June Kuramoto in concert at The Rose, Pasadena.
In Japanese, ichigo ichietranslates to “One chance, one opportunity.” This is the theme of the Arigato event, a program celebrating the noted koto musician and 2024 NEA National Heritage Fellow June Kuramoto, on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 2 p.m. in the Tateuchi Democracy Forum at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), 100 N. Central Ave. in Little Tokyo.
Tickets are $50 ($40 for JANM Members) and are available at janm.org/events.
“This is myichigo ichie, my one chance, one opportunity, and we need to grasp it, or it may be gone,” states Kuramoto, who is best known for her work with the groundbreaking Sansei band Hiroshima. She is taking this opportunity to thank her friends and family and, in return, they thank her for being a musician who defined Japanese American culture and a gifted and generous artist who has given so much back to the community.
Chris Komai, former public information officer at JANM, will emcee this multimedia tribute co-sponsored by JANM, the George and Sakaye Aratani CARE Award, and UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. Kuramoto and her family, friends, students, colleagues, and artists that she has collaborated with over the years will be featured in this special event.
Bay Area koto teacher and film director Shirley Muramoto and composers Derek Nakamoto, David Iwataki, and Dan Kuramoto will join June Kuramoto in a conversation about her life and career of over 50 years. In a special panel discussion, Kuramoto and her siblings Tracy Okida, Julia Carlblom, and Eimie Des Marais will explore the Okida family’s early lives as both immigrants and Sansei growing up in Crenshaw, a hub of Japanese American life in the 1960s and ’70s.
Clips from “Cruisin’ J-Town,” a 1975 documentary by Visual Communications that is now part of the Library of Congress National Film Registry, will be screened, accompanied by a discussion with June Kuramoto, Dan Kuramoto, and the film’s director, Duane Kubo.
Kuramoto’s protégé Emily Kinaga Wong on koto and her brother Brandon Kinaga Wong on guitar will perform Kuramoto’s signature song “Thousand Cranes.”
The event will close with a tribute to Kuramoto’s contributions to the community presented by Doug Aihara, president of Aihara & Associates Insurance, and Chris Aihara, former executive director of Kuramoto the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC), and a recognition of her 2024 National Heritage Fellowship.
A reception catered by Don Tahara’s First Street Cuisine will immediately follow the event.
Kuramoto emigrated from Japan to the U.S. as a child in the 1950s and was raised in the diverse Los Angeles neighborhood of Crenshaw. As a vibrant young kotoist, she was a featured player in numerous classical koto concerts in Little Tokyo. Influenced by soul music and rock ’n’ roll, she experimented with combining the traditional koto with contemporary music, eventually creating Hiroshima, a pioneering Grammy-nominated Asian American band that blended the sounds of the koto with keyboards, sax, shakuhachi, taiko, drums, guitar, bass, and vocals.
Over her five-decade career, Kuramoto’s recording credits for television, film, and stage include “Heroes,” “The Last Samurai,” and the musical “Sansei.” Her work as an individual and as a co-founder of Hiroshima has been honored by the Smithsonian, U.S. Congress, State of California, and City and County of Los Angeles. Kuramoto served twice as an artist-in-residence at the JACCC.
She served as president of the Koto String Society, a nonprofit group that produced shows featuring up to 100 koto performers accompanied by a full symphony orchestra. Today she gives of her time freely to teach a group of seniors and to mentor up-and-coming koto artists.
Kuramoto is an in-demand solo artist at community events like the annual Day of Remembrance, a time to reflect upon the years of suffering by Japanese Americans during World War II.
More information at www.hiroshimamusic.com.