Japanese immigrants from Fukushima Prefecture brought the song "Fukushima Ondo" to Maui in the early 1900‘s. Many of the immigrants lived in the plantation village of Keahua and organized an informal group to play Fukushima Ondo for the annual O-Bon festival. In the "good old days", the group played the song for hours and people danced from sunset to early morning. Friends, relatives, and visitors of all ages, nationalities, and religions came to attend this annual festival.

Over the years, Maui Taiko founding member Kay Fukumoto has taught Fukushima Ondo to numerous taiko groups to include Mid-West Buddhist Taiko in Chicago (Illinois) , Denver Taiko (Colorado), San Jose Taiko (California), Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko (Nevada), Seattle Regional Taiko Groups (Washington), Genki Spark from Boston (Massachusetts) , Willamette University Taiko in Salem (Oregon), Phoenix area taiko groups (Arizona) and Odaiko Sonora from Tucson (Arizona). Mitchell Fukumoto, Kay‘s son now residing in northern California, also consulted and taught Fukushima Ondo to taiko groups at Mountain View Buddhist Church and Palo Alto Buddhist Church to perform at their local Obon festivities.

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