Manitoba

Junko Bailey

Junko Bailey is an artist/actor/writer/filmmaker, originally from Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan, and based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Doshisha University in Kyoto. She has been a member of ACTRA since 2003. As an actor, she has appeared in several TV/Film productions. She is a filmmaker on the Japanese Cultural […]

Henry Takatsu

William (Henry) Takatsu was born on 1927 in Haney, BC (now Maple Ridge) the second youngest of seven siblings to parents (strawberry and vegetable farmers), Shunsuke and Tatsu Takatsu (nee Mitsuhashi), who were originally from Narita, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. During the Federal government internment, his family was relocated to the Franco-Manitoban community of La Rochelle, […]

Keri Latimer

Keri Latimer is a Japanese/Irish/Canadian songwriter, film composer and front woman of the band Leaf Rapids from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Live performances include guitar, vocals and theremin which are looped into haunting layers. Her music emanates from a sensibility that crosses genres and blends disparate styles. Her songwriting often incorporates stories inspired by her ancestors who […]

Ryan Takatsu

Ryan Takatsu is a sansei, designer, video artist and cultural equity advocate. Born in Winnipeg and studied at the University of Manitoba – Faculty of Architecture: Interior Design graduate; Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity: Toronto Publishing Workshop; the University of Toronto: ITDC ADMC; and the University of Winnipeg. During the 1980s and 1990s, he […]

Grace Terakita

Grace Fujie Terakita was a well-known Nisei soprano singer before, during, and after the Second World War. When living in BC before the war, she recorded her trademark song Shinna no Yoru (China Nights). She lived in the Winnipeg area after the war. Her accompanist in BC was Vernon Hakkaku. In Manitoba, Terakita sang with […]

Stan Taniwa

Stan Taniwa is a muralist and ceramicist based in Manitoba. Born in Chemainus, Taniwa’s family was forcibly removed from the coast when he was a baby and lived in an internment camp, eventually resettling in Thunder Bay. Taniwa studied architectural drafting and later ceramics at the University of Manitoba. He began exhibiting his clay works […]

Sandra Sasaki

Sandra Sasaki is a Winnipeg-based interior designer. After receiving her Bachelor of Interior Design from the University of Manitoba, she worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Eaton’s, and her own Sasaki Design Inc., as well as being a Business Developer for LM Architectural Group. She received a Design Canada Award of Merit from the National […]

Stanley Hiroaki Osaka

Stanley Hiroaki Osaka was born on July 23, 1931 in Richmond, British Columbia, to Otokichi and Midori Osaka. During the Second World War, he and his parents and sister, Kimiko, were interned at Tashme Internment Camp, British Columbia, by order of the Canadian Government. After the war, he relocated to Montreal to attend McGill University, […]

Yoshimaru Abe

Yoshimaru Abe was an entertainer, artist, haiku poet, garden designer. Born in 1914 in Fukuoka, Japan, Abe immigrated to Canada in 1927 to join his parents in Port Hammond, BC. There he worked for the local lumber mill while also working on the family strawberry farm. With other Japanese community members, he engaged in shibai […]

Art Miki

Art Miki is a community activist and retired educator living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Born in Vancouver in 1936, he was five years old when his parents and grandparents, wanting to keep the family together, chose to relocate to a sugar beet farm in Ste. Agathe, a French-speaking community 40 kilometres south of Winnipeg. Following the […]

Kevin DeForest

Kevin Ei-ichi DeForest is a visual and multimedia artist. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to Japanese and Swiss parents. He studied architecture (Bachelor of Environmental Studies, 1983) and fine art (BFA, 1986) at the University of Manitoba before getting an MFA from Concordia University in 1994. He was also a Mombusho (Japan Ministry of […]

Megumi Masaki

Megumi Masaki is a concert pianist and multimedia artist. The innovation and breadth of her artistic activity, dynamic temperament and ‘riveting and mind-expanding’ performances have earned her a reputation as a leading interpreter of contemporary music. She specializes in exploring how sound, image, text and movement can be integrated in multimedia works. Masaki frequently collaborates […]

Hiroshi Koshiyama

Hiroshi Koshiyama co-founded the Winnipeg-based professional taiko group Fubuki Daiko with his wife, Naomi Guilbert in 1995. Born and raised in San Francisco, he became a Canadian citizen in 2000 after moving to Winnipeg. He received his formative training with Grandmaster Seiichi Tanaka and the San Francisco Taiko Dojo where he also acted as the […]

Naomi Guilbert

Naomi Guilbert is a writer who set aside writing in 1995 to focus on music when she co-founded the Winnipeg based professional taiko group Fubuki Daiko with her husband, Hiroshi Koshiyama. Guilbert received her formative training with Grandmaster Seiichi Tanaka and the San Fransicso Taiko Dojo where she was also a principal instructor. She has […]

Steven Nunoda

Steven Nunoda is a Winnipeg-based multidisciplinary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, but also uses a variety of other media, such as woodcarving, found-objects, photography, digital imaging, text and time-based strategies. His practice is research-oriented and usually produced a number of long-term, thematically interrelated works. One example is Ghostown, a project which explores […]