Aloha! Are you ready? It’s the first Target Free Family Saturday of 2014 and we are excited to see you!!
On Saturday, January 8th from 11am – 4pm, we’ll be celebrating Hawaii with KoAloha Ukulele, who will be leading performances, workshops, crafts, and all things ukulele…and it’s all FREE! (If you have an ukulele, be sure to bring it to join in the fun.)
Not only is Hawaii on our minds, but, we’re also thinking about Valentine’s Day which is right around the corner. All kids can come and think sweet thoughts as they construct a candy lei. We will also have a variety of supplies available for you to make Valentine cards. It’s going to be a fun one so we hope you can join us!
Karen Korematsu (right) visited JANM and worked with a group from a local high school. Photo by Richard M. Murakami.
January 30 is the birthday of the late Fred Korematsu and it is also Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and Social Justice!
Over the past few years, we have had a chance to get to know his daughter, Karen Korematsu, who has taken on the role of Co-Founder and now Executive Director of the Korematsu Institute, whose mission is to advance pan-ethnic civil and human rights through education.
Karen is joining with others to spread the word about her father’s story. As a young man, Mr. Korematsu purposely disobeyed the government’s 1942 order that excluded all people of Japanese ancestry, without due process, from the West Coast. He was arrested and eventually removed to a Japanese American concentration camp in Utah. He appealed his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but in 1944 the Court ruled against him, declaring that the exclusion and confinement of people of Japanese descent was justified. It wasn’t until 1983 that his conviction was finally overturned. (Here is a link to his full bio.)
For teachers who are planning to commemorate Mr. Korematsu’s stand for civil liberties, we’ve put together a few links to FREE resources that we hope might be helpful to you:
We are so excited about our upcoming participation in a National Youth Summit with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and 10 other Smithsonian Affiliate organizations across the country.
On February 5, 2014 students from around the country will participate in a live webcast originating from The Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. The program will reflect on the 1964 youth-led effort for voting rights and education known as Freedom Summer and will include a panel of activists, experts, and scholars.
Tamio Wakayama Photo: Tracy Kumono
Following the webcast, JANM will have our own on-site program. Tamio Wakayama, a Nisei Japanese Canadian who joined the American Civil Rights Movement as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), will share his experiences and the documentary photographs that he took from 1963 to 1964.
Now, here’s the great part: all youth and educators are invited to participate from their classrooms through the magic of the web! Teachers… this means you! Just take a look at this fantastic site for the program.
The Smithsonian has provided teaching resources and other tools for you and your students. You can pre-register and join in the conversation along with us and view the program streaming live from the Old Capitol Museum.
On Sunday, January 5th, JANM rang in the New Year and the Year of the Horse with fun arts ‘n crafts, food, exciting cultural activities, and performances!
Oshogatsu Family Festival is one of JANM’s biggest events of the year, and we were glad to see so many guests come to join in on the fun. From folding a prancing horse origami, to jumping around in a horse bounce house, all of the activities celebrated the New Year and the Year of the Horse.
Thank you to all the JANM staff, volunteers, and friends who helped out at Oshogatsu Family Festival, and of course, thank you to all the guests for helping JANM kick off the New Year with a fun and exciting day!
Check out these photos from the 2014 Oshogatsu Family Festival (click on the thumbnails to see the full pictures):
Excitedly crafting a stick horse!
Customizing a stick horse in celebration of the Year of the Horse.
Prancing around the Museum with a newly made stick horse!
Constructing a horse wall-hanging craft.
Beginning the New Year with lucky zaru soba with Kidding Around the Kitchen.
Tours of “Common Ground” are given throughout the festival.
Posing with newly made stick horses.
Purchasing a fukubukuro (lucky bag). What was in your mystery grab bag?
Successfully folding a prancing horse origami with Ruthie!
Forming a line to sample some osechi-ryori, or traditional Japanese New Year foods!
