The Fascinating Harisen Daiko BLOG
Global MN Gala
This was also the first year we appeared for the philanthropic crowd at the Global MN Gala on May 31st. We performed three times amid dinner, auction bidding, and some intense fundraising. The organizers and the crowd were very appreciative and excellent to play for.
Plus, the dessert selection was pretty amazing.
We gave them Raku (Chabo Sensei, Shidara), Hazumi (Kogen Taiko), and Shunpuu (Kodo). Being a taiko group, and therefore one of the louder performing acts one can choose for an indoor venue, we were pleased to learn that we were the first group attendees of this event actually could hear from the back of the room.
CONsole Room
This year, on February 1st, it was the first time we performed for a CONsole Room audience. They were welcoming, and a joy to play for. It would be great if they become a part of our yearly schedule, but think we were brought in under the auspices of this year’s music-centered theme.
Also, it was a touch surreal to be wandering the halls in company with the likes of Peter Davidson, Nicola Bryant, and Ian McNiece.
So it begins…
While we are not (presently) about to be attacked by an overwhelming number of orcs, we are about to begin our 2024 performing season and have added events in March, May and September to our calendar.
Keep an eye on out Facebook and Calendar to see other performance dates as they are added throughout the year.
Be at every performance this year and receive delicious cake*
*For the precise nature and availability of the aforementioned cake, please review the video game “Portal”, with apologies because we cannot resist a good reference.
New Home for Harisen
So after many long years... No. Many long months... No, it wasn't that many. Okay, got it. After many long WEEKS of itinerant wandering from practice-space to practice-space - after losing our base of operations at GPS - we have finally arrived in our new home at Open Book where we are pleased to be settling in and focusing more of our energy on drumming than shifting logistics.
Life on Marscon
We had our first performance at MarsCON on March 11th, this year. We’re proud to have been part of their festivities, and apologize for how lud it must have been in the dealer’s room next door.
First Performance, 2023
Harisen logs it’s first performance of 2023
January 19th was our first gig of the year at the International Night event at Sunset Hill Elementary School in Plymouth.
There was drumming! There were high-fives! Hugs also occurred!
Look out, second gig of 2023... You have your work cut out for you.
Ten Years Of Taiko
Harisen Turns 10 In 2023!
On this day, ten years ago, a group of taiko players met for the first time in the basement of Urban Outfitters in Roseville, Minnesota.
We had this crazy plan to bring a live taiko performance to a local sci-fi convention called CONvergence. The tipping point had been the theme song to Game of Thrones, composed by Ramin Djawadi. This was a song we wanted to, no, had to play. It didn't matter that none of us had ever planned, arranged, and performed an hour-long taiko show before, let alone mashed-up taiko drumming with songs from scifi and fantasy TV and movies. But none of that mattered, because it was going to be awesome.
And it was awesome.
Ten years later, we're still crafting and refining our unique blend of taiko drumming, laced with just the right amount of artisanal nonsense. What we thought was going to be a one-time-thing at a sci-fi convention has become a staple at many local events, conventions included. If you had told us then about all the things we’ve done up to now, we’d have dismissed it as fantasy. Or perhaps optimistic sci-fi.
Harisen Daiko is ten years old today!
Who's up for decade two?
And For seconds we took an Anime Detour
And for our next gig, we performed at Anime Detour
Our second gig of 2022 followed hard on the heels of the first, that same week on Saturday. We returned to Anime Detour for the second time with our “Inside Taiko” presentation/performance designed to share and educate the glory that is making very loud noises collaboratively.
We’re already looking forward to what we can do for this audience next year.
First Gig of 2022
We’ve had our first performance of the year at Countryside Elementary
We've had our first gig of 2022, at Countryside Elementary School's Celebration of Cultures. This was our third time at the event, and we're grateful to be part of their festivities - sharing taiko with the students and their families.
It was a lot of fun, and we're looking forward to performing for more audiences as the year goes on.
Decathlon Accomplished
Harisentients poised to take on ten taiko tasks to support the TCA
Well, we did it!
We Decathloned! Decathalated? Decathetated? Not sure...
Regardless, we finished our Behatted Taiko 5K for TCA last night.
Watch our Facebook album for photos and video over the next week or so, but what we have now are the before and after shots. Guess which is which.
Better yet, YOU CAN STILL DONATE to support the TCA, and support taiko in North America!
Follow the link to our donation page to encourage more of this sort of madness.
The Behatted Decathlon is Coming
We've been practicing in person for four weeks at an outdoor venue, and plan to start meeting indoors in July. We hope that this will get the rust out of our joints and build up our endurance again, making sure that we have a Decathlon, not a Decathloff.
That’s right, we are supporting the Keep TCA Running 5K, and we still need your support.
https://give.classy.org/HarisenDaiko
Please like and share this post, and if you can, donate to support taiko!
Finally to those of you who may insist that a decathlon is not a 5K, we ask that you support us in our madness and the TCA and its mission, respectfully offering this by way of explanation:
A Behatted Taiko Decathlon for The Keep TCA Running 5K
The Keep TCA Running 5K is an event in which participants will run, walk, jog, hike, climb, drum, or anything else that is the equivalent of 5K in order to raise funds in support of the Taiko Community Alliances. TCA is an amazing resource for the taiko community, and the source of the grant that allowed us to bring you Issho.
