Shadow Music: Four Generations of Japanese American Women

by David Mas Masumoto, artwork by Chieko Delgado

with essays by: Rei Hotoda, Hitomi Oba, Erika Oba and Stephen Wilson

“What’s the sound that embodies family and community? How do you capture a story of a people that can be transposed into a musical composition and generate a new, broader understanding? Do family and community histories cast a shadow over our futures-which may crescendo into a sharp or a flat note?” - David Mas Masumoto

This 2025 publication of essays shares the writings that inspired the new musical composition “Meguru” by Hitomi Oba and Erika Oba (with debut concert with the Fresno Philharmonic on Feb 15 and 16, 2025). David Mas Masumoto focuses his quest to answer “what is the sound of history?” by looking back at the generations of women in his family.