They broke tradition, in a way, but in Japan they would be totally confined in a very strict rule of, you must play our music, you must stay with our school laws or codes. And my father thought, that was really silly! And he said, if you play koto with your brothers and sisters are music, and what difference does it make what school you belong to, you are enjoying the same instruments. And this was his attitude, and my mother’s, as well. And so, when they came here and they met other people that played, they said let’s get together, you know, and have a little recital or come to the house and we’ll practice together, and that’s what they did on the weekends.
Japanese Page
- 前の記事8. Issei worked hard to survive. Hope for Nisei to be the bridge.
- 次の記事10. My father’s correspondence with the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) makers in Japan
記事一覧
- 1. My Japanese parents, both musicians (shakuhachi and koto), experienced racism in the 1920s.
- 2. My parents shared music with neighbors while succeeding in the restaurant business in LA.
- 3. Janet Gaynor loved my parents’ music.
- 4. Why my father wanted to stay in the U.S., doing a houseboy.
- 5. Class segregation in my father’s home village in Okayama Prefecture
- 6. Sons of well-born Japanese (including her grandfather) came to visit America to see how it was.6.
- 7. My mother, also from a wealthy family, aspired to become a dentist in the U.S.7.
- 8. Issei worked hard to survive. Hope for Nisei to be the bridge.
- 9. My parents removed constraints on Japanese traditions in the U.S., playing and practicing with musicians from other schools.9.
- 10. My father’s correspondence with the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) makers in Japan
- 11. My mother, an Ikuta school player, had recitals with Yamada school friends.
- 12. Creative collaborations with dancers Fujima Kansuma and Bando Mitsusa.
- 13. Camaraderie among people in Japan Town, and their support for performing arts at Nishi Hongwanji auditorium, Nisei Week, etc.
- 14. Most children took lessons in some Japanese cultural arts in the pre-World War II era.
- 15. Facing severe racism in the L.A. area, returning from camp after WWII.
- 16. Chinese and Koreans distanced themselves from the Japanese to avoid racial discrimination.
- 17. Loved Hadda Brooks, an African American pianist-singer, appearing in “Brownsville,” formerly “Little Tokyo”.
- 18. Exposure to Western music through a college teacher in Fullerton, Anita Shepardson.
- 19. Studied ballet, tap, and finally piano from Mrs. Atkins in Fullerton.
- 20. A brother of my non-Japanese friend died in WWII, but their friendship continued.
- 21. Dilemma of being a Japanese American when two countries were at war, but everyone suffered on both sides.
- 22. My father said, “Remember, you kids, you are Americans!”, even though they were going to be put in the camps.
- 23. Great success of my parents’ Chinese restaurant “Tsing Tao” reopened after the war, was visited by celebrities (Lloyd Bridges, Betty Rhodes, Dolores Costello, John Barrymore, Laird Cregar) and written up in Variety magazine
- 24. My parents’ restaurant was run by my family, including brother, uncle, aunt, and a boy adopted from their Japanese friend.
- 25. My non-Japanese school friends wrote in her autograph book upon her leaving for camp, and some also sent her Easter gifts to camp.
- 26. My college music teacher kindly stored my parents’ musical instruments and later sent them to camp (Manzanar).
- 27. Power of music to lift spirits.
- 28. My father had taken the shakuhachi to camp, played, and taught it to his co-worker while working as a night watchman at the reservoir.
- 29. Music is a passion for life. Music can take you to a different world.
- 30. My mother started to teach koto in camp, but she only had two kotos. Makeshift instruments and devices were used for practice.
- 31. Recitals were held at the “mess hall,” involved many people in the preparation, and brought about happiness and peace among them.
- 32. Not only Japanese music but guitar, mandolin, ukulele, etc. were taught and performed. Records were bought from mail order catalogs.
- 33. Kimonos entrusted to friends upon internment were later sent to camp; the internees also bought fabric from mail order catalogs and made kimonos.
- 34. Koto music notations in camp; they were copied by hand and loaned among the internees.
- 35. My father had a stack of writing in Japanese about traditional Japanese music, yet had to burn it all before going to camp.
- 36. (2 segments) People made music stands for shakuhachi and koto so that they could sit on chairs to play.
- 37. (2 segments) My father took two or three shakuhachi to camp; there were many others who also brought shakuhachi into camp.
- 38. My father, who mostly played Miyagi Michio’s modern compositions, learned shakuhachi classics from Tamada (Nyohyo) in camp.