Harisen Daiko will be participating by attempting a Behatted Taiko Decathlon. Beneath a glorious variety of headgear, we'll perform 10 activities in two hours or less. Visit our campaign page to find out more, and please consider donating. No amount is too small, and all donations are appreciated.
Statement on Atlanta Shootings
Harisen Daiko names and condemns the white supremacy, racism, and misogyny that fueled the murder of eight people—including six Asian-American women—in Atlanta, Georgia last Tuesday. Our deepest condolences go to the families and loved ones of the eight victims: Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, 33; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; Yong Ae Yue, 63; Paul Andre Michels, 54; and Daoyou Feng, 44.
We also grieve with the wider Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, who have experienced a dramatic spike in anti-Asian discrimination and violence since the beginning of the pandemic, a surge fed by the racialization of COVID-19 as the “China Virus.” This recent increase in violence against the AAPI community is only the latest in the United States’ long history of anti-Asian racism and misogyny and is inextricably intertwined with the systemic racism that also dehumanizes, exploits, and destroys Black, brown, and Indigenous people and communities.
The following resources are intended to spark conversations surrounding white supremacy and anti-Asian racism. We stand in solidarity with all those working to name, condemn, and dismantle white supremacy everywhere.
· For Educators: Speaking Up Against Racism Around the Coronavirus
· How Racism & Sexism Intertwine to Impact Asian American Women
· Talking to Young Children About Race & Racism
· Bystander Intervention to Stop Anti-Asian/American and Xenophobic Harassment
· Coalition of Asian-American Leaders: Take Action Against Anti-Asian Racism
Authored by Marit Hanson in collaboration with the members of Harisen Daiko
Homemade Craft Katsugi/Okedo
Taiko groups have found lots of different ways to cope with the pandemic. Some have been streaming concerts, others posting videos and doing online workshops. While we’ve done some of that, we also wanted to come out of seclusion with more than we entered with, so we decided to make our own Katsugi/Okedo drums and learning to play them.
We did our earliest experiments following the example of Genki Spark (making three shime and an okedo), but when we got serious this last year, we took further inspiration from Taiko Rabbit Unicorns from Outer Space, and everybody made a drum.
Since we began production later in the year, not all of us have had the time and weather for decoration, but already you can see some decorated drums, and the makings of quite a few more awesome finished pieces. One notable piece of ornamentation many of us have applied are vinyl decals (as seen on drum heads and some drum bodies), produced using our own art by one of our members.
You can expect an update later in the year when more decoration has occurred, but we thought we’d share out work in progress.
In memory of Robert (Bob) Sauer 1953-2020
We were sad to learn today that Bob Sauer died on December 1st, this last week.
Bob was an active member of the taiko community long before most of us took our first taiko classes. He experimented with joining Harisen in the early days, soon after our first performances, and has been a regular donor, moral support, and has been nothing but encouraging from day one. We still have the collection of resources he gifted us on taiko, tradition, and his plans to create a taiko group called Nimachi-Kai.
Bob was a recognizable, and consistent part of our local taiko community. We know that we here at Harisen Daiko will not be alone in missing or mourning him.
PeopleFest! Starts Today!
Harisen Daiko is proud to be part of this virtual community celebration. Join us online at the link below, and learn more about all the other things this event has to offer by visiting the main event page:
https://www.edenpr.org/community-education/community/peoplefest
Where you'll find us, among the other visual and performing artists:
https://www.edenpr.org/community-education/community/peoplefest/featured-visual-performing-artists
The Yamato Taiko Workout
Want to keep fit? Like a bit of taiko? Yamato taiko may have just the thing for you.
GPS emergency fundraiser is off to a good start
We're off to a good start to achieving the Geek Partnership Society's emergency fundraising goal, but we still need your help.
As a partner of GPS, a longtime renter, and a firsthand observer of everything GPS does for our community, we're dedicated to helping them reach it by the end of July. But we're just one of many organizations that rely on GPS to accomplish our missions and goals.
Here is an incomplete list of the organizations and clubs that use GPS' facility and resources, and will be losing not only a place to meet, hold events, store their stuff, build things, and film segments, but a refuge and a home.
Anime Twin Cities (ATC) / Anime Detour
CONsole Room
Convergence Events / CONvergence
Harisen Daiko
MN Furs / Furry Migration
Minnesota Science Fiction Society (Minn-StF) / Minicon
Minnesota Stocks, Debentures and Bonds (MSDB)
Podfication
Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) Barony of Nordskogen
Please support GPS with a donation today.
#saveGPS
Help us save the Geek Partnership Society
Something you may not know about Harisen Daiko is that we rely heavily on the Geek Partnership Society (GPS) to do nearly everything we do as a performing group. Specifically, we rehearse, plan, create, and polish our performances (as well as much of our pre-COVID media) there.
GPS is in trouble, and we are doing everything we can to make sure we keep our home-base intact. If you can, please help with a one-time donation to stabilize things long enough for them reconfigure for greater future stability.
Thank you in advance in keeping one of the remaining pillars of our local geek community, and our home, strong.
A smile amid adversity
While we continue the struggle for justice and equality it's important that we all keep the pressure on. Stay engaged, stay informed, buy, hire, and VOTE to support BIPOC.
To bring a bit of a smile to people's faces as the fight goes on, we did this thing in partnership with some taiko friends from San Diego Taiko.