This one comes via Myron (Internet-Okinawa.com’s resident photographer) about two sisters—Ayano and Chisato Arakaki—who with their Yomitan-based taiko group, Zampa Ufujishi Daiko (残波大獅子太鼓), are promoting a message of peace through their music. The following is from a Kyodo News story:
For two Okinawan women, drumming is the ultimate form of expression and a symbol of the dialogue they believe is essential to achieve world peace.
Chisato and Ayano Arakaki, both in their 30s, came to this realization in the course of composing music for a new production titled “War and Peace.”
The sisters are key members of the Zampa Ufujishi Daiko, a troupe of professional taiko drummers from the village of Yomitan in Okinawa Prefecture, where U.S. forces landed in April 1945 at the onset of the bloodiest battle in the Pacific during World War II.
This summer, the eight-member ensemble is busy rehearsing a new show to commemorate its 20th anniversary, working in collaboration with Tamiya Kuriyama, artistic director for the drama division at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.
The show, to be performed in October at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo and the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Hyogo Prefecture, will bring a broad spectrum of vibrant rhythms that channel the sisters’ interpretations of Okinawa’s history. [Read the rest of the Kyodo News article over here.]
Info on the group’s October 6th performance at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall can be found here and info for the Hyogo Performing Arts Center on October 22nd is here.
