Succession: Preserving Cultural Legacy Through Mentorship and Community Leadership
Alliance of California Traditional Arts (ACTA) and Roy & PJ Hirabayashi
Succession in the arts is not merely a matter of leadership transition but a vital process for ensuring that cultural practices, histories, and values continue to thrive. Succession planning is deeply personal and communal for traditional arts and cultural practitioners. It involves mentoring the next generations and passing on the art form's language, techniques, and spirit.
True succession is about sharing one’s life work so the legacy remains dynamic and authentic. Leadership is often shared across lineage, family, and community networks. Although useful, the nonprofit sector’s succession planning models do not always capture cultural transmission's organic, grassroots dynamics. Instead, we need flexible models. Culture bearers must share leadership roles to ensure that artistic practices remain vibrant and responsive to community needs.
The Alliance of California Traditional Arts Taproot Artists & Community Trust, and its new Taproot Fellowship, funded by the Mellon Foundation, repeatedly see the theme of succession being discussed in its cohorts. This fellowship is dedicated to honoring and uplifting accomplished traditional artists who serve as community leaders and catalysts for social change in the United States and territories.
In 2024, the multi-award-winning duo PJ and Roy Hirabayashi, co-founders and artistic directors emeritus of San Jose Taiko (SJT), celebrated 50 years of playing taiko, the Japanese drum. They were awarded one of twenty-five fellowships in the inaugural Taproot program. They perform, compose, and conduct workshops internationally. As Fellows, they received a $50,000 unrestricted grant plus an additional $10,000 to give to a chosen organization or individual in their community. They used it to offer a national taiko internship to college students who practice the art form.
Photo by Mark Shigenaga.
Roy and PJ shared their thoughts on succession.
“We stepped down from our leadership roles with SJT in 2011 to let the next generation of taiko leaders take over. As founding members, we felt responsible for ensuring the organization could continue to grow artistically and organizationally, even without us.
Succession is not just about a person leaving. Succession is about training everyone for new organizational leadership and creative roles. This is part of the training of SJT members; one must be both a leader and a follower and be flexible to change. We created SJT to learn and make a community-based art form from the Japanese American community and as an opportunity to empower ourselves as leaders within our community.
“We made a horizontal leadership model that rotated responsibilities among all the members. More experienced members were partnered with newer members to help lead the practices. All members were encouraged to compose and be part of the creative process. Stepping out of the leadership role was a challenge but an essential step for SJT and us to grow.”
Currently, our focus is on sharing the values and history of taiko in America. American taiko artists must understand the values of Japanese culture. We initially began taiko to provide a cultural activity for the youth in the Japanese American community. Taiko represents Japanese culture, ceremony, values, and music; it is now a performance art in diverse ways. Taiko gave young Japanese Americans/Asian Americans an opportunity to identify with their heritage and community. It has become the heartbeat of the Japanese American community - an outcome we did not expect, instilling pride and cultural enrichment. We witness the continual growth of intergenerational taiko in Japanese American communities.
As taiko quickly expands beyond Asian American communities, we want to prevent the erasure of Japanese American history, values, heritage, and culture from the foundation of American taiko.
As taiko gains broader appeal, we must recognize that cultural visibility does not always equate to cultural security. The same forces that celebrate diversity can also dilute its origins, especially in times of social unrest when communities of color face heightened vulnerability. The erasure of Japanese American history from taiko’s foundation is not just a matter of artistic integrity—it reflects a larger pattern of marginalization that has intensified in moments of national crisis, including the surge of anti-Asian sentiment during COVID-19.
COVID-19 not only spread a deadly virus but also racial hate and fear with Asian hate crimes across the country. Sharing our cultural values through the taiko is our way to help bring our communities together. We are concerned about all cultural bearers representing their practices in their communities and art forms. We believe communities like San Jose have a rich diversity of cultural practices that need the space and place to share their practice respectably. All culture bearers’ traditions, histories, stories, and wisdom are essential to America’s future.”
“The narratives of these practitioners reveal that succession in traditional arts is multifaceted. It encompasses the transmission of technical skills, the preservation of cultural language, and the passing on of communal values.”
Roy and PJ Hirabayashi’s deliberate choice to step down from leadership positions has allowed new generations to emerge, ensuring that taiko remains a performance art and a cultural anchor for Japanese American communities.
Succession in the traditional arts is a dynamic process beyond simple leadership transition. It is about fostering an environment in which cultural heritage can be shared, reinterpreted, and sustained. Roy and PJ Hirabayashi’s experiences and those of the Taproot Fellows provide valuable lessons on nurturing talent and building community through mentorship, education, and organizational evolution.
Roy & PJ Hirabayashi
“As culture bearers, these practitioners demonstrate that true succession is an inclusive, joyful, and ongoing commitment to preserving the legacy of an art form while allowing it to evolve with each generation. Their stories offer a blueprint for Grantmakers in the Arts, encouraging support for models of succession that are as organic and multifaceted as the traditions they represent and reminding us that in the arts, as in life, legacy is built by passing the torch with care, creativity, and collective responsibility.”
The last word lies with the artists of this story– who say, “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.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
PJ Hirabayashi is the Artistic Director Emeritus, former Artistic Director, and original member of San Jose Taiko (SJT), a world-class performing ensemble of taiko drummers. She is a pioneer of North American taiko, recognized in the international taiko community for her distinctive performance and teaching style that combines movement, dance, drumming, fluidity, joy, and energy.
Roy Hirabayashi is a champion for social justice, multicultural arts, and cultural preservation. He is a leader in the arts community known for starting organizations, fiscal management, fundraising, and empowering the next generation of leaders. He is a nationally recognized folk and traditional artist, composer, producer, and collaborator in international projects. Roy is a National Endowment for the Arts, National Heritage Fellow and an American Leadership Forum John W. Gardner Leadership awardee. Roy is most well known for co-founding San Jose Taiko, the preeminent taiko performing arts company based in San Jose, California, in 1973. He was active with San Jose Taiko as a leader, performer, workshop instructor, and composer until 2011. His signature instruments are taiko and shinobue (Japanese horizontal bamboo flute).
Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) is a statewide nonprofit organization that promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to thrive now and into the future by providing advocacy, resources, and connections for folk and traditional artists and their communities in California. Founded in 1997 by artists, arts administrators, and cultural arts enthusiasts, ACTA's mission promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to thrive now and into the future.
