Taiko Taikai Mission Statement
The North American Taiko Taikai endeavors to enrich the taiko community by providing a platform where taiko players can show their passion, inspiration, and dedication to the art form.
What is a Taikai?
Taikai (tournaments) are events in which practitioners of a particular artform come together and demonstrate their skills in front of experienced judges. Such taikai events in Japan are hosted for taiko, shamisen, folk singing, and many other art forms. Judges examine the practitioners skills and rate their performance usiing a point system. While this seems like it would be a pretty typical “competition” experience where it’s an event based on “winning and losing,” it’s actually quite the opposite. A taikai is an important and healthy experience for two main reasons.
Challenge
Studies have shown that we excel not from practice alone, but from inspired, motivated practice. When we’re practicing at home or in study sessions, it’s easy to simply go through the motions, practicing the familiar routine with our awareness turned off. While repetition is important for development, an equally essential part of advancing our skills is being motivated enough to look at ourselves honestly and find elements which we can and want to improve (perhaps our rhythm isn’t precise, or our form could be tighter). In other words, we need to challenge ourselves. In order to make real breakthroughs in our discipline, it’s immensely important for our practice to be a force welling from within, so we feel the drive to challenge ourselves!
This is what makes taikai so special. As a participant, by simply knowing that you will be demonstrating your skills to an experienced panel, you automatically feel an instant urge to hone your skills to perform as best as you can. That feeling happens from the very moment you sign up! That inspired feeling continues during the months leading up to the event, as players feel the motivation to work on their technique and present as best as they can.
For many, this is one of the most significant aspects of taikai, much more than the results of who wins or loses. Preparing oneself for such an evaluation requires building awareness of one’s own abilities, and an honest commitment to examine the finer points in order to refine techniques. Many participants become noticeably better players in the duration from signing up to the end of the taikai. Whether they got first place or last place, everyone reaps the benefits of the inspired motivation to improve their skills. Those improvements and level-ups stay with them long after the taikai is over.
Community
Taikai are amazing bonding experiences for all participants, due to the fact that participants aren’t competing against each other, but rather demonstrating their skills directly to the judges.
Taikai are bonding experiences for participants to learn and grow as a community and individuals. We are not competing against one another but against ourselves to present our continual practice of connecting our mind, body, and spirit directly to the judges.
Taikai are amazing bonding experiences for all participants, due to the fact that participants aren’t competing against each other, but rather demonstrating their skills directly to the judges. Everyone is experiencing the same feelings – feeling the desire to give their best efforts, feeling the same butterflies before stepping on the stage, feeling the same relief after it’s over. This experience is something which only people who’ve participated in taikai can understand, and thus sharing the experience together is an incredible bonding experience which builds deep friendships for a lifetime!
Furthermore, as a practitioner in an artform, it’s very inspiring to be in an event where there’s a high energy of enthusiasm for the art. Everyone is there because they have gone through, or going through, the personal journey required for self-developing skills. And thus, being surrounded by dozens or hundreds of practitioners who’ve all gone through this self-reflective process, you become saturated with a “let’s do the best we can” attitude for the instrument everyone involved shares a love for. Such an overarching mindset instills a very happy and optimistic feeling in everyone participating.