Signs of Home
The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita
Published on 31. August 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-295-74969-3 (ISBN)
Description
A deeply moving account of life before, during, and after the Japanese internment as witnessed by a great Seattle artist
Issei artist Kamekichi Tokita emigrated from Japan in the early twentieth century and settled in Seattle's Japanese American immigrant community. By the 1930s he was established as a prominent member of the Northwest art scene and allied with the region's progressive artists. On the day Pearl Harbor was bombed Tokita started a diary that he vowed to keep until the war ended. In it he recorded with expressiveness and insight the events, fears, rumors, and restrictions-and his own emotional turmoil-before and during his detention at Minidoka.
This beautiful and poignant biography of Tokita uses his paintings and wartime diary to vividly illustrate the experiences, uncertainties, joys, and anxieties of Japanese Americans during the World War II internment and the more optimistic times that preceded it. It contextualizes Tokita's paintings and diary within the art community and Japanese America and introduces readers to an amazing man who embraced life despite living through challenging and disheartening times.
Issei artist Kamekichi Tokita emigrated from Japan in the early twentieth century and settled in Seattle's Japanese American immigrant community. By the 1930s he was established as a prominent member of the Northwest art scene and allied with the region's progressive artists. On the day Pearl Harbor was bombed Tokita started a diary that he vowed to keep until the war ended. In it he recorded with expressiveness and insight the events, fears, rumors, and restrictions-and his own emotional turmoil-before and during his detention at Minidoka.
This beautiful and poignant biography of Tokita uses his paintings and wartime diary to vividly illustrate the experiences, uncertainties, joys, and anxieties of Japanese Americans during the World War II internment and the more optimistic times that preceded it. It contextualizes Tokita's paintings and diary within the art community and Japanese America and introduces readers to an amazing man who embraced life despite living through challenging and disheartening times.
Reviews / Votes
"The wartime diary of Tokita is . . . a fascinating primary document, filled with uncertainties and ambivalence that make some of the received wisdom about the internment camps feel a little too pat. Even though the reader knows, in general terms, how the story came out, the suspense in this eyewitness account is considerable."(Seattle Times) "Examines Tokita's art in the context of his life and the historic events that he lived through, integrating it all into a deeply moving human story."
(International Examiner) "Barbara Johns examines Tokita's art in the context of his life and the historic events that he lived through, integrating it all into a deeply moving human story."
- Susan Kunimatsu (International Examiner) "To see history unfold through Tokita's words and images is to gain a whole new perspective on that conflict [Japanese internment during World War II] and the nature of all immigrants to America who suddenly find themselves identified as the enemy."
- Bob Duggan (Bigthink.com) "A fascinating book that accomplishes more than one purpose. The first part is a biography of Tokita . . . the second is Tokita's diary from 1941-44. . . . Signs of Home includes plenty of examples that prove his status as an important regional artist."
- Jeff Baker (The Oregonian) ". . . one of the more beautiful and soulful books you might lay your hands on . . ."
- Mike Dillon (City Living) "If 'painting Seattle' feels like the welcome restoration of a long-lost chapter in local art history, the wartime diary is a thornier business . . . filled with uncertainties and ambivalence that make some of the received wisdom about the internment camps feel a little too pat."
- Michael Upchurch (The Seattle Times)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
80 illus., 40 in color
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 196 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
757 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-295-74969-3 (9780295749693)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Barbara Johns is a Seattle-based art historian and curator. Her many books include Paul Horiuchi: East and West and The Hope of Another Spring: Takuichi Fujii, Artist and Wartime Witness.
Barbara Johns is an art historian and curator. Her previous books include Paul Horiuchi: East and West, Jet Dreams: Art of the Fifties in the Northwest, and Anne Gould Hauberg: Fired by Beauty.
Barbara Johns is an art historian and curator. Her previous books include Paul Horiuchi: East and West, Jet Dreams: Art of the Fifties in the Northwest, and Anne Gould Hauberg: Fired by Beauty.