World-renowned candy sculptor Shan Ichiyanagi sculpts candy into a horse.
A lucky raffle winner gets a special horse candy sculpture.
Bouncing around in a horse bounce house.
Enjoying free rides on ponies!
Learning how to make onigiri rice balls and entering the Onigiri Design Contest.
Rushing to finish an onigiri for the design contest!
Decorating onigiri for the Design Contest.
Common Grains presents a gift to one of the winners of the onigiri design contest.
Waiting to watch the mochitsuki demonstration.
Kodama Taiko performs a demonstration of mochitsuki, a traditional rice cake pounding ceremony.
Taking turns pounding the mochi.
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Good Effort”
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Happiest”
Onigiri Design Contest winners for most “humorous”
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Kawaii” (Cute)
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Personality”
Photo Credits: Richard Murakami, Caroline Jung, Russell Kitagawa, Richard Watanabe, and Tsuneo Takasugi
Don’t miss our next Target Free Family Saturdays: Aloha from Hawaii with KoAloha Ukulele on Saturday, February 8th from 11AM to 4PM. It’s FREE all day! Visit www.janm.org/target for more information.
THE CRUMBLES is an indie rock slice-of-life tragicomedy about Darla and Elisa, two young women struggling to catapult their talented but directionless garage band to stardom. Called “elegant and affectionate” by the LA Times, this lighthearted romp across the east side of Los Angeles offers a fun and realistic portrait of what it’s like to be in a fledgling band. Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2012 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.
Directed by Akira Boch and featuring music by Grammy winner Quetzal Flores.
Cast and Crew will be in attendance.
This is a FREE EVENT!
When: SATURDAY, JANUARY 25 @ 7pm
Where: Tateuchi Democracy Forum
Japanese American National Museum
111 N. Central Ave., LA, CA 90012
Sponsored by the Japanese American National Museum
FREE BEER reception to follow, sponsored by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Afterparty at Wolf & Crane in Little Tokyo starts at 10pm
Through the poetic lyrics of over 200 holehole bushi (Japanese folksongs), Franklin Odo (Founding Director, Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific American Program) traces the experiences of Japanese immigrant plantation sugar workers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in his new book Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawai‘i.
Wednesday, January 22 will be a night of celebration as we join NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute in marking the publication of Dr. Odo’s latest book with a selection of readings, song, and film.
Where: A/P/A Institute at NYU This event takes place in New York City.
JANM’s annual Oshogatsu Family Festival tomorrow is free and open to the public, however, JANM would like to show our members how special they are to us. From a gourmet food tasting to Member Express Lanes, JANM members will receive special perks this Sunday at the festival.
From 12pm to 2pmCommon Grains is sponsoring an Onigiri Design Contest where guests can learn how to make onigiri rice balls and enter the design contest. For this event JANM members can enter a Member Express Lane, to skip a longer wait in line.
This year JANM will have free pony rides for children in celebration of the Year of the Horse from 1pm to 5pm, and members can get in a Member Express Lane.
In addition to member express lanes JANM members will receive special perks throughout the day. From 1pm to 2pm there will be a gourmet osechi-ryori tasting for members only, where JANM members can sample traditional Japanese New Year foods.
From 12pm to 5pm world-renowned candy artistShan Ichiyanagi will make his specialty horse candy sculptures where JANM members can double their chances in a raffle for a candy sculpture after completing an Oshogatsu event survey.
There will also be Member Reserved Seating for the 2:30pm and 4pm Kodama Taiko demonstrations of mochitsuki, a traditional rice cake pounding ceremony where free samples of mochi will be given out.
The Oshogatsu Family Festival will take place on Sunday, January 5th at the Japanese American National Museum from 11am to 5pm. For a full itinerary and for more information, please visit janm.org/oshogatsufest2014
Support the Museum and enjoy many perks as a JANM member, join/renew now! There will be a Membership table at Oshogatsu Family Festival, or click here for details or to join online >>
Candy Sculpting is an ancient Asian folk art that originated in China and has been known in Japan for over 1,000 years. As a dying art, only a few performers exist in the world today.
