British Columbia

Joyce Harumi Kamikura

Joyce H. Kamikura, NWS, SFCA Joyce was one of the first Canadians to be bestowed Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society (NWS – U.S.A.). She was also one of the first women to be given the top ranking title in the Federation of Canadian Artists as a Senior Signature Member (SFCA). Exhibitions of her […]

Dona Nabata

I graduated with a major in Japanese language from the University of British Columbia, and then studied pottery at The Shimpi Togei Center, and later at Kyoritsu Primitive Art in Japan. I continued my pottery studies at Emily Carr Univerisity and graduated in Ceramics. Pottery still informs my work, but now I maintain a studio […]

Kayla Isomura

Kayla Leung Isomura is a documentary photographer and journalist based in Vancouver, B.C. As a multigenerational settler of Chinese and Japanese descent, Kayla’s interest in storytelling has been largely influenced by their family’s story of displacement. Through this lens, Kayla aims to explore narratives that centre historically resilient voices. They are drawn to stories that […]

Hollis Ho

Hollis has been studying and practicing the art of Sogetsu Ikebana for 27 years in Vancouver with study opportunities in Japan, France, USA and Canada. In 2012, she received Riji level (highest degree) from the Sogetsu School, Tokyo, Japan. Hollis teaches in her east Vancouver studio. She is the Deputy Director of Sogetsu Vancouver Branch, […]

Lily Ide

Ritsuko Lily Ide was a popular Nisei singer in Vancouver in the late 1930s and early 1940s who performed at community dances and had professional singing engagements in eastern Canada. She passed away in Slocan in 1943.

Lily Washimoto

Lily Washimoto was a popular Nisei lyric soprano singer in Vancouver in the late 1930s and early 1940s. She performed at the 1939 Vancouver Folk Fest and was a featured soloist on the CBC’s broadcast of part of the program; in 1941 she could be heard on the CBC radio program Sanctuary on Sunday evenings. […]

Robert Shiozaki

Robert Shiozaki is a ceramic artist with forty-plus years of experience working with clay. His formative studies were in Vancouver at the Vancouver School of Art, and Kyoto, Japan, at the Kyoto School of Fine Arts. He teaches carving and modelling at Totally Ceramics in Surrey and the Port Moody Arts Centre, where he has […]

Barb Miiko Gravlin

Barbara ‘Miiko’ Nishimura- Gravlin was born in Tashme, the largest of Japanese Canadian internment camps in B.C. At an early age, she became an abstract painter under mentors, Richard Gorman and Mashel Teitelbaum and Kazuo Nakamura. In 1965, she was the recipient of a Canada Council Travel grant in Painting for six months tenure studying […]

Linz Kenyon

Lindsay ‘Linz’ Kenyon is a writer, composer, actor, and musician. He has released four albums, published poems and stories, acted in film, theatre, and radio, and written many plays. Kenyon grew up on a cattle ranch in British Columbia, and has used his wrangling skills in a few theatre productions. He has written, performed, and […]

Sally Nakamura

Satoshi (Sally) Nakamura was born on Powell Street in Vancouver. He enjoyed a varied artistic life as a singer, actor and entertainer. In Vancouver, he took voice training with Gideon Hicks, a well-known baritone, conductor, and music teacher. He also loved to sing popular songs and would entertain at the Japanese language school. He could […]

Kumano

Kumano was an early synth music artist who released an album in 1980 called simply Kumano. His father was Roy Kumano. His song I’ll Cry for You made the US and UK dance charts. The song peaked at 24 on the US dance charts.

Teresa Kobayashi

Teresa Kobayashi is a master koto player, the daughter of renowned koto sensei Miyoko Kobayashi. She also plays the shamisen and shakuhachi and danced odori for 27 years. As a child, she was primarily interested in dance, and began learning the Hanayagi style of nihonbuyo (odori dance) at the age of six. However, she found […]

Diana Morita Cole

Diana Morita Cole received the 2017 Richard Carver Award for Emerging Artists for her book, Sideways: Memoir of a Misfit, which tells of her birth behind barbed wires in a Minidoka incarceration site. Cole grew up in a ghetto on the Near North Side of Chicago, where she was coddled by her 80-year-old grandfather, who […]

Rachel Greenaway

R.M. GREENAWAY lives in Nelson, BC. She has written the acclaimed six-book BC Blues crime series and several short stories, and is now contemplating a new series. Check out her work or get in touch through rmgreenaway.com.

Kaya

Kaya is a vocalist and songwriter based in Burnaby, BC with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz from Capilano University. As a queer woman of colour, she values diversity and representation, and strives to create inclusive spaces in the Vancouver music scene. Kaya draws influences from artists such as Lake Street Dive, Nina Simone, Rebecca […]