Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, teacher and performer on the Japanese koto based in Oakland, CA, grew up listening to and learning how to play from her mother who was also a koto teacher.

Shirley received her Shihan koto teaching credentials with Yushusho (top score) honors, and DaiShihan masters credentials from the Chikushi Kai in Japan. Shirley has performed and taught the koto for over 60 years. Expanding the repertoire of traditional koto music through collaborations, arranging and compositions, Shirley plays the koto in various styles and genres. Shirley researched Japanese traditional performance arts in the World War II American concentration camps. In 2012, her project received a National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant to turn her decades-long research into the documentary film, “Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performance Arts in the World War II Internment Camps (2014).” The film aired on public TV and PBS stations in the U.S. and has been shown at universities around the world.

Shirley was inducted into the Bunka (Japanese cultural arts) Hall of Fame in 2012, and has trained 4 advanced students to expertise through the Apprenticeship Program from The Alliance for California Traditional Arts. As part of the Golden State of Song program administered by Freight and Salvage, Shirley is educating 4th graders in the Berkeley Unified School District about the history and the music of the WWII American internment camps. Since 2023, Shirley teaches a summer program koto class at the Morikami Museum and Gardens in Florida to students youth to adult.

The narrative which came from 120,000+ Japanese and Japanese Americans imprisoned in WWII American concentration camps was that Japanese Americans were not considered “American” even if they were born here. The result was the cutting off cultural practices in order to quickly assimilate into American life. They were ashamed that people did not trust them just because they were of Japanese heritage. Because of this, very few of us cultural practitioners of Japanese arts are left. It’s imperative that traditional artists strive to keep the arts alive in our communities. It’s part of our identity, to understand who we are.