Darryl Mori
@DMoDarryl Mori is a writer based in Los Angeles, specializing in the arts and the nonprofit sector. A Sansei and a native of Southern California, he has written for UCLA and the Japanese American National Museum, where he serves as a volunteer. He currently works in fundraising and external relations for Art Center College of Design.
Updated December 2012
Stories from This Author
Faces of a Generation: Brian Y. Sato on Photographing the Nisei in Hawai'i
March 27, 2009 • Darryl Mori
Many of the most compelling photographs in Brian Y. Sato's collection of portraits were almost never taken. His subjects were the Nisei -- second-generation Japanese Americans, in Hawai'i. The majority were in their eighties. And more than a few of them did not want to be photographed. "On many occasions I got the facetious remark, 'I going broke da camera if you take my pikcha,'" Sato recalls. "At times, they might have said that because they were actually flattered that …
'The Cats of Mirikitani' — Film Review
July 16, 2008 • Darryl Mori
Curiosity may have killed the cat. But in the case of The Cats of Mirikitani, a 2006 documentary gem just recently released on DVD, the combination of curiosity and cats results in a beautiful, moving tale of redemption. In early 2001, New York filmmaker Linda Hattendorf is intrigued by the elderly Asian homeless man in her neighborhood who draws colorful crayon and ink images of cats. Eighty-year-old Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani seems an artist of professional caliber—and unabashedly refers to himself …
Stories from Little Tokyo: The Woman in the Picture
Jan. 4, 2008 • Darryl Mori
A chance encounter in the Japanese American National Museum’s store led to a surprising discovery. Penny Akemi Sakoda was visiting the Museum with relatives and friends, when her daughter noticed a picture on the cover of a music CD, Festival Time in Japan. Astonished, Sakoda’s daughter turned to her and said, “Mom, this is you!” The image was a photograph, taken 47 years earlier, when Sakoda was crowned as Los Angeles’ 1960 Nisei Week Queen. Festival Time in Japan, an …
Ronin Rabbit: Stan Sakai’s Amazing Usagi Yojimbo
Oct. 25, 2007 • Darryl Mori
"To make a living in any of the arts is difficult—whether it be acting, writing, painting, music, or, in my case, cartooning," says Stan Sakai, creator of the wildly popular Usagi Yojimbo comic book series. "Parents, of course, want the best for their children, and a traditional job is the safest way to earn a living. However, I really wanted to get into writing and drawing, and my parents supported my decision, but with reservations." "What really turned them around …
On a Roll: The Global Business of Sushi
Sept. 13, 2007 • Darryl Mori
A piece of raw fish sitting on a small ball of rice.At first glance, it seems an unlikely tool for understanding the complex dynamics of global economics.But as author and journalist Sasha Issenberg discovered, a look at the business behind sushi reveals an intricate web of cultures, industries and money. Sushi, says Issenberg, provides a compelling view of how dramatically the world is changing. Issenberg’s new book, The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy, explores the …
Baseball in the Camps: Behind the Scenes of "American Pastime"
Aug. 24, 2007 • Darryl Mori
“I really feel the power of our film is with an audience,” says Kerry Yo Nakagawa, associate producer of the new film American Pastime. “It has been amazing to sit with audiences and take the emotional roller coaster of a ride and hear the laughter, feel the tension and experience the sobbing and crying.” For Nakagawa and others who worked on the project, making the film has been a deeply personal journey.“Five years ago American Pastime was just an …
The Extraordinary Journey of Shigeo Takayama
March 7, 2007 • Darryl Mori
“Now I stand in the twilight of my life,” Shigeo Takayama writes, in the introduction to his book. “It is time that I collect all the footprints on the path that I have walked these past eighty-eight years, and leave them in the form of writing.” Originally intended as a deeply personal oral history to share with his sons, who are more fluent in English than in Japanese, Takayama’s My Life: Living in Two Cultures releases a torrent of …
