With Ukiyo-e mode, graffiti becomes museum exhibit
Topic: Art
By Gavin Kelley

In a modern society like ours, where the melting pot sees lines blurred between cultures, artist Gajin Fujita offers a counter melting pot by serving up a distinct blend of his two cultures: a mix of graffiti from East L.A. and traditional Japanese woodblock prints from Far East.

Fujita currently has a four-month engagement at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) through Feb. 12, showcasing a wide-range of his work, including many that are on exhibition for the first time.

While Fujita’s paintings are characterized by a dedication to detail and laborious craftsmanship, his drawings are more fortuitous. He begins by projecting images onto pieces of paper, which he traces with pencils and markers, invariably altering the source. He then cuts out the images to make stencils, which are used to create the figures in the painting. The stencils themselves become the preparatory drawings, which present random traces of spray paint and imprints of the triangular weights that he uses to hold the stencils in place.

Influenced by trips to Japan and classes at University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) for his master’s degree from 1997 to 2000, where Fujita had what he calls a “happy mistake,” where he began blending Japanese-influenced stencil prints with his street art style that he grew up with.
Speaking of a trip to Japan in 1998, Fujita explained “When I saw Kinkakuji (Golden Temple) in Kyoto, I thought how audacious it would be if someone had gone and spray painted on it. But someone had already beaten me to it when a boy burned it down. So, I figure I’d go and make my own (Kinkakuji).”

Using this concept, Fujita paints on byobu (folding screen) -like boards. His painting now span near 12 byobu-boards in length, about four feet by one and half feet each or larger version of seven feet by two feet. After sanding the boards, Fujita re-guilds them, by applying glue and gold leaf (85mm x 85mm, 12carat and 24carat), giving the background of his work a Kinkakuji-like shine.

Fujita then invites friends over to tag (the act of painting one’s own street name) his work for the next layer before going to a combo of stencil prints and painting. His stencils all have a Japanese flare like koi (carp), samurai, dragons or geisha. Fujita typically finishes off the piece with a can of spray paint, bringing back his Boyle Heights roots.

Minority among minorities

Born in 1972 in East Los Angeles, Fujita said he was a “minority among minorities,” while going to school in Boyle Heights with his brothers.

Fujita is a second generation Japanese American, son of Yoshikatsu Fujita of Hokkaido and Chitose Fujita of Tokyo, who moved to the States in 1969. While his father came to the U.S. to pursue his own painting and fine arts, Fujita’s initial influence came from the street.

“My father never directly taught me. Didn’t even really want me to pursue a career in fine arts, partially because of his own struggles,” Fujita explained. Tagging was a natural part of life in Boyle Heights, and Fujita joined in, trying to spread his tag-name and distinct style throughout the city.

Fujita and his younger brother were bussed from their East L.A. home to Fairfax High School in West Hollywood area, which had a strong emphasis in fine arts. While Fujita became more aware of art beyond the spray-can, he and his brother still continued to tag during their early morning bus-rides through an empty downtown L.A. He’d also hit “Graffiti Yards,” which are sanctioned areas open to taggers and street artists.

Fujita eventually joined a couple of territorial graffiti gangs, first the KGB (Kids Gone Bad) and then the more graffiti-focused group K2S (Kill To Succeed). “K2S really took me in as one of their own members,” Fujita explained. “This was the foundation, and tagging slowly became second nature.”

After high school, Fujita set out to make a living on his own, working as a delivery-man for a Japanese travel company and at a friend’s newsstand, but around 1991, he started getting back into education. First he attended East Los Angeles College, where he went with fellow tagger Paul Kanemitsu. Together they took a few fine art classes.

“What helped me was all the high school art classes I’d taken at Fairfax, keeping me involved and thinking about fine arts,” Fujita said. Paul’s father, Matsumi Kanemitsu, an established artist himself, eventually took Fujita under his wing. Ironically, Kanemitsu had also taught Fujita’s father years earlier. Fujita’s father’s life was cut short in 1996 at age of 48.

