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{ "url_title": "Chikaji Kawakami", "title_sort": "kawakamichikaji", "links": { "json": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Chikaji%20Kawakami/", "html": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Chikaji%20Kawakami" }, "modified": "2024-08-15T01:37:53", "title": "Chikaji Kawakami", "body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div id=\"databox-PeopleDisplay\">\n <table class=\"infobox\" width=\"200px;\">\n <tbody>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Name\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Chikaji Kawakami\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Born\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n June 26 1882\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Died\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n June 26 1949\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Birth Location\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Kagoshima, Japan\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Generational Identifier\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n <p>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Issei/\" title=\"Issei\">\n Issei\n </a>\n </p>\n </td>\n </tr>\n </tbody>\n </table>\n </div>\n <div id=\"databox-People\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n FirstName:Chikaji;\nLastName:Kawakami;\nDisplayName:Chikaji Kawakami;\nBirthDate:1882;\nDeathDate:1949;\nBirthLocation:Kagoshima, Japan;\nGender:Male;\nEthnicity:JA;\nGenerationIdentifier:Issei;\nNationality:US;\nExternalResourceLink:;\nPrimaryGeography:;\nReligion:;\n </p>\n </div>\n <p>\n Chikaji Kawakami (1882-1949) was a plein-air watercolor painter who produced a body of work reflecting life at the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Topaz/\" title=\"Topaz\">\n Topaz\n </a>\n concentration camp in Utah, and taught at the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Tanforan/Topaz_Art_School/\" title=\"Tanforan/Topaz Art School\">\n Topaz Art School\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Issei/\" title=\"Issei\">\n Issei\n </a>\n artist Chikaji Kawakami (1882-1949) was born in Kagoshima, Japan, where he attended art school and adopted the name \"Nanpo\" (south side).\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n On December 17, 1904, he immigrated to San Francisco, California at age 22, via the S.S. Mongolia, from China.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n [2]\n </a>\n </sup>\n He established himself in Berkeley,\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Alameda,_California/\" title=\"Alameda, California\">\n Alameda\n </a>\n , and Oakland in the East Bay region, where he worked in a motorcycle repair shop and in a laundry and dry-cleaning business.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n [3]\n </a>\n </sup>\n He married his first wife, Yono, in 1905,\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n [4]\n </a>\n </sup>\n who was a private practice doctor, and had two daughters, Eva and Takyo, and two sons, Iwao and Yukio.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref5_5-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref5-5\">\n [5]\n </a>\n </sup>\n Yono died in 1920 of unknown causes, and he remarried to Matsu Kawakami, an English editor for a Japanese newspaper. He and Matsu had seven children together: James Chikaharu, Umeko Mae, Frank, Takako, Jack Chikashi, Joe, and Lily.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref6_6-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref6-6\">\n [6]\n </a>\n </sup>\n Matsu died in Berkeley in 1933, leaving Kawakami a widower again.\n </p>\n <p>\n Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan on\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/December_7,_1941/\" title=\"December 7, 1941\">\n December 7, 1941\n </a>\n , two of Kawakami's sons tried to volunteer for the U.S. Army, but were denied due to their race.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref7_7-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref7-7\">\n [7]\n </a>\n </sup>\n At the age of 60, Kawakami was incarcerated at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Tanforan_(detention_facility)/\" title=\"Tanforan (detention facility)\">\n Tanforan Assembly Center\n </a>\n and the concentration camp at Topaz, Utah with the six youngest children from his marriage with Matsu, who ranged from ages 12-19 years old.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref8_8-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref8-8\">\n [8]\n </a>\n </sup>\n His two sons from his previous marriage to Yono (Iwao and Frank) were also detained at Topaz. At Topaz, Kawakami reignited his interest in art, documenting scenes from daily life at the concentration camps through dozens of sketches, paintings, and sumi-e ink drawings, using a piece of slate he found in the desert as a suzuri inking stone.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref9_9-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref9-9\">\n [9]\n </a>\n </sup>\n Beginning in mid-January 1944, he taught watercolor classes at the Topaz Art School.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref10_10-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref10-10\">\n [10]\n </a>\n </sup>\n Kawakami befriended Ella Honderich, a Swedish immigrant artist whose husband, Walter, managed the Topaz Co-Op, and thereby lived in the camp administration section. From 1942-1945, Ella Honderich created roughly 80 drawings of daily life at Topaz, including a portrait of Kawakami painting inside his barrack entitled \"The Artist, Mr. Kawakami, at Work.\"\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref11_11-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref11-11\">\n [11]\n </a>\n </sup>\n According to a 2005 interview with Kawakami's son Joe, Honderich gave his father her dog when she left Topaz, and that Kawakami humorously painted the family's barrack address 12-4-D and brown eyeglasses on the dog.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref12_12-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref12-12\">\n [12]\n </a>\n </sup>\n The majority of Kawakami's extant watercolor paintings from camp are in the California plein air style of landscape painting, and depict outdoor scenes of the broad expansive skies, clouds, barracks, and other buildings at Topaz, surrounded by the stark Sevier Desert. One self portrait that survived the war depicts Kawakami in formal kimono, posing with a biwa, which suggests that he might have played this traditional, short-necked lute in camp, maintaining a practice of this Japanese cultural art despite the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/War_Relocation_Authority/\" title=\"War Relocation Authority\">\n War Relocation Authority's\n </a>\n emphasis on assimilation and Americanization.\n </p>\n <p>\n Kawakami's poet and journalist son Iwao also lived at Topaz with his then-wife, poet Toyo Suyemoto, and worked as an editor and writer for the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Topaz_Times_(newspaper)/\" title=\"Topaz Times (newspaper)\">\n Topaz Times newspaper\n </a>\n . Iwao published a volume of poetry, \"The Parents and Other Poems,\" in 1947 by the (then) newly-founded\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Nichibei_Shimbun_(newspaper)/\" title=\"Nichibei Shimbun (newspaper)\">\n Nichi Bei Times\n </a>\n , where he worked as a sports editor and columnist.