British Columbia

Mia Ohki

Mia Ohki is an Japanese Canadian artist, born in Connecticut, USA, and raised in Alberta, Canada. She now lives and works in Vancouver, BC. She primarily illustrates with black pen on white paper to convey her thoughts, however she also uses many other visual art mediums, including sculpture and painting, to study concepts that interest […]

Randall Okita

Randall Okita is a Canadian visual artist and filmmaker whose work employs sculpture, technology, physically challenging performances or stunt-work, and rich cinematography. His work has been shown in both group and solo exhibition, awarded internationally, and screened at festivals around the world, including retrospective screenings of his short film catalogue in San Francisco and Toronto. […]

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 […]

Miki Dare

Miki Dare (Dare is pronounced DAH-RAY in Japanese) lives on the West Coast where she likes to express herself with whatever falls into her hands – from a pen to a paintbrush. She enjoys working with mixed media (from food packaging to fire) and acrylics on canvas to explore issues of identity, personal history, and […]

M.A. Tateishi

M.A.Tateishi is a Vancouver painter inspired by bright colour and geometric form. Her unique creative process involves up to twenty layers of painting and drawing on tissue applied to wood panel. Then the layers are torn away to reveal the history of the artwork. Finally, resin is applied to create translucency. Her artwork has been […]

Mami Mizutani

Mami is a Vancouver-based business woman who founded Beauty Secrets of Japan and Camellia Japan. Mami immigrated to Canada, from Osaka Japan, in 1999. She is a graduate of Otani University and continued to study multimedia after immigrating. Since her arrival to Canada, Mami has been involved in several successful start-up businesses yet chose to […]

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 […]

Vancouver Taiko Society

Taiko in Vancouver Inspired by a performance by the San Jose Taiko Group at the 1979 Powell Street Festival, members of Vancouver’s Asian community came together to form their own taiko group as a means of exploring and celebrating their heritage through the Japanese drum. With the formation of Katari Taiko in the fall of […]

Chibi Taiko

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 […]

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 […]

Naomi Sawada

Naomi Sawada is Manager of Public Programs at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where she has developed programs and collaborated with researchers, artists, and others since 1995. Two of her abiding concerns is to include discussions about diversity and social justice in her programming and to […]

Natalie Purschwitz

Natalie Purschwitz is a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC. Her work seeks out spaces between art, design, performance and daily life. Purschwitz has shown her work nationally and internationally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Nikkei National Museum, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Canada House in London, England and the Prince Takamato Gallery in […]

Sherri Kajiwara

Sherri is Director|Curator of the Nikkei National Museum at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre in Burnaby. She has been a fine arts professional since 1992 as a gallerist, gallery director, gallery owner, writer, editor, publisher, and curator. She holds a B.Comm from the Sauder School of Business at UBC and is a graduate […]