Big Crowd Enjoyed Traditional Taiko Drummers, Pounding Rice, and Making Mochi at Annual Japanese Festival This Past Weekend

A typical grey and cool January day couldn’t keep hundreds of islanders and visitors from attending this past weekend’s Mochi Tsuki – the Japanese New Year’s festival – at Woodward Middle School.

“It’s no longer just a Japanese American event, it’s a Bainbridge Island event on the level of the Rotary Auction or the Fourth of July Parade,” says Clarence Moriwaki, a long-time member of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community (BIJAC), the organization that puts on the annual celebration.

The 36-year-old festival attracted throngs of people – parents, kids, grandparents and individuals – to watch the Japanese traditions of making Mochi, pounding rise, and listening to Taiko drummers unfold all around them.

Moriwaki, who was recently re-elected to the Bainbridge Island City Council, was instrumental in helping to develop the island’s Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. He stood on the Woodward Middle School stage and marveled at the size of the crowd, estimated to be close to 2,000 people.

“All these people are here and they’re taking pictures and asking questions (about the Japanese internment),” he says. “That’s what’s great about this event.”

The stage was crowded with people viewing parts of the award-winning “Kodomo No Tameni – For the sake of the children” exhibit that features the story of how and why 276 Japanese-American citizens or Nisei were forcibly removed from Bainbridge Island in 1942.

Nearby was a spinning wheel where attendees could answer trivia questions about Japanese-American history and win prizes. For Moriwaki, one of the highlights of last weekend’s festival was the model showing the future Visitor Center, along with the existing Memorial park grounds, including the Wall, on which the names of individuals and families who were taken from their homes – with only a few days notice – are inscribed, and the Departure Dock, where 80-plus years ago Bainbridge citizens of Japanese descent were led off the island and onto a nearby ferry. Most didn’t return until after World War II and some never did.

“We thought the Visitor Center was going to be the Crown Jewel of the Memorial,” says Moriwaki. “(But) the Wall’s the thing. The Visitor Center (will be) a supporting feature.” BIJAC’s sister organization, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Association is currently raising funds to help complete the Visitor Center that is already underway, with a targeted completion date of this coming fall.

For Diana and Gary Davidson, the Mochi Tsuki festival is a bit of a trip down memory lane. The couple, who have lived on Bainbridge for nearly a decade, spent 17 years living and teaching in Japan on the island of Okinawa and on the Japanese Mainland. “I like to see them pound the Mochi outside,” says Gary. “It reminds me of (living in) Japan. We’d see it a lot. … Plus, the Taiko drummers are outstanding.”

Last Saturday was the fourth year in a row the Davidson’s have attended the Mochi Tsuki Festival. “They change it around (every year) and make it interesting,” adds Diana. “They do a nice job of promoting their organization(s).” She notes one factoid that she picked up during the day that might escape the ordinary observer. Apparently, there was an active Japanese community on nearby Vashon Island during the Depression. “They (operated) a farm – the Mukai Farm – and had 400 workers picking strawberries.”

Meanwhile, folks attending the festival could learn Origami, the art of Japanese paper folding; try their feet at Obon, a traditional Japanese dance; or make and eat Mochi, the sweet rice treat that generations of Japanese families and communities use to come together and wish each other good health and prosperity for the coming year.

Last Saturday at Woodward, Mochi was made in the traditional way–steaming sweet rice over an open fire – followed by pounding the rice by hand with traditional, handcrafted cherry wood mallets (kine) in a granite bowl (usu).Hundreds of people lined up to get a chance at making their own Mochi forming it into cakes by hand, and eating it while it’s still warm and sticky!

By far, the free festival’s biggest draw was the appearance of the Seattle Kokon Taiko drum ensemble, which performed two shows in the Woodward gymnasium to the delight of around 750 guests per show. Taiko is a synthesis of rhythm, movement and spirit whose origins are deeply embedded in Japanese culture and history.

Taiko appears in Japanese myths of origin involving the sun goddess Ameterasu. Paintings from medieval Japan depict Taiko encircling the head of the god of thunder. In olden days, it is said that village boundaries were set by the distance you could hear the taiko from the village temple. Taiko were used in peasant festivals to mimic the sounds of animals, wind, ocean, thunder, or fire in attempts to please or appease the gods.

Thirteen drummers, all dressed in traditional costumes, played and danced to three or four Japanese pieces, literally rumbling the auditorium with their exotic rhymes. New this year was the introduction of Shamisen, a traditional Japanese string instrument. A number of band members played the Shamisen and were accompanied by several flautist on one particular number.  A dragon completed the 45-minute show with several dances that thrilled both kids and adults. For more information on the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community visit: https://bijac.org/

Some information and pictured were gleaned from previous  stories on the Mochi Tsuki Festival that appeared in The Island Wanderer. Photos by Kevin Dwyer

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