Subject: Japanese American Artists
I am new to the list. I am a graduate student in the East interested
in studying contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there might have any
information on this?
There is a very very small Japanese-American population in my Eastern city,
so intend to do my research on the West Coast.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> I am new to the list.
Welcome to Ties-Talk!
> I am a graduate student in the East interested in studying
> contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
> of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there
> might have any information on this?
Sounds like a very interesting topic, and there are many contemporary
JA artists, writers, performers, musicians out there. Is there any
particular kind of artist that you would like to study? Or is it very general?
I am sure others on the list can suggest many.
The Japanese American Cultural and Community Center
(http://www.jaccc.org)
is an arts organization in Los Angeles.
Maybe someone there can give you more leads.
Subject: Re: Asian American Artists
> Is there any particular kind of artist that you
> would like to study? Or is it very general?
Thanks for your input.
I am thinking of
focusing predominantly on painters/sculptors/performance artists,
although I am tangentially interested in photography, but feel that this may
exceed the scope of my abilities for one project.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> I am a graduate student in the East interested in studying
> contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
> of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there
> might have any information on this?
One thing I (a yonsei) have found, being an LA transplant from
the Midwest is that environment plays a key
role in not only self-perception (this being what the artist is
expressing), but also perception as it is translated through the
eyes of the viewer/reader/listener. I guess this is a given in any
art form no matter what the medium or community, but as far as JA or
Asian American art goes, my experience tells me that my Midwest-bred
mind interprets things quite differently than my LA peers. Some of
this I chalk up to just general differences between the West Coast
and Midwest/East Coast mentalities, and another part of me says that
maybe it is due to the fact that there are such drastic differences in
the JA community between here and there.
Just a couple rambling thoughts.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> My Midwest-bred mind interprets things quite differently
> than my LA peers. Some of this I chalk up to just general
> differences between the West Coast and Midwest/East Coast
> mentalities, and another part of me says that maybe it is
> due to the fact that there are such drastic differences
> in the JA community between here and there.
Thank you for your input regarding the environment/community.
Being a native of Los Angeles I suspected as much, but the almost complete lack
of a Japanese American community near me in this Eastern city has prevented me from making
such an assessment.
Thanks again.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> I am a graduate student in the East interested in studying
> contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
> of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there
> might have any information on this?
Please have a look at:
Center for Intercultural Performance of the World Arts & Cultures Department
http://www.wac.ucla.edu/cip/
Although it isn't centered on Japanese American or even Asian American artists,
a fair number of JA and AA have been involved, as well as artists from Asia.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> I am a graduate student in the East interested in studying
> contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
> of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there
> might have any information on this?
Have you considered interviewing the woman who
did the sculpture of the two cranes caught in barbed wire for the
National Japanese American Memorial in Washington, D.C.?
She has also done other large sculptures. She seems like a powerful person
and has probably thought alot about being JA
while working on the Memorial sculpture.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> I am a graduate student in the East interested in studying
> contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
> of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there
> might have any information on this?
I could really see this dissertation as being something
interesting, including opening up a whole new dimension for discussion.
Artistic expression often has such a close tie to the
inner soul of a person, including their identity.
> I am thinking of focusing predominantly on
> painters/sculptors/performance artists,although
> I am tangentially interested in photography
Photography might be interesting, and there's also might be up-and-coming
contemporary computer graphics and multimedia artists to include.
> My Midwest-bred mind interprets things quite differently
> than my LA peers. Some of this I chalk up to just general
> differences between the West Coast and Midwest/East Coast
> mentalities, and another part of me says that maybe it is
> due to the fact that there are such drastic differences
> in the JA community between here and there.
I agree that there are regional differences to perception.
> The almost complete lack of a Japanese American community
> near me in this Eastern city has prevented me from making
> such an assessment.
You might have hit a key item regarding the
existence of a JA community or lack thereof in helping to preserve an
"ethnic" identity or even a willingness in expressing that in the art.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> I am a graduate student in the East interested in studying
> contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
> of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there
> might have any information on this?
If you are interested in interviewing JA artists, Robert Hanamura has
curated many shows and knows a lot of artists.
Ruth Okimoto (ryokimoto@home.com)
may also be able to help, although she¹s busy on a book project at the moment.
I recently reviewed Roger Shimomura¹s show ³An American Diary² and
³Memories of Childhood². The San Jose Museum of art sent me a whole
bunch of press clippings in which Prof. Shimomura discussed his
background, work and motivations. The review is below.
For press clips, contact Diane Maxwell (dmaxwell@sjmusart.org).
I¹d be very interested in seeing your paper when it¹s done.
Like his grandmother¹s concentration camp diaries, Roger Shimomura¹s
paintings appear flat at first glance - deceptively simple,
matter-of-fact, inexpressive. However, like much Japanese-derived
communication, his subtle and understated compositions reveal
meanings that resonate for a long time, like a single plucked string
against silence.
