UI Japanese Program celebrates Japanese art and culture with bunkasai event

Traditional Japanese performances and activities, including taiko drumming, onigiri-making, and karate, were celebrated at Bunkasai at the Iowa City Public Library.

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Samantha Murray, Arts Reporter

Tucked inside a small room at the Iowa City Public Library, people swarmed booths celebrating Japanese culture for bunkasai on Nov. 1, put on by the UI Japanese Program. 

Filled wall to wall with a variety of booths, a small slice of Japanese culture was exhibited at each. At one booth, first-year Shelby Mutter demonstrated onigiri-making. 

“Onigiri is rice balls,” she said. “You can fill it with fish, and you can put seaweed around it. It’s pretty traditional. It’s pretty common to eat these normally in Japan.” 

Tanis Soleto from the Japan America Society of Iowa was at the event to teach about a variety of traditional Japanese instruments. He introduced attendees to the art of taiko drumming, showed how to play the bamboo flute, called shinobue, and demonstrated playing the shamisen, an instrument similar to a banjo. 

“The big thing about taiko drumming is in Japan it’s always associated with festivals,” Soleto said. “That’s why I was compelled to be a part of this event, because it’s not a Japanese festival without a taiko drum.”

Other booths included demonstrations of origami, paper folding; yukata, traditional Japanese festival clothing, fittings; kendama and chopstick racing, two types of Japanese games; matcha tasting, and calligraphy. 

Related: UI Japanese program hosts first cultural festival 

Before the end of the event, the booths were cleared away for the setup of a piano, upright bass, and drums. Jazz pianist and composer Masa Ishikawa came to the front with bassist Jacob Pembelton and drummer Gianua Neville, ready to perform two of his own compositions. 

“I’m always grateful to have the opportunity to perform for people,” Ishikawa said. “We say ‘arigato,’ thank you.”

After his performance, there was an hour of student and other special guest performances celebrating Japanese culture. 

Three students sang modern Japanese pop songs, causing the crowd to wave their phone lights and clap to the beat of the song. One student gave a traditional Japanese comedic storytelling performance called Rakugo, speaking fully in expressive Japanese while the translation appeared on a screen. 

The special guest performances included a taiko drum performance, a physically demanding and attention-grabbing karate demonstration, traditional Japanese archery called Kyudo that wowed with poise and precision, and an interactive dance performance called Sooranbushi. 

“I did bunkasai when was a high school student, but I didn’t do anything cultural,” Ishikawa said. “I was more about how many people we could bring, not so much about introducing culture… This ties to a little bit of how I have changed my ideas about heritage or identity of who I am as a Japanese person. I did things because they were normal —  I didn’t realize it was unique to my culture.”