British Columbia

Toru Fujibayashi

I was born at home into a world of chaos on the 23rd February, 1942 in Vancouver, BC, an enemy alien destined for internment in the Slocan Valley…brief stays in Popoff, Bay Farm, then settling in Slocan City. In 1963 fate would find me at the Alberta College of Art for 4 interminable years. And […]

Fumiko Greenaway

Fumiko Greenaway (née Endo) was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on April 16, 1929, the eldest child of George Chohei Endo and Tomie Endo, formerly of Miyagi-ken, near Sendai, in northern Japan. A cook, George had come to Canada and followed the railroad east, finding a job with the CPR hotel in Moose Jaw. Setting […]

Shizuo Kato

Shizuo Kato was a Japanese Canadian artist who studied painting in Paris in the late 1930s. Originally from Vancouver, Kato worked at his uncle’s Powell Street shoe store and took night school art classes before travelling to Paris to study at the Cour de l’Academie Colarossie, former place of study for Picasso and Matisse. Ten […]

Aki Hyodo

Aki Hyodo was a talented amateur Nisei actress well-known in the Powell Street community. She was a member of the Powell United Church Young People’s Society, which first entered a play into the city drama festival in 1939. In each of Powell YPS’s three entries into the city drama festival, in 1939, 1940, and 1941, […]

Yurie Hoyoyon

Yurie is a multi talented girl in Vancouver; she is… An illustrator, graphic designer, portrait artist, greeting cards artist. Also a voice actress, MC, poetry event coordinator for the Vancouver based poet Soramaru Takayama, and a TV reporter of Nikkei TV. As an illustrator and a portrait artist, she has worldwide client base including North […]

Mark Toyama

Mark Toyama was a Nisei writer who published several popular works in The New Canadian prior to his early death. He was perhaps best known for his poem “powell st,” first published in The New Canadian in 1940 and then reprinted in 1942 in the midst of the Japanese Canadian community’s forced removal from that […]

Yoshiko Godo

Yoshiko Godo was born in Haney, BC in 1940. Her family was interned in Tashme and their father was imprisoned in Angler. They were reunited in Geraldton shortly before the death of their mother. After the war, they lived in Emerson Manitoba, Winnipeg, and Lillooet BC. Yoshiko attended UBC obtaining a degree in Mathematics. She […]

Brent Hirose

Brent Hirose is an actor, writer, director, improviser, playwright and voice over artist based in Vancouver, BC. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, he grew up all over the middle of Canada before settling in Winnipeg where he graduated with Honours from the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre and Film Program. Working there for over a decade, he […]

Carol Oya

Carol Oya hails from Vancouver. She’s been singing pretty much all her life. As a kid, she loved to watch “Solid Gold” and mimic her idols, Olivia Newton-John and Sheena Easton. Like every good Asian parent, her mum forced her to take piano lessons from the age of five. She fondly remembers crying while doing […]

Stephanie Eiko Nakagawa

Soprano, Dr. Stephanie Nakagawa, has a great passion for Canadian opera. Her outstanding contribution to the field and her publication, A Canadian Opera Aria Anthology for Soprano has been recognized by the Canadian Music Centre with the Barbara Pentland Award of Excellence. Stephanie completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice and Opera from […]

Chika Buston

Chika is an acoustic fingerstyle-guitarist, vocalist, and keyboardist. She plays an eclectic range of styles, and can commonly be found playing folk music around BC with violinist Caitlan Read.

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. […]

Hiroe Hoshi aka Negma

Hiroe Hoshi aka Negma is a professional bellydancer based in Victoria Vancouver Island BC. She has been performing belly dance in Tokyo Japan, Dubai UAE, Vancouver Canada. ​In Arabic, the word Negma means Star which is a literal translation of Negma’s Japanese family name. Negma’s belly dance career began 14 years ago at Karima Arabian […]

Kathryn Hatashita-Lee

Kathryn Hatashita-Lee was born in Toronto and raised in Vancouver. She studied for a B.A. in History at the University of British Columbia, where she worked for several years before marrying Roger Lee. A SEAD grant from The National Association of Japanese Canadians helped finance her second year at the Emily Carr College of Art […]