Kioto Aoki is a taiko artist descending from an okiya (geisha house) performing arts family in Tokyo –called Toyoakimoto– with roots dating back to the Edo period. Her musical practice maintains a balance of retaining the artistic and aesthetic integrity of traditional Japanese music with a musical flexibility that extends beyond the measures of cultural preservation. Her playing is informed by the Japanese aesthetics of ma, while challenging the common misinterpretation and beliefs of percussion as rhythm, and often uses stoic gestures of sonic textures, abstracted soundscapes and embodied phrasing that incorporates choreography as part of melody.