Issei

Takako Segawa

Takako Segawa is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, movement coach, dance-theatre performer, and teacher of Japanese Arts. Born in Japan, Takako trained in both traditional arts and contemporary Japanese movement styles, before graduating from the London Contemporary Dance School. Her 20-year career includes performances throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. She was nominated outstanding female for […]

Kunio Yamagishi

Born in Fukushima, Japan, and after the university education, I moved to Canada and worked at the Consulate General of Japan in Toronto as a researcher. I then worked in Toronto, Tokyo, and New York, as an investment banker and now live in British Columbia, Canada, as a Canadian citizen. My publications have included short […]

Ken Mizokoshi

Ken Mizokoshi is a professional photographer who was born and raised in Nagasaki, Japan. He was a staff photographer and a reporter for Japan’s national newspaper The Asahi Shimbun for 25 years. As a photographer, he covered both the daily news, such as emergency situations and special events, as well as human-interest stories. One of […]

Machiko Townson

Born and raised in the birthplace of Japanese porcelain, Arita, Saga, Machiko grew up where not only her grandmother was a dish painter, but most of her neighbours were dish painters themselves. Machiko remembers watching her grandmother painting dishes at home every night after school. Needless to say, she enjoyed her art classes in elementary […]

Yukari Oyama Peerless

Yukari is a multi-talented creative based in Victoria, BC, with a passion for bridging the gap between Japanese and Canadian cultures. She is a writer, interpreter, podcaster, watercolor artist, and Japanese Cultural Consultant, and has been helping to connect the two cultures since moving from Nagasaki, Japan to Victoria in 1998. As the owner of […]

Yuka Yamaguchi

Yuka is a self-taught visual artist born in Kobe, Japan. She studied English in Vancouver in 1995. She moved to Winnipeg in 2000 and immigrated in 2002. She’d lived in Kingston before settled in Saskatoon in 2005. Although she enjoys challenges, she struggled to adapt herself to the new environment as an immigrant. That’s when […]

Junko Bailey

Junko Bailey is an artist/actor/writer/filmmaker, originally from Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan, and based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Doshisha University in Kyoto. She has been a member of ACTRA since 2003. As an actor, she has appeared in several TV/Film productions. She is a filmmaker on the Japanese Cultural […]

Yuta Takenaka

Born in Japan and raised in Vancouver, Yuta Takenaka is a Japanese-Canadian actor, writer and audiobook narrator. Graduating with an English degree in the hopes of becoming a writer, his acting ambitions began when he worked as a background performer in 2004’s “Godzilla” and witnessed one of his heroes, Ken Watanabe acting on set. Since […]

Mayumi Yoshida

Born in Japan, raised in three continents, Mayumi Yoshida is an actor, writer, director, based in Vancouver, BC. She is known for her role as Crown Princess (The Man in The High Castle, Amazon Prime) which got her a nomination for Best Emerging Actor at UBCP Awards. As an award-winning writer/director, Mayumi has been a […]

Gordy Tong

Tamura Toshiko

Toshiko Tamura (Tamura Toshiko) was the pseudonym of early modern feminist novelist, Toshi Satō (Satō Toshi). Born in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, Tamura enrolled in the faculty of literature at Japan Women’s University at the age of seventeen. However, due to health issues she was forced to withdraw after one term. Despite no formal […]

Shion Skye Carter

Shion Skye Carter is a performing artist originally from Tajimi, Japan, and based in Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University. As a performer, she has interpreted the works of artists such as Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance, plastic orchid factory, and Yossi Berg […]

Takako Suzuki

“Takako Suzuki is a Japanese-born potter who practiced in Vancouver prior to her retirement. She studied at Meiji University in Tokyo, and after immigrating to Canada, at Emily Carr College of Art & Design. Her work was shown in a number of solo and group exhibitions in the 1980s and 1990s, primarily in Vancouver, and […]

Kan Azuma

Born in Japan in 1946, Kan Azuma studied photography in Tokyo in the mid-1960s before moving to Canada in 1970. The majority of his work was based in Toronto, but he also spent some time in Vancouver before returning to Japan in 1980. Azuma’s most significant body of work is his black and white series, […]

Yukiko Onley

Yukiko was born and grew up in Osaka, Japan, but has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada since 1976. She has been surrounded by art for most of her life. Her grandmother was a master of the tea ceremony and of flower arrangements, and one of her aunts is an accomplished painter in Japan. Yukiko’s […]