Issei

Kayo Hosaka

Kayo Hosaka is a craft person. She currently lives in Vancouver, where she sells her original jewelry, leather accessories, and Kimono recreations. Born in Yamanashi Japan, Hosaka moved to the USA and then Mexico-city after graduating high school. She studied BA of fine art at University of Las Americas in Mexico city. Living in Japan, […]

Katsuhiko Takada

Yoko Galvin

Yoko Galvin was born in Tochigi, Japan. She travelled around the world in the 1970s, visiting Russia, Europe, and Canada, gaining experiences that she has beautifully incorporated into her art. Her unique perspective on life, love, and relationships results in some of the most captivating and inspiring pieces of musical and visual works. As a […]

Yayoi Hirano

Born and raised in Japan, Yayoi is a graduate of Toho Gakuen College of Drama. In 1989, she became the first mime artist to receive the Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship and spent a year collaborating with mime and dance artists in Germany and Canada. She has lived in Vancouver since 2002. Yayoi has extensive […]

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 […]

Kanon Suzuki Hewitt

Kanon Suzuki Hewitt is a hafu Japanese/American who grew up in Tokyo, and currently lives, studies, and works in Canada. She began ballet at age four, which quickly blossomed into a love of dance, theatre, and other performing arts. Since age 12, Kanon has performed as a professional actor and dancer, and stage managed, assistant […]

Shinsuke Minegishi

Shinsuke Minegishi was born (1970) and raised in Tokyo, Japan. In 1991, he moved to California, USA, to continue his studies. Two years later he moved to Vancouver, Canada, to complete his undergrad education at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where he currently works as a studio technician and instructor. Shinsuke Minegishi is […]

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. […]

Kyo Maclear

Kyo Maclear is a Canadian writer, essayist and beloved children’s author. She was born in London, England (to a British father and Japanese mother) and moved to Toronto at the age of four. Her books have been translated into fourteen languages, and published in twenty countries. Kyo lives in Toronto, Canada,

Hiro Kanagawa

Hiro Kanagawa is a Vancouver-based writer and actor. His play Indian Arm received the 2017 Governor-General’s Literary Award for Drama. His other plays include The Tiger of Malaya and The Patron Saint of Stanley Park, both of which have been performed across Canada. His next play, a stage adaptation of Mark Sakamoto’s bestselling memoir Forgiveness, […]

Aretha Aoki

Aretha Aoki is a choreographer, performer, and Assistant Professor of Dance at Bowdoin College. Her current research is an exploration of the body as a medium for the residue of family history. Aretha’s work has been presented at various venues throughout New York City, New England, and Canada. She works in collaboration with other artists, […]

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 […]

Katsuyoshi Morita

Katsuyoshi Morita was the author of Powell Street Monogatari, a chronicle of stories from the prewar Japanese Canadian neighbourhood of Powell Street and Morita’s experiences in the internment camp of Greenwood during the forced removal. Powell Street Monogatari was originally written in Japanese, and translated into English by Eric Sokugawa (translation published in 1989).

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 […]

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 […]