Adriana Hernandez ‘27

February 19th, 2025

The Beat of our Drums: Recapturing Histories and Heritage of Oberlin College Taiko

As a historian of Oberlin College Taiko, Adriana Hernandez ‘27 archived documents and recordings owned by OCT. The collection of materials with which she worked illuminates gaps in OCT's collective memory–mainly existing taiko traditions in Northeast Ohio, AAPI membership, and networks with AAPI organizations and leaders. This project produced recorded, transcribed oral histories from Icho Daiko founders Roy and Aiko Ebihara and alums and a digitized archive of OCT documents. The attention to systematic historical and cultural preservation aims to authenticate the stories of those who constitute taiko heritage and, on a practical level, create sustainable archiving procedures for Oberlin College Taiko to record their history.

Weeks 1 and 2: The Archive

The first two weeks of my project were dedicated to cataloging an archivist’s treasure trove of physical documents. Which I discovered completely by accident in the Fall of 2024, turning over some unassuming dusty tarps to uncover two storage bins chock-full of printouts and pictures. Most of these materials date from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, detailing OCT’s early history and progenitor group Icho Daiko, founded in 2003. These documents, including histories of past performances, narrative of activities, grant funding, and membership, illuminated gaps in OCT's collective history, particularly about the cultural imperatives behind OCT's inception, AAPI membership and networks, and existing taiko and AAPI traditions in Northeast Ohio. Skimming what I found, two objectives arose towards preserving and remembering this history: 1), create a complete inventory of physical artifacts both methodologically precise and approachable for any OCT member to interact with, and; 2) find long-term storage to conserve these files, including making digital copies.

Modeling a template from Mia Brito ‘24’s ArchiveCo, I made two spreadsheets for the two collections that were naturally arranged: one well-organized Icho Daiko-authored collection (one of the bins; see Figure 1), and one somewhat miscellaneously collected OCT-authored collection (a bin, some folders, and loose finds from the closet.) Moreover, making digital copies by scanning each file provided these collections three separate locations of storage: OCT’s Google Drive, a hard drive I purchased, and a filing cabinet I bought to house the originals. As a day-to-day this entailed naming and describing each day’s documents in the spreadsheets, using the flatbed scanner to digitize them all, uploading these files to their digital locations, and jotting my reflections on a Google Doc shared with OCT. An especially frigid Oberlin winter made the trek from Mudd to my South Hall abode extraordinarily adventurous. I was grateful for the extra whimsy.

Figure 1: Both spreadsheets start with an introduction sheet explaining the collection, archival terminology, and a to-do list for future archiving. This is the introductory page to an Icho Daiko-authored collection I dubbed The Motherload.

Figure 2: An example of the content and layout of the spreadsheets. Each series constitutes a sheet in the document, and each subseries occupies a handful of rows within them. This is part of the OCT Closet Collection, which dates largely to OCT’s pre-COVID history.

Week 3: The Google Drive

Oberlin College Taiko, a student-run organization navigating institutional account policies, faces an urgent challenge in digitally preserving its legacy. With the majority of its materials housed in a shared Google Drive folder and member accounts subject to expiration, critical documents risk disappearing, especially given an archival gap prior to 2017. To counter this, the third week of the project focused on reorganizing the Drive: transferring alumni file ownership to OCT’s organizational account, duplicating and converting documents into PDFs, and streamlining the folder’s dual role as both archive and active database. Additionally, sorting OCT’s gmail by tagging messages more methodically and recovering attachments further uncovered media stored across platforms like DropBox, Tumblr, and Flickr. 

Week 4: The Interviews

I opted to combine my archival approach with conducting semi-structured interviews with seminal figures in OCT’s history, drawing questions on themes found during the archival process. In the end, three recent OCT alumni graciously agreed to participate in these interviews. These interviews were critical in filling gaps regarding OCT’s COVID-era activities and their legacy, including performances at Colors of Rhythm and Asian Night Market. More critically, given OCT’s changing membership demographics each year, and that each member’s unique identities formulate their experiences with the group and the art form, these interviews challenged inherited narratives pertaining to Asian American identity, involvement at Oberlin College, and membership in North American taiko. The hours I spent with these alumni were truly valuable and are available to current OCT members in the Google Drive.

Conclusion and Cleveland Asian Festival

While the final products of the Winter Term accomplished many of the project’s goals and objectives, an archivist’s work is never finished! This project will continue to evolve beyond that one-month scope, filling in research gaps and taking steps toward long-term historical transmission. For one, there are still many entities within the materials that require identification, such as people, events, and dates. Receiving and maintaining knowledge from alums, community members, and Oberlin College is necessary on top of instructing current members on historian procedures contrived from this project. And importantly, recognizing AAPI persons and communities who have contributed - and continue to contribute - to taiko traditions in Northeast Ohio is tantamount to our integrity as performers of an Asian art form.

Unfortunately, I was unable to conduct interviews with the Ebiharas with the time I had. But because of the records Icho Daiko left behind, OCT was eager to celebrate their legacy in another way. Cleveland Asian Festival (CAF) is held annually during Asian American/Pacific Islander Month in Cleveland’s AsiaTown to celebrate the Asian community in Northeast Ohio. Icho Daiko was among many local and national performing groups that attended its first year in 2010. Learning about the festival through archives, OCT was eager to pay homage to Icho Daiko - and broader North American taiko tradition - some 15 years after they attended. Please enjoy this video of Yatai, our opening piece for the show and this culminating experience.

Yatai (w/CAF Introduction) - Oberlin College Taiko @ 2025 Cleveland Asian Festival