Percussionist Kumi Masunaga was kidnapped as a child, found freedom on Lamma Island and believes in the benefits of drumming
- The founder of Hong Kong’s Drum Jam tells Kate Whitehead about growing up in a controlling home and realising her creative potential in New York
- For 18 years she ran a monthly drumming group outside the Hong Kong Cultural Centre as part of the regular Tom Lee Music Carnival
Spirited away: I was born in Warabi city, in Saitama prefecture, Japan, in 1964. My parents divorced when I was six and my little brother was three. In those days, getting divorced was quite shocking and we moved with my mum to her parents’ place. One day, my dad tried to kidnap my brother. He didn’t manage to get him because my grandmother was protecting him, so he took me. Later, my mother decided it was better that at least us siblings weren’t separated, so she brought my brother to him.
Luckily, my grandmother was in the house, a female figure, but she was also tough, too. We didn’t see my mother and were forbidden to even say her name. It wasn’t until I was 20 that my mother wrote to me and we met up. Music has always been a part of my life. I played classical piano from the age of three to 17.
In primary school, I had a young male music teacher who had long hair and was in a band. I attended an after-school music club that he ran. It was very exciting. Growing up, I was always in a band playing keyboard, guitar or drums. Of course, my dad didn’t like it.
Tasting the Big Apple: I finished high school at 18 and was determined to get away from my controlling dad. I got a job at a business consulting firm. It was a five-day week and the salary was good, but I quickly realised it wasn’t for me. It was a male-dominated world and I was mostly serving tea and changing ashtrays. I was often in tears by the end of the day and lasted just three months. My boyfriend at the time was in fashion and I got a job in fashion, too, although I soon realised only a handful of people do the creative work.
When I was 20, my father died. Not so long after that, a fashion stylist friend who was living in New York came back to Tokyo to deliver her baby and let me sublet her Manhattan apartment. I had such a good three months there and met so many people. New York made a real impression on me. I decided I wanted to study English and get into that kind of creative world because I felt very confined in Japan.
