Teaching

I have taught the traditional Japanese performing drumming art of taiko at University of California, Merced and have my students become teachers to continue teaching taiko at Yamabuki Taiko. The semesters are for when I'm available to help out with this info, feel free to reach out to me on these topics and please review the materials I have made for these topics before reaching out.

If you have any specific questions about taiko, send me an email with specific questions, and I'll try to respond within three days to answer your questions.

Last updated November 23th 2025

Introduction to Traditional Japanese Performing Musical Art of Taiko

Semester: Fall, Spring

Offered Since: 2023

From August 2023 - May 2025, I have taught the traditional Japanese performing music art of taiko to 30+ students as part of my role as Nikkei Student Union's Taiko Captain for Yamabuki Taiko and later separated Yamabuki Taiko from the Nikkei Student Union to found the Yamabuki Taiko club as President.

Yamabuki Taiko and I have (whom all the members except the new generation for 2025-2026 whom the club officers who I taught the songs to are the teachers for them now) performed at various campus events (including Scholar's Bridge Crossing, Merced County Veterans Day Parade 2024 (it rained on our parade, check out photo, we had raincoats and got ready to cover drums with garbage bags to protect them) as part of UC Merced, Mercado Night Market at Downtown Merced).

I have invited guest teachers Chris and Dan Kubo who's part of Stockton Taiko and teaches Ballico-Cressey Elementary School students for the Ballico Taiko club how to play taiko, katsugi, and shime alongside new songs such as Stepping Stones and Korekara. The Ballico Taiko club has played at Disneyland in 2014..

The current performing outfits Yamabuki Taiko has (the happis and the Yamabuki Taiko tshirts) are obtained through my efforts on obtaining up to $1000+ dollars of funding for performance outfits through pitching at Associated Students of UC Merced (ASUCM)'s Small Appropriations Board (SAB) and Senate Meetings to pass a Senate Bill to obtain $2,600~ for San Jose Taiko workshop and club equipment.

How to Get Started with Taiko

Photos of Yamabuki Taiko

Merced Veterans Day Parade November 11th 2024 (getting prepared for the Parade)

Tips

The key part of taiko is practice till you memorize it, as there's no music sheets or reference other than your memory for performances. Try to make a rhythm to hum and speak the drum beats outloud (called Kuchi-Showa) to make memorization of songs easier. For taiko, you need to be able to perform the song immediately straight from memory, there's no faking it if you don't know the song.

No music experience is required, my many club members and I have either no prior music experience or Asian Performing Arts experience and still managed to learn and perform taiko through effort and time watching and practicing the same songs over and over till we got it down.

If you want to learn taiko or watch our past performances in various events such as VSA Culture Show, M4K Showcase, and other events, please click the.links to access the materials.

Taiko Learning Resources

Credits for Resources: Stanford Taiko, Tatsumaki Taiko, and multiple other taiko groups (It's difficult to keep this updated due to high workload and finals season, please email me via achan127@ucmerced.edu with your group name for me to update this)

Past Taiko Performances

Please reach out to me if you want more taiko practice video resources after reviewing the resources I have provided in the links above, as I can send files and videos to support getting started in taiko.

Past Yamabuki Taiko Performances

All of these performances Yamabuki Taiko and I have performed in, I have performed in as many performances as I could between August 2023- August 2025 as my duties as taiko captain and later founder and President of Yamabuki Taiko

2025

August UC Merced's Scholars Bridge Crossing 2025 (it rained)

2024

11/11/2024 Merced County 20th Annual Veterans Day Parade 2024

11/07/2024 - Mercado Night Market representing UC Merced for the EJIE (we got paid for performing for once!)

2023

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my club advisor Belinda Braunstein (who nominated me for the RCO President of the Year 2024-2025 Award which I somehow won despite never believing I'll win anything), amazing Vice President Kyle Wang who helped out immensely for the musical aspect as I have no prior experience in music before joining taiko, Treasurer Keona Huang for making the budget spreadsheets, and Secretary Leon.

Additional thanks to past Nikkei Student Union President Erika Ramsey, past Nikkei Student Union Taiko Captain Wendy Ninomiya, past Nikkei Student Union Taiko Captain Cristian Espinosa for all your support with separating Yamabuki Taiko from the Nikkei Student Union alongside providing lesson materials and teaching Chikara and Nanashi to our members which Yamabuki Taiko continues to perform.

Thank you to San Jose Taiko and Stockton Taiko to San Jose Taiko Artistic Director Franco Imperial for teaching our group at San Jose Taiko katsugi, taiko basics, and many more and Chris and Dan Kubo for teaching our group taiko, katsugi, shime, and many more and working with us to make our taiko drums and letting us borrow Stockton Taiko's Katsugis for our performances.

You all have supported and helped me out build a foundation as President and founder of Yamabuki Taiko to make taiko active in UC Merced after everyone left in COVID-19 and Belinda came to have a workshop to start the club from new again in March 2023 during a Nikkei Student Union meeting.

I appreciate all the support I have received from you all.

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