Teresa Kobayashi


Region: Vancouver British Columbia
Generation:

Bio

Teresa Kobayashi is a master koto player, the daughter of renowned koto sensei Miyoko Kobayashi. She also plays the shamisen and shakuhachi and danced odori for 27 years. As a child, she was primarily interested in dance, and began learning the Hanayagi style of nihonbuyo (odori dance) at the age of six. However, she found learning to play the koto ‘easy’ as she always heard her mother’s students playing their pieces during their lessons, especially the difficult passages over and over again, and thus was able to pick up the pieces by ear.

In 1976, Kobayashi travelled to Japan to further her studies in koto, shamisen, shakuhachi, and dance. She studied in Hiroshima and Tokyo as a live-in student, spending almost every moment practicing koto, shakuhachi, and dance with various masters, and eventually earning her teaching certificate. She has performed throughout Canada, the United States, and Japan, including on radio and television broadcasts, and holds the Master title of Sho-Ko-To