NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

Oakland native, Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, has been entertaining audiences with her koto music for over 50 years. A celebration of 50 years of koto music will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 20, at the Lakeside Theater, 300 Lakeside Drive in Oakland.

This unprecedented event brings together musicians and koto players from Japan, Canada and parts of the U.S., as well as Muramoto’s students and friends.

The distinguished artists who will join in the celebration include Shigeo Tachibana, shakuhachi master from Chiba, Japan, and Linda Kako Caplan, Canada’s premiere koto master. This special event brings together koto masters from different schools: Shoko Hikage (Sawai School), Tamie Kooyenga (Todo School) and Michiyo Koga (Miyagi School), coming together and performing, something that rarely happens in Japan, due to koto’s traditional rules and social decorum.

The concert will also be a reunion, as it will bring together koto musicians who were part of Muramoto’s Murasaki Ensemble almost 20 years ago. They are: Lita Kazuho Buttolph, Portland, Oregon; Carol Kasumi Takao, Tempe, Arizona; Melinda Kazumari Nakagawa, Marina, California; and Michelle Kazuakimi Suwabe, San Diego/San Mateo. They will be joining Murasaki Ensemble members Jeff Massanari, Matt Eakle, Vince Delgado and Alex Baum.

Muramoto continues a heritage of music which has its roots in the American concentration camps of World War II. Her mother learned the koto when she was a young girl at Topaz from Haruko Suwada, and at Tule Lake from Mitsuko Sanemitsu Oda.

Muramoto learned from her mother from age five. As her mother’s koto school grew to over 70 private students, Muramoto would assist in the recitals, and eventually achieve her teaching “Shihan” credentials in 1976 from the Chikushi Kai in Fukuoka, Japan, with Yushusho honors.

In the past 50 years, Muramoto has been privileged to perform and work with many great musicians, artists and celebrities. She has taught hundreds of students, and trained teachers, such as her son, Brian Mitsuhiro Wong, and Felicia Kazuou Bock, both of whom recently passed their teaching examinations with special honors.

As Muramoto continues to teach and perform, she has also focused her attention towards the research of traditional Japanese artists of the American concentration camps.

After the signing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which resulted in a flurry of research about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, she was surprised to learn that there is little documented about traditional Japanese arts during this period. Muramoto has been conducting interviews and collecting artifacts of this era, with the hope of shining a light on this little known but important aspect of the camps. Because of these artists who continued to practice their arts in the face of suspicion but love for their craft, they were the foundation which later kept the Japanese culture alive in Japanese-American communities.

Each selection performed at this concert will represent an important time in Muramoto’s musical journey, with the purpose of honoring those teachers who have come before her, and who passed on their knowledge and expertise. She also hopes that with this concert, she will encourage the continuance of this musical and cultural legacy through her colleagues, new teachers and her students.

Co-sponsored by Murasaki Ensemble Productions, J-Sei (www.j-sei.org) and Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto Koto Studio.

Parking will be complimentary in the Kaiser Center garage.

Tickets are $15 general, $10 students and seniors with ID; and are available by PayPal through Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto’s web site www.skmkoto.com; or by check made payable to: Murasaki Ensemble Productions with your phone number and address; send to 4026 Woodruff Ave., Oakland, CA 94602 by March 6.

Tickets can also be purchased at the door with an email reservation to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please bring your printed confirmation to will-call.