The Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre is paying tribute to the personal stories of Nikkei in Canada with a new, year-long exhibition.
NIKKEI opened at the Nikkei Centre on July 20 and continues until July of next year.
A press release about the show notes the term “Nikkei” originated in Japan during the Meiji imperial restoration, beginning in 1868, to identify Japanese immigrants and their descendants living in foreign countries. Today, it’s widely used within the Japanese diaspora worldwide.
The exhibition includes more than 25 individual and family stories, accompanied by rare and previously inaccessible personal belongings from the community, to explore the lived experience of the Nikkei in Canada.
“Discover unique stories of arrival, heroism in the face of racism, the resilience of community, and the experience of generations through the intersections of migration, racism, identity and belonging,” says the release.
The exhibition will rotate through a repository of more than 30,000 photographs, 35 metres of textual records, 500 oral history recordings, 100 film reels and more than 2,500 artifacts and artworks – a collection that continues to grow thanks to the efforts of the museum’s archive and collections team.
Through the year, a number of special events will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition.
Among them:
Aug. 24: Film screening of The Vancouver Asahi, a 2014 documentary about the legendary baseball team
Aug. 31/Sept. 1: Gallery tours during the Nikkei Matsuri festival
Oct. 8 to 11: Alberta Sugar Beets Bus Tour, travelling to the Southern Alberta communities where Japanese Canadians were forcibly relocated during the Second World War. (Register by Aug. 10.)
Oct. 17 to Nov. 2: Hold These Truths, a solo play inspired by the life of Gordon Hirabayashi, starring Joel de la Fuente, at the Cultch Historic Theatre.
Plans for 2020 also include an intergenerational dialogue, art making and genealogy workshops.
See centre.nikkeiplace.org for all the current details.
