Local Japanese drumming group Naruwan Taiko to perform on Sado Island, Japan

By SDCN Editor

San Diego, CA–The taiko-Japanese drumming-group Naruwan Taiko of San Diego will make its international debut on August 19 performing in the annual Earth Celebration’s Big Little Taiko Fest hosted by famed Japanese group Koda on Sado Island, Japan.

Kodo will open the fest, followed by four community taiko groups performing their sets, closing with Naruwan Taiko. Afterwards, all groups including Kodo will perform Kodo’s One Earth piece “Haruka” together. 

Taiko groups applied from all over Japan to participate; Naruwan Taiko was specifically invited and is the first and only overseas group to ever participate in Big Little Taiko Fest. Twelve members of Naruwan Taiko will travel from San Diego to Sado Island (Diana Wu, Jimmy Nguyen, Devin Tani, Kristen Taketa, Kathy Tanaka, Elizabeth Rouse, Jessica Woods, Ruth Lucas, Lori Mullen, Melanie Uhl, Rebecca Morgan, and Kelly van den Heuvel). They will perform Naruwan’s signature pieces “Rakurai” and “Release,” both written by Naruwan Taiko founder Diana Wu. 

“I am proud and excited for my team to experience this rare and first-time opportunity to share the Naruwan Taiko style in Japan,” says Diana Wu. “They’ve all worked so hard to challenge themselves not just as musicians, but as group members who look after one another and share their own time to better each other and their community.”

Since the 1980s, Sado Island has been the home of Kodo Village, where Kodo maintains its headquarters, workshop, rehearsal space, recording studio, apprentice center, and residential building for its 60 members and apprentices, all within a beautiful natural environment that inspires and encourages creativity and excellence. 

Naruwan Taiko’s relationship with Kodo dates back to 2009, shortly after Naruwan Taiko was founded by Wu. Commonly in taiko studios, guest teachers and performers share their skills and experiences in master classes, and the first of these at Naruwan featured Kodo Distinguished Members, Yoshikazu and Yoko Fujimoto, who visited San Diego to share voice and odaiko (giant drum) skill sets. In 2011, Wu met Kaoru Watanabe, former Kodo artistic director, who became one of Naruwan’s first teachers of taiko and fue (flute). Over the following years, many more current or former Kodo artists shared their skills with Naruwan members in classes and workshops.

In 2017, with Wu as the host city chair, Naruwan Taiko was among several San Diego-based taiko groups to host the North American Taiko Conference, featuring Kodo members Yuichiro Funabashi and Yoshie Abe as workshop leaders and performers. In 2018, by recommendation from Kodo Production Manager Yui Kamiya, Wu was invited to Sado Island for KASA Mix and Roots of Kodo (a special program created by then Kodo member Eri Uchida) in which she was fully immersed in the lifestyle of a Kodo apprentice for ten days and made many friends and connections in the Kodo community.

In 2023, Kodo performed in San Diego under the auspices of the La Jolla Music Society, on their first North American tour since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to travel delays caused by the Super Bowl in Arizona that weekend, and thanks to Wu’s connections with some of Kodo’s members, Naruwan Taiko pulled together a last-minute tour of San Diego and a special evening hosting the Kodo members before they flew out the next day. 

“It was a beautiful moment of connection and cultural sharing as members from both groups shared food and stories from both San Diego and Japan,” says Wu. “Looking back at the history we have with Kodo, I realize just how influential it has been for Naruwan’s journey as a taiko organization and for so long. Taiko has truly been a wonderful and effective tool for connecting people globally. While I’m excited for Naruwan Taiko to see Sado Island for the first time, I am most excited to see how this will change and open a new chapter for all of us.”

Founded in 2008 in San Diego by Diana Wu, Naruwan Taiko has shared taiko of the highest energy throughout the city through performances at local festivals, big-name events, and locations including TEDx San Diego, Balboa Park, Petco Park, and Legoland, and through workshops and classes for students of all ages, from kindergarten to seniors. 

The group is known for playing with tremendous energy and expressive personality which delights and invigorates the audience. Their dynamics spring from the energy members share with each other, as one big family. The word “Naruwan” is a Taiwanese Ami word that invites a feeling of a warm welcome, much like the feeling of being with family. As a Taiwanese American, Wu chose the name not just for its meaning, but also as a way to connect her own roots with an art form she loves, even if taiko’s origins are Japanese.