“Kanemitsu-sensei influenced me to stay in the fine arts.” So from East Los Angeles College, Fujita enrolled at Otis College of Art and Design. “At East LA, I learned the fundamentals, Otis was my next step … it wasn’t until Otis that I toyed with the idea of adding Japanese touches. That’s where I started to develop a style.”

His Japanese touches have a heavy influence from famous woodblock print artists such as Toyohara Kunichika and Yoshitoshi Taiso in late 19th century. Fujita also admits to looking at current trends in the Japanese tattoo scene and even ancient Chinese paintings for inspiration and ideas for his stencil prints. “I guess you could say I’ve taken advantage of my Japanese-side,” Fujita said.

After Otis, Fujita continued his education by going to UNLV for his Masters of Fine Arts. His first “break” as he describes it came from a UNLV contact when writer/art critic Dave Hickey asked Fujita to participate in the Beau Monde art show at the Site Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2001 by painting a mural on the outside of the building. His work was also featured inside amongst, “some really great artists. I really got lucky.”

Luck it may or may not be, but his work is growing in popularity and recognition. He has calls for his work from galleries in New York to Europe.

While his growing popularity cannot be denied, he is still apprehensive about holding a show in Japan. “The young people have taken an attraction to my work, but the elderly haven’t really taken to my work,” Fujita answered. “One day. One day I’ll go out to Japan. Slowly I’ll introduce my work to the Japanese.”

His work is on exhibition at LACMA as part of the “Contemporary Artists, Contemporary Projects 9,” through Feb. 12. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, noon- 8 p.m.; Friday, noon-9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. For more information call (323) 857-6000, or visit www.lacma.org.

Gavin Kelley is a Los Angeles-based writer who is currently working on a compilation of short-stories. He worked at the Rafu Shimpo as a staff writer and assistant editor under the guidance of Takeshi Nakayama from 2000 through 2001.

(Photo Caption)
Contemporary artist Gajin Fujita transforms graffiti into modern arts by blending Japanese flares. (Photo courtesy of LACMA)

Gajin Fujita, Ride or Die, 2005, spray paint, acrylic, and white gold leaf on wood panel, overall dimensions 83 x 126 in. (210.8 x 320 cm) ? Gajin Fujita, Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, California

Memoirs of Gesiha: Actress defends filmmaker's inspiration
Topic: Film
Cultural News December 2005

By Gavin Kelley

While in one form or another, Asian-themed films have been present in Hollywood for the last 70 years or so, and Japanese film splashed onto the world-wide silverscreen in 1950 after Akira Kurosawa?s ?Rashomon,? few can deny the recent fast and furious increase in Asian and Asian-themed films in local U.S. movie theaters.

With direct-from-Asia releases such as ?Hero,? ?Zatoichi: The Blindswordsman? and ?Kung Fu Hustle? getting major releases in the United States, and an increasing number of Asian-themed Hollywood films being produced, including the two ?Kill Bill? Volumes, ?The Last Samurai? and even the upcoming third installment of ?Fast and Furious,? the blend of East and West in American movie theaters could be long term rather than just a trend.

This month, American and Japanese movie goers will be treated to another Pacific Ocean cross-cultural production, with Hollywood?s take on ?Memoirs of a Geisha.? While the film is set in the Gion district of Kyoto, and the story revolves around Japanese women, very few Japanese actresses were actually employed for the film.

Based on the novel penned by Arthur Golden, the film was produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Rob Marshall, who helmed ?Chicago;? ?Memoirs of a Geisha? tells the story of Nitta Sayuri, a girl from a small fishing village who becomes a high society member as a geisha.

The movie stars Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi as Sayuri, Ken Watanabe, who was introduced to American audiences opposite Tom Cruise in ?The Last Samurai? as The Chairman, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as Mameha and Koji Yakusho, who most will remember as the Salaryman who learned to dance in ?Shall We Dance?? as Nobu.

While most of the leading geisha rolls were given to non-Japanese Asian actresses, the Japanese actresses who were brought on for the film include Kaori Momoi and Youki Kudoh.

