Past Events

5th Annual Powell Grounds Ball Game
at Oppenheimer Park
Tribute to the Vancouver Asahi

Saturday, August 7, 2010 10:30am-2:00pm

OPPENHEIMER PARK at 400 Powell Street

FREE

Are you a baseball fan? Come out to the renovated Oppenheimer Park on Saturday, August 7th for a fun, community baseball game. This annual event is a tribute to the Vancouver Asahi Baseball Team. Sign up to play on a team, or come watch the game. This family friendly event includes a historical display of the Vancouver Asahis, screening of the documentary film Sleeping Tigers, crafts, and refreshments. Contact the Japanese Canadian National Museum to sign up to play on one of the teams. 604.777.7000 | jcnm@nikkeiplace.org

This event is presented in partnership with Carnegie Community Centre and supported by the Powell Street Festival, Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall, and Vancouver Canadians. Media sponsor Vancouver Shinpo. Water donation by Safeway. T-shirt sponsor Local Trifecta.

Visit online exhibition http://virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Asahi/

Oppenheimer Park

Once known as the Powell Street Grounds, Oppenheimer Park named for Vancouver’s second Mayor, David Oppenheimer, was officially opened in 1898.  Occupying a city block, this 0.98 hectare park is located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood, at the corner of Powell and Jackson Streets.  In the 1930’s the park was the only place where political gatherings could be held, and was consequently the location for many Depression-era demonstrations.  Today, it caters to Vancouver’s downtown eastside, serving as a recreational and social centre for the community.  Its facilities include softball grounds, a basketball court, children’s playground a community centre, and features many shaded seated areas.  Another highlight of the park is the Powell Street Festival, an annual mid-summer event celebrating Asian-Canadian culture.

A group of kimono teachers and students lead by Mineko Ukai from Nishinomiya, Japan are travelling specially to the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre to present Beauty of Japan – Japanese Kimono Show on Wednesday, August 4, 2010, at 7pm. Experience the virtues of wearing a kimono and expect to see myriads of kimono worn for different occasions and seasons.

Tickets $12/ $10 concession & NNMHC members

In the program’s first scene, women’s seasonal kimono for spring, summer, fall, and winter will be introduced. Scene two will show three kinds of obi: Han haba, Nagoya, and Fukuro Obi. In scene three, kimono worn for special occasions will be showcased: Shichigosan, Jusan-mairi, and Coming-of-Age Day. Thirty kimono teachers and models, including one man, a handful of children, and some local models, will come together on stage for the finale. When wearing kimono manners such as bowing, walking, sitting, and virtues of the heart – harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility – will also be illustrated throughout the show (with English and Japanese commentary). A reception with refreshments will follow, and audiences will have a chance to mingle with the kimono bearers. Please join us for a spectacular and rare opportunity to appreciate Japanese kimono with those who keep the tradition alive.

Kimono paraphernalia, clothing and all kinds of wonderful items made from kimono fabrics will be on sale during ‘Beauty of Japan – Japanese Kimono Show’ on August 4th, 6pm-9pm. Vendors are Mari Yasuda, Pac West,  Fumie von Dehn, and Mei. The sale is open free to the public.

Mineko Ukai is the founder of the renowned Motomi Kimono School in Nishinomiya, Japan. Twenty members from her three kimono classes will accompany her for this show. As a young girl Ukai loved watching her mother and others wear kimono and began learning how to dress her own children for Shichigosan. Ukai began teaching kimono classes in 1973. By 1976, she established Motomi Kimono School and held kimono classes at Danjo Public Hall and Takagi Public Hall. Her skill in weaving and braiding obijime led to invitations to San Francisco’s Little Tokyo, for the Cherry Blossom Kimono Shows and braiding workshops (in 1977 to 1979). In 1994, Ukai-sensei and members from the Koto Public Hall kimono class travelled to Canada to present a Japanese Kimono show at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. After nearly 40 years as a kimono teacher, Ukai still teaches three weekly kimono classes with 25 to 30 members in attendance. Ten kimono teachers meet weekly for advanced classes in Ukai-sensei’s home. Together they study the history of kimono, design, and the preservation of kitsuke “the art of wearing kimono” in every-day Japanese life.

For more information about kimono, Mineko Ukai, and members from her Motomi Kimono School please visit:

http://web.me.com/nigawa_c/KimonoWay/Kimono_Sensei.html

Tanabata (Japanese star festival)

July 6-10
Celebrate this traditional summer festival by making paper decorations and writing your wish onto a colourful paper streamer, then hang the decoration onto the bamboo on display in our lobby. A fun activity for all ages!