Silence is Shimomura¹s enemy. And forgetting. And denial. Interned at
age 3 in a World War II concentration camp, along with 120,000 other
Japanese Americans, he paints from his own experience and that of his
family. By reducing his imagery to essentials, the empty spaces and
surreal elements of his work reveal a subtle irony. An image of a
tense woman looking out a window, with a radio in the foreground, is
dated Dec. 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Day. An October 31, 1942 image
shows the same woman, Shimomura¹s grandmother holding the youthful
Roger. He¹s wearing a mask with the hideous grin of a stereotypical
Chinese coolie.
Long-known for blending the imagery of American comic books with
those of ukiyo-e, Shimomura¹s latest works challenge viewers to enter
into their own relationship with the internment, with East-West
collisions, with childhood memories. ³Where was I then? Was I Nikkei,
was I Caucasian, was I not even born? What does this have to do with
me today?...²A special interpretive station provides a forum for
viewers to share their personal/ family experiences.
San Jose Museum of Art, 110 South Market Street, San Jose CA
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> I am a graduate student in the East interested in studying
> contemporary Japanese-American artists and the relationship
> of art to identity. I was wondering if anybody out there
> might have any information on this?
Although not contemporary as in "living," Chiura Obata is well-known in
California, and his work is fabulous. I (a sansei living in the center of the country)
had never heard of him, though I studied painting in NYC's Pratt Institute.
An issei immigrant to California, Obata used many traditional Japanese painting techniques
and applied them to landscape views of Yosemite, among other familiar
US subjects, in the 1920s and '30s. He was interned in Utah during the war,
and his work chronicling the internment experience are heart-breaking.
He was a teacher throughout, and started an art school in camp.
I believe he died in the 1970s.
As a side-note, there used to be an organization named the Asian Artists
Association in NYC in the late 1970s which included a number of Asian
artists, including Japanese artists. I was briefly a member, but as a
student, felt way out of my league (most were established fulltime
contemporary artists and professors). We even had a show in a SoHo coop
gallery space, and a painting of mine was bought by the playwright Edward Albee.
My moment of near-fame.
Subject: Re: Japanese American Artists
> Although not contemporary as in "living," Chiura Obata is
> well-known in California, and his work is fabulous.
Here is more about Chiura Obata:
Nature gives us endless rhythm and harmony in any circumstances,
not only when we are on a joyous path, but even in the depth of
despair, we will see true greatness of beauty of strength, beauty
of patience and beauty of sacrifice. Above the borderline of
nationality, everybody must feel a deep appreciation toward Mother
Earth... If we keep appreciation in the depth of our hearts, not
only our senses will develop energetically... but our feeling will
become as clear as full moonlight. Chiura Obata, 1933.
Chiura Obata (1885-1975) was arguably the Bay Area¹s most influential
Japanese American artist. As a co-founder of the East West Art
Society and professor at the University of California at Berkeley,
Obata gave public lectures, demonstrations and classes which
introduced Japanese esthetics and the art of sumi-e (ink brush
paintings) to Bay Area artists and audiences.
Among the many individuals he inspired were reknowned local artist
Ruth Asawa, poet Gary Snyder and Beat generation artist Jay DeFeo.
Obata was born in Japan in 1885, the only child of an artist father.
He began to study sumi-e at age seven and at age 14, apprenticed
himself to a master painter in Tokyo, adopting the artist name
³Chiura,² in homage to the scenic ³thousand bays² near his home in
Sendai. Although he quickly gained recognition for his art in Japan,
he convinced his father that he should visit the West because ³the
greater the view, the greater the art; the wider the travel, the
broader the knowledge.²
The 18-year-old Obata arrived in San Francisco in 1903. He studied
English while working as a ³schoolboy² (household domestic). He also
enrolled at a local art institute, which he soon abandoned in favor
of independent study. He studied and painted in his spare time while
employed as an illustrator for Japanese-language publications. His
love of nature, instilled by the Shinto and Buddhist influences of
his upbringing, was heightened by the varied riches of the California
landscape, and by the works of the pioneering naturalist and
environmentalist John Muir.
Soon enough, Nature provided him with dramatic subject matter in
the form of the great earthquake and fire of 1906. Obata¹s sketches
of the destruction are key artistic records of the devastated city.
As the city recovered from the earthquake, the socio-political
atmosphere remained hostile towards Asians. Obata and his compatriots
were physically assaulted on the street simply because of race.
Paradoxically, it was an era when Asian and Asian-influenced arts
were in vogue. Obata was commissioned to decorate ³Oriental²
salesrooms in department stores such as Gump¹s and the City of Paris
as well as sets for a San Francisco Opera production of Madame
Butterfly.
In 1912 he married Haruko Kohashi, an educated young woman who had
come to San Francisco at age 17 to study English and Western sewing
techniques. An artist in her own right, Haruko Obata captivated
Americans with her ikebana (flower arranging) demonstrations and classes.
Her work was displayed at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.