Many will get to know veteran Japanese actress Momoi for the first time this December, after ?Memoirs of a Geisha? opens up, as a cruel and vindictive Mama-san, owner of the Geisha house. However those who have followed Japanese film will recognize her from her work with Akira Kurosawa (?Kagemusha?), Shohei Immamura (?Eijanaika?) or many of the other great film directors of Japanese cinema.

Late last month Momoi sat down with Cultural News to talk about the upcoming release and the new audience she will be exposed to. As she explained, it ?feels like she has become a young actress again,? and was experiencing ?a second life starting at 53.?

She explained that she considers herself very fortunate to have worked with some of the great directors of her time, now including Marshall.

On her first day on the set, she said she ?looked around the set and realized they must have spent a lot of money.? But beyond that, she saw very few differences between Japanese and U.S. feature films.

The film, shot both in Los Angeles and on location in Japan, is already receiving some emotional backlash from Japanese and Japanese Americans in Los Angeles, for lack of historic accuracy for one and lack of Japanese actresses for another. But despite all the negative talk surrounding the film, Momoi is steadfast in her positive take on the film.

Momoi first explained that those who mistake the film for historical accuracy or a biopic (biographical picture) will be missing out. In ?Memoirs? she explained, ?we are like fish swimming around Ryugujo (classic Japanese story of a castle at the bottom of the sea). Just like that ?Memoirs? is a fantasy ? Japanese geisha speaking English is unthinkable, yet the whole film is in English.?

Momoi went on to explained that the film is ?a total imagination,? pointing even to the styles and way the kimono?s were worn, ?unthinkable from the Japanese point of view,? yet, Momoi continued to explain, the costume design along with the set design and cinematography helped to create a film that is ?pure fantasy and visually stunning.?

Living in Los Angeles

Momoi feels that with life expectancy reaching closer to 100, at 53 she sees a wide range of opportunity open for her, since she may only be at the halfway point of her life. ?I want to try to do everything that can be done,? she said. ?(We) must enjoy life and try things.?

?When I am 60 I want to be able to live in America,? Momoi says. ?Then I will look forward to 70.? She explains that once she is 70,she will be the one expert that Hollywood can turn to for input on future films or to portray elder characters.?

Momoi has rented an apartment on this side of the Pacific and plans to stay here for the next 10 years, learning English.

With this philosophy in mind, Momoi explained that she continues to challenge herself by taking on difficult rolls. ?I take rolls that I haven?t done before.? But it?s not just acting, Momoi has had a steady career behind the scenes as well, with several scripts and directing gigs to her name. In fact the next project she plans to take on is both directing and starring in a feature-length family-drama that she wrote.

While she deals with an expanding acting career and duties behind the camera, Momoi explained that she?s also taking on other projects such as designing goods and clothing.

Gavin Kelley is a Los Angeles-based writer who is currently working on a compilation of short-stories. He worked at the Rafu Shimpo as a staff writer and assistant editor under the guidance of Takeshi Nakayama from 2000 through 2001.

(Photo Caption: Upper)
Veteran Japanese actress Kaori Momoi (left) who makes Hollywood debut in ?Memoirs of a Geisha,? defends the filmmaker?s inspiration. (Cultural News Photo)

(Photo Caption: Lower)
In a scene of ?Memoirs of a Geisha,? Momoi (l) plays Mama-san, owner of the Geisha house and Michelle Yeoh acts as Mameha. (? Columbia Pictures. Photo by David James S.M.P.S.P.)

Japanese traditional sounds influence American films
Topic: Music
Cultural News December 2005

By Takeshi Nakayama

Japanese traditional instruments such as shakuhachi, koto, tsuzumi drums and Japanese flute are today having a greater influence on American movies than ever before.

Leading the vanguard of Japanese traditional musicians in American films is Masakazu Yoshizawa, known for his expertise on Japanese flutes and percussion instruments. He is a major contributor to the musical score for the big budget movie, “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

Yoshizawa, 55, received a call from Sony last December offering him an acting job playing a drummer in “Geisha.”

This year, he was hired to play shakuhachi and other Japanese instruments for the film’s sound track. But before starting the session on Aug. 4, John Williams, the film’s composer, wanted to study how to use the Japanese instruments in the score.

