• We are Sonoma County Taiko!

    Our Mission: To build a community of acceptance, harmony, and respect through our love of taiko

    Please enjoy this short video about who we are, what we bring to the community, and how we benefit from your support!

  • Instructors

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    Arn Shimizu

    Arn is a founding member of Sonoma County Taiko. He began his training in taiko with the group in 1995 with the workshop given by Tiffany Tamaribuchi and Sacramento Taiko Dan. In 1996 started attending classes at San Francisco Taiko Dojo with Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka. Over the years he has continued to learn from and become friends with taiko players from around the world. In 2008 he participated in the KASA-mix group tour to Japan and to Sado island to experience the apprentice lifestyle at KODO.

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    Miwa Smith

    Miwa has been playing taiko since 1997 and is currently learning from Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka as a member of San Francisco Taiko Dojo. She has performed in San Francisco / the Bay Area; Lowell, MA; Butte, Montana; and Qatar in the Middle East. Incorporating her background in music and world folk dancing (including Japanese folk dancing), she enjoys the wide variety of choreography in taiko. Born in Japan, she especially loves Japanese festivals accompanied with taiko and fue (bamboo flute). Miwa enjoys harmony and connectedness of mind, body and spirit with nature as well as sharing this experience among taiko players.

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    Meg Mizutani

    Meg has been playing taiko since 2006. Her passion is to teach harmony and respect through the art of taiko and Japanese culture. She has taught little kids class, youth class, beginning adult classes, Taiko Basics workshops, and Santa Rosa Rec and Park workshop series at SCT. Meg has also organized and taught Sonoma County Taiko’s “Taiko & Japanese Culture Camp” program. She currently handles booking duties for Sonoma County Taiko. She enjoys connecting and working with community groups and individuals through performance bookings because she believes together we help “building a community of acceptance, harmony, and respect through our love of taiko” as in the organization’s mission statement.

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    Alexa Riner

    Alexa began playing taiko in 2003 in New Mexico. She has been to Japan twice to learn from professional taiko artist Art Lee, and has attended several workshops with other masters and professionals around the US. She has been playing with Sonoma County Taiko since 2010. Alexa taught taiko in New Mexico from 2005 to 2010 and began teaching with SCT in 2013. Her background in team building and project-based learning flavors her teaching style. She sees taiko as an art form with great potential to bring people together in collaborative community and hopes to figure out how to do that eventually.

  • Recent Press

    Board Structure

    Sonoma County Taiko has a board of directors that are elected to two year terms. Board roles include the President, who facilitates the meetings and assembles an agenda, the Treasurer, who provides financial reports and does the bookkeeping, and the Secretary, who maintains records of the meetings. There are six standing committees, each with a chair: Fundraising, Performance and Teaching, Dojo Management, Membership Services, Marketing and Public Relations, and Taiko and Japanese Culture Workshop.

     

    Board meetings are held monthly. There are two retreats a year and two Leadership meetings for members who would like to be more involved in group decisions without committing to being a board member. An annual meeting of the membership happens every January.

     

    Board meetings are open. It is advisable for anyone who would like to become a board member to participate in the Leadership meetings and board meetings for several months prior to seeking election in January.

     

    2022-2024 Board Members
    Alexa Riner
    Arnold Shimizu
    Ann Frowick
    Deanne DiPietro

    Our History

    The Start

    In 1994 Kodo performed at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. In the audience were three that would create Sonoma County Taiko. The following spring they contacted Tiffany Tamaribuchi of Sacramento Taiko Dan to arrange for a workshop at Enmanji Buddhist Temple. Sacramento Taiko Dan brought taiko and taught a wonderful workshop to 30 participants. The attendees of the workshop were contacted a couple of months after and asked if they would like to continue to learn and play taiko. There were a dozen that did. With the support of the Japanese American Citizen’s League, Sonoma County Chapter and Enmanji Buddhist Temple the group was started. Over the next months the group practiced patterns taught by Taiko Dan and gleaned from video tapes on used tires tied to folding chairs.

     

    Community Support

    With support from Enmanji Temple and the Japanese American Citizens League Sonoma County Chapter (JACL) the group of people that came together to learn taiko was able to grow. Our practice space was the community hall at Enmanji we were granted startup funds by the JACL with which we were able to build our first several wine barrel taiko. With these funds the group was able to build their first taiko.

     

    Continuing Development

    Tiffany Tamaribuchi, being our friend and our first teacher suggested that a few of us gain more experience by training with Sacramento Taiko Dan or Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka and San Francisco Taiko Dojo. The first members to go to SFTD for training were Bruce and Arnold Shimizu, Mark Tabata and Rocky Mitarai. They would make the trip to South San Francisco each week to learn new skills and repertoire as well as the etiquette and culture of Taiko Dojo. From this training the culture of SCT was being developed.

     

    Growing & Evolving

    As time goes on the organization needs to reflect and respond to the changes that it confronts. Sonoma County Taiko is continually looking to create and bolster the the ways to be the most effective at delivering its mission. In 1997 the fledgling group produced their first Taiko Camp and festival. With the community’s support and guidance and support from Tanaka Sensei, Tiffany Tamaribuchi and the tireless effort of the members this first camp began an event that Sonoma County Taiko is remembered fondly for. The challenges encountered and surmounted through these events helped forge SCT’s identity and reputation. In 2005 SCT celebrated it’s tenth anniversary. To mark this milestone a full concert was produced featuring all of the members of Sonoma County Taiko. This was the first time the group were the sole performers at a full concert. Preparation took most of a year and produced an awe inspiring performance. In 2010 Sonoma County Taiko produced “Tomodachi” their fifteenth anniversary concert. To help the celebrate SCT drew together their friends for a concert that displayed an amazing range of talent and artistry. Included in the show were Taiko Ren, Ensohza Minyoushu, and Tenten taiko.

     

    Into the Future

    The future of Sonoma County Taiko depends on the passion with which our members pursue each of their own pathway in taiko. With that love for the various aspects of this art-form we gather a community that reflects the best and fullest natures within us all.

    Fiscal Information

    Sonoma County Taiko operates on an annual budget of around $40,000. Our largest sources of income are membership dues, performance fees, and limited space rental. We also see income from donors, merchandise, and workshops. Our largest expense is space rental. Most of our operations are run by volunteers, but our bookings manager and our instructors are paid for their time.

    Partners

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