Watercolor Meditations

Watercolor Meditations

by | Sep 29, 2023 | Other News

Watercolor Meditations (Exhibit)

Gallery Talk: Thursday, October 5th, 2 pm

What is the journey that awaits us? What lies beneath the surface as we explore our creative musings? For Gerry Furuzawa, Karen Allen and Wendy Kiniris, taking watercolor classes with Wendy Yoshimura nurtures their artistic talents.  Each brush stroke adds to the depth and intensity of the images they choose to paint. When they step back, the light and reflection is added in. As their teacher coaxes them forward, they discover pleasing results. An astounding collection of paintings have taken shape and emerge from their watercolor meditations.

Join us for an artist talk with Gerry, Karen & Wendy on Thursday, October 5th.  Gallery Hours:  MWF 10-1, TuTh 1-5

Desert Wind and Strings – a concert and gallery exhibit

Desert Wind and Strings – a concert and gallery exhibit

by | Sep 28, 2023 | Classes & Events, Other News

Saturday, November 4, 2 pm

A concert by koto musician Shirley Muramoto,her students, with guest artist Bando Hiroshichiro

To honor musicians held in Japanese American prison camps who performed traditional instruments, musician Shirley Muramoto and her students will perform. Hear the music of newly restored koto and shamisen instruments that have not been played since the family departed Topaz camp, and a restored shakuhachi whose owner was interned in the Fort Lincoln Internment Camp in Bismarck, North Dakota. Kabuki dancer and teacher Bando Hiroshichiro will perform a Nihon Buyo traditional dance that was well known to the Issei generation. Made possible in part by Alliance for California Traditional Arts, California Arts Council, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Walter and Elise Haas Foundation. Presented by Friends of Topaz Museum and J-Sei.

Suggested donation: $10-$15.  Limited seating available. RSVP at Eventbrite.

“Desert Winds & Strings: A Historical Exhibit” shares the story of Japanese traditional artists who performed in America’s concentration camps. The exhibit will be on display from November 1 to 17 in the J-Sei gallery. Gallery Hours:  MWF 10-1, TuTh 1-5, and by appointment.

 

Photo: Koto, shamisen and shakuhachi performance, Topaz concentration camp. ca. 1944 Courtesy of Kent Nakamoto.

Haruko Obata: A Life of Flowers

Haruko Obata: A Life of Flowers

by | Aug 6, 2023 | Classes & Events, Other News

Haruko Obata: A Life of Flowers

Saturday, September 9, 2 pm — In-Person and Online

“If you know flower arranging you do not grow old, for it is eternal.” Haruko Obata

Haruko Obata (1892-1989) was a pioneering Bay Area ikebana sensei who began displaying her classic Japanese flower arrangements to Americans as early as 1915. Kimi Hill will share her grandmother’s story based on a 1986 oral history, exploring Haruko’s youth in Japan as well as her life as the wife of artist Chiura Obata and a mother of four children,
her forced incarceration at Topaz, and her long career as an artist in her own right. Assisting in this presentation will be Sogetsu Ikebana teacher Keiko Kubo and J-Sei ikebana students who will create ikebana arrangements to accompany the program. Presented by Friends of Topaz Museum and J-Sei.

Please reserve a free ticket to receive reminders and a ZOOM link.

J-Sei’s Family Festival 2023

J-Sei’s Family Festival 2023

by | Aug 3, 2023 | Classes & Events, Other News

J-Sei’s Family Festival

Sunday, September 24, 12-3 pm

J-Sei, 1285 66th Street, Emeryville (btwn Hollis St & San Pablo Av)

Each year we celebrate “Keiro no Hi” respect for the aged day, a time to honor our elders and celebrate with our multigenerational families.

Pre-0rdersare now closed.  The menu items will be available for walk-up sales at the festival.

Festival Schedule

11 am – Book Reading with Mystery Writer Naomi Hirahara on “Evergreen”

12 pm – Berkeley Buddhist Temple Taiko

12:30 pm – Cal Hawaii Club

1 pm – Book Signing with Naomi Hirahara, Eastwind Books booth

1 pm – Daruma no Gakko and J-Sei Intergen Choir

1:30 – Taiso Experience

1:45 – Let’s Groove

2:00 – Community Ukulele

 

Booths & Activities

Daruma no Gakko, Eastwind Books, Setsunai Snacks

Shared Cultures, Summer Scarves by Koko

Watercolor Meditations, paintings by Gerry Furuzawa, Karen Allen, and Wendy Kiniris (Gallery)

Senior Cuts by JR Studios and Chiha Hair (2nd floor) – by appointment

 

 

Festival Menu

Taco rice $16 – ground beef , lettuce, cheese, fresh salsa and avocado crema over koshihikari rice

Salmon Batayaki $18 – salmon marinated in butter hawaiian marinade, with sauteed mushrooms, onions with rice and mac salad

Katsu Dog $18 –  pork katsu with savoy cabbage, tonkatsu aioli & pickled red onions in an Acme bun w/ a side of baby smashed potatoes

Korroke Dog $15 – vegetable croquette with savoy cabbage, tonkatsu aioli & pickled red onions in an Acme bun w/ a side of baby smashed potatoes

Vegetable Curry Rice $10

Kids bento $8 – chicken teri, broccoli and rice

Pre-Order now closed!
FF 2023 Pay Online

Pre-order is now closed.

