Masaya Yamauchi

Masaya Yamauchi

Born in Okinawa in 1973, Yamauchi has been an academic master of Okinawan classical music* for more than 20 years. Masaya studied under a Sanshin teacher Eiji Shimabukuro from the age of ten. At the age of seventeen in 2000, he achieved an award for the top honor of the Tansui School Sanshin Contest with a certificate of singing prowess. At the age of twenty in 2003, he won the top honor award at the classical arts competition sponsored by the newspaper Ryukyu Shimpo. His work fronting the Sanshin teacher as an associate professor of Okinwa Prefectural University of Arts appointed in 2012, and influences generations of students and pupils. As a solo artist, he has been expanding his own career outside of Okinawa and to abroad. He collaborated with Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra for TV programs of the NHK broadcasting station, performed as a musician in residence by Radio France in Paris in 2011 and played at the Asian Composers League (ACL) held in Vietnam in 2016.