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Triangle Project - Yoko's Artist Statement |
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Yoko Fujimoto is a
performing member and principal singer of Kodo, the Japanese taiko ensemble from Sado. Her exploration of "voice" through her "Voice Circles" and building relationships with Japanese communities outside of Japan have become commitments for Yoko’s work as an individual and as a member of Kodo. She first met taiko groups in the Japanese communities in the US when she was a touring member of Ondekoza in the 1970’s. Since then, she has taken a deep interest in Japanese American history, culture, and the Japanese Americans’ connection to taiko. Yoko has traveled twenty-four times to Japanese communities abroad including the US, Canada, Cuba and the Dominican Republic where she has conducted workshops, collaborated, and performed in concerts as a soloist, and as a member of Kodo, Hanayui and Ninin-Angya.
"I am Japanese, yet, I feel a connection to the Nikkei experience (people of Japanese ancestry born outside of Japan). I grew up in postwar Japan, at the end of the American Occupation, when Japan’s history was dramatically changing, and it is only recently that I am interested in uncovering the core elements of what makes me Japanese. If I can do this, it may help me better understand myself and people of other ethnic backgrounds, and to also understand what it is to be human."
--Yoko Fujimoto
--KODO
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| Updated: 10/5/05 |
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