“Many composers don’t care about how to use Japanese instruments,” he complains. “They just call me and say ‘Can you play something just looking at the movie? Because I don’t know how to write for shakuhachi.’”

On the other hand, Williams tries to be accurate, Yoshizawa points out. “He is such a great musician. He is authentic but creative.”

Making sound tracks for major movies usually takes about five days, he says. “But for ‘Memoirs for a Geisha,’ we wound up playing over one month because, instead of doing the sound track in a big recording studio, John Williams wanted to do it concert-style. For three days we moved to Royce Hall at UCLA ... He wanted to have small ensemble sections—only koto and shakuhachi in one section, or only percussion in another.”

“Memoirs of a Geisha” is unusual in movie scoring, Yoshizawa notes; it uses traditional Japanese musical instruments as much as possible. And it features solo players such as Yo Yo Ma on cello, Itzak Pearlman on violin, Hiromi Hashibe on koto, Tateo Takahashi on shamisen and Yoshizawa.

“I was so happy to be there, because there were so many great studio musicians and the session was so great,” he exudes. “We had a really good time.”

Williams also asked Yoshizawa to write original music for the dance number when Sony couldn’t get permission from Kyoto to use a special piece. “I composed about 400 measures in two nights ... I ended up composing and arranging four pieces in the score, besides playing and acting, so it was a lot of extra work,” reveals the veteran of 100-plus movie sound track performances.

Japanese instrument becoming sound elements

American movies in the 1950s and 1960s used Japanese instruments only in Japan-themed movies like “Sayonara,” Yoshizawa comments, but in the 1970s and 1980s, composers started using Japanese instruments as an element of the sound.

“When I started,” he notes, “they wanted a sound Western music didn’t have--Shakuhachi or other Japanese instruments--a sound that was new and fit the film. In ‘Jurassic Park,’ nobody notices the shakuhachi playing. It sounds like a dinosaur’s cry, so John Williams (composer of ‘Jurassic Park’) said we’re going to use shakuhachi.”

Yoshizawa prefers working on non-Japan-themed films where he can still use the shakuhachi or other Japanese flutes. “I feel more comfortable with that,” he says. “When they make a Japan-themed movie using traditional instruments in kind of a strange way, I feel it distorts our tradition. I feel more comfortable, and have more fun, working on other movies.”

Versatile musician

Born at Kawai Village near Hida Takayama city in Gifu prefecture, Yoshizawa graduated with a degree in Western musical tradition from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

Coming to America in 1976 to attend the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, he moved to Los Angeles later that year. He has done studio work, movie and television music, and numerous concerts over the past 29 years. He plays the shakuhachi, woodwinds and percussion, as well as clarinet and saxophone.

Yoshizawa first used shakuhachi in 1978 for a Los Angeles performance of “The Teahouse of the August Moon.” He was playing saxophone, clarinet and flute when the director asked him if he could play the shakuhachi.

A few months later, he met Osamu Kitajima, who invited Yoshizawa to play shakuhachi in his band. “We played together on almost all of Osamu’s CDs and all of his gigs for more than 20 years,” Yoshizawa says. “And, Osamu recommended me as a shakuhachi player in studio for many other musicians. We played on some movies together.”

Yoshizawa has also worked on “Jurassic Park,” “Lost World,” “Gung Ho,” “Bat 21,” “Karate Kid (II and III),” and “Joy Luck Club,” among others, as well as numerous TV shows.

“I love doing studio work, and I also like doing concerts,” he says. “Studio work is most comfortable, most challenging, and the pay is good.”

Beside his solo activities, Yoshizawa has formed “Kokin Gumi” trio with Koto player Hiromi Hashibe and Tsugaru-Shamisen player Tateo Takahashi since 1993. The trio has appeared in numerous events in Los Angeles, Japan, and nationally in the U.S. They have released four albums: Sorin, Wakyo, Zen Garden, and Medeta.

Takeshi Nakayama is a free-lance journalist who lives in Walnut, Calif. He has written articles for the Nikkei West, Nichi Bei Times, Gardena Valley News and many other publications, and is a former editor at the Rafu Shimpo.

