Patrick Seki at age 22 in his U.S. Air Force uniform.
The Art of Shigin Through Patrick Seki:
A Distinctly Japanese American Journey
By Daijiro Don Kanase
Click to watch Patrick tell his story.
Unbeknownst to most Americans, within the aging Japanese American community, there is an incredibly vibrant group that routinely congregates to perform an ancient Japanese performing art known as shigin. Community leader and shigin master, Patrick Mitsuo Seki, leads this following that spans throughout the West Coast and Hawaii. Since the shigin community primarily communicates through phone calls and physical encounters, one cannot easily access the shigin community to observe or conduct a trial lesson. The mysterious and elusive shroud that hides shigin is simply due to the private nature of its practitioners. Nevertheless, by teaching one lesson at a time, Seki is on a quest to revive shigin to its heyday when it once flourished throughout the Japanese American concentration camps during World War II.
Patrick Seki performing shigin during a New Year’s celebration event in 2004.
What is shigin?
Shigin is an ancient Japanese art form of reciting poetry in a chant-like, vibrato-filled drawl. Listening to shigin is a mesmerizing experience that puts one into an awe-inspiring trance due to its sheer gravitas. The river of melodramatic vocals has the power to thrust its listeners back to the feudal era when samurai once flourished. Shigin was popularized within the samurai class starting in the early 1600s during the Edo period throughout the Tokugawa shogunate. The samurai class often recited shigin during rituals, ceremonies, and festivals.
Today, shigin is prevalent throughout Japan and there are several schools that teach it. Akin to various martial arts styles, shigin has a plethora of different styles. Some shigin styles use musical instruments such as the biwa, shamisen, or even a keyboard. Other styles focus on specific poetic themes. Popular shigin themes are love, death, war, nature, and the four seasons of the year. Although shigin in Japan is mostly popular among elders, there has been a resurgence among the younger generation as shigin competitions grow from the city to national levels.
Shigin’s beginnings in the U.S., circa 1900s
Depicted on the left, professional opera singer and master shigin instructor, Sadao Ara, taught shigin to thousands at Tule Lake Segregation Center, CA, circa 1943.
Shigin in the U.S. started in 1899 in Los Angeles by a Japanese immigrant, Shuusui Anzai. In the early 1900s, Anzai had a following of more than 150 shigin practitioners. One of Anzai’s disciples was a San Franciscan professional opera singer, Sadao Ara, who was the first Japanese opera singer in the U.S. By the 1930s, Ara masterfully blended his opera techniques with shigin to start his own style of shigin known as kokusei-style shigin.
During this period, Seki’s Nisei father, Miki Seki, befriended Ara. Initially, Miki Seki was not interested in shigin because he was busy with the hustle and bustle of daily life while raising a family with his wife, Chisae Rachel. In 1940, they had Patrick Seki, their third son. Seki’s father also studied advanced horology and eventually became the first Japanese American certified watchmaker from the Horological Institute of America.
In 1942, World War II changed everyone’s lives. Along with 120,000 other people of Japanese descent, mostly American citizens, the Seki family lived in America’s concentration camps for four years from 1942 to 1945. Seki initially spent two years at the Manzanar camp and then another two years at Tule Lake.
Patrick Seki in his U.S. Air Force uniform, age 22, circa 1962.
Shigin thrived in adverse, austere concentration camps
In the adverse, isolated, and austere camp conditions, Seki’s father suddenly yearned to learn shigin. Shigin provided a community, an escape, and an opportunity to learn a treasured Japanese cultural performing art. Seki’s father was sent to Manzanar with Ara, who taught and influenced him and more than 2,000 others over four years. They relished in the freedom and bliss that shigin provided. Ironically, the camps’ austerity was a catalyst for people to learn shigin and many other Japanese cultural performing arts like shamisen and biwa (stringed instruments), odori (dance), and enka (Japanese classical singing).
