UC Riverside

My dissertation examines music, migration, and belonging in Salvador, Brazil through the lens of two percussion ensembles: Grupo Cultural Wadō and Nataka Toshia. Wadō is a taiko (Japanese percussion) ensemble comprised of both Nikkei and non-Nikkei Brazilians, who are in the majority. In contrast, Nataka Toshia is a samba and samba-reggae group that performs during Carnival and is comprised of Japanese expatriates, tourists, and backpackers. Through oral history interviews, participant observation, and documenting performances and music practices, I explore histories of Japanese migration to Brazil and Bahia, exploring new kinds of migration related to art, music, and lifestyle considerations. I consider how and why Bahians who were not Japanese descendants played taiko, discussing how multiracial Wadō members forged relationships with the Bahian Nikkei community and engaged in body practices meant to mold Japanese bodies and inculcate perceived Japanese values. I consider the possibility of a distinctly Brazilian taiko, noting that playing Afro-Bahian rhythms on Japanese drums clashes with ideas tradition and authenticity in some Brazilian taiko communities of practice, but it also challenges the idea of Nikkei as eternal foreigners in Brazil. I explore the close relationships between LGBTQIA+ communities in Bahia and Japanese pop culture consumption, showing how Japanese governmental campaigns increased access to anime and manga in Latin America. I describe collaborations between Brazilian taiko players and Japanese sambistas. I argue that narratives from and about Japanese tourists and expatriates playing samba in Brazil is closely related to anxiety about loss in Japan because of Westernization, as well as widespread discourses about Japanese mimicry and racial hierarchies in both Brazil and Japan. Finally, I analyze intragroup dynamics, considering how group musical practices may contribute to peaceful relations between individuals through intercorporeal relationships. Ultimately, I argue that music practice spaces are utopias and heterotopias; they are spaces apart from mainstream society where communities of practice imagine better worlds and work to create peaceful relationships with one another without denying or erasing difference. My research contributes to literature on music, migration, and transnationalism, examining the experiences of a migrant community in Brazil since 1908 and its impact on host communities. It is also part of a broader conversation on cultural appropriation, outsiders, and who can play whose music in culturally specific contexts. Further, transcreations (extended interview texts) in my dissertation are an experiment and possible model on how to present multiple voices in a scholarly work, where researchers can highlight life stories of interlocutors and place them in conversation with one another.