Aimachi is a Tenrikyo church based in Nagoya, Japan. Outside Japan, Aimachi is most known for its marching music and color guard ensembles. A selection from their 130-member marching band compete internationally as an indoor percussion ensembles, indoor marching ensembles, baton twirling, and winter guards. The group rehearses at the Aikyo Church outside of Nagoya in Handa City.
Aimachi Band
The Aimachi Band was started in 1962 with four members. The founder of the band, Kiyokazu Sekine, is the son of Aimachi's founder and continues to serve as the group's director. In 1998, the Aimachi marching band became the All-Japan National Champion in the All-Japan Marching and Baton Twirling championships for the first time in their history. They have gone on to win in January 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007, December 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2023, and performing in exhibition in December 2007 and 2010. They also won the 2002 WAMSB World Championship for Marching Showbands in Chiba, Japan.
Since 1990, Americans on Aimachi's instructional and design staff have included Gordon Henderson, Mitch Rogers, Michael Gaines, Jim Campbell, Tim Fairbanks, Erik Johnson, Scott Kretzer, Brett Kuhn, Jim Moore, Martin Rhees, Dean Westman, William Plenk, Christian Carichner, Stephen Mason, Aidan Ritchie and Kevin LeBoeuf.
In July 2011, the Aimachi Band traveled to Switzerland to perform at the Basel Tattoo. In May 2012, the Aimachi Band celebrated its 50th anniversary with a show performed at the Nagoya Century Hall entitled "Evolution." Other international performances have included those in Thailand, Taiwan and Shanghai.
Indoor percussion
This group performs in many competitions across Japan, the Winter Guard International championships, and other exhibition performances throughout Asia. At WGI Percussion, they placed 3rd in 2000, 2006 and 2008 in the Independent World Division. A group celebrating their cultural origins, they deviate from conventional battery percussion by adding taiko drums, shime-daiko drums, and the odaiko drum to a traditionally western activity. They add many elements from their award-winning Winter Guard into their performances, including flags, rifles, sabres, batons, and dance sections to offer a visual package unique in the percussion circuit.
Percussion at WGI Independent World Class
2000 (3rd Place)
2003 “Onimusha – The Voice of the Soul” (6th Place)
2006 “Go” (3rd Place)
2008 “Drum Roll” (3rd Place)
2010 “Ice” (7th Place)
2013 “Ninja - Shadow Warrior” (6th Place)
Winter Guard
Aimachi's winterguard uses conventional flags and weapons, but also adds the unique baton twirling to the performance. Their 2007 WGI bronze medal performance featured World Champion Baton Twirler Seishi Inagaki. Their history in WGI color guard competition is as follows: 1996 (18th place), 1999 (10th place), 2002 (10th place), 2004 (7th place), 2007 (tying for third in the Independent World Championships along with Blessed Sacrament) behind Fantasia and Pride of Cincinnati, 2009 (3rd place), 2012 (4th place), 2015 (4th place), and 2017 (2nd place).
Color Guard at WGI Independent World Class
1996 “KODO” (18th Place)
1999 “Candide” (10th Place)
2002 “Appalachian Morning” (10th Place)
2004 “MINUANO” (7th Place) with Seishi Inagaki
2007 “My Heart and I” (tied for 3rd Place) with Seishi Inagaki
2009 “Beloved” (3rd Place)
2012 "Hana" (4th Place)
2015 "1000 Kranes" (4th place)
2017 "May the Music Never End" (2nd place)
Winter Guard International Winds
In May 2014, the Aimachi Band performed at Winter Guard International Championships in Dayton, Ohio, as a WGI Winds exhibition group. On April 17, 2016, Aimachi won the WGI Winds International World Division with a show entitled "Ascension," becoming the first group from outside of the U.S. to win any division at WGI Finals since its inception in 1977.
History
Introduction
From its beginnings as a small jazz band called the Merry Young Man Band, the Aimachi Band has become one of the best-known marching bands around the world. The Band's founder was Sekine Kiyokazu, who continues in the role of director to this day.
The foundations from where the Band developed from are closely tied to the introduction of the Tenri religion to the Nagoya area by Sekine Kiyokazu's father, Sekine Toyomatsu. The elder Sekine moved to Tokoname outside of Nagoya in 1923 to visit families in the area that were interested in the Tenri religion. In 1926, he moved into Nagoya and began holding services in a small rented house. In 1930, as the church began to grow, he moved into another small house on the grounds of what is now the main Aimachi Church in Nagoya.
Sekine Kiyokazu Early Years
On January 23, 1943, Sekine Kiyokazu was born in Nagoya. Sekine was exposed to music at a very young age. His father was a strong proponent of introducing traditional Japanese music into the Tenri church services. His father also really enjoyed attending kabuki performances, and his mother's family was involved in building traditional Japanese instruments used in the performances. So music was all around the young Kiyokazu from the very beginning.
