Negli anni dal 1954 al '59 studia presso la Kwansei Gakuin University a Kōbe, in Giappone dove ottiene la laurea in Estetica. Nel 1961 si trasferisce negli Stati Uniti e dal 1964 al '68 frequenta l'Otis Art Institute attualmente l'Otis College of Art and Design a Los Angeles, dove riceve una laurea e un master e in Belle Arti.
Anche la moglie, Lynda Hess è una pittrice.
Bibliografia
Chang, Gordon H., Mark Dean Johnson, Paul J. Karlstrom & Sharon Spain, Asian American Art, a History, 1850-1970, Stanford University Press, ISBN 9780804757515, pp. 432–434
Clarke, Joan and Diane Dods, Artists/Hawaii, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1996, 104-109.
Freeman, Samuel, Peter Clothier and Marcia Morse, Masami Teraoka: Cloisters' Confession, Santa Monica, Samuel Freeman, 2008.
Link, Howard A., Waves and Plagues, The Art of Masami Teraoka, San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1988.
Teraoka, Masami, Masami Teraoka, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1979.
Teraoka, Masami, Masami Teraoka, From Tradition to Technology, The Floating World Comes of Age, Seattle, Washington, University of Washington Press, 1997.
Teraoka, Masami, Paintings by Masami Teraoka, Washington, DC, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1996.
