Taiko in the Buraku Community: Human Rights and Creative Expression

Catalog description

This short course explores the potentiality of taiko playing as a method to help create an inclusive society, with a particular focus on the activities of taiko groups from the marginalized Buraku community in Osaka. The students will learn why taiko playing has been important to the community in the context of their struggle for liberation and changing nature of discrimination. Weekly workshops on taiko playing will be offered as an integral component of the course, and the students are encouraged to use this hands-on experience as a foundation to envision how the body-based artistic expression can be a tangible force in social and political movements for human rights.