As an elementary school student, Sekine's music teacher, Mr. Watanabe, taught him singing and how to play the xylophone. Influenced by one of his friends who played marimba, Sekine later attended an after school program, taught by Suiho Yoshikawa, that specialized in teaching students to play the marimba.
In 1952, at the age of nine, Sekine entered a xylophone contest that was broadcast live on a local radio station. His third-place finish in the contest encouraged him to continue his study of music. One of the experiences that made a strong impression on Sekine was a display by the local fire department. In addition to a dazzling water demonstration by the fireman, they also had a band that performed and started to make Sekine think that he would like to lead a band someday.
Aimachi Band Beginnings
The Aimachi Band came into existence at a time following World War II that Japanese culture was greatly influenced by the presence of American military bases throughout the country. All things American, whether it be sports (baseball, which had first been introduced to Japan in 1872, had a surge of popularity following the war), movies or music, became very popular throughout Japan. American military bases all had radio stations broadcasting music such as jazz, American popular music, and band music.
Following World War II, the Tenri religion in Nagoya quickly grew in membership, and in 1955, the present day Aimachi Church was built. In addition to religious services, the Church began to offer a variety of clubs for activities such as singing, karate and other sports. In 1962, as a 19-year-old Aichi University student studying law, Sekine Kiyokatsu became the director of all of these activities for the Aimachi Church. It was at this time that Sekine formed the Merry Young Man Band, a small combo that played jazz and popular music. The name arose from one of the beliefs of the Church that being happy, or merry, is a very important aspect of a person's life.
The success of the Merry Young Man Band led Mr. Sekine to want to organize a concert band. After talking to Aimachi Church members about it, they donated enough money for Sekine to purchase 15 instruments. The only problem was that he didn't have anyone who could play these concert band instruments. About the same time, he met Mr. Nagasaka who had played in the band at Meiden High School in Nagoya, and who wished to continue playing, but he didn't have his own instrument or a group to play in. Mr. Nagasaka told Mr. Sekine that he had 14 friends who were graduates of Meiden High School that also wanted to play in a band.
So these 15 Meiden High School graduates, none of whom belonged to the Tenri religion, started coming to the Aimachi Church to play in a band conducted by Mr. Sekine. When this band performed, it would sometimes be known as the Meiden High School Alumni Band and at other times as the Aimachi Church band.
As the band progressed over the next year, most of the Meiden High School alumni continued to play and Aimachi Church members started to join. By October 1963, the band purchased its first set of uniforms for the group that included 13 Meiden alumni and six Aimachi Church members as well as baton twirlers. The Meiden alumni began giving music lessons to many of the young members of the Aimachi Church as more and more church members joined the Band. The Band was soon involved in marching in local parades in addition to the concert performances.
International Influences
Genkichi Harada, who had served as a tuba player in the famed NHK Orchestra, conducted numerous clinics around Japan about band music. Sekine attended one of these clinics and the two soon became friends. As a member of the NHK Orchestra, Mr. Harada had made several world tours and knew many prominent musicians around the world whom he would often visit later on his own. Sekine accompanied Harada on one of these trips to London to visit Harry Mortimer, a famous English composer and conductor of brass bands, and Philip Jones, conductor of the internationally renowned Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. Meeting such distinguished international musicians inspired Sekine to continue to develop his skills as a teacher and conductor. Mr. Harada, who later became the executive director of the Japan Marching Band Baton Twirling Association, also helped guide Mr. Sekine during this period.
A major event that promoted the growth of band music in Japan was the World EXPO held in Osaka in 1970. One of the bands featured during that event was the Purdue University Band from Lafayette, Indiana. The performances by the Purdue Band, an in particular the Band's “Golden Girl” Selita Sue Smith, had a lasting effect on the 64 million people who attended the EXPO. Around this same time, Mr. Sekine attended a clinic in Japan held by Mr. Thomas Davis, a percussionist who was also the Director of the Marching Band at the University of Iowa from 1968 to 1972.
Sekine's first trip to the U.S. was to see a marching band contest in Enid, Oklahoma in about 1970. During this trip, he also visited the Ludwig Drum Company in Chicago. Harada encouraged Sekine to travel to the U.S. to follow Drum Corps International events, which he started to do on a regular basis.
Era of Growth
An important moment in the development of the Aimachi Band came in 1970, when the Tenrikyo Young Men's Association invited the Band to perform at an event in Tokyo at the Nippon Budokan, a famous arena that was built to host the judo competition at the 1964 Summer Olympics events but has also hosted numerous other events such as indoor marching events and rock concerts, including those by groups such as the Beatles, Pearl Jam, Ozzy Osbourne, the Doobie Brothers and Journey. For this performance, the Aimachi Band designed its first field show using Japanese popular music and traditional block formations. The success of this performance led to discussions with Mr. Harada to organize, in March 1972, a marching band association for the bands in the midsection of the country, which was part of the All Japan Marching Band Association (in 1979, the name was changed to the All Japan Marching Band and Baton Twirling Association). For the next few years, the Aimachi Band would perform in Nagoya at events hosted by this Association in a non-competitive festival format, along with other bands from the area.