In his non-commercial work, Obata explored the timelessness of
nature and humanity. However, he observed that ³there was not much
communication between the Americans and the Japanese, not even among
artists.² Believing that ³at least in the world of art there
shouldn¹t be any walls between the poor East and the rich West,² he
founded the East West Art Society in 1921 with George Matsusaburo
Hibi and two Caucasian friends. The group attracted American,
Japanese, Chinese and Russian artists with the common goal of
³finding the way to a highest Idealism where the East unites with the West.²
The group held their first exhibition of paintings in 1922 at
the San Francisco Museum of Art. Through the Society, Obata also
began public lectures and demonstrations, inspiring countless
audiences with his eloquent speech and dazzling them with his rapid
and skillful brushwork and his ability to develop a finished painting
from a random mark made on a piece of paper by a member of the audience.
In 1927, Obata was invited by Worth Ryder, an art professor at
UC Berkeley, to spend a month camping, hiking and drawing in Yosemite
Valley and the High Sierras. Obata created over 150 artworks during
the trip, which he called ³the greatest harvest for my whole life and
future in painting.² He found in the majestic peaks and lofty trees
not only artistic, but also spiritual inspiration.
Primed by John Muir¹s extensive writings on the area, Obata¹s spirit
soared with the metaphysical and spiritual truths to be found in the
majestic workings of nature. ³When faced with such serene beauty,² he
wrote, ³the soul and mind of man are lost, the possibility of petty
thought vanished.²
In striking contrast to the cliches of the typical grandiose Yosemite
painting, Obata¹s Japanese-trained esthetic and naturalist¹s eye saw
poetry in a single meticulously rendered pine branch or meditated on
the eternal cycle of life and death through the juxtaposition of
young trees and decaying logs.
Despite his prolific output, Obata did not consider himself ready for
a one-man show until 1928. Soon after the exhibition, held at the
East West Gallery in San Francisco, his father died, and Obata and
his family moved to Japan. There he created the World Landscape
Series 35 color woodblock prints based on his California paintings.
The complex undertaking enlisted the skills of 32 wood carvers, eight
artists, and 40 printers. Some prints required over 100 progressive
proofs to reproduce the simple but subtle brush strokes of the
original paintings.
Obata returned to California after two years and in 1932 was
appointed an assistant professor of art at UC Berkeley, which thus
became the first American university to include Japanese painting in
its art curriculum. Obata continued to popularize the esthetics and
techniques of Japanese art, introducing thousands not only to
Japanese culture but to the Buddhist ideals of selflessness,
peaceability and respect for nature and all living things.
In 1941, his tranquil world was shattered by the bombing of Pearl
Harbor. The mass eviction of 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West
Coast soon followed. Ever the artist, Obata recorded his experiences
with quick sketches. Arriving at the Tanforan ³Assembly Center,²
a racetrack transformed into makeshift quarters for 8,000 evictees,
Obata set up an art school within three-and-a-half weeks. Over 600
students attended. Obata was especially moved by the Issei students,
who had suffered a terrible loss of both possessions and dignity in
the eviction.
On September 22, the Obatas were sent to a concentration camp in
Topaz, Utah. By October 6, Obata established the Topaz Art School to
provide a creative outlet for internees trapped behind barbed wire,
surrounded by barren desert and scoured by dust storms. Of the
school, Obata said, ³We only hope [it] will follow the teaching of...
Great Nature, that it will strengthen itself to endure like the
mountains, and, like the sun and the moon, will emit its own light,
teach the people, benefit the people, and encourage itself.²
Obata¹s internment sketches and paintings are collected in "Topaz
Moon: Chiura Obata¹s Art of the Internment," a book edited as a labor
of love by his granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, and published by
Heyday Books.
In the spring of 1943, Obata applied to leave Topaz, and settled in
St. Louis, where he found work painting window displays. When the
military exclusion order was lifted in early 1945, Obata returned to
teach at UC Berkeley, where he remained until he retired in 1954. His
tutelage didn¹t end, however. Until the age of 84, Obata and his wife
led semi-annual tours to Japan to promote international understanding
and illuminate for Americans the subtle beauties of Japanese arts,
gardens and architecture.
Obata died in 1975, at the age of 90. A decade later, his
granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, began the work of preserving his
legacy and ensuring that his art and wisdom continue to be
appreciated by future generations. Obata once wrote, ³The highest aim
and hope of art is a high, strong peace.²A quarter century after his
death, his paintings continue to radiate a reverence and joy in the
lights and shadows of life.
Book: Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata¹s Art of the Internment, edited with
text by Kimi Kodani Hill. 168 pg. paperback book presents more than
100 Obata works from the internment period, 24 in color. Hill details
Obata¹s life as artist and teacher. Includes extensive quotations
from Obata¹s eloquent writings and vivid documentation of the
internment. $19.95. Heyday Books, PO Box 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 549-3564.
(Source: October 2000 issue of The Beam, a free monthly bilingual
tabloid for Japanese Americans and Japanese-language speakers in
the San Francisco Bay Area)
Last updated 03 April 2000