Masayo Ishigure

PHOTO CREDIT – RICHARD TERMINE

Masayo Ishigure is a New York based Koto and Shamisen Player. She began playing the koto and jiuta shamisen at the age of five in Gifu, Japan and has created an extensive multi-faceted career that continues to stretch the limits of the koto while maintaining a strong grasp of the tradition. After initial studies with Tadao and Kazue Sawai, Masayo became a special research student in 1986 at the Sawai Koto Academy of Music -The academy incorporates many influences from classical to jazz and aims to change the perception of the koto from solely as a traditional Japanese instrument to an instrument of universal expressiveness.

From 1998 to 2017, Masayo’s essays were published in “Hogaku Land”, which was known as a comprehensive website of traditional Japanese music and musical instrument. Below is a link to the archived page (Japanese only).

Masayo’s essays

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