(Photo Caption)
Versatile musician Masakazu Yoshizawa is the busiest Japanese traditional musician in American films. He not only played for the latest big budget film “Memoirs of Geisha” but also gave a consultation to the composer of the film and wrote a piece for the film. (Cultural News Photo)

Soaking up Japanese Culture Young
Topic: Language
Cultural News November 2005

El Marino Language School in Culver City offering immersion programs to children of local residents


By Gavin Kelley

Located in the heart of the Culver City Unified School District, the El Marino Language School offers a Japanese Immersion Program to students from kindergarten through fifth grade. The school also houses a Spanish Immersion Program, that Culver City boasts as one of the nation’s first immersion program.

The immersion programs are a system of learning based on full immersion in a targeted subject. In El Marino's case, the targeted subject is either Japanese or Spanish. In a language immersion program like El Marino's, students are thrown into a situation where they may not speak a word of the target language, which is the only language the teacher will use.

Coupled with the fact that students don't just learn the language, but have a general curriculum to cover as well, deems language immersion programs as the most extreme of immersion programs by some experts.

An immersion program in El Marino Language School sees qualified students enter at the kindergarten level where teachers use the target language-to-English on a ratio of 90-to-ten percent. As students progress though the years, the ratio adjusts yearly until the target language-to-English ratio is 60-to-40 percent in fourth and fifth grades. As they share the romananized alphabet, English print is not introduced in the Spanish Immersion Program until the second grade, while kindergarteners in the Japanese Immersion Program see English text introduced in their first year.

“We push really hard with the target language,” explained El Marino Language School principal Sara Fields. “A child is going to do most of their homework in Japanese or Spanish.”

The core curriculum is the same as the school district, but with instruction, and in most cases material, in the target language. Instruction, for example, about the Solar System, Fields explained, that students need to learn the vocabulary at the same time that they are learning the concepts. For an immersion program student, some may lack English spelling skills when they first graduate from fifth grade and move onto middle school, Fields said, “but they catch up.” She also said many students of the El Marino Language School have moved on to become honor students during their ensuring years at school and “tend to have high test scores.”

One of the distinctions of the immersion programs at El Marino, is not just the chance to learn a target language but, a real chance to learn about the culture and arts, as one parent explained to The Cultural News at an assembly arranged by this paper on Oct. 10 that showcased the performance of Japanese Tsugaru Shamisen artist Toshihiko Minamihashi from Yokkaichi in Mie prefecture. Fields explained to further cultural awareness, the school has had artists visit from Spain, Central and South America, Mexico and Japan, most recently including a Shodo (calligraphy) instructor from Kyoto.

After school activities include taiko, flamenco and odori.

The Spanish Immersion Program, which was modeled after a French Immersion Program in Canada, the Culver City Unified School District became the first school district to offer an immersion program in the nation in 1971. The program started with one kindergarten class and grew each year. The Spanish Immersion Program would shift from school campus to school campus based on needs of the program and general population of each school.

In 1982, the district launched its Japanese Immersion Program with one kindergarten class after receiving a Federal grant to start an immersion program in a “less commonly taught language.” Like the Spanish Immersion Program, the Japanese Immersion Program had no school campus to call its own. It wasn’t until 1994, with enrollment growing, that the El Marino Language School became the permanent home of both language programs. Subsequently, the Japanese Immersion Program currently has 11 classes, from kindergarten to fifth grade. The Spanish Immersion Program has 21 classes.

There is usually a small waiting list for prospective students, but generally admission is granted to students in Culver City Unified School District first. Students are encouraged to enter the program at the kindergarten level, with the understanding that attending El Marino is best as a 6-year program. Students who are older may test into their respective grade levels based on available space.

“If a parent asked me if they should put their child in an immersion program, I would always say yes,” said Fields. “If your child likes to try new things, eat different foods … that’s probably an indication that they’ll do well in this program.”

Parents who are interested in having their children attend El Marino Language School, should check the information on the school’s website: www.ccusd.k12.ca.us or call the school at (310) 842-4241. El Marino Language School is located at 11450 Port Road, Culver City, CA 90230.