The above menu items will be available for walk-up sales. First come, first served.  We look forward to seeing you at the festival.

Parking will be available (from 10 am-4 pm) at the Fratellanza Club, located 1/2 block up, next to McDonald’s.  Look for the J-Sei Parking sign on the cyclone fence.

Featured Book Event with Naomi Hirahara

Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery

Sunday, September 24, 11 am (in-person & online)

With great anticipation, Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery continues the post-war resettlement story of Aki Ito who returns with her family from Manzanar to Chicago to Los Angeles. Meet dynamic mystery writer Naomi Hirahara as she shares her latest book that follows the award-winning Clark and Division. Come early and join us in the Atrium for the book talk.

RSVP via Eventbrite

“Hirahara humanizes the struggles of Japanese Americans rebuilding their lives from scratch. Her evocation of Little Tokyo haunts will bring a flood of memories for some Angelenos while introducing a new generation of readers to a pivotal period in L.A. history.” —Paula Woods, The Los Angeles Times

About the Book

A Japanese American nurse’s aide navigates the dangers of post-WWII and post-Manzanar life as she attempts to find justice for a broken family in this follow-up to the Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning Clark and Division.

About the Author

Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award-winning author of multiple traditional mystery series and noir short stories.

Nichi Bei Review: “Murder and Emotions Unravel in Post-War Little Tokyo Mystery”

Photo by Rafu Shimpo.

Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery

Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery

by | Aug 3, 2023 | Classes & Events, Other News

Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery

A Book Talk & Signing with Naomi Hirahara

Sunday, September 24, 11 am (in-person & online)

With great anticipation, Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery continues the post-war resettlement story of Aki Ito who returns with her family from Manzanar to Chicago to Los Angeles. Meet dynamic mystery writer Naomi Hirahara as she shares her latest book that follows the award-winning Clark and Division.

RSVP via Eventbrite

“Hirahara humanizes the struggles of Japanese Americans rebuilding their lives from scratch. Her evocation of Little Tokyo haunts will bring a flood of memories for some Angelenos while introducing a new generation of readers to a pivotal period in L.A. history.” —Paula Woods, The Los Angeles Times

About the Book

A Japanese American nurse’s aide navigates the dangers of post-WWII and post-Manzanar life as she attempts to find justice for a broken family in this follow-up to the Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning Clark and Division.

It’s been two years since Aki Ito and her family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been allowed to return home to California—but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles.

Aki is working as a nurse’s aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries. When she seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband’s best friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse?

Only a few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start sniffing around Aki’s home, she begins to worry that the violence tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from getting tangled up in a murder investigation?

About the Author

Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award-winning author of multiple traditional mystery series and noir short stories. Her Mas Arai mysteries, which have been published in Japanese, Korean and French, feature a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor who solves crimes. Her first historical mystery, Clark and Division, which won a Mary Higgins Clark Award, follows a Japanese American family’s move to Chicago in 1944 after being released from a California wartime detention center. A former journalist with The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, Naomi has also written numerous non-fiction history books and curated exhibitions.

Nichi Bei Review: “Murder and Emotions Unravel in Post-War Little Tokyo Mystery”

Photo by Rafu Shimpo.

Remembrance for Peace 2023

Remembrance for Peace 2023

by | Jul 31, 2023 | Other News

A Remembrance for Peace: Commemorating Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Film Screening and Interfaith Ceremony

Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, 5:30 p.m.

Konko Church of San Francisco
1909 Bush Street, San Francisco’s Japantown

To commemorate the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the first nuclear destruction of a civilian population in the world, the Nichi Bei Foundation and Friends of Hibakusha will present an in-person program at Konko Church in SF Japantown. The world’s first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and another on Nagasaki three days later resulted in the deaths of an estimated 214,000 people by the end of that year, including 140,000 in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki.

The program  will also be accessible virtually on the Nichi Bei Foundation Facebook channel (www.facebook.com/nichibei/) and YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/NichiBeiFoundation)

The program will include:

• The film “Pictures From A Hiroshima Schoolyard” (2012, 58 min.), written and directed by Bryan Reichhardt and produced by Shizumi Shigeto Manale.

• An Interfaith Ceremony led by the Japanese American Religious Federation of San Francisco.

• Lanterns of Remembrance, which will include hibakusha and descendants presenting a lantern in remembrance of victims of the atomic bombings.

• A Message for Peace by Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka.

• A Litany for Water ceremony led by Rev. Hanaoka and clergy.

Remembrance for Peace 2023 Program Preview

J-SEI participants interested in carpooling to this event in SF Japantown, please email jill@j-sei.org  We look forward to joining in this remembrance.

 

FILM: PICTURES FROM A HIROSHIMA SCHOOLYARD

A collection of surprisingly joyful drawings created by school children living among the ruins of Hiroshima in 1947 becomes the heart and soul of this true, inspiring story about an exchange of gifts between Americans and Japanese after a devastating war. This powerful documentary about reconciliation introduces the children artists  (now in their late 70s) who reflect on their early lives amidst the rubble of their destroyed city and the hope they shared through their art. In 2010, the newly restored drawings, buried for decades deep inside All Souls Church in Washington DC, are taken back to Japan where they are reunited with the artists and exhibited in the very building where they were created.