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Kinnara Taiko is a Japanese American drumming ensemble (playing taiko) based out of Senshin Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, California. They began playing taiko in 1969 when a few third-generation Japanese Americans gathered after an Obon festival and jammed all night on an odaiko drum.

Naming themselves after the celestial musicians of Buddhist mythology, the Kinnara, Kinnara became the first Japanese American Buddhist taiko group. As a Buddhist group, Kinnara places more emphasis on on participation, self-awareness and discovering the joy in “just playing” taiko rather than stressing perfection and professionalism as other performance-focused taiko groups do.

They contributed largely to the development of kumi-daiko in North America with their innovation of wine barrel drums and their extensive outreach to other Japanese American Buddhist communities in helping start other temple-based taiko groups.

History
Kinnara Taiko officially began in 1969 at the Jodo Shinshu Senshin Buddhist Temple (a member of the Buddhist Churches of America) in Los Angeles. After playing on a drum for hours the night of an Obon festival when Rev. Masao “Mas” Kodani, who had been recently schooled in Japan, brought up the drum’s use in Japan, he and 6 other temple members decided to start a formal group based loosely on the pictures and recordings they had seen and heard of Japanese taiko players.

Having only a single taiko drum and not enough money to purchase new authentic drums for the other players, the members of Kinnara began experimenting to build their own drums for cheap. At first they used nail keg wooden barrels and tried to stretch leather over them for the drumheads, but soon upgraded to oak wine barrels and rawhide with much more success. They practiced in Senshin Temple and performed at both temple functions and public events, where they drew considerable crowds due to their uniqueness as one of the first taiko groups in the country.

Throughout the 70’s Kinnara performed at various Buddhist temples across the United States and helped start taiko groups at many of them to help attract younger generations to become involved in temple life. These included performances in Palo Alto, California, at the Ginza Festival in Chicago, and many other places.

The group has performed widely in the United States at schools and universities, multi-cultural folk festivals, Buddhist Temples and for Japanese American and Asian Pacific American organizations. Performances in the past have included The Olympic Arts Festival, Los Angeles; Memphis in May, Memphis, Tennessee; an Obon Festival in Charlotte, North Carolina; a Japanese Festival Celebration at the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida; and for Delta Airlines in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kinnara created some controversy with Seiichi Tanaka, sensei of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo based in San Francisco, California in the mid 70’s. After viewing a practice of Kinnara’s, Tanaka asked a member of the group to tell Kinnara to stop calling their drumming taiko because he believed it did not reflect the true Japanese art. Kinnara ultimately ignored his request and continued playing, and the incident has largely been ignored, but raised questions as to the definition of taiko in North America.

Today Kinnara continues to play and enjoys widespread popularity in the taiko community. They currently do not have any recorded works distributed.

Membership
Kinnara’s membership is comprised mostly of Japanese Americans, although there is no exclusion in membership. All who are willing to play are welcomed, and most members are either affiliated with Senshin Temple or collegiate taiko players looking for a group to join.

The original members of Kinnara were: Rev. Masao Kodani, George Abe, Johnny Mori, Clark Nakashita, Wilbur Takashima, George Yamashita, and May Sugano. Notable members who have played with Kinnara over the years and have since started other prominent taiko groups include: -Kenny Endo – Taiko Center of the Pacific, Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble

-Etsuo Hongo – Los Angeles Matsuri Taiko, Mugen Taiko, Koshin Taiko

-Rev. Tom Kurai – Taiko Center of Los Angeles, Satori Daiko, Shizen Daiko

-Bryan Yamami – TaikoProject, Bombu Taiko, Kitsune Taiko

-Bruce Arikawa – Togen Daiko

Style
Kinnara’s sound is based in the tradition of Japanese and Japanese American festival drumming, but they also blend these traditional Japanese rhythms with American musical influences from rock to jazz to R&B to reflect the experience and lifestyles of its members in Southern California. In the beginning their original compositions were vague copies of the Japanese recordings and pictures they were given, but other influences were drawn from African music as well. Two of their main original pieces include Samsara, written by Johnny Mori, and Ashara, written by Rev. Kodani.

Kinnara has a very informal style of practice and performance in comparison to most other kumidaiko groups. Kinnara seeks to include all those who wish to join their group regardless of age or ability. They encourage participation by anybody interested in both taiko or Buddhism, and keep their practices very informal with no organized routines or schedules. They do not have a sensei, and encourage collaboration on original compositions. Their pieces are taught by kuchi shoga.

As a Japanese American Buddhist group, their mindset as a group is influenced by their Buddhist beliefs, a perspective explored in a piece called "Horaku" written by Rev. Kodani for the BCA. Taiko is used by Buddhist taiko groups as a way to combat the ego and awaken awareness in both one’s self as they play and in the viewer watching the performance. It is used to unite different aspects of the self into a total understanding, despite imperfections in performance. They maintain the creed that one will get out of taiko what they put into it.

Connections/ Influences
Throughout its long history, Kinnara's influence has touched many groups stretching from California, Colorado, Utah, Hawaii as well as groups in Chicago, New York, Minneapolis and Seattle. Some of the groups that Kinnara has helped start or strongly influenced include:

-San Jose Taiko

-Soh Daiko in New York

-Denver Taiko

-Midwest Buddhist Temple Taiko, Chicago

-[Seattle Buddhist Church]]

-Portland Buddhist Church

-Lodi Buddhist Temple

-Sacramento Buddhist Temple

-Stockton Buddhist Temple

-Orange County Buddhist Church

-San Diego Buddhist Church

-Vista Buddhist Temple

-Oxnard Buddhist Church

-Fresno Buddhist Church

-Palo Alto Buddhist Church

-Ogden Buddhist Church

-Salt Lake City Buddhist Church

-Mountain View Buddhist Temple

-Florin Buddhist Temple

-Gardena Buddhist Church