In January 1993, a group of like-minded young and mid-career performers of traditional Japanese music and dance got together and created Tokiza. Their aim was to create new group venues and markets for their music and dance, while maintaining their individually high standards of excellence.

As I often point out in this column, it is not unusual for individual performers to work to create new audiences and repertoires. What is unusual about Tokiza is the cooperation involved. Membership cuts across the strict boundaries of genre, nationality and style that are so prevalent in Japan.

Tokiza is deeply involved in reaching out and offering the best of Japanese music to Japanese schools in educational workshops and seminars. Another exciting aspect of the Tokiza concerts is the originality of the music and staging.

Tokiza consists of performers from such Edo Period theatrical traditions as nagauta, Kiyomoto and Tokiwazu, chamber music such as koto, jiuta song suites and shakuhachi music, song and narrative biwa music, festival music and traditional buyo and jiuta-mai dance. Rarely has one the chance to experience such a wide variety of traditional genres in a single concert, and the concerts are produced in such a way that one sees the threads of commonality running through all the Japanese performing arts, without sacrificing the integrity of the individual forms.

Their upcoming concert, "Musical Banquet of the Gods," promises to be one of their best.

Japan is a pantheistic culture, with deities residing in every aspect of nature and the cycle of the seasons. Accordingly, every genre of Japanese music has pieces which celebrate or describe the deities. Tokiza's concert will feature a pantheon of Japanese deities as they are celebrated in various genres: "Sanbaso" for the shamisen, "Bentenzai" for the biwa, "Isuzugawa" for the koto and "Tamatori" for jiuta-mai dance. The concert will also feature a section where the piece "Sanbaso" is analyzed into rhythm and melody, with an invitation to the audience to participate in singing the instrumental parts.

Shakuhachi player David Wheeler is one of the founding members of Tokiza and will be appearing in the above concert. He is presently based in Colorado, but periodically travels back to Japan for concerts and appearances. Wheeler will be doing his own solo concert the day after Tokiza's concert. Mixing fluent Japanese with his native English, he explains the music, instrument and pieces in humorous and informative ways to create an entertaining and inspiring evening.

"Kamigami no Kyoen," 6:30 p.m. Dec. 21 at the first-floor hall of the Edo-Tokyo Museum (outside Ryogoku Station, JR Sobu Line). Admission 1,999 yen. For more information call Tokiza Office, (03) 3461-1953.

"Shakuhachi Dream III," 7:30 p.m. Dec. 22 at Cafe Terrace Green Valley, 1-15-12 Tamagawa Denen Chofu, Setagaya-ku, (03) 3722-3802 (seven-minute walk from Toyoko Line Denen Chofu Station, near the Tamagawa Denen Chofu intersection on Kanpachi, across from Checker Motors. Admission 2,500 yen, children 500 yen. One drink included. For more information call Bright One, (03) 5485-3802.

Seiho Tomita is a master of jiuta, the shamisen-accompanied vocal music of the Edo Period, performed for intimate and elite gatherings of aficionados. Originally, song was the most important aspect of jiuta, but as shamisen techniques became flashier, the pieces evolved into long affairs with short sections of song juxtaposed to lengthy sections of intricate instrumental interludes.

Tomita is a master of both the sung and the instrumental aspects of jiuta. As an unsighted person (most of the masters of Edo Period shamisen and koto were blind), he has an uncanny ability to create a sense of tonal depth and space in the instrument while bringing alive the narrative contexts of the song. His Dec. 19 recital will feature three jiuta pieces in three styles: a solo, a trio with koto and shakuhachi and a special appearance with bunraku puppeteers who will "dance" to the lyrics of the final jiuta piece.

Tomita Seiho Jiuta Sokyoku Enso-kai," 5:30 p.m. Dec. 19 at the National Theater Small Hall. Admission 4,000 yen. For information and tickets call (in Japanese) Seiwa Kai (03) 3303-1332.

Yoko Nishi is a young koto player who specializes in contemporary music. Having studied with the late Tadao Sawai, she graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Geidai) and has embarked on a career of highly acclaimed recitals and appearances in various musical programs. For this recital, she has commissioned a series of pieces from contemporary Japanese composer Mamoru Fujieda.

For the past few years Fujieda has worked with plants, using micro-sensors to catch the minute electronic waves emitted from their leaves. Based upon the data gathered, he creates melodies for koto tuned in just intonation, based on the Pythagorean cycle of fifths. The result is an eerily beautiful melody. Nishi will present a new series of works, accompanied by Ko Ishikawa on sho.