Traditional Arts

Minako Takahashi

Minako Takahashi is a visual and mixed media artist. She was born in Tokyo and moved to Takefu, Fukui-ken at the age of two. While a student at Takefu high school, her art work was chosen for inclusion in such exhibitions as the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper national student art exhibition and the modern art exhibition […]

Soyo Kagemori

Soyo Kagemori is a teacher and practitioner of the Urasenke school of sado (tea ceremony) based in Montreal. He studied Urasenke methods in Kyoto, Japan, and began teaching sado in 1982, and gave public demonstrations at various public buildings and events around Montreal, including for the Chinese Cultural Association and the Japanese Pavilion at the […]

Hiroko Okata

Hiroko Okata was a shodo artist and founder of the Montreal School of Japanese Calligraphy. Born in Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan, Okata studied calligraphy as a child, but became serious about the art only after she graduated from university with a psychology degree, and the death of her mother. She studied at the school run […]

Masako Yamaguchi

Masako Yamaguchi was a koto player from the Kansai region of Japan. She was trained in the Ikuta style of koto playing, her principal teachers being Miyako Kyakuden, Kinrei Shizuki, and Soyo Nakamura, and was herself for decades an important koto teacher in Toronto. She also received her BA in English Literature from Kansai University […]

Kaneko Johkoh

Kaneko Johkoh is a painter. Born in Ehime prefecture, Japan, she started oil painting in 1961, and became active in artists’ associations in Japan. In 1983, she started doing bokusho abstract sumi-e (ink brush) drawings, a style which she exhibited in Japan, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Mexico, and eventually brought with her to Canada. She […]

Yoshimaru Abe

Yoshimaru Abe was an entertainer, artist, haiku poet, garden designer. Born in 1914 in Fukuoka, Japan, Abe immigrated to Canada in 1927 to join his parents in Port Hammond, BC. There he worked for the local lumber mill while also working on the family strawberry farm. With other Japanese community members, he engaged in shibai […]

Kazuko Tanaka

Kazuko Tanaka is an ikebana teacher and practitioner in the Koryu Shoutoukai School, which keeps the authenticity of Japanese ikebana in spirit while at the same time cultivating a modern style. Born in Tokyo, Tanaka studied at Rikkyo University, and immigrated to Canada in 1983. She earned her first degree teacher’s license from the Koryu […]

Noriko Imai

Noriko Imai is a painter who was born in Tokyo and raised in Yokohama. She is a member of La Société canadienne de l’aquarelle (THE CANADIAN WATERCOLOR SOCIETY). From a young age, Imai was inspired to paint from the influence of her father and older sisters. After graduating from high school, Imai worked for her […]

Takako Masumoto

Takako Masumoto was a traditional Japanese textile artist, trained in the Ryukyu Bingata style of katazome. Based in the Montreal area, she exhibited her work in a solo exhibition at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre of Montreal (1993), as well as a number of group exhibitions celebrating traditional Japanese culture. After mastering the original Ryukyu […]

Takuro Kamata

Takuro Kamata (1939-) is an artist who worked primarily in traditional Japanese methods of textile design and woodblock prints. Originally from Miyagi prefecture in Japan, Kamata studied economics and got a job in the insurance business. At this time, he also pursued his interest in arts and crafts, and eventually studied woodcut printmaking under Toshi […]

Tomoko Kodama

Tomoko Kodama was a sumi-e painter born in Tokyo. She first discovered her love of art in high school, and went on to study nihonga painting in university. She received a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1957. Kodama immigrated to Canada with her husband, Hideomi Kodama, in 1962. They were planning on staying only […]

Hiroshi Yamamoto

Hiroshi Yamamoto is a nihonga and sumi-e painter. His artist name is ‘Hakuho.’ Yamamoto was born in Shiga prefecture in Japan. He graduated from the Kyoto Industrial Design Institute and the Kyoto Japanese Art School, where he studied Japanese Traditional Art – Nihonga, Sumi-e and Art History. He was awarded the Ruth Yamada Award in […]

Kimiko Muraoka Koyanagi

Kimiko Koyanagi is a 3rd generation doll-maker from the renowned Muraoka doll-making family of Tokyo and has made Burlington, Ontario her home since 1966. Trained from childhood in the family tradition, she is one of only a few living masters of this esteemed Japanese craft. For over sixty years, she has been utilizing this traditional […]

Walter Sunahara

Walter Sunahara was a painter. He was born in Vancouver and during WWII was interned as a child at Bay Farm, Slocan. Moving east after the war he earned a degree from the Ontario College of Art, Toronto in 1959. Walter then pursued graduate studies at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts specializing in Nihonga, […]

Mitsugi Kikuchi

Mitsugi Shinran Kikuchi is a painter who works in traditional Japanese styles of sumi-e (ink brush painting) and tarashikomi (‘drop-in’ method of watercolour painting), and a retired ikebana sensei in the Ohara school. He learned sumi-e and tarashikomi after graduating high school in Japan, and also became an ikebana teacher before immigrating to Canada in […]