Biography
Koto musician, teacher, band leader, filmmaker
In 1976, Shirley received her “Shihan” degree (instructor’s license) with “Yushusho” (highest) honors from the Chikushi School in Fukuoka, Japan, and her “Dai Shihan” Master’s degree from the same school in 2000.
In 2012, Shirley was honored by the Hokka Nichibei Kai Japanese American Cultural Association of America by being inducted into the Bunka Hall of Fame for her life-long dedication to teaching and performing on the Japanese koto.
Shirley’s musical influences include koto masters Chikushi Katsuko, Kudo Kazue, Sawai Kazue, Eto Kimio and June Kuramoto. Growing up in Oakland, California, she enjoyed R&B, rock and jazz music, and also played the violin in youth symphonies all through her public school years which nurtured an appreciation for European and American classical music, as well. This skill also enables Shirley to arrange and compose new music for the koto.
A dedicated musician for over 60 years, Shirley strives to involve diverse genres of art and music in her performances. She teaches students privately and through virtual formats. She has experience teaching koto classes at local public schools and at UC Berkeley. She also composes her own koto pieces and is the leader of the world jazz fusion group, the Murasaki Ensemble.
For many years, Shirley has had an interest in researching Japanese traditional arts in the World War II concentration camps. Shirley’s mother learned to play the koto as a 10-year-old child at Topaz and Tule Lake camps. In 2012, a National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant was awarded to her project, “Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the World War II Internment Camps”. This research became a documentary film, completed in June 2014. Hidden Legacy has been shown nationally on public TV and PBS stations, screened at numerous community showings, and at universities in Japan and Europe, as well.
In researching and talking with artists from the camps, Shirley was inspired to dedicate her life and music to supporting traditional arts in the United States and throughout the world. Traditional arts are part of the American cultural fabric brought here by immigrants and which, in turn, became part of the American art scene. She continues to teach, demonstrate and perform in honor of those artists who came before her and passed on the arts to the next generation. In the summer of 2020, she started presenting virtual programs under the title “NextGen Geijutsuka” Japanese Cultural Arts”, featuring various artists who continue traditional Japanese cultural arts in America. In 2021 the SF Symphony sought her out to curate a program for the virtual CURRENTS series, where she chose songs that could incorporate the symphony instruments with Japanese traditional instruments in contemporary and jazz compositions, and worked with Kaoru Watanabe and Matt Wong who arranged the music. Shirley recently performed koto with the jazz harpist, Destiny Muhammad, at SFJAZZ. She continues to teach and study koto music for koto, shamisen and voice, with the hope and desire to encourage others to carry on these traditions in the United States.
Shirley teaches koto from her base in Oakland, California, and also in virtual formats.