When Chieko joined Sado no Kuni Ondekoza, a taiko group in Japan, in 1976, she was not allowed to play taiko because she is a woman. Chieko encountered Japanese folk dance through the group and found her passion in dancing.
Chieko thought that there should be a way for women to express themselves through playing taiko and was determined to find out how. Eventually she developed her unique, feminine style of playing taiko with dancing and created her masterpiece Hana-Hachijo.
Chieko has an active solo career and has had many collaborations with artists and taiko groups all over the world including TaikOz in Australia.
In the audio, Chieko tells us how she started developing her style and why she's done it. Also Chieko talks about upcoming stages in Australia with TaikOz and the 40th anniversary of her career, which is going to be celebrated at a special stage in December in Japan.
