a mixed plate of Japanese American news and culture
One annual highlight of the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is the Grand Parade, when dancers, drummers and the Queen court march through the streets. But a second, smaller parade is also part of the festival, with its own taiko, kimono-clad women and a miniature mikoshi. This parade is composed of washi ningyo, traditional Japanese [...]
A woman enters a tatami room with slow, measured steps and approaches an iron pot of water in a hearth sunken into the floor, set to boil on pieces of charcoal. She slowly sets out supplies, unwraps the tea powder and meticulously wipes the teacup and bamboo scoop, all in a steady silence, pausing meaningfully [...]
On a Saturday afternoon, in a classroom on the second floor of the Buchanan YMCA, a small group of women are contemplating flowers. Their teacher, Julie Nakatani, circulates among them, advising in English and Japanese and offering additions from two huge white buckets of flowers and a giant pile of quince branches. “Make it look [...]
Every year, one of the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival’s biggest highlights is the taru mikoshi, one of the entrants in the Grand Parade. The mikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine, which a deity is believed to inhabit. Legend has it that shaking the shrine spreads its blessing. The San Francisco Taru Mikoshi Ren leads [...]
“How useful is a Japanese sword in 2012? If anyone says it’s of practical use, then they really need to get themselves checked,” says Andrej Diamantstein. Instead of personal defense, Diamantstein, the head of the Nishi Kaigan Iaido Dojo, describes iaido, the art of drawing a sword to defend against a surprise attack, as a [...]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of the Interior on March 22 announced that the National Park Service is awarding funding to help preserve and interpret the U.S. confinement sites where more than 120,000 persons of Japanese descent — most of whom were American citizens — were detained during World War II. The 17 grants, totaling [...]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The award-winning team behind “Mixed Match,” a feature-length documentary about the difficulties multiethnic patients with deadly blood diseases face when searching for bone marrow donors, has launched an online fundraising campaign to raise $25,000 to support its production and post-production work. Jeff Chiba Stearns is the director and executive producer of [...]
SAN JOSE — It was moving. It was emotional. It was long overdue and yet so deserving when U.S. Congressional leaders awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Japanese American World War II veterans of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service. Almost 800 people filled the San Jose Buddhist Church [...]
Every 10 years, the federal government conducts the national census. Once it has been completed, the San Francisco Director of Elections must determine whether the existing supervisorial districts meet the legal requirements. If the existing districts no longer comply with these legal requirements, the Redistricting Task Force (RTF) must redraw the 11 supervisorial district lines. [...]
The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival unveiled its 2012 Queen candidates and presented a festival preview at San Francisco’s Japantown on March 10. The yearly event, set to take place over two weekends in April, will crown the new queen on April 14 at the annual Queen Program. Benh Nakajo, program chairperson, called the introduction [...]
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