Please join us to celebrate the opening of  a new exhibition Tributaries: Reflections of Aiko Suzuki on June 29, 7-9pm.
Gallery conversation at 7:30pm

Ohanashi : The Story of Our Elders

5 public screenings
Kaede Room 210
Admission by donation

A public screening of Ohanashi: The Story of Our Elders, a 10 part series of life stories of Japanese Canadian elders, directed by Susanne Tabata and produced by the Japanese Canadian National Museum.

Saturday, February 13, 2pm
Kazue Oye (30 min)
Alfie Kamitakahara (43 min)

Saturday, March 13, 2pm
Tom Sando and Shig Kuwabara (47 min)
Susumu Tabata (44 min)

Saturday, April 10, 2pm
Marie Katsuno (35 min)
Shirley Omatsu (44 min)

Saturday, May 8, 2pm
May Komiyama (34 min)
Tak Miyazaki (35 min)

Saturday, June 12, 2pm
Irene Tsuyuki (45 min)
Midge Ayukawa (33 min)

Powell Street: A Walk into the History & Future of the Japanese Canadian Community
presented by Heritage Vancouver and the Japanese Canadian National Museum

Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | 10am to 12pm
Location: Meet at 220 Jackson Street in front of the Japanese Buddhist Church
Tickets: $15; $10 Heritage Vancouver members
Tour is limited to 30 people

Japanese Tea Ceremony

May 15, 1pm & 2pm
Tickets $10, members $5
Enjoy a relaxing and uplifting bowl of matcha (powdered green tea) and okashi (sweet) served by Urasenke Tankoukai Vancouver Association in a traditional Japanese room with tatami (rice straw mats) and a tokonoma (an alcove decorated with a calligraphic or pictorial scroll and flower arrangement). Held in conjunction with the Spring Bazaar.

Artist Talk by Mary Anne Tateishi

May 6, 2010, 7pm

Celebrate Spring at Nikkei Place!

A fun, family friendly event to enjoy all that spring has to offer!

Located at Nikkei Place in Burnaby with a beautiful Japanese Canadian garden, this is a free spring event featuring Japanese taiko and dance performances, make your own haiku and crafts (origami, sumie ink painting, paper cherry blossoms, kites), and much more.
Food vendors with Japanese tea, cakes, manju, and handmade crafts (Japanese fashion accessories, bonsai, soap, baby clothing, etc) will be on site.
Enjoy the quiet beauty of a formal tea ceremony by the Urasenke Tankoukai Vancouver Association in a Japanese room setting at 1pm and 2pm, tickets are $10.

Order your special Sakura Bento lunch in advance at 604.777.7000 – Adults $15 and Children $6.

A new exhibition Half & Half opens at the Japanese Canadian National Museum, with a conversation with artists Mary Anne Tateishi (painting) and Robert Shiozaki (pottery and mixed-media) at 1:30pm. See what happens when two artists start exploring their roots and ancestry with the museum’s collection.

PROGRAM
12pm Chibi Taiko performance
1pm & 2pm Japanese Tea ceremony by the Urasenke Tankoukai Vancouver Association, tickets $10
1:30 pm Half & Half: Gallery conversation with Mary Anne Tateishi and Robert Shiozaki
2:30 pm Japanese dance by Nishikawa-ryu Dance Group

ONGOING EVENTS
Write your own Haiku
Sumie painting
Create origami and paper flowers
Make your own colourful Japanese kite
Scavenger hunt
Enjoy the beautiful Japanese Canadian garden
Half & Half exhibition opening

CONFIRMED VENDORS as of April 7
CAKE-YA (cakes) | CHADO TEA HOUSE LTD. (teas) | Yumi Matsuda (manju) | Chieko Haraguchi (miniature bonsai) | Beauty Secrets of Japan (soap) | Yuko Yoshida (Japanese fashion accessories) | Nora Woo (baby clothing) | Him Creations (felted dolls) | Kayo Hosaka (leather jewelery) | Distinctly Red | Kyoko yamaguchi (jewelery)

Sponsored by British Columbia Arts Council

Half & Half
Mary Anne Tateishi and Robert Shiozaki exhibit opening

Saturday, April 24, 2010, 12-3pm as part of Celebrate Spring at Nikkei Place!
Gallery conversation with the artists at 1:30pm.

2nd Annual Asian Canadian Artist Showcase & Art Auction

Showcase: March 20-April 9, admission by donation

Silent Auction Fundraiser: Friday, April 9, 6-9pm
TICKETS $40 includes dinner and live entertainment
Tickets available at the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre
604.777.7000

Join us for the second annual Artist Showcase! Celebrate our amazing community of Asian Canadian artists and help raise funds for the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre. This showcase of Asian Canadian artists is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser, featuring gorgeous pieces by a diverse group of contemporary and traditional artists and artisans who have generously donated work in all media, including painting, photography, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media, jewelry, and much more.

