| \n Name\n | \n\n Jishiro Miyauchi\n | \n
|---|---|
| \n Born\n | \n\n August 21 1888\n | \n
| \n Died\n | \n\n July 8 1984\n | \n
| \n Birth Location\n | \n\n Japan\n | \n
| \n Generational Identifier\n | \n\n \n \n Issei\n \n \n | \n
\n Jishiro Miyauchi (1888-1984) was an\n \n Issei\n \n painter and occasional performer who produced a number of landscape paintings while incarcerated at the American concentration camp at\n \n Heart Mountain\n \n , Wyoming, during World War II. Miyauchi was born on August 21, 1888, in Japan and immigrated to Vancouver, BC, in 1907, where he found work with the railroad in a variety of jobs, from mine worker to dishwasher. As his passion was to become an artist and musician, he eventually moved to Chicago and enrolled at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, and eventually left Illinois to perform in vaudeville, singing Italian arias and novelty songs. He and his wife, Koma, and son John were residing in Los Angeles area when World War II broke out,\n \n \n [1]\n \n \n and were consequently sent to the\n \n Santa Anita\n \n Assembly Center, and then to the permanent camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.\n
\n\n In Heart Mountain, he joined other artists who shared studio space and often worked together such as\n \n Hideo Date\n \n ,\n \n Jack Yamasaki\n \n , and Gompers Saijo. He focused on his painting, mixing his own paint colors with coal dust, rice paste, and natural pigments he found in and around the camp. He primarily painted dramatic landscapes, often with Heart Mountain peak rising above the clouds, before rows of dark barracks that fill the lower third of his canvases. He often included two recurring figures, a man dressed in black, and a woman dressed in green, determined and exhausted, willfully bending against cold winds in the scene, a symbol of the impossible situation they are faced with. In 1943, Miyauchi and his wife were commissioned by administration to paint murals in the mess halls, however these artworks were never photographed and were likely destroyed after the camp closed.\n \n \n [2]\n \n \n He returned to Los Angeles with his wife and son in August 1945 and continued painting as a hobby.\n \n \n [3]\n \n \n
\n\n Miyauchi died on July 8, 1984 in Los Angeles, California. His paintings are now in collections Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, Princeton Art Museum, and the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.\n
\n \n \n\n Higa, Karin.\n \n The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945.\n \n Los Angeles: Japanese American National Museum, UCLA Wight Art Gallery, and UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1992.\n
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