Isaku Kageyama has updated his Web page at http://www.isakukageyama.com
Sunday Nov. 11, his taiko drum group Amanojaku performed at a 20th anniversary concert for Ayutsubo Daiko in Shizuoka.
Amanojaku leader and Isaku’s master teacher Yoichi Watanabe has taught taiko in the U.S. and Brazil, but his oldest students are right here in Japan.
The group performed a new piece by Watanabe based on a “matsuri” rhythm.
Three drums were placed on a fancy metal scaffolding _ a big one on top and two next to each other on the bottom.
And four drummers played the drums from each side.
The tune is funky with a lot of drive as it moves into several grooves evocative of “iki/hip” Tokyo festival music that brought to mind mikoshi shrines, colorful floats and shouting crowds.
It’s a celebration of the Japanese community, a thanksgiving for life, the harvest, and family.
My story on Isaku.
Isaku’s page gets new look
Tokyo Motor Show
The Tokyo Motor Show opens to the public in a week, and the day reporters run around at sprawling Makuhari Messe is Wednesday Oct. 24.
We already saw some models in previews:
My story on what Toyota is showing.
And my story on cute cars at the show.
The themes of Japanese-ness and cute culture have always fascinated me.
For decades of modernization, companies like Toyota were playing catchup with the West.
Now the time has come, in this age of globalization, for Toyota, and others, to strut their stuff as far as what’s unique about them as Japanese.
This is a very very difficult question.
You have to be unique if you want to compete.
But do you set off with the idea/goal of “wanting to be Japanese.” (or “wanting to be cute”)?
Being Japanese is what you end up being _ as a result of your being yourself.
No matter what you do, if you do it well, and you do it honestly, you can only be yourself.
And if you are Japanese, then your product will be Japanese _ without even trying.
A writer doesn’t sit down: Yes, I am going to write that great American/Japanese/Japanese-American novel.
If he/she does, it’s likely to be pedantic.
It’s backwards.
This is not to deny that it is critical and useful to recognize how you’re being yourself/Japanese.
By seeing the world, and studying diversity, a person gains insight into what is unique about a national culture _ and also what’s universal.
American on board at Toyota
A white male isn’t ususally speaking from the minority side of the diversity divide.
But Jim Press is the first non-Japanese to join the board of Toyota ( my story on his promotion winning shareholder approval last week).
He talks very softly _ Japanese style _ and says much of Toyota’s corporate culture is Japanese _ hence the understatement about becoming No. 1.
I asked him about that: Why Toyota officials keep saying they aren’t making beating GM/becoming No. 1 their goal, when reaching the top would seem like a victory for a company.
“Do you read your own headlines? Do you believe it? Would you forget how you got there, if you were? I don’t see any benefit in that. Customers don’t care who’s No. 1.”
Then Press asked me where I was from _ to make sure I understood Japanese culture.
“There’s no satisfaction of beating somebody,” he said. “That’s not something you’re proud of, is it?”
I had to say:
“Sometimes we like to beat Reuters.”
His reply:
“But you’re not a Japanese company, are you?”
How can Toyota become more American?
Toyota is already an American company, he said.
He said Toyota has a “hybrid” culture _ clever how he got the automaker’s key technology in there!
Press compared Toyota to the immigrant who becomes American _ yet continues to be proud of his/her roots:
“At how many generations removed from the original immigrant do you lose your identity? None. You should keep that. That’s part of diversity. You keep the strength of what makes you different, what makes you good and successful. But you’re doing it in that country. We want to be the best company in America _ period.”
Great Japanese albums
Sixteen experts, including my son and taiko drummer Isaku Kageyama with Amanojaku, put in their two cents worth in compiling a list of great Japanese recordings _ including Yellow Magic Orchestera (whom I just checked out the other day in Yokohama), Hikaru Utada, Shoukichi Kina.
Isaku’s recommendation: Toru Takemitsu’s “In an Autumn Garden.”
Thirty years ago when YMO arrived, they signaled change in being among the first in modern Japanese music to be aware of their position in the global music scene.
YMO wasn’t imitative. YMO was intelligent in knowing what modern Japanese musicians could/couldn’t do. YMO pursued a unique sound that was electronic, modern, mathematical and so so Japanese.
Still, YMO’s language was universal (and it’s not just the English lyrics).
It is in speaking to the world that art becomes Japanese.
It is in being aware of one’s position in the world that one becomes Japanese.