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June 26, 2000

SAKURA: THE WORK THAT GOES INTO A FESTIVAL

I survived the 28th annual Sakura Matsuri, or Cherry Blossom Festival.

Over the weekend, I served as the master of ceremonies on the main stage for the two-day event, which is the Japanese community's chance to share our culture, crafts and cooking with Denver's general population. The festival was a success. People were exposed to a variety of performances from traditional folk dances and taiko drums to Japanese dogs and martial arts.

As in previous years, when it comes to crowd pleasers, the audience was most entranced by taiko drumming.

I'm always amazed at how much work goes into such an event. There are literally dozens of volunteers who pull off the production, and a core of people who have been anchors for the planning and execution of the festival for years. Even though the Sakura Matsuri has been held for 28 years, and many of the pieces seem to drop in place as routine, in actuality the event is practically reinvented every year. Even such basic tasks such as the ordering of the tents and the stage construction, the closing of the street along the east block of Sakura Square to accommodate the festival's vendors, contacting vendors, making sure the food gets made by the many volunteers who cook in the days before the festival, even the hanging of promotional signs for the festival ahead of time, have to be remembered and assigned.

This year's Sakura Matsuri ran smoothly, both outside on the street with the stage and vendors and inside the Denver Buddhist Temple and an upstairs space on the Sakura Square mezzanine, where cultural displays and demonstrations were held. I was surprised to find that once the schedule was worked out, most of the performers even stuck to their time slots and didn't run over into the next act's limited time. All I had to do was babble a bit about the next act, make some announcements, urge the audience to check out all that the Japanese community has to offer, and tell a joke or two to keep their attention from drifting.

One measure of success for the festival is seeing all the non-Japanese there learning about Japan, but I also wondered how many Japanese Americans are seeing traditional dances or hearing taiko drumming for the first time. You can't take for granted that someone who looks Japanese and has a Japanese name is as interested in my culture as I am. In fact, I'm often reminded of this fact when I meet non-Japanese who are more familiar with and educated about Japan than some JAs I know. Many participants for Sakura Matsuri, including volunteers, vendors and performers, are non-Japanese, and embrace the culture earnestly and wholeheartedly. Many of these non-Japanese are deeply involved in the community and are part of every event.

Another measure of success is the size of the crowds that come out for the entertainment. And as in previous years, when it comes to crowd pleasers, the audience was most entranced by taiko drumming. This year, there were three taiko groups that participated: One World Taiko, the Ogden Buddhist Taiko Group and the Denver Buddhist Temple's own Denver Taiko ensemble. During each of these groups, audience members came to the side of the stage asking if they can could buy CDs of this music (both One World Taiko and Denver Taiko have a CD available).

Second in popularity -- and a surprise, considering how many martial arts dojos were represented -- was both days' demonstrations by local martial arts groups. Featured were Denwakan Karate, Denver Buddhist Temple Aikido, Enshin Karate, Foothills Budokai (for an impressive demo of swordplay called Iaido), Aikido Nippon Kan, Wado Kai Shudokan Karate, Colorado Aikido Association. It's a tribute to the popularity of Asian martial arts (and this list only included some Japanese traditions, never mind Chinese styles such as the many variations of kung fu) that the audience was attentive for and appreciative of every group.

Towards the end of both days I also introduced two types of Japanese dogs -- the popular, bear-like Akita and the smaller, fox-like Shiba Inu ("inu" is Japanese for dog), so audiences even got to meet native Japanese animals.

My one disappointment is that I didn't attend the Saturday night Obon street dance, which featured an Okinawan classical dance group as a warmup. I heard the dancers were wonderful, and the Obon was well-attended, but I got too much sun and couldn't stay.

But the weekend overall was a blast. Even the weather cooperated, although the clouds threatened and spit a few drops Sunday. Amazingly for Colorado's mercurial climate, the deluge held off until five minutes after the final act, Denver Taiko cleared the stage and the festival was over. The skies opened and the downpour began, but the crowds had already dispersed and the vendors were already packing up.

The thunder of the drumming must have held the rain at bay just long enough.

You can visit Denver Taiko online at http://www.denvertaiko.org, and One World Taiko at http://home.earthlink.net/~oneworldtaiko. You can also see photos from the Cherry Blossom Festival at AsiaXpress.