Interviews

1. The origin of name Kishi Bashi

2. His Shin-Issei parents

3. On being Japanese and American

4. On his songfilm Omoiyari

5. The reason for creating the songflim Omoiyari

6. On music

Bashi,Kishi

(b. 1975) Musician, composer, and songwriter

On his songfilm Omoiyari

Omoiyari means empathy. It’s kind of like acting on empathy. It’s in between consideration, sympathy, empathy, it’s like…people use it for guests. You think about your guest and what they would like. And you prepare for them, and that’s one use of omoiyari.

It follows me in my understanding about myself – my own identity and then also kind of question what it is to be an American citizen – what it means, what rights I have, what this country has done to the world, and how we can improve it and how we can improve equality.

I guess backtracking to why I’m making this film, after the election a lot of my fans were just really distraught, I could really tell. It was really bugging them. And I understand that and I think a lot of people look to my music to be kind of euphoric and to help them get through things so I think for me to do this is something that is important for…I do this for my listeners, to kind of help them cope or just to have a better understanding.

emotions empathy equality identity music musicians Omoiyari (song) sympathy United States

Date: August 21, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Sharon Yamato

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Kaoru Ishibashi, who performs as Kishi Bashi, is a Shin-Nisei musician, composer, and songwriter, born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. He attended Berklee College of Music and became a renowned violinist.

His film project, Omoiyari (Empathy), led him to places such as Manzanar, Tule Lake, the Japanese American National Museum, and Japan to learn about Japanese American and Japanese World War II history. Omoiyari explores how empathy and the lack of it has played key roles in our modern quest for social equality. (March 2019)