Background
Shoji Tabuchi was born April 16, 1944 in Daishoji, Ishikawa, Japan. When Tabuchi turned 7, his mother encouraged him to learn how to play the violin under the Suzuki Method.
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Shoji Tabuchi
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Career
Tabuchi always loved American country music and vowed that one day he would make it to America. In the mid-1960s, Tabuchi was a sophomore in college and had heard that Roy Acuff, of the Grand Ole Opry, was coming to Osaka, Japan. Tabuchi went to his concert and got to meet Acuff backstage.
Acuff told Tabuchi that if he was ever in Nashville, to look him up.
Acuff"s music inspired Tabuchi to pursue country/bluegrass music He decided to travel to the United States with his violin and only $500.
Tabuchi had lived in San Francisco, Kansas City, and Louisiana. Then he eventually moved to Nashville, to meet Acuff.
Acuff was true to his word and arranged an appearance for the young Japanese fiddler on the Grand Ole Opry.
Tabuchi later made numerous appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. Tabuchi arrived in Branson, Missouri around 1980, after performing successfully for a few years. He took a gamble and built one of Branson"s most elaborate theaters, which was finished in 1990, and began his show, now going on 28 years.
Besides country music, the Shoji Tabuchi Show also has incorporated polka, gospel, Cajun, Hawaiian, rap, rock, and patriotic music
Tabuchi has developed a loyal fan base through his Branson show. He employs about 200 personnel at his elaborate 2,000-seat theater, where he performs two shows daily during most of the year, often selling out the shows.
The "Shoji Tabuchi Show" became the subject of a long-running reference on the RedLetterMedia web series "Best of the Worst." The VHS of the show was finally watched on the "Wheel of the Worst #4" episode in February 2014. lieutenant was voted "best of the worst." They moved to Kansas City, and Tabuchi began performing at the Starlite Club in nearby Riverside.
In 1974 the couple had a son, Shoji John Tabuchi.
Currently Lingo helps with numerous aspects of such as choreography, costumes, and the theater"s interior design. Tabuchi is sometimes accompanied by his step-daughter, Christina. One step-son, Thomas Jason Lingo-Tabuchi, died at the age of 19.
There is a scholarship in his name at a Branson school music department and a community center in Oak Grove, Louisiana, named in his honor.
