I'd define taiko as Japanese drumming.

Technically, taiko on its own is just the drum.

To me, I think taiko is more of a community of people that I've come to really enjoy being a part of.

One of the reasons why Denver Taiko formed is because we wanted to say thank you to our issei and nisei for instilling all of the Japanese culture, their perseverance.

Who would know that, you know, Denver Taiko would be still playing for these 50 years?

I just found this, like, Japanese American community through Denver Taiko.

Most of my best friends are in the group.

That's priceless for me.

-That's me and Kenzo.

-Yep.

We're looking at archival photos and it's like, wow, we were really young.

There's such energy from the younger generations.

I don't have very many worries about this, you know, going on to the next generation and carrying on.

Because it's a group playing experience, everybody is synced together.

You can sort of feel what other people are doing and where other people are in the song, and you can feel their energy.

Oftentimes you'll hear us, like, sort of shouting as we're playing.

And the purpose of those shouts is to like, bring up our energy, to give energy to the other players.

When you're in taiko, you share each other's music.

You support, you help each other out.

It's not one individual overpowering others.

In Denver, Tikal, we have everybody that is learning and teaching and trying to make beautiful music.