Traditional Arts

Scott Kokichi Kusano

Kokichi began his performing career at the age of 5 as a member of the Toronto Suwa Daiko a cultural association located in Toronto. Subsequently, Kokichi was introduced again to Japanese music during high school after the death of his grandfather and introduction to the Buddhist Temple where he was re-united with Taiko in 1996 […]

Joan Fairs

Joan has been practising Ikebana for over 35 years and has obtained her top level of teaching with the Sangetsu School, headquartered in Atami, Japan, in 2013. She is also a qualified florist, with a certificate in Commercial Floristry from Kwantlen University (1997). Joan teaches beginner and continuing ikebana students at her townhouse complex in […]

Colleen Lanki

Colleen Lanki has been directing, choreographing and performing internationally for over two decades in shows of every variety. She has a BFA in Theatre Performance from Toronto’s York University and an MFA in Asian Theatre and Directing from the University of Hawaii. From 1995 to 2001, Colleen was based in Tokyo, where she studied nihon […]

Van. Japanese Gardeners Assoc.

The Vancouver Japanese Gardeners Association (VJGA) was formed in 1959, following the creation of the Nitobe Gardens at UBC, and is a non profit organization whose aim is to promote Japanese gardens. There members contribute their skills and knowledge to the local community and have created a number of Japanese gardens including Vancouver City Hall, […]

Roy Tomomichi Sumi

Roy Tomomichi Sumi is recognized as a master of bonsai and the traditional Japanese garden, being an educator, designer and builder. Born in Yonago-shi, Tottori-ken, Japan, his family lived in Osaka before he moved on his own to Vancouver in 1925, returning to Kyoto for four years at the Ikeda Institute to pursue his studies […]

Sayaka Isojima

Born in Osaka, Japan, Sayaka Isojima is a Vancouver-based ikebana artist who has studied at Ikenobo Ikebana School since 2012. Also, Sayaka has enjoyed studying photography at Vancouver Photo workshops since 2017. Group Exhibitions for Ikebana 2017 Powell Street Festival, Sakura day Japan Fair, Winterruption, Vancouver, B.C. 2016 Sakura day Japan Fair, Winterruption, Vancouver, B.C. […]

Akiko Tsuji

Akiko Tsuji was born in Steveston in April 1930 and lived nearly her entire life in British Columbia as a Japanese-Canadian. She aspired to be a fashion designer from a young age and often found herself brainstorming and making dresses, coats, and skirts for family members. After getting married and having two children and two […]

Tsutao Machida

Hollis Ho

Hollis has been studying and practicing the art of Sogetsu Ikebana for 27 years in Vancouver with study opportunities in Japan, France, USA and Canada. In 2012, she received Riji level (highest degree) from the Sogetsu School, Tokyo, Japan. Hollis teaches in her east Vancouver studio. She is the Deputy Director of Sogetsu Vancouver Branch, […]

Sue Sumi Tabuchi

Sue Sumi Tabuchi is a sumi-e artist whose work was featured in the 1978 Japanese Canadian Centennial exhibition. She began to learn sumi-e techniques from her father at the age of two, and later went on to develop a watercolour style based on traditional sumi-e techniques. She usually depicts subjects from nature, such as flowers […]

Kazuo Hamasaki

Kazuo Richard Hamasaki was a Nisei painter trained in the Nanga tradition of Japanese painting. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries across Canada and the United States, including Hawaii, as well as in Japan and Brazil. They can also be found in private and corporate collections around the world: in the US and Canada […]

Kunio Suyama

Kunio Suyama is an actor, singer, and emcee who has been highly active in the Toronto Buddhist Church. He is especially well-known for his role as emcee at the annual Obon Festival in Toronto. Suyama put on and performed in many shibai plays at the Toronto Buddhist Church over the years. He was also a […]

Teresa Kobayashi

Teresa Kobayashi is a master koto player, the daughter of renowned koto sensei Miyoko Kobayashi. She also plays the shamisen and shakuhachi and danced odori for 27 years. As a child, she was primarily interested in dance, and began learning the Hanayagi style of nihonbuyo (odori dance) at the age of six. However, she found […]

Chie Kamegaya

Chie Kamegaya was a poet and author of Seasons in New Denver: Haiku (1994). Born in Japan to a samurai family, Kamegaya became a teacher in Tokyo, where she met her husband. After marriage, she joined him in Canada, and they both taught at the New Westminster Japanese Language School from 1931 to 1941, when […]

Takeo Ujo Nakano

Takeo Ujo Nakano was an Issei poet and author of the memoir Within the Barbed Wire Fence, which recounts his experience of the Japanese Canadian internment in road camps and the Angler POW camp. Born in Japan, Nakano immigrated to Canada in 1920, and was living in Woodfibre, BC with his wife and young daughter […]