Roy & PJ Hirabayashi

Roy Hirabayashi, co-founder of San Jose Taiko (SJT) in 1973, recently celebrated 50 years of composing and playing taiko and the shinobue (Japanese drum and bamboo flute). For years of community-building through SJT, he and his wife, PJ, were awarded the 2011 National Endowment of the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. Roy has also received the SV Creates Legacy Laureate, San Jose Arts Commission Cornerstone of the Arts, and has been a mentor in the Alliance for California Traditional Arts Master Program. In 2017, he performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Library of Congress Noontime Series and continues to perform and conduct workshops internationally.

Roy’s influence extends far beyond his local community. He is a respected figure in the national arts community, having served on the boards for Western Arts Alliance, Japantown Community Congress of San Jose, School of Arts & Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza, and SVCreates. As a founding member of 1st ACT Silicon Valley, the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute, and the Taiko Community Alliance, he has left an indelible mark on the arts landscape. He is currently on the California Arts Council. His leadership has been recognized with the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley John W. Gardner Leadership Award and in the 2017 US-Japan Council Japanese American Leadership Delegation. In 2023, he received the California Arts Council Legacy Individual Artist Fellowship, and the Japanese government bestowed upon him the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun with Gold and Silver Rays, a testament to his global impact.

PJ Hirabayashi is a pioneer of the North American taiko movement. She is a practitioner, teacher, performer, and culture bearer of Taiko, the Japanese drum. She is the Artistic Director Emeritus and an original performing member of San José Taiko, the third taiko group to form in the U.S. in 1973. Her home is in San José Japantown on the unceded lands of the Muwekma Ohlone. It is one of the last three remaining historic Japantowns in the U.S. that has embraced taiko as a cultural expression of the community. PJ is a community-builder and a catalyst in amplifying the visibility, preservation, and vitality of San José Japantown.

Her signature composition “Ei Ja Nai Ka” is performed throughout the world; it commemorates immigrant life through taiko drumming, dance, and song. In 2008, she founded “TaikoPeace”, a movement to spread the kinetic energy, spiritual vibration, and pure joy of Japanese taiko drumming to inspire positive social change and a peaceful world. “Peace” is her acronym for “Partnerships, Empathy, And Creative Empowerment”.

PJ shares her work and passion for taiko with her husband, Roy Hirabayashi. In 2023, they celebrated their 50-year milestone for their taiko work. Together, they have been honored for their dedication and leadership in the arts in receiving lifetime achievement awards: “Artist Legacy Laureate” from Silicon Valley Creates, “Cornerstone of the Arts” from the City of San José, and the “National Heritage Fellowship for Traditional and Folk Arts” from the National Endowment for the Arts.

As Taproot artists, we will live through the cultural expression and vibrant, transformative energy of Taiko to remember and pass on the history, knowledge, and wisdom of our ancestors (indigenous and diasporic) to future generations with the values of respect, humility, integrity, perseverance, empathy, and gratitude. Foster well-being, personal/collective empowerment, connection, and community. And support the power of our cultural arts to come together in the spirit of celebration and healing of our humanity and place of Being and for co-creating a healthy planet and world.