ABOUT US

Mission Statement

The Claremont Colleges Psyko Taiko is a 5C organization that seeks to share the Japanese art of taiko drumming by combining both traditional and innovative elements. Our members are from all five of the Claremont Colleges-- Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps.

“Taiko,” which means “big drum” in Japanese, originated around the 6th and 7th centuries as a form of traditional Japanese culture and entertainment. Later in the 20th century, taiko drumming developed into its own unique Japanese American art form in North America. While we observe many of the traditions of taiko, we also focus on the creative and interpretive elements.

Our group is named “Psyko Taiko” because in English, “psycho” means crazy, and in Japanese, “saiko” means great... we aspire to be both! We want to make Taiko a joy to watch, because it is a joy to perform.

We practice every Saturday at 10am in the Multi-Purpose room of the Gold Student Center on Pitzer's campus. Feel free to stop by if you are interested; we would love to have you.  :)

Group History

The Claremont Colleges Psyko Taiko was founded in the fall of 2003 by Daniel Hayman ’07, for his disappointment in the absence of a taiko group at the Claremont Colleges. Since then, the group thrived by playing fondly on packaging-taped five-gallon paint buckets for almost six years. In the spring of 2009, the group finally finished a two-year construction process of creating five real taiko drums, made from wine barrels and raw cowhide. The final step of "skinning" the drum heads was achieved with the very generous assistance from the UCR Senryu Taiko group-- we are very grateful!