Norm Masaji Ibuki

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So far, dancing is not on the list of prohibited activities under the current Ontario Emergency Lockdown.

In Part 6, we’re featuring three JC dancers who make their living as dancers: Vancouver Budoh dancer Jay Hirabayashi, son of Gordon Hirabayashi, and his partner Barb Bourget are the founders and teachers at Kokoro Dance. Denise Fujiwara operates the Fujiwara Dance Inventions in Toronto and Hiroe Hoshi (aka “Nema”) is a well known Victoria, BC belly dancer, performer and teacher.

In going through some of my pictures from my nine years in Japan, I came across one of ...

This past Feb. 13th, there was a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Fukushima. I froze. Cold sweat and a familiar sense of panic came raging back.

Flashback: March 11, 2011. 

I clearly recall waking up for school and getting an odd, frantic phone call from CBC radio asking for a comment about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. What the hell was going on? I wondered, annoyed by the early morning disruption. All morning at school, I was preoccupied by finding moments to check on the news out of Japan, specifically Tohoku and seeing terrifying images of black waves and ...

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If you were to design a mask for yourself for these times, what might it look like?

My favourite recent mask that has come out of the pandemic is a “Woven” mask. I cut up two self-portrait masks and wove the pieces together. Because they don’t fit exactly together, there are pieces of extra eyes and lips which gives a “glitchy” look to it. The interlaced pieces can be seen in terms of mixed race identity or different aspects of our persona woven together. The best part about this mask is that it falls apart when ...

“The artist is meant to put the objects of this world together in such a way that through them you will experience that light, that radiance which is the light of our consciousness and which all things both hide and, when properly looked upon, reveal.”

—Teacher, translator and author, from The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)  

By now, we all understand what it is to be the face behind the mask, don’t we?

Reflecting on this and on doing some research about masks, one other quote really stood out for me. It is from Quebec writer ...

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Vancouver Speaks...

Sansei Howard Shimokura of Vancouver, 82, says: “I use both terms but never interchangeably. They are not equivalent. In fact I think we in Canada often use Nikkei inappropriately as if it means Japanese Canadian (JC). For example, Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre (NNMCC) is a very inappropriate use. It should be JCNMCC. I have often felt embarrassed to have to explain that it is a museum dedicated to JC history and culture. Also, although its public use is growing, Nikkei is often misused and remains an unknown term in the general population. I ...