About me
Diana Wu (she/her) is the founder and director of Naruwan Taiko, based in San Diego, California. Before founding Naruwan in 2008, her taiko journey began in 2006 with UC Berkeley’s Raijin Taiko (then Cal Taiko). In 2017, Diana served as the Chair of the Host City for North American Taiko Conference in San Diego. She also spent some time on Sado Island as a selected participant of Roots of Kodo (a deep immersion apprenticeship-like program for people outside of Japan, spearheaded by Eri Uchida). In 2019, Diana joined the kaDON team, Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten’s American branch and in 2020, she was a featured artist at HERbeat, the first taiko concert production starring primarily women taiko artists from North America and Japan. In May 2024, she was one of the judge panelists for the North American Taiko Taikai Competition. As a taiko artist, Diana's style is heavily focused on evoking a large stage presence, not just through facial expression, but also through movement, sound, and voice!