After the war ended, the Seki family no longer had a home in Los Angeles and begrudgingly renounced their U.S. citizenship. In 1946, the U.S. government deported them to Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan, where Seki’s father continued to repair watches for a living. In a sardonic twist, the Seki family endured discrimination and ostracization from Japanese locals because of their American roots. Then, the passage of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act reversed previously racist means of barring the Seki family from returning to the U.S. In 1954, after eight long years of purgatory in Japan, the Seki family finally came home to resettle all over again.
Returning to Los Angeles in 1954 at 14 years old, Seki had fond memories of listening to his father teach shigin in the after hours of their newly established jewelry and watch repair shop. Seki graduated from high school in 1959 and the next year enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Seki served for eight years as a radio technician but left the service after his father suffered a stroke. Upon his honorable discharge in 1968, Seki went to Southern California’s watchmaking school in Southgate, graduated and took over his father’s business in jewelry and watch repair.
Patrick Seki’s passion for shigin reflected reverence for his father
Following in his father’s footsteps, Patrick Seki repairs watches while conducting his shigin lessons afterhours.
Seki’s passion in shigin was deeply rooted in his relationship with his father. In 1969, at the age of 29, Seki fondly recalled repairing watches with his father. In the evening, friends came over to practice shigin. He thoroughly enjoyed the festive evening routine in the after hours of his father’s watch repair shop that involved friends, drinks and shigin. In this immersive environment, Seki quickly learned shigin from his father. For the next 50 years and counting, Seki has continued his father’s legacy as a jeweler, watchmaker, and shigin performer. To this day, Seki’s store name continues to maintain his father’s namesake, “Miki Seki.”
Today, Seki holds shigin lessons two to four days every week in the backroom of his shop. Seki is the master instructor of kokusou-kai shigin, which is the main shigin style and organization in the U.S. Most of Seki’s disciples reside in Southern California along with a group in Oahu, Hawaii. There are a total of six shigin organizations within the U.S., all with its distinct styles in pitch, music, and performance. About 300 shigin practitioners remain, most of them in their late 60s through 90s. As the art form fails to attract younger generations, the shigin community is quickly dying out.
Shigin uses ancient Japanese music notes, which accompanies the kanji characters in each poem. The shigin practitioner must read both the kanji and music note to sing its specific pitches, vibrato, and tones.
A popular shigin poem titled “Mount Fuji.” Notice the various music notes on the right of the kanji characters. The circle depicted on the top denotes the climactic pitch one must sing within the poem.
Shigin is dying
Shigin is dying in the U.S. because of three factors. First, there is no longer widespread anti-Japanese hatred that once magnetized the Japanese American community together. Although racism still exists, it is not as overt as in the past. Without a cohesive community, interest in shigin has declined.
Patrick Seki hosting his 15th year anniversary of his kokusou-style shigin organization, November 2019.
Second, shigin is difficult to learn, especially for non-Japanese speakers. Not only does it require a decent understanding of the Japanese language, it also necessitates an ability to read ancient musical notes that are nothing like contemporary, Western-style music.
Third, the art form is dying because people do not have easy access to a shigin community. Trying to find a shigin club is different from trying to find a gym or a music studio for singing lessons. Shigin clubs or trial classes are not posted on the internet.
Way ahead
Seki, now 80, is fully aware that he is fighting an uphill battle to revive shigin in the U.S. Nevertheless, he revels and thrives in his pursuit because he deeply enjoys performing shigin. In November 2019, Seki hosted the 15th year anniversary of his kokusou-style shigin organization that drew more than 100 performers and enthusiasts to the Sakura Gardens Retirement Community in Los Angeles. Attendees included performers from Oahu as well as the Deputy Consul-General of Japan, Matsuo Hiroki. The shigin performers’ enthusiasm and focus at Sakura Gardens was reminiscent of Seki’s young adult days when his father’s friends performed in their store. For Seki, shigin rejuvenates those memories in full bloom. He looks forward to each shigin practice with his aims set at an extravagant 20th year anniversary performance in 2024.
Various shigin practitioners performing at Sakura Gardens Retirement Community, November 2019.
The vibrant shigin community that routinely congregates to perform and listen to shigin, November 2019.