Masaya Tsukamoto Obituary (1933 - 2023)

Masaya Tsukamoto passed away on July 25, 2023, in Brigham City, UT, on his 90th birthday (Japan time zone). Born July 26, 1933, in Osaka, Japan, to Eijiro Tsukamoto and Motoko Yamagami, he was the third of four children. Masaya received a BA degree in English & English Literature from Tokyo University of Arts & Science in 1960. He studied English Teaching from 1962-65 as a graduate student at International Christian University in Tokyo. In 1965, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the University of Utah in Salt Lake City for graduate studies in Linguistics and received his MA degree in 1969. While studying there, he met Maryetta Brown, and they married on June 8, 1967 (later divorced). Masaya oversaw a team of interpreters for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He loved teaching and taught Japanese at the University of Utah, Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies (Monterey, CA), University of Kansas, University of Pittsburgh, and El Camino College (Torrance, CA). He also did translation work for Honda, Tomy, and the US Army. Masaya worked as a market researcher at Mitake Trading International (Pomona, CA), and later at King Wasabi (Forest Grove, OR). He returned to California, working at American Peptide Company (Vista, CA) until 2014 when he retired and moved back to Salt Lake City. Masaya was an avid reader throughout his life, particularly enjoying nonfiction topics including philosophy, science, and politics. He extensively studied and was active playing the strategic board game Go for many years, participating in tournaments in California and Oregon, and later continued playing games online with his friends. Mechanically inclined, Masaya took pride in fixing things and learned how to take apart and rebuild a car engine using only books for reference. Masaya was preceded in death by his parents, brother Shozo Tsukamoto, and sister Kyoko Kondo. Survivors include his two children, Timothy Tsukamoto, currently in Hong Kong, April (Kevin) Young of Brigham City, UT, four grandchildren, his youngest brother Saburo (Takeko) Tsukamoto of Saitama, Japan, and 7 nieces and nephews. The family expresses heartfelt appreciation to The Gables Assisted Living of Brigham City and Enhabit Hospice for their loving care during his final months. Additional gratitude is extended to his SLC neighbor, Shannon Orr, who visited him weekly prior to his move to Brigham City. Per Masaya's wishes, there will be no funeral services. He desired cremation and for his ashes to be scattered in the Pacific, the ocean that connects Japan and the US.