Gavin Kelley is a Los Angeles-based writer who is currently working on a compilation of short-stories. He worked at the Rafu Shimpo as a staff writer and assistant editor under the guidance of Takeshi Nakayama from 2000 through 2001.

(Photo Caption)
Fifth grade Japanese Immersion Program students at El Marino Language School with their teacher Ms. Mina Shiratori, a Japan native, take a moment out of their day. (Cultural News Photo)

A life-long love for Japanese art
Topic: Art
Cultural News October 2005

Robert Crowder, who has created thousands of Japanese works of art, says he had a “wonderful time” in prewar Tokyo and Kumamoto.


By Takeshi Nakayama

When Robert Crowder, the artist renowned for his Japanese paintings and folding screens (byobu), first saw Japan at the age of 22, he recalls, “I just felt like I was returning home.”

Crowder, who grew up in Bethany, Ill., had studied art and music at the James Millikin University and Conservatory of Music and earned his teaching credentials at Eastern Illinois Teacher’s College. In 1934, after college, he traveled to Japan for the first time on his way to Pyongyang, Korea, to teach English and music in a missionary school.

On the first summer vacation of his Korean assignment in 1935, he visited Tokyo. There, the Japan Travel Bureau introduced him to Shunko Mochizuki, one of the outstanding artists of that period. He spent his summer vacations studying Japanese painting under Mochizuki.

Had Wonderful Time

When his two-year stint in Pyongyang was over, Crowder went to Tokyo in 1936 and taught English, wrote travel articles for the Tourist, a magazine published by the Japan Travel Bureau and the Travel Bulletin, published by Nippon Yusen Kaisha and continued his Japanese art lessons also studying tsuketate brush painting under Nami Ogata.

When he arrived in Tokyo, he knew only one Japanese word, wakarimasen (I don’t understand).

In Tokyo he lived in the Nihonbashi district. “I could look out from my sixth floor apartment window and there was Takashimaya the next block over. Across the street was the Maruzen bookstore and the entrance of the Ginza subway line,” he reminisces.

“I really had a wonderful time in Tokyo,” states Crowder, whose Beverly Hills home is filled with paintings, murals, screens and other Japanese works of art.

In 1939, he left Tokyo for a teaching position in the Fifth Higher School in Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu. He made many friends among the faculty and students, and was treated with respect by the residents and shopkeepers. He continued his Japanese painting lessons under Shimamoto-sensei, well-known artist in Kumamoto.

Interned During WWII

When World War II began on December 8, 1941, the authorities incarcerated him at Kumamoto for a period of three months, then in an internment camp at Nagasaki. “There I learned you can survive almost anything by trying to make the best of it.”

He remembers that a Buddhist priest visited him regularly, discussed religion and instructed him in Zen meditation to ease the stress of being imprisoned.

In September 1943, Crowder was repatriated to the United States. He and other non-Japanese – including other Americans, Canadians, Europeans and Catholic priests – sailed from Japan to Goa, a Portuguese colony in India, as part of a hostage exchange deal. In Goa, they boarded the U.S. – bound Gripsholm, which had arrived in Goa with Japanese and Japanese American residents of the U.S. who were being shipped to Japan.

Moves to California

Returning to the U.S., Crowder secured a job in Chicago as a florist, creating floral designs he learned while studying flower arranging in Japan. He was also painting Japanese style folding screens.

It was still wartime and the interior decorators had difficult finding something fresh and new, he recalls. “I started painting on gold leafed screens, and was able to sell many of them to California movie stars. In 1946, as demand for my screens grew, I moved to Los Angeles and opened a small gallery.”

“Greta Garbo and all the famous stars lived in this area,” explains Crowder, whose screen paintings were exhibited at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center’s of Doizaki Gallery in 2002.

Hand Weaving Business

Crowder also expanded into a hand weaving business, designing and producing hand woven fabrics for upholstery and draperies. “Recently, we have been weaving upholstery fabric for Chanel boutiques in New York, Tokyo, Taiwan, Paris, Berlin, Hawaii and Guam,” he comments.

