DK: That’s correct, and that represents the 13 moons in a year. The bridges, which are moveable, represent the scales of a dragon. The head joint of the instrument represents the mouth of the dragon; the back is the tail. It’s a little over 6 feet long and there are, as you mentioned, 13 strings. Originally, they were all made out of silk and the bridges were all made of ivory. Given the blessings of technology, we no longer have to take ivory from a living creature. Bridges are now made out of plastic and the strings are made out of a composite. June still has her original grand mother’s Koto that she learned on starting at the age of six. June was born in Japan, but her mother and her brother and sisters moved to Los Angeles when she was six years old, she couldn’t speak a word of English, so for her, everything that she could understand revolved around when she started playing the Koto. She thought “I’m going back to Japan; this is a temporary thing; this is my connection to who I am, the Koto,” As time passed, going to middle school in Los Angeles and living in, categorically, “the hood,” all of a sudden everything was about the Temptations and other music. She started to think, “Gee, I wonder if I can play Smokey Robinson on the Koto?” The reason June got to learn how to play the Koto is because her teacher, considered the greatest Koto player in Japan, came to the United States.
Jazz Monthly: What was her name?
DK: She is alive today and living in Los Angeles, Kazue Kudo. She is the protégé of Michio Miyagi who is considered the greatest Koto player and composer in Japanese music.
DK: Michio Miyagi, and the Miyagi School is still the most famous Koto school in Japan. Michio Miyagi, who was a blind kotoist, was certainly at the very least the most famous composer for classical Koto music in Japan, his protégé was Kazue Kudo, and Kazue Kudo’s protégé is June Kuramoto… so that’s that legacy.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, she is really amazing on the Koto. Lets talk about one of the instruments you play. I know you’re a multi-instrumentalist. The flute… what is it called the…
DK: Shakuhachi
Jazz Monthly: Shakuhachi, I know that’s a five-hole bamboo flute.
DK: Right, it literally translates to a foot and a half, hachi is half, and shaku is foot, foot and a half.
Jazz Monthly: When did you start playing that Dan?
DK: I started playing it when I was in art school. I started out as a drummer… check that out… I played on a drum line in a drum corps in the boy scouts. In fact we took third in the nationals. We won California State Juniors three years in a row, and then I sort of burnt out on drum corps life because it was like… you had no vacation. You’re a drummer. You know how drum corps is; those people are serious.
Jazz Monthly: That’s real athleticism, you know you don’t just play the drums; you’re an athlete, right?
DK: Yeah, so anyway, I gave it up when I was like fifteen years old. I’m sixteen and I somehow talk my dad into letting me drive a car and start seeing girls; I’m getting out of this drum corps line. My older brother was studying to be a Jazz piano player, and I would hear him playing Jazz everyday on the piano at home. In junior high, I took band just so I could have a class to get out of taking other classes, (both laughing) and because I had a background as a drummer. The band teacher was a guy named Dave Smedley; he was the house piano player at a club in Los Angeles, a famous legendary Jazz club called Lighthouse. He re-instilled in me the love of music… the love of Jazz. He also put the fear in us that if you don’t sit in the pocket, you’re going to be here all day after school. So, I’m in East L.A. anyway; my roots were based on those things. I had those vibes in me, but then I walked away from music again.
I’m 19 years old now, and I’m living in San Francisco going to San Francisco State. Across the hall from me is a Jazz tap dancer. I get back into playing drums, but at that point I’m just playing a real tiny kit, you know: snare, bass, hat… that’s it… cause he’s a tap dancer; its all brush stuff. I kind of got back into music, but then I thought that this is not for me. I moved to Long Beach; I go to art school. While I’m in art school, my brother said, “We need to play some kind of instruments,” so we both got flutes. We figured it was the coolest thing to play because it was so little. You didn’t have to set up; you didn’t have to tear down. With the drums, you play a club gig and you’re the first one there and last one to leave. A flute player doesn’t have to do anything.
Jazz Monthly: That’s right Dan because I was still packing up the drums and you flute players were already going out with the girls, you were packed up already. (both laughing)
DK: You know exactly what I’m thinking. So, anyway we picked up that, and started to do like community benefits and fundraisers. I met June and that just changed my entire, my world, everything because she was very serious about learning music that was all about cultures. I got interested, and I was like how could we cross this over to make a statement that would embrace all of the things… going back to: Dave Smedley in junior high school, learning the clave, playing with a Jazz tap dancer… all these things.
I became totally immersed for the first time in my own musical culture, and I found a great shakuhachi teacher. He was willing to put up with my madness and teach me the instrument, (both laughing) and he taught me from the standpoint of the culture: about how organic instruments are and how you relate to it. I was set on a path of discovering a lot more than music, it was about: life, nature… the soul. I don’t mean to get so heavy but that made me so passionate about it that I was just 24/7 studying and learning.
Jazz Monthly: You’re not getting heavy because that’s culture you know. This is culture… Japanese culture.
I know the title of course is Legacy, and I know the definition of legacy is kind of: money or goods or even property bequeathed, handed down, something that can also kind of never be taken away. So in a big way Legacy is a perfect title because it’s your band Hiroshima handing down to your fans those great tunes that they’ve loved over these thirty years, right?
DK: That’s very kind of you. To us, Legacy is what we owe this country. What we are about in terms of: art, music and culture to this country. We’re an American band, and we take great joy in being an American band, and we feel this is the debt we owe to American music which is a cultural component that we can bring to American music that’s a little bit different… but its our responsibility, the greatest thing about this country as I believe in this band is… its diversity.
