powerful, we're joyful, and we're here."

[drums banging] ♪ taiko drums, bansuri flute, and bright synths ♪ ♪ energetic percussion and Japanese hybrid of Koto and urban beats ♪ Sacramento is flat.

It's full of trees.

It's hot summers and cold winters, and it is home.

[drumming] Taiko is a Japanese-based percussive art form.

It's like a martial art, a dance, a sport, and theater arts all at the same time.

[Nicole] It is the marriage of movement and music and community spirit.

[Sascha] Taiko is about the dance and the space in between the beats, not actually just the beats themselves.

[drumming] ♪ Japanese shakuhachi flute ♪ [Tiffany] Taiko drums came to North America with the first Japanese immigrants.

And the art of kumi-daiko, or the ensemble drumming, was introduced to the United States in the late 1960s by Seiichi Tanaka of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo.

[drumming] Tanaka sensei's dream was that taiko be as ubiquitous as karate or sushi.

Everybody would just know what it is.

When I grew up in Sacramento, there was not a taiko group.

I talked to Tanaka sensei, and he was like, "Come study with me.

I'll teach you, and you can start a group."

♪ abstract atmospheric electro with vocal samples ♪ I'm known as an odaiko player.

Odaiko just means big drum.

From the time I could walk, I would just stand in front of the drum with my mouth hanging open.

♪ abstract atmospheric electro built on koto melodic pattern ♪ The beauty and the depth and the richness and the magic in it, that's something I really want to preserve and share with people.

I grew up wanting this connection to Japanese cultural heritage -- a sense of identity that my dad didn't have 'cause he was born in an internment camp.

Early 1900s, immigrants had settled in the Sacramento Valley area, and there was a thriving Japantown.

World War II came, and everybody were sent to internment camps.

People lost their possessions.

And then post-World War II, they came back, and the city of Sacramento had decided to basically use most of the land that Japantown had been situated in.

All the culture, all the things that had been so vibrant was just gone.

♪ warm, ambient piano chords and guzheng textures ♪ My grandmother impressed upon me how important it was that I should know where I come from.

So to have this practice that I hold dear is important enough to me that I would like to see them continue.

[drumming] Years and years, I've been asking to do things that I was told only men can do.

I went to this contest in Fukui.

There were 23 other competitors -- all were male.

For me, as a woman, being able to win this contest, it was really meaningful.

♪ abstract atmospheric electro built on koto melodic pattern and vocal samples ♪ [drumming] When you're playing odaiko, there's this liveliness that you have to carry through your whole body because odaiko is bigger than life, and you have to be bigger than life.

[drumming] ♪ abstract electro built on koto melodic pattern and vocal samples ♪ ♪ atmospheric track with Chinese zhong hu and Japanese koto ♪ People think of taiko as a group of people or ensemble drummers on stage playing different pieces.

But the history, the tradition of it comes from festivals like Ondeko or even Obon.

♪ atmospheric track with Chinese zhong hu and Japanese koto ♪ I started as a Bon dance drummer for the Buddhist festival called Obon.

We gather together and we dance in memory of those who have passed before us.

[drumming] Ondeko, it's a festival that involves a type of kami, a type of sacred being.

And we dance from house to house to bring good luck and to ward off bad luck and bad health.

Bringing it to Sacramento was a way of sharing something really precious with my community.

[drumming] ♪ warm, ambient piano chords and guzheng textures ♪ [Sascha] There's no longer a big Japantown like you would see in San Francisco or L.A.

There's only a block space that remains of what used to be.

So my one hope for taiko in Sacramento is that it stays authentic.

Tiffany set this base of authenticity with history and having that be the basis of what we do.

[drumming] [Tiffany] Traditionally, the taiko player's job is to hold that spirit, to hold the community.

And there is this sort of magic that people still believe in.

If we do this right, we will make a difference for this family, we will make a difference for this town.

I want to believe in that spirit.

You're hittin' a drum.

You have people's attention.

So what are you gonna do with that attention?

[drumming] Thank you for watching today's episode and letting us share with you how taiko beats keep our community strong.

If you'd like to learn more about taiko in North America, be sure to catch the next episode of Sound Field in the link below.

Domo arigato gozaimashita!

[Thank you very much!]

♪ energetic taiko drums with bright synths ♪ Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

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