On Saturday, I revisited the main San Francisco Public Library branch, and wandered downstairs to the American Irezumi exhibit. Note: the exhibit I think lasts until March 1st, 2026? So you still have some time to check it out if you are in the area!
I had already watched the videos, but there was a book I wanted to get more of a look at. The book is enormous, nearly 300 pages! I noticed: page 242 was torn out. ;( I already checked with the information booth too: the book is not published, so the only way to read it at the moment, is to sit down in the exhibit!
Maybe that will change in the future? I hope so!
However, I noticed a small group of folks filing into an adjacent room. After using the rest room, I entered the room wherein I learned that they were screening a documentary:
Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the WWII Internment Camps
(YouTube video link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDqKDexQRSg )
After the documentary concluded, one of the film makers, Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto (
https://skmkoto.com/) along with her son, Brian Mitsuhiro Wong (
https://bmwkoto.com/) answered some questions and performed some musical numbers on the ็ดใkotoใ(13 stringed Japanese zither, ancestrally derived from the Chinese ๅค็ญใgวzhฤngใ) and ๅฐบๅ
ซใshakuhachiใ(Japanese bamboo flute, also supposedly derived from Chinese antecedents circa the 7th or 8th century C.E.) somewhat known for being the preferred instrument of the ่็กๅงใkomusลใmasked mendicant monks of the ๆฎๅๅฎใfuke-shลซใFuke Sect of Zen Buddhism. Centuries before The Residents or deadmau5 would perform music in masks? The ๅคฉ่ใtengaiใmasks of such monks concealed their identities, as they played their music.
Anyway, it was totally unexpected! I was super grateful for the serendipity and live music! Moreover, they were selling vinyl! I purchased some copies (at least one of which I plan to gift to one of my undergraduate professors who taught a Japanese pop culture history class) and got them signed!
Pretty groovy.
One of the recurring sentiments in the documentary and that Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto emphasized after the screening, was that music is one of those things that helped during the dark times of the Internment Camps. As we continue to face adversities, even outside of the horrors of World War II? I think that sentiment seems to hold true.