Gallery » Shuhei Yamamoto

Shuhei Yamamoto is a welfare worker and Taiko drum player.

“Taiko has a huge impact on my way of living. When I started taiko at the age of 9, it was just ‘fun.’ But I started thinking seriously about it when a friend who plays taiko in a different group asked me, ‘Why do you play taiko?’ Taiko is the traditional craft of the people alienated in Hisabetsu Buraku. It started with a wish of the local adults who wanted to offer an activity that their children could be proud of. Although I did not understand it well in my childhood, Taiko was also a symbol of the liberation movement in which my parents and seniors fought against discrimination. Taiko introduced me to the way many such people have lived.”