Learn Kangi-e.

Commissioned by the Buddhist Churches of America Music Committee, artist and activist Nobuko Miyamoto has created the new bon odori, “Kangie” (Gathering of Joy), for use at temple Obon festivals

Available Now

Not Yo' Butterfly

My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution

Not Yo’ Butterfly is the intimate and unflinching life story of Nobuko Miyamoto—artist, activist, and mother. Beginning with the harrowing early years of her life as a Japanese American child navigating a fearful west coast during World War II, Miyamoto leads readers into the landscapes that defined the experiences of twentieth-century America and also foregrounds the struggles of people of color who reclaimed their histories, identities, and power through activism and art.

-Deborah Wong

Smithsonian Folkways recording presents:

120,000 Stories

Nobuko Miyamoto is an icon of Asian American music and activism. Since the early 1970s, she has been exploring ways to reclaim and respirit our minds, bodies, histories, and communities, using the arts to create social change and forge solidarity.

120,000 Stories in Concert at the Presidio Theatre

August 5, 2023

Experience an afternoon of multi-ethnic music and storytelling with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California as the iconic Nobuko Miyamoto shares the story of her amazing life. It’s a multi-generational journey as Nobuko traces her roots to the Santa Anita Assembly Center in 1942, taking us through her early show biz career on the Broadway stage and in Hollywood as one of a few Asian American performers, then her emergence in the 1960s as “Chris and Joanne,” with her embrace of her Asian American identity and the power of inclusion.

Nobuko’s stories address issues such as race, gender, multiculturalism, and climate change. She is as relevant today as she was 50 years ago when she, Chris Iijima, and Charlie Chin recorded the iconic “We Are the Children” the anthem for the yellow movement that was part of the groundbreaking album “Grain of Sand.”

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Herstory

“Songs are a powerful expression of our feelings, our identity, our stories.  Yet, I grew up without hearing a song that sang me...”

-Nobuko 

Learn More

Nobuko speaks on “The Art of Movement and Coalition Building: Learning from Yuri Kochiyama”

I’m here in snowy Minneapolis with Artist leaders of the National Institute of Directors of Ensemble Creation. We’re here on a retreat to write a book. We start by making homage to George Floyd. #blacklivesmatter #georgefloyd #retreat #wr
I DESERVE TO CELEBRATE! I just finishished my TAXES! I haven’t been able to sing. I haven’t been able to write. It sucks all creativity out of you. There’s nothing creative about doing your taxes…unless you’re Trum
There are champions among us! While most follow champions like Serena and Ohtani, we have one in our family! My sister Julie’s husband, Jim, my bro-in-law, who has stage 4 cancer, just swam twice across Lake Arrowhead, raising $160,000 for can
There are champions among us! 💙 #JimmySwims
Gardening is community. One of the joys of growing food is being able to share. We gave our neighbor some of our pomegranate and look what we got back!
TAI CHI WEDDING Thirty-six years ago, August 25, 1986, Tarabu and I got married in Berkeley. It was the day after his show JUKE BOX closed, a musical in which I played the wife of Danny Glover. We had three ceremonies. His sister Margaret did a Chri
Yuri Kochiyama introduced me to Mutulu Shakur in 1972. They were comrades, both citizens of the Republic of New Africa (RNA). Chris and I sang for their rally before the United Nations and later wrote “Free The Land,” based on that salut
I went to a taiko spectacle Saturday night at JACCC’s Aratani Theatre, perhaps the last time I will see Tanaka-sensei, that crusty Japanese-born taiko master, who labeled himself a “fossil” when I interviewed him, and that was decad

Community. Activism. Earth