Tickets to the silent auction on April 9th are only $40. A creative buffet dinner will be provided by Chef Yamamoto from Hi Genki, Pings Wings Wandering Wok, Miku, The Eatery, and CAKE-YA. Performances by Yayoi (dance), Leslie Uyeda & Heather Pawsey (piano and vocals), and Nishihara & Kage (piano and taiko drums) will enliven the gorgeous Ellipse Lobby. The evening will be MCed by actor and radio personality Tetsuro Shigematsu.

Bring your wallets and be prepared for fantastic, high quality art at amazing deals, delicious and creative food, live performances and fabulous company – a chance to hob-nob with good taste!

Film Screening, Takao Tanabe: A Work of Art
Friday, March 26, 2010, 7pm
Special Events Hall
Admission by donation

This new film is a biographical portrait of one of Canada’s greatest painters. Tanabe was born near Prince Rupert, interned in the Slocan area, then began painting in the early days of the abstract expressionism in the late 1940’s. Now in his early 80s, Tanabe is still avidly painting and continues to push boundaries in art. Director Catharine Chesterman will be in attendance. A Q&A session and refreshments will follow.

Extended museum gallery hours, open till 7pm.

Speaker Series with Greg Robinson

A Tragedy of Democracy – Japanese Confinement in North America
March 9, 2010, 7pm
Intergenerational Room 105
Free admission, book will be available for purchase at the event

Greg Robinson will present a talk on his recent book A Tragedy of Democracy. This is the first book to analyze official policy toward West Coast Japanese Americans within a North American context. Approaching Japanese confinement as a continental and international phenomenon, Robinson offers a truly kaleidoscopic understanding of its genesis and outcomes.

Historians of Japanese Canadian internment and confinement during World War II, like those who study the experience of Japanese Americans, have tended to look at the subject only within national boundaries. Astoundingly, no past work has ever been published that looks at the history of the camps in the United States alongside that of the Canadian government’s wartime removal and confinement of Japanese Canadians. Yet it is imperative to look transnationally in order to understand events in depth. The decisions by the respective governments to issue PC 1486 and Executive Order 9066, and the confinement policies that flowed from them, fit into a wider international—indeed continental—pattern of official treatment of people of Japanese ancestry. A study of the similarities and differences in the experience of people across the border provides a greater and more balanced perspective on any number of overall questions relating to both groups: What drove confinement? What choices existed in administering it? How did people survive? Lastly and perhaps most importantly, what can a comparative analysis tell us about the postwar condition of Issei and Nisei in Canada and the United States? Despite certain commonalities, the variations across borders in official policies with regard to people of Japanese ancestry were significant, in kind as well as in degree. In the United States, exclusion was lifted as of the beginning of January 1945, and Issei and Nisei returned to the West Coast in large numbers even before the war was over. In contrast, Ottawa’s policy was to pressure Japanese Canadians into giving up their citizenship and leaving the country entirely, or failing that, to move east of the Rockies and disperse into small groups. How do we explain this striking contrast, and what does it reveal about the two societies?

Two Views, Film Screenings

Saturday, February 27, 2pm
Kaede Room 210
Admission by donation

Copyright: Leonard Frank by Director Eli Gorn
Leonard Frank came from Germany to Canada in 1892. Overwhelmed by the beauty and grandeur of his new homeland, he started carrying a camera with him into the back country. Leonard Frank became one of Canada’s greatest photographers. 23 minutes.

Pilgrimage by Tadashi Nakamura
With a hip music track, never-before-seen archival footage and a story-telling style that features both old and new pilgrims, PILGRIMAGE is the first film to show how the WWII camps were reclaimed by the children of its victims. The Manzanar Pilgrimage now has fresh meaning for diverse generations of people.  It was failure of democracy that would affect all Americans. This film brings new and much-needed insight to the lessons of the past for our post-9/11 world. 22 minutes.

Photography Workshop
Shoot like a Pro with your Digital SLR Camera
Beginner/Intermediate

Saturday, February 20, 2010, 2-5pm
$20

In this no-holds-barred workshop we take advantage of the professional capabilities inherent in all Digital SLR cameras to create beautiful photos. With understanding the manual controls and compositional techniques explore how to improve the aesthetic of images. We’ll spend some time taking photos around the grounds of the Nikkei Center and will share and critique our photos with the class. Required Equipment: Digital SLR camera & your camera’s manual.

This workshop will be lead by Greg Masuda, a community-involved professional photographer, filmmaker and photography tutor.  He has contributed his photography and filmmaking skills to organizations such as Pivot Legal Society’s Hope in Shadows project, the University of British Columbia’s Center for Health Promotion Research, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House’s Splendour In The Night project, the Powell Street Festival Society, the National Nikkei Heritage Center, and the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta.  He has been photographing professionally for ten years.