Introduction
The introduction places North American taiko in the context of Asian American identity, the Asian American movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and the history of taiko in Japan. The chapter further defines the scope and aims of the study, explaining how the book seeks to highlight gender, race, and sexuality as key lenses through which taiko can be understood. The chapter defines and complicates what “Asian America” means and how it intersects productively with embodied performance, ultimately arguing that taiko players from a range of backgrounds perform Asian America through their involvement in the art form. The chapter provides a brief history of taiko in the United States and offers an overview of the remaining chapters of the book.