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Born in 1946 in Kumamoto, Kyushu, Matsumoto majored in fine arts at the Osaka University of Education.In November of 1970, he founded the NIHON ISHINHA, presenting many open-air performances, mostly in the Kansai area of western Japan.Since 1974, Matsumoto has written and directed in all the productions. In 1987 the company was renamed: ISHINHA..

Matsumoto developed a new open-air performance style called "Jan Jan Opera" with his 1991 work Shonen Gai (Boys' Town)--a Jan Jan Opera, creating a radical production style using huge open-air constructions.From around this time Matsumoto began to concentrate on playwriting and directing.His major works for the ISHINHA include Romance a Jan Jan Opera (awarded the Osaka Prize for Outstanding Artistic Achievements in 1996), KANKARA (An Empty Tin Can) (awarded the Asahi performing arts award in 2003), among others.

Matsumoto has also directed other performances, that include Neo-Bunraku:Inochi ni Kaete (Neo-Bunraku:In Exchange for My Life) in 1987 in collaboration with Minotaro YOSHIDA of the National Bunraku Theatre and Akaji MARO of the Butoh company Dairakudakan.Matsumoto's theatre construction designs include: the 1997 mini-movie theatres "Cine Nouveau Umeda" and "Cine Nouveau" in Kujo, Osaka.

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