When Crowder was living in Tokyo, he visited Taiwan’s mountain regions every winter to buy fabrics from headhunters. “ Their weaving was so fabulous, so beautiful,” he says. ‘Now, we are selling our hand weaving to Taiwan. Life takes some strange turns.”

It’s Not Work, It’s Pleasure.

The 94-year-old artist still works from 12-14 hours a day painting, writing, composing poetry and gardening. “I am doing everything I like to do,” he declares. “It isn’t work. It’s pleasure.”

Among his endeavors is a recently-published book of poetry, “The Blue Furoshiki,” which, he writes, is “dedicated to the memory of happy days in Japan.”

Crowder says he never returned to Tokyo, because he was so busy running his business. “I’d like to have lived in Tokyo,” he declares. “If the war hadn’t started, I’d still be there. I had a wonderful time. I never had any unhappy moments, until the war started. I loved Japan, the people, the art. I felt as though I was part of it.”

Takeshi Nakayama is a free-lance journalist who lives in Walnut, Calif. He has written articles for the Nikkei West, Nichi Bei Times, Gardena Valley News and many other publications, and is a former editor at the Rafu Shimpo.

(Photo Caption)
Robert Crowder, 94, the artist renowned for his Japanese paintings and folding screens (byobu), still works from 12-14 hours at his Beverly Hills home (Photo courtesy of Robert Crowder)

(Photo Caption)
A part of the six-panel folding screen titled “Japanese Crested Ibis, Toki,” height 5’6” x width 12’2” (Photo courtesy of Robert Crowder)

Taiko player Eitestu Hayashi accomplishes the residence project with a dramatic concert
Topic: Taiko
A Press Release by Dublin Arts Council, May 2005




Dublin, Ohio -- World-renowned Japanese taiko drummer Eitetsu Hayashi’s residency came to a dramatic, emotional, and awe-inspiring conclusion at the Drumbeats of Taiko concert on Saturday, April 30, 2005. The concert included performances by a 20-student ensemble from Davis Middle School, a 15-student ensemble from the Conservatory of Music at Capital University, and a group of music educators from around Ohio. The evening concluded with a performance by Eitetsu and his professional ensemble Fuun-no-Kai, and the world premier of Dublin high school student Jacob Yandura’s original composition for taiko, piano and chorus, entitled “Synthesis.”

Eitetsu Hayashi visited Dublin and Columbus six times over the course of the last year, beginning in May 2004. He worked primarily at Davis Middle School in Dublin, teaching the art of taiko to a 20-student ensemble, and also engaged the entire student body through periodic lecture/demonstration events. Teachers at Davis incorporated the residency into their daily curriculum, and introduced projects incorporating everything from a study of Japanese exports and trade to explorations of Japanese history, culture and language.

Eitetsu also worked with students at Capital University’s Conservatory of Music, teaching the course Music 493. Learning taiko added a whole new dimension to the students’ study of music, broadening their understanding of the art of performance. As a result of the project, several students have expressed a desire to study abroad in Japan and continue their study of taiko.

Eitetsu held an intensive three-day workshop for music educators from around the state of Ohio; these educators are now teaching taiko to students in their classrooms. In one example, teachers from the Dublin and Southwest Licking school districts have brought their taiko students together to form the “Taiko Honors Group,” which will perform at the Asian Festival in Franklin Park May 28-29, 2005.

Finally, Eitetsu invited Dublin Coffman High School senior Jacob Yandura to create an original piece for taiko, making Jacob the first U.S. composer invited to create original music for the world-renowned artist. Yandura wrote “Synthesis,” and the piece was premiered on April 30, 2005.

This artist-in-residence project was sponsored by Dublin Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Foundation, the U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, and Arts Midwest, with major support from the National Endowment for the Arts and private contributors.

Additional support provided by: HAL, Inc., Dublin City Schools, Capital University, Ohio State University, Asano Taiko Co., the City of Dublin, Clarion Hotels, Hidaka USA, the Institute for Japanese Studies at OSU, Ippon Supplies, the Japan-America Society of Central Ohio, Nissin Travel Service, the Ohio Arts Foundation, Time Warner Cable and the U.S. Department of Education.