Professor Frank Ricardo's Family Karate/Jujitsu/Kung Fu

Courageous Kids Club Trains With Taiko's Greatest Drum Master

The country's premier Taiko Drum Master was in Limerick this past Monday august 28, 2006. Grand Master Seichi Tanaka visited Ricardo's Family Karate's Courageous Kids Club (CKC), Maine's first ever Taiko Drum Dojo (Taiko school). While the CKC has other locations in Waterboro, Sanford, Brunswick, it was at Prof Ricardo's home Dojo in Limerick where Sensei Tanaka offered two seminars, one at 9:00 a.m. for beginners and another at 1:00 p.m. for more advanced players. Several people took advantage of this unique opportunity to learn Taiko from Tanaka, the recipient of The National Heritage Fellowship, the country's highest honor for the arts. Many local kids trained alongside college students from Bowdoin College and many others from around the state who learned about the seminars during Tanaka's performances at this years American Heritage Folk Festival in Bangor. Sensei Tanaka is the founder of Taiko in the United States. Tokyo-born and Nagano-raised, Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka arrived in the U.S. in 1967 at age 24. He established the fIrst Taiko dojo in North America one year later. Since the establishment of his school, Tanaka has taught over 10,000 students. Grand Master Tanaka and San Francisco Taiko Dojo maintain an energetic but disciplined performance style, which includes dance, music, martial arts, and philosophy.

Taiko is a Japanese form of ritual drumming known that combines percussive sound with physically demanding choreographic
movement. The history of Taiko is interwoven in the fabric of Japanese history. Regarded as sacred since ancient times, the drum was first used to drive away evil spirits and pests harmful to crops. It was believed that by imitating the sound of thunder, the spirit of rain would be forced into action. At harvest time, Taiko was joyfully played in thanks for a bountiful crop. Today, this spiritual aspect of Taiko has faded with the modernization of Japan. What was once an integral part of daily life is now just a festival relic.

However, a cultural renaissance has been taking place in Japan — a rediscovery of native arts plus Taiko's fusion with US Jazz rhythms after WW2. Today, every school child in Japan knows of Taiko and many corporate events feature Taiko drummers. With the dedication of a small number of Taiko masters and enthusiasts, it has been again popularized and is played in festivals throughout the world. The art of Sensei Tanaka group has reached a wider audience through such movies as Apocalypse Now, Rising Sun, Return of the Jedi and The Right Stuff.

Sensei Tanaka, having heard of the great success of Maine's first and only Taiko Dojo The Maine Thunder Spirits, Ricardo's Family Karate's own taiko ensemble, he wanted to come and spend a few nights in Limerick to meet them, enjoy their performance and teach them personally, adding his spirit to their drums. Tanaka was delighted with the powerful demonstration put on by Prof.Ricardo's kids club the Maine Thunder Spirits and has decided to take them under his wing. He talked to the kids about discipline, focus, practice and flowing with nature to become great drummers and leaders. If you are interested learning Taiko, contact Professor Ricardo at Ricardo's Family Karate at 793-8925 or visit on line at http://ckidsclub.com/. The Maine Thunder Spirits Taiko ensemble and, The Courageous Kids Club, which features 10-ft., acrobatic lions, a 40-ft., 7 player, dragon and Kung Fu martial arts are available for presentations, workshops and performances at schools, corporate, and other events.

Sensei Elaine Fong:

The Courageous Kids Club held a private workshop with Taiko Master Elaine Fong of New England Odaiko ( a professional taiko group from Boston). Invited members included individuals from Bowdoin Taiko (CKC's sister Taiko group at Bowdoin college in Brunswick Maine). CKC has trained with Sensei Fong before at a recent workshop in Kittery Maine.

Greely School:

Ricardo's Courageous Kids Club Family Karate demo team "The Cool Factor" demonstrated for 600 students at Greely Middle School in Cumberland. Greely was celebrating it's Japan day studies and CKC was there to demonstrate martial arts, taiko drumming, lion dancing and for the first time, a dragon dance. The dragon is 50 feet long and takes 8 people to animate it. The huge golden dragon moved through the room dipping twisting, turing and leaping over itself to the tune of "Magic Carpet Ride" The demonstration was 50 minutes long and had the middles school students on their feet, clapping, dancing, singing and cheering. The Cool Factor kept the showrocking, with techniques happening on two mats at the same time, and a kicking rendition of "We Will Rock You" on huge taiko drums in the middle of the martial arts show. Maine's one and only 50' kung fu dragon was purchase with the support in part from a local Chinese restaraunt "The Golden Palace" in Sanford. Their idea was to support the CKC kids and bring, wisdom, Chinese cultural education, and good
fortune to our local community.