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref13_13-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref13-13\">\n [13]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n After his release from Topaz, Kawakami settled in\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Resettlement_in_Chicago/\" title=\"Resettlement in Chicago\">\n Chicago, Illinois\n </a>\n and it is unknown if he continued to paint and draw. He died on February 3, 1949 in San Francisco, California at age 67.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref14_14-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref14-14\">\n [14]\n </a>\n </sup>\n His artwork was included posthumously in the seminal art exhibition, \"\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/The_View_from_Within:_Japanese_American_Art_from_the_Internment_Camps,_1942-1945_(exhibition)/\" title=\"The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945 (exhibition)\">\n The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945\n </a>\n ,\" in 1992. A collection of 87 of Kawakami's works on paper was donated to the Monterey Museum of Art in 2023.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref15_15-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref15-15\">\n [15]\n </a>\n </sup>\n From August 22-December 15, 2024, the Monterey Museum of Art hosted an exhibit of his paintings, titled \"Under the Guard Tower: The Watercolors of Chikaji Kawakami.\"\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Patricia_Wakida/\" title=\"Patricia Wakida\">\n Patricia Wakida\n </a>\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Wakida, Patricia\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n <i>\n The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945\n </i>\n . Los Angeles: Japanese American National Museum, UCLA Wight Art Gallery, and UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1992.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Karin M. Higa, ed,\n <i>\n The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps 1942-1945\n </i>\n (Los Angeles: Japanese American National Museum, 1992), 97.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n California, San Francisco. Passenger Lists, 1893-1953\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Higa,\n <i>\n The View from Within\n </i>\n , 67.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n <i>\n Oakland Post Enquirer\n </i>\n , Dec. 27, 1923, 8.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref5-5\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref5_5-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n United States Census 1910, Alameda, California. \"Takyo\" is handwritten on this census record as his youngest daughter's name, but it is likely misspelt.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref6-6\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref6_6-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n United States Census 1930, Oakland, California\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref7-7\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref7_7-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Joe K. Kawakami oral history interview, Veterans History Project Collection, accessed May 22, 2024 at\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.30789/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.30789/\n </a>\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref8-8\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref8_8-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Topaz Final Accountability Roster of Evacuees, October 1945.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref9-9\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref9_9-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Joe K. Kawakami oral history.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref10-10\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref10_10-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n \"Art School Adds Two Teachers,\"\n <i>\n Topaz Times\n </i>\n , Jan. 22 1944, 3.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref11-11\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref11_11-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n \"The Lost Sketches of Topaz,\" Cynthia Wright, Topaz Stories website, Dec. 30, 2023, accessed May 21, 2024 at\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://topazstories.com/the-lost-sketches-of-topaz/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://topazstories.com/the-lost-sketches-of-topaz/\n </a>\n .\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref12-12\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref12_12-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Joe K. Kawakami oral history.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref13-13\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref13_13-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Greg Robinson, \"THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT; An intriguing elegy for Topaz,\"\n <i>\n Nichi Bei Weekly\n </i>\n , May 7, 2020, accessed May 15, 2024 at\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://www.nichibei.org/2020/05/the-great-unknown-and-the-unknown-great-an-intriguing-elegy-for-topaz/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://www.nichibei.org/2020/05/the-great-unknown-and-the-unknown-great-an-intriguing-elegy-for-topaz/\n </a>\n .\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref14-14\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref14_14-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n *California Death Index 1940-1997. Note: the Pacific Citizen and Find A Grave list February 4, 1949.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref15-15\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref15_15-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Musings | Winter/Spring 2024 Newsletter, Feb. 2024, accessed August 13, 2024 at\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://issuu.com/montereymuseumofart/docs/musings-winter_spring-t1-2024\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://issuu.com/montereymuseumofart/docs/musings-winter_spring-t1-2024\n </a>\n .\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20250626170356\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.029 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.036 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 314/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 2042/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 204/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 6/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 6012/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 27.262 1 -total\n 35.03% 9.550 1 Template:Databox-People\n 20.58% 5.610 1 Template:Reflist\n 7.62% 2.078 1 Template:Published\n 7.53% 2.054 1 Template:AuthorByline\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:1609-0!canonical and timestamp 20250626170356 and revision id 36795\n -->\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"toplink\">\n <a href=\"#top\">\n <i class=\"icon-chevron-up\">\n </i>\n Top\n </a>\n</div>", "categories": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/categories/Arts/", "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/categories/People/" ], "sources": [], "coordinates": {}, "authors": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/authors/Patricia%20Wakida/" ], "ddr_topic_terms": [], "prev_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Chick%20sexing/", "next_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Chikara!:%20A%20Sweeping%20Novel%20of%20Japan%20and%20America%20From%201907%20to%201983%20(book)/" }