British Columbia

Sachi Yamabe

Sachi Yamabe is a visual artist. She was born in Burnaby, BC and grew up on Saltspring Island and Vancouver Island. She is Sansei. Yamabe received a BFA from the University of Victoria in 1987 and an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD) in 1989. Yamabe’s work has been exhibited […]

Tamio Wakayama

Tamio Wakayama is a photographer.

Kinichi Shigeno

Kinichi Shigeno is a ceramicist. Originally from Nagano, Japan, Kinichi has been practising his unique ceramic style in Richmond, BC since 1984. His works have been included in such prestigious collections as the Claridge Collection and the Campbell Soup collection in the United States. His traditional use of cobalt underglazes and his intricate designs reflect […]

Shizuye Takashima

Shizuye Takashima was one of Canada’s foremost Nisei painters. Beginning in the late 1950s, she became noticed on the Canadian art scene for her skilful and sensitive figurative paintings, but her style and subject matter underwent many transformations throughout her career. She is most well-known for her book, A Child in Prison Camp, which tells […]

Tsuneko Kokubo

Tsuneko Kokubo was born in Steveston BC in 1937, and raised in Japan. Returning to Canada in her late teens, she studied Fine Arts for four years at Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University), focussing on drawing and painting. She has worked extensively in theatre as a performer (physical theatre and dance) and […]

Takeo Yamashiro

Takeo Yamashiro is a shakuhachi master who has lived and practiced his music in Canada since 1972. Prior to his arrival in Vancouver, Yamashiro trained under and played with two Kyoto Masters, Shuzan Yamashita and Kofu Kikusui. In 1971, he was appointed with mastership and the designated name of Rempu (Lotus Wind), the Chief Protégé […]

Donna Yamamoto

Donna is an actor whose acting career began in 1987 in an Art’s Club production for which she was recognized with a Jessie Award for ‘Most Promising Newcomer.’ Soon after, she played the lead role in Rosie’s Café by Rick Shiomi, which was the first Asian Canadian professional theatre group to tour across Canada. Since […]

Tetsuro Shigematsu

Tetsuro Shigematsu is a writer, actor, performance artist, broadcaster, stand-up comic, scholar, filmmaker, and theatre artist. Originally trained in the fine arts, he found a similar creative outlet writing for CBC Television’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Then in 2004, he became the first person-of-colour to host a daily national radio program in Canada when […]

Jay Hirabayashi

Jay Hirabayashi was born in Seattle, Washington in 1947, but grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, Cairo, Egypt, and Edmonton, Alberta. He has a B.A. degree from the University of Alberta and a M.A. degree from the UBC in Buddhist philosophy. In 1978, Hirabayashi began a career as a dance artist. After performing with several prominent […]

Manami Hara

Manami Hara was born and raised in Tokyo Japan. She became fascinated with Western theatre and the English language and at the age of 18, left Japan home to become a stage actor in North America. She moved to Vancouver, took ESL classes and graduated from Studio 58, a two-year conservatory Theatre Arts program at […]

Linda Uyehara Hoffman

Linda Uyehara Hoffman has been a taiko (Japanese drum) player for over 30 years. She was a founding member of Katari Taiko, the first taiko group in Canada, and of Sawagi Taiko, the first all-women’s taiko group in North America, with whom she continues to perform. As a folksinger/guitarist, she sang in coffee houses in […]

Haruko Okano

Haruko Okano is a process-based, collaborative, multidisciplinary, mixed media artist whose practice aims to break away from traditional, Eurocentric genres to integrate elements of her Japanese ancestry as well as holistic traditions of hunter-gatherer cultures. Okano also guides her practice with her concerns for the natural environment and the planet’s preservation, often using recycled materials […]

Linda Ohama

Linda Ohama is a filmmaker (producer and director) with an extensive history of integrating community, historical, and social justice initiatives in and around her films. She is also well known for her print, Watari Dori (A Bird of Passage), which was produced and sold in the 1980s to raise funds and awareness for the Redress […]

Harry Aoki

Harry Hiro-o Aoki was a Nisei harmonica and stand-up bass player, known for his musical virtuosity and his enthusiasm for fostering intercultural understanding through music. Born in Cumberland, BC, the second son of two Japanese Language School teachers, Harry grew up listening to Bach and Duke Ellington, and debating intellectual and social ideas around the […]

Martin Kobayakawa

Martin Kobayakawa is a guitarist and songwriter who was a member of the Vancouver folk-rock band Number One Son. He performed at the first Powell Street Festival in 1977 alongside Terry Watada, and also appeared on Watada’s album Runaway Horses (original vinyl release and the re-release on CD. He is a versatile musician proficient on […]