- 39. My mother played different kinds of shamisen music, such as nagauta (kabuki music) and kouta (short songs); her sister-in-law also played kouta.
- 40. A daughter of “kengyo” (Chihoko Nakashima) visited Manzanar from another camp (Poston) to teach “sangen” shamisen and koto and had a concert.
- 41. Chihoko Nakashima’s husband brought various entertainers from Japan to perform at Yamato Hall, a center of Japanese entertainment in J-town.
- 42. I asked my father to get her a Philco radio to bring to camp, which became her best friend.
- 43. My piano teacher’s husband offered to drive her family to LA where their relatives were before going to camp; last time she saw them because the piano teacher and husband died during the war.
- 44. For the first time in camp, the parents didn’t have to work, so they were enjoying learning crafts, music, etc.
- 45. Lillian Wakatsuki sang a solo part in the musical written by Mr. Lou Frizzell in camp. I was in the chorus. (Note: Lillian Wakatsuki is Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s sister. Jeanne wrote “Farewell to Manzanar”) (Note: Lou Frizzell was an American actor)
- 46. After coming out of camp, my father became a student of Senzaki sensei (Nyogen Senzaki, a prominent Rinzai Zen Buddhism monk in the U.S.) until he died.
- 47. School teachers and camp administrators lived in a separate area in nice homes and apartments and walked to camp from their homes. she never saw the administrators and his staff.
- 48. Coming out of camp, people were humiliated, rejected, and not served because of so much racism.
- 49. After the war, I went to college, while working full-time and continuing to teach music; it took 20 years to receive the college degree.
- 50. In prewar Little Tokyo, there were two department stores to sell kimonos and kimono materials, along with many other businesses.
- 51. Some Japanese from Japan opened nightclubs in Little Tokyo with female dancers from Japan to cater to the vets from Japan.
- 52. The Fox Studios needed Japanese Americans to play small roles. I played the role of the Japanese wife in “Go for Broke,” although it was cut.
- 53. Joined the musician’s union to play Japanese instruments for films, which paid for my college tuition. My father also played in many films such as “House of Bamboo.”
- 54. The worst part was that the boys were drafted from the camp to fight in Europe. Daniel Inouye said that their guns were taken away until they got to Europe.
- 55. (2 segments) My parents used to perform classical pieces informally with Chihoko Nakashima (a great koto master whose father was a “kengyo”) at each other’s house.
- 56. Shirley Muramoto talks about her son, who became interested in koto because of the modern music of the Sawai school, and eventually studied for a teaching degree.
- 57. After the war, so much opposition, even against the veterans because we looked like the enemy.
- 58. My parents played music every Sunday before work at their Chinese restaurant. People came to play with them, predominantly koto, but also shakuhachi and shamisen.
- 59. In the 1950s at an international music conference in Pasadena, Kayoko helped Nakashima Utahito, the founder of the Seiha school, and his daughter (Nakashima Yasuko).
- 60. Kayoko joined the Seiha school and began to introduce Nakashima Utahito’s compositions on the broadcast (KFAC). Many of my and my mother’s students got degrees from the Seiha school.
- 61. Broadcasts helped non-Japanese to be interested in our concerts, and they eventually occupied half the audience.
- 62. (2 segments) Bilingual MC with my father at our concerts, explaining the music’s historical backgrounds and differences from Western music.
- 63. Learned many new compositions from Shin’ichi Yuize and Yasuko Nakashima of the Seiha School to expand the concert repertoire.
- 64. Shin’ichi Yuize, a western trained Japanese musician, wrote many works for koto and shamisen.
- 65. Yuize and Yasuko Nakashima performed as guests and inspired me to continue koto.
- 66. Yasuko Nakashima stayed for two years, attending a Community College, and spent every summer with us, so our students of our and students of other schools got a chance to study with her.
- 67. Whenever we had notable shakuachi players, we welcomed everyone to listen to them regardless of what school they belonged to.
- 68. A renowned shakuhachi master, Watazumi Dōso (海童道祖), stayed with us for over a month. He played a 5 feet foot long shakuhachi and exercised with sticks.
- 69. My father had non-Japanese shakuhachi students, who had been attracted by our concerts. After long lessons, my mother served them Japanese lunch.
- 70. Staging of large ensemble works by Shin’ichi Yuize with former students, while performing for their fund raising in return.
- 71. (2 segments) Knowing Japanese helped me understand traditional arts deeper and explain them better in English.