Toronto

Real (Akazawa) Eguchi

Real Eguchi is a Toronto-based landscape architect with over 25 years of experience in his field in Canada, Asia, and the Middle East. He is the Managing Principal of Eguchi Associated Landscape Architects, which is committed to sustainable design that facilitates harmonious and mutually healing relationships between humans and their natural environment. His company has […]

Joni Inouye

Joni Inouye is a Toronto-based interior designer who worked with Moriyama & Teshima Architects. Born in Japan, she studied architectural technology at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and went on to design such interiors as the Scarborough Civic Centre (1969), the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library (1973), the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo (1986); the Ismaili Imamat in Ottawa […]

Yosh Inouye

Yosh Inouye is a photographer and graphic designer. He studied sociology, photography, and graphic design in Japan and came to Canada in 1968. He worked as an advertising photographer, operating his own studio. In the mid-1980s, he was invited to teach at Sheridan College of which he says, ‘I didn’t know I can teach until […]

Akira Yoshikawa

Akira Yoshikawa has always been interested in art, architecture, design and music. After graduating from the Ontario College of Art in 1974 with Special Commendation from the Department of Experimental Art, he has exhibited at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Mercer Union, Art Gallery of Algoma and […]

Walter Sunahara

Walter Sunahara was a painter. He was born in Vancouver and during WWII was interned as a child at Bay Farm, Slocan. Moving east after the war he earned a degree from the Ontario College of Art, Toronto in 1959. Walter then pursued graduate studies at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts specializing in Nihonga, […]

Yoshiko Sunahara

Yoshiko Sunahara is a sculptor, ceramicist, and mixed media artist. With many international exhibitions, and public commissions utilizing large-scale cast bronze and ceramic sculpture in her earlier portfolio, Yoshiko’s current work employs mixed media medallic sculpture in the form of ‘hand-held’ sculptures. Yoshiko’s work reflects a deep concern over environmental and social issues, voicing protest […]

Shizuye Takashima

Shizuye Takashima was one of Canada’s foremost Nisei painters. Beginning in the late 1950s, she became noticed on the Canadian art scene for her skilful and sensitive figurative paintings, but her style and subject matter underwent many transformations throughout her career. She is most well-known for her book, A Child in Prison Camp, which tells […]

Kazuo Nakamura

Kazuo Nakamura was an internationally recognized abstract painter, widely noted for his application of rigorous mathematical structure to his depictions of both landscapes and more abstract visuals. Born in Vancouver in 1926, he was teaching himself how to paint landscapes when he was forcibly relocated as a teenager to the Tashme internment camp, where he […]

Louise Noguchi

Louise Noguchi is a multidisciplinary visual artist who challenges her audience with themes that pose psychological questions. Using photography, sculpture, video and other media, Noguchi’s concepts confront the spectator’s notions of identity, perception and reality. Her work has been exhibited at the Power Plant, Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the Contemporary Art Gallery, […]

Ron Korb

Grammy® Award nominated flutist and composer Ron Korb has released 30 albums in 20 countries and plays a wide variety of indigenous woodwinds from around the world. Ron is on the list of ‘Ten Best Flute Players in the World’ and has won numerous awards. After graduating the University of Toronto he moved to Tokyo […]

Frank Nakashima

Frank Tadashi Nakashima was born in Toronto on July 22, 1951. He is a graduate of York University (Toronto) Bachelor of Fine Arts 1975, specializing in the performance practice of Medieval and Renaissance music. He has performed with The Toronto Consort (1972-1974), the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir (founding member) 1981-1986 and was a consultant for Poculi […]

Joy Kogawa

Joy Kogawa was born in Vancouver in 1935. As a young child, she and her family were forced to leave their home in the Marpole neighbourhood and move to the Slocan internment camp in the interior of British Columbia. Her family’s experience of the forced uprooting of Japanese Canadians later inspired her 1981 novel, Obasan. […]

Ed Koyama

Ed Koyama is a musician born and raised in Toronto. He has played guitar and saxophone professionally in local bands. Performances include a number of albums for Terry Watada with other local Sansei/Nisei musicians.

Ruth Yamada

Ruth Yamada was a sumi-e artist and watercolour painter, and founder of the Toronto-based group Sumi-e Artists of Canada. Professionally, Yamada worked as the lead fashion artist for Fairweather Clothing. Her sumi-e and watercolours were exhibited at a number of solo exhibitions in Ontario, and part of group exhibitions internationally, including in Japan. Yamada was […]

Ken Adachi

Ken Adachi was the author of the seminal history of Japanese Canadians, The Enemy That Never Was (1976). A journalist by profession, Adachi was commissioned to write the book by the National Association of Japanese Canadians. He was born in British Columbia in 1928, and he and his family were forcibly removed from Vancouver to […]