TAIKO ROOTS
SHORT FILMS SCREENING & KEYNOTE | Friday August 7th, 7:30pm
All festival registrants are invited to join us for an evening of taiko film, history and philosophy for the opening night of TTF 2026!
We are kicking off the event with short films Because of You, I Am (Menuez Pictures & Kanreki Productions), The Revolutionary History of Taiko Drumming in Canada (Mitsuko Noguchi), and the evening will conclude with a Keynote and Q&A with North American taiko pioneers, PJ and Roy Hirabayashi.
This event takes place in the Annex Theatre (Randolph College for the Performing Arts) and both films will include captions. The Annex Theatre is wheelchair accessible.
Please note that due to limited seating capacity, this event is currently closed to full-festival participants only. A limited amount of public tickets will be released in July, pending availability. Those interested in priority access to these tickets are welcome to join our waitlist.
Because of You, I Am
Because of You, I Am is a short documentary film about PJ & Roy Hirabayashi, two quietly radical Japanese American taiko culture bearers who defied traditional societal expectations in their quest for identity and purpose. Together, they spent over five decades using the taiko as a platform to catalyze social change, build community from the ground up, and champion a new category of Asian American music despite facing the unrelenting challenges of anti-Asian hate, racial injustice, and cultural appropriation. (Runtime: 30mins)
Directed by Doug Menuez and produced by Pear Urushima, Kanreki Productions.
Learn more at: www.becauseofyouiamfilm.art
The Revolutionary History of Taiko Drumming in Canada
In The Revolutionary History of Taiko Drumming in Canada, Mitsuko Noguchi explores the ways in which Japanese Canadians have used Taiko as a way of expressing identity, reconnecting with culture, as a form of activism and resistance, and so much more. They talk about the history of taiko in Canada, as well as some of the taiko groups that have made the art form what it is in Canada today. (Runtime: 12mins)
This short video is part of “Grab Your Senbei”: an educational video series about Japanese Canadian arts, culture and identity, funded by the Japanese Canadian Arts and Activism Project (JCAAP), the University of Toronto Excellence Award (UTEA), and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
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Mitsuko Noguchi is a Canadian performance-based intermedia artist and butoh dancer exploring (dis)embodiment in immersive media technologies and the reverberations of trauma in the corporal and spiritual body. Mitsuko is currently in their final year of undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, specializing in Visual Studies, Studio Stream. From an embodiment lens, their foundation in circus arts fuses with martial arts and somatic dance practices. Mitsuko has worked as a research assistant and fellow for three years with the Japanese Canadian Arts and Activism Project (JCAAP), and is also a screen actor represented by Inclusive Model and Talent Management, with lead roles in international film, commercial, and VR projects.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: PJ & Roy Hirabayashi
Roy and PJ Hirabayashi, co-founder and artistic director emeritus of San Jose Taiko (SJT), celebrate over 53 years of playing taiko. For their years of community-building and expanding the art form of taiko through SJT, the National Endowment of the Arts awarded them the National Heritage Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts in 2011. They remain active in performing, composing, and conducting workshops internationally. They are proud recipients of the 2024 Taproot Fellowship from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA), the 2026 Community Marshals for the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, and recipients of the San Jose State University Spirit of '68 Social Activism Award. PJ continues her work with Taiko Peace, and she is currently a board member of ACTA. Roy is currently an appointee to the California Arts Council. www.pjroytaiko.org
