Hato-bue Choir

Community-engaged project, 2023

Hato-bue Choir is a community-engaged project led by Cindy Mochizuki and guest artists at Tonari Gumi.

11 members of Tonari Gumi, staff and volunteers took part in a series of 4 artist-led workshops on breath, wellness, drawing, ceramics and performance storytelling to create their own individual ‘hato-bue’ flutes. The hato-bue flute is a traditional Japanese Mingei collectible object that was seen as lucky talisman gifted to children for good health. 

Four workshops (Breath, Design and Drawing, Building with Clay and Painting & Performance) were led by artists and guided by volunteers and facilitators resulting in a juried exhibition of the participant's work. Partcipants also participated in a live performance of their flutes for a small audience at their centre with guest artists, Amanda Sum and Takeo Yamashiro. 

Lead artist and producer: Cindy Mochizuki

Ceramics Workshop Collaborator: Julia Chirka

Breath Workshop Facilitator: Manami Hara

Production Coordinator/Translations: Asumi Oba

Production Assistant: Cherry Wen Wen Lu

Cinematography and Editor: Yasuhiro Okada

Photographer: Sophia Wolfe

Piano: Amanda Sum

Shakuhachi: Takeo Yamashiro

Tonari Gumi Participants: Megumi Anderson, Miyako Jiang, Fukiko Kamida, Mayumi Kudo, Rosalie McAllister, Tazuko Mochizuki, Keiko Parker, Evelyn Suzuki, Shuji Takeda, and Yumi Thompson.

Tonari Gumi Volunteers: Mikiko Ishida, Sam Wilson, Jared Cummings, Adam Abraham, Crecien Bencio, Mie Morita, Mina Sakurai, Kyler Ochiai and Hoaki Xu

Special thank you to Masako Arima, Rie Bucci and Tonari Gumi


Hato-bue Choir was produced with financial assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts.

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