Victoria

Ken Mizokoshi

Ken Mizokoshi is a professional photographer who was born and raised in Nagasaki, Japan. He was a staff photographer and a reporter for Japan’s national newspaper The Asahi Shimbun for 25 years. As a photographer, he covered both the daily news, such as emergency situations and special events, as well as human-interest stories. One of […]

Yukari Oyama Peerless

Yukari is a multi-talented creative based in Victoria, BC, with a passion for bridging the gap between Japanese and Canadian cultures. She is a writer, interpreter, podcaster, watercolor artist, and Japanese Cultural Consultant, and has been helping to connect the two cultures since moving from Nagasaki, Japan to Victoria in 1998. As the owner of […]

Bradley Kurushima

Prince Shima is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and third generation Japanese-Canadian based in Victoria BC. By the age of 12 he was writing and performing original compositions live. He has fronted several punk, hardcore and indie bands that have toured throughout North America. As early as 14 he started producing experimental music on a cassette 4-track. […]

Hannah Mariko Bell

Hannah is a proud fourth generation Japanese Canadian raised on Treaty 7 Territory within Blackfoot Confederacy lands (Calgary, Alberta). She is a neurodivergent artist and a member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community who identifies as pansexual. These identities, as well as her Japanese Canadian heritage, inform her artistic practice and place equity and accessibility at the […]

Uminari Taiko

Uminari Taiko is Vancouver Island’s first taiko drumming ensemble. Its mission is to share and promote the art of Japanese taiko drumming through teaching and performances. Uminari is a Japanese word that can be translated as “roaring sea” – the sound of the crashing waves and the silence in between. It is a name that […]

Marlene Howell

MARLENE HOWELL (née Seki) marlenehowellgallery.com Marlene was born in Toronto and moved to Vancouver Island in 1996. Since then she has lived in and has exhibited her artwork in Khartoum, Sudan, New York City, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia before settling in Victoria, BC. Her artistic development is a result of the influential instructors at the […]

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 […]

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 […]

Henry Shimizu

Born Prince Rupert BC.. 1928 Removal March 1942 Internment New Denver, BC, 1942 to 1946 Moved to Edmonton. AB. University of Alberta. 1948; Graduate – Medicine 1954 Graduate – BSc.MD, 1954 Surgical residency 1955 to 1959, University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine Plastic Surgery residency 1960 to 1962, University of Pittsburgh Medical Faculty Certificate of […]

Ann-Lee and Gordon Switzer

Ann-Lee and Gordon Switzer are the authors of Gateway to Promise: Canada’s First Japanese Community, and Sakura in Stone: Victoria’s Japanese Legacy. A husband and wife historian team, they became interested in the prewar Japanese Canadian community in Victoria after becoming involved in the local Japanese Canadian community and being asked to write about the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]