Grandmaster Seiichi Tanaka of San Francisco Taiko Dojo photograph by William Lee
An iconic Japanese American establishment that has impressed the proliferation of the artwork of Japanese drumming in America is going through eviction attributable to rising rents, and the potential of shedding the beloved taiko group has despatched reverberations all through the taiko group and past.
However with out lacking a beat, supporters of San Francisco Taiko Dojo — and its famed chief and cultural icon Grandmaster Seiichi Tanaka — have responded to an pressing name to lift funds to assist it discover a new residence.
In keeping with San Francisco Taiko Dojo Common Supervisor Ryuma Tanaka, the brand new homeowners of its area at 212 Ryan Approach in South San Francisco are almost tripling their lease on Sept. 1, leaving them to scramble for rental choices for the historic cultural arts efficiency group that appeared in Hollywood movies like “Rising Solar” in addition to lots of of festivals since its inception in 1968.
Whereas the group had been paying a lease of $2,700 a month for a 2,700 sq. foot area, they have been instructed by the brand new homeowners that it will increase to almost $7,000 on Sept. 1, which Tanaka acknowledges is the “going price.”
Ryuma Tanaka had saved the upcoming skyrocketed rental charges to himself, saying he didn’t need to spoil the celebratory nature of the Los Angeles Taiko Competition on Aug. 6, held to “categorical gratitude to Tanaka-sensei for his continued assist and tutelage,” the pageant Web site states. “It’s due to Tanaka-sensei that so many taiko teams throughout America can expertise the enjoyment of taking part in taiko,” the location added.
“I couldn’t inform anybody (earlier than the taiko pageant),” Ryuma Tanaka mentioned. “As soon as I instructed somebody, I’d smash the temper. I needed them to recollect Taiko Dojo at its greatest.”
However as soon as the music subsided, the painful actuality arose, and he needed to inform each his father and the taiko group that its basis was cracking after two years of the pandemic.
“All of our huge company gigs have been cancelled since COVID,” the youthful Tanaka defined to the Nichi Bei Weekly, who mentioned he’s seemed round “for months” for various area. “There’s nothing round. Except somebody might give us a reduction, it’s actually laborious. Storage items are costly.”
To make ends meet within the short-term, Tanaka mentioned he would promote among the 70 or so taiko drums that the group possesses.
Rising rents not solely threatened the supply of apply area, however it very effectively might threaten the existence of America’s first taiko group altogether.
However the predicament confronted by the group was met by a groundswell of assist, together with from most of the 79-year-old taiko legend’s pupils, who went on to ascertain their very own efficiency teams throughout the nation.
A GoFundMe web page designed to assist the group discover its personal area has simply surpassed its preliminary $50,000 objective, and in 5 days has amassed near $60,000 by way of 518 donations by way of Aug. 17.
And whereas the GoFundMe web page was initially set as much as handle short-term survival, the objective has been expanded to “put money into SFTD’s long-term imaginative and prescient, which incorporates securing a extra everlasting area and contemplating totally different approaches to making sure SFTD’s monetary viability over time.”
Simply as San Francisco Taiko Dojo and its chief Seiichi Tanaka actually put taiko on the American map, supporters are decided that the beat will, certainly, go on.
For extra data, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-taiko-dojo.
