St. Louis Osuwa Taiko

Grandmaster Daihachi Oguchi formed the original Osuwa Daiko in Suwa, Japan, in 1951. In 1986, Oguchi-sensei visited St. Louis (sister city of Suwa) to found St. Louis Osuwa Taiko. A year later, he donated drums. St. Louis Osuwa Taiko started out as a kids' group but has evolved to a nonprofit organization devoted to sharing taiko throughout Missouri and elsewhere through year-round performances, workshops and classes for children, adults, and seniors.

We also continue to build on our ties to Osuwa Daiko. We visited Suwa, Japan, in 2009 to play and study taiko and hosted Osuwa Daiko for a joint show in 2011 in St. Louis to celebrate the 25th anniversary of St. Louis Osuwa Taiko. We believe in preserving and fostering our sister-city relationship with Osuwa Daiko and Suwa, Japan, and acting as cultural ambassadors by introducing new audiences to taiko.

Our largest show each year is at the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden on Labor Day weekend. Thousands attend the festival, which has fun activities for all ages, including the Dashi procession, where children pull our Dashi, our portable drum stage on wheels, through the garden.