British Columbia

Tomizo Yamamoto

Tomizo Yamamoto is an independent architect based in North Vancouver, who trained in both Japan (BArch, Waseda University) and Canada (M.Arch, UBC). He has designed a number of commercial, residential, and institutional projects in and around Vancouver, including Phase I of the Chinese Cultural Centre (won by competition), Royal Oak College and Dormitories, and Shaughnessy […]

Tom Sando

Tom Sando is the author of Wild Daisies in the Sand (2002), a book based on his diary entries from the 1940s when he was imprisoned in Petawawa and Angler. Born in British Columbia, he was raised and educated in Japan by relatives after the death of his mother, and returned to Canada in 1938 […]

Midge Ayukawa

Michiko ‘Midge’ Ayukawa was a Nisei historian who specialized in Hiroshima immigrants and women’s experience in Japanese Canadian history. Born Michiko Ishii in Vancouver, Ayukawa was interned in Lemon Creek as a teenager. Her family resettled in Hamilton after the war, and she studied chemistry at McMaster University, earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s […]

Tatsuo Kage

Tatsuo Kage is the author of Nikkei Kanadajin no Tsuiho, translated into English as Uprooted Again: Japanese Canadians Move to Japan After World War II by Kathleen Chisato Merken. Born in Japan, Kage studied German history in Japan and Germany, eventually becoming an academic specializing in European political and diplomatic history. Kage worked as a […]

Randy Enomoto

Randy Enomoto is the editor of Honouring Our People: Breaking the Silence, a collection of stories from the 2009 Honouring Our People conference held by the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens Association. He also co-edited, with Genevieve Fuji Johnson, the volume Race, Racialization & Anti-Racism in Canada and Beyond. He is active in the Vancouver […]

Ruby Truly

Ruby Truly is a Hawaii-born Nikkei actor and filmmaker. Born in Maui, she grew up dancing the hula, which she credits as a lifelong artistic influence. She studied theatre at the University of Hawaii, and immigrated to Canada in the 1960s. As a performer, she has numerous film, television, and theatre credits, including The War […]

Roy Miki

Roy Miki is a Vancouver-based poet and critic, well-known for his award-winning poetry, literary criticism, theoretical texts, editorial work, as well as for his activist work as part of the Redress movement in the 1980s. He is the author of five collections of poetry, including the Governor General’s award-winning Surrender (2001), the documentary text, co-authored […]

Kenji Nagai

Kenji Nagai is a freelance photographer based in Vancouver. Born in Japan, he worked for photography studios in Osaka and Kobe before immigrating to Canada in the 1970s. He has had his own company, Kenji Photo Design, since 1983.

Mitsu Ikemura

Mitsu Ikemura is a Victoria-based mixed media artist. His richly-layered, semi-abstract ‘mindscapes’ integrate his background as an architect and urban designer with Asian-style brushwork, and he is also heavily influenced by Western-style classical music of the kind that he grew up hearing his mother play in Japan. He began his art practice with the intention […]

Ronald Kato

Ronald Kato is a Bowen Island-based architect who specializes in sustainable design. Born in Quebec, he got his degree in architecture from McGill University, and worked on a variety of corporate and private architectural projects in Montreal, as well as the Canadian Museum of Civilization as the Project Architect through the Douglas Cardinal Architect firm. […]

Sansho Daiko

Formed in 2010, Sansho Daiko is a Vancouver-based taiko group that brings a fresh approach to an ancient art form. Drawing on both traditional and contemporary repertoire, the group creates a visual and aural experience that defies easy categorization and crosses ethnic and cultural boundaries. Like the plant it was named after, Sansho Daiko seeks […]

Yumie Kono

Yumie Kono is a visual artist who draws and paints. She was born in Hiroshima and grew up in Matsue, Japan. She graduated with a BFA from the Women’s College of Fine Arts in Tokyo in 1967. After traveling for a year from 1971-1972 to North America and Middle East, she immigrated to Canada and […]

Renay Egami

Renay Egami is a multimedia artist. Originally from Vancouver, she is currently based in Kelowna BC where she teaches at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in the Faculty of Creative & Critical Studies / Visual Arts. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and […]

Michael Tora Speier

Michael Tora Speier is a west coast North American visual artist, born in Berkeley CA, raised in Vancouver BC, of Jewish and Japanese ancestry. He received a visual art scholarship from the Helen Pitt Foundation and graduated with BFA honours in Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia. Growing to define himself as a […]

Heather Midori Yamada

Heather Midori Yamada is a Sansei visual artist and teacher who works with washi, Japanese handmade papers. She leads contemplative workshops which combine guided meditation, hatha yoga and creative brushwork. Recently married and having moved to Victoria, BC, Yamada continues to teach in Toronto at the Japanese Paper place and in Montreal at the Museum […]