Interviews

1. The origin of name Kishi Bashi

2. His Shin-Issei parents

3. On being Japanese and American

4. On his songfilm Omoiyari

5. The reason for creating the songflim Omoiyari

6. On music

(b. 1975) Musician, composer, and songwriter

His Shin-Issei parents

They met in Seattle, as students, University of Washington.

My dad’s from Mie-ken, Mia Prefecture, Iga, which is like the ninja, the famous Iga ninja clan is from, it’s from that village. When Japan was divided, both of the clans had ninjas, like assassins, like espionage people.

And then my mom’s from Okinawa, which is a whole other place. My mother was part of the government program – the U.S. government – because Okinawa belonged to the U.S. government for a period of time after the war so I think she was part of their “appeasement” to the people of Okinawa, to kind of give them these things like a full scholarship. And my mom was like…basically…if the U.S. government hadn’t offered her that, she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get her master’s, or continue education because women in are not…it’s really not…it wasn’t a priority to have an educated…

They’re naturalized now, they got American citizenship because they like living here. But my dad, he watches satellite T.V. – T.V. Japan. I don’t know, I think they really enjoy living here but they definitely understand that they’re Japanese.

families identity Japan migration Okinawa Prefecture parents

Date: August 21, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Sharon Yamato

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Kaoru Ishibashi, who performs as Kishi Bashi, is a Shin-Nisei musician, composer, and songwriter, born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. He attended Berklee College of Music and became a renowned violinist.

His film project, Omoiyari (Empathy), led him to places such as Manzanar, Tule Lake, the Japanese American National Museum, and Japan to learn about Japanese American and Japanese World War II history. Omoiyari explores how empathy and the lack of it has played key roles in our modern quest for social equality. (March 2019)

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First work in America (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

Company in Tokyo burned down (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman