Roy Hirabayashi
American musician
Roy Mitsuru Hirabayashi (Japanese: 平林 満, born 1951) is a Japanese American composer, performer, teacher and community leader known for co-founding San Jose Taiko and his work supporting the San Jose Japan Town Community.
He, alongside his artistic partner and wife, PJ Hirabayashi, were awarded the National Heritage Fellowship in 2011 by the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
Early life
Roy Hirabayashi was born in 1951 in Berkeley, California. His parents, although born in the United States, were raised and educated in Japan. Hirabayashi, however, grew up in Oakland California and was active in the Oakland Buddhist Temple.
In 1961 he attended San Jose State University, initially to pursue engineering, but ultimately studied a combination of Psychology and Philosophy. Hirabayashi was also involved with the creation and continuation of the Asian American Studies minor at San Jose State University.
Career
After graduating from San Jose State University, Hirabayashi was hired by the San Jose Betsuin as a youth activity program coordinator. At the time, Revered Hiroshi Abiko wanted to encourage the younger generation to be more involved with the church. Having seen Kinnara Taiko in Los Angeles, Reverend Abiko recruited Hirabayashi and Dean Miyakusu (a classmate of Hirabayashi from San Jose State University) to fundraise money to start a taiko group.
“Roy Hirabayashi” enters the record as american musician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hirabayashi, American and musician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7372951. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 2011 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Roy Hirabayashi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.