Mutsumi Tsuuzaki (1967–) A Japanese marimba and xylophone player and essayist, born in Kyoto. She completed graduate studies in music at Kyoto City University of Arts and, since her concert debut in 1991, has commissioned numerous compositions and arrangements while developing new repertoire for the marimba. In 2005, she performed Kyosuke Kami's Xylophone Concerto on an instrument once played by the renowned xylophonist Yoichi Hiraoka and subsequently inherited Hiraoka's xylophone, scores, and mallets. She has since worked to preserve and revive the history of the xylophone through both performance and writing. In "Mokkin Days: Hiraoka Yoichi 'Ten'i Muho no Ongaku Jinsei'," she traces Hiraoka's career from prewar Japan to his success as a xylophonist in the United States, drawing on archival materials and interviews. The book received both the Hideo Yoshida Prize and the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities.