Utilizing old Japanese scissors, Shan Ichiyanagi, a world-renowned candy artist, can magically transform a block of molten corn syrup into a beautiful sculpture of almost any shape and size, in just 4-5 minutes!
Visit Oshogatsu Family Festival on Sunday, January 5th to watch Shan Ichiyanagi make his amazing candy sculptures from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
In celebration of the festival’s theme, “Year of the Horse”, Shan Ichiyanagi will make his special horse candy sculptures. The candies will be for children only and will be raffled off throughout the day.
The festival will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The day will be filled with fun arts & crafts, food, exciting cultural activities, and more! For more information, please visit: janm.org/oshogatsufest2014
Be sure to check our blog for more posts on specific activities scheduled for Oshogatsu Family Festival!
Read our interview with Shan Ichiyanagi on our Discover Nikkei website:
Estelle Ishigo’s drawing All In One Room, as it was prepared by Collections Staff for travel to the National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is currently featuring the drawing All In One Room by Estelle Ishigo in their permanent exhibition The Story of We, the People. The drawing will be on display through November of 2014.
Estelle Peck Ishigo (1899-1990) is most well known as an artist who chronicled the experience at the Heart Mountain concentration camp.
Estelle Peck was born in Oakland in 1899 to parents of English, Dutch, French ancestry. Her family moved to Los Angeles and Estelle attended the Otis Art Institute, where she met Arthur Ishigo (1902-1957), a San Francisco-born Nisei who was working as a chauffeur for California Lieutenant Governor Robert Kenny. As anti-miscegenation laws at the time prohibited interracial couples from getting married, Peck and Ishigo took a trip across the border to Tijuana to be wed in 1928. Hoping for a career as an actor, Arthur worked as a janitor at Paramount Studios while Estelle worked as an art teacher. Shunned by her family, the couple lived among the Japanese American community.
Gift of Mary Ruth Blackburn, Japanese American National Museum [2000.103.12].With the outbreak of World War II and the removal of all West Coast Japanese Americans to inland concentration camps, the couple faced a dilemma. As a Nisei, Arthur was required to be removed while his wife was not. Though he wanted her to stay behind, she accompanied her husband, first to the Pomona Assembly Center in California, and then to Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
Throughout the war years, Estelle drew, sketched, and painted what she saw, providing a valuable document of life in the American concentration camps. “Strange as it may sound, in this desolate, lonely place I felt accepted for the first time in my life,” she later wrote of her time at Heart Mountain. She and her husband remained at Heart Mountain in order to record the last days of the camp until it was officially closed. The Ishigos were given $25 and put on a train to the West Coast. “I felt as if I were part of a defeated Indian tribe,” she remembered later.
In 1990, filmmaker Steven Okazaki made a documentary of Estelle Ishigo’s life titled Days of Waiting. Estelle passed away before seeing the film, which went on to win an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Estelle Ishigo’s story and drawings comprise an important aspect of the permanent collection at the National Museum. The Estelle Ishigo Collection can be seen on the Museum’s website at: janm.org/collections/estelle-ishigo-collection
JANM’s Winter Wonderland-themedTarget Free Family Saturdays event on December 14, was jam-packed with holiday activities!
From taking pictures with Asian American Santa, decorating picture frames, making a cereal snack, taking a ride on a horse-drawn carriage, and enjoying a kamishibai winter-time story, our guests were able to get into the holiday spirit!
Check out these photos from December’s Target Free Family Saturday (click on the photos to see them larger):
Guests were able to create a tiny winter wonderland to fill with seasonal cheer.
The whole family comes to enjoy free holiday crafts and activities.
Guests learn how to fold paper into a reindeer in Ruthie’s Origami Corner.
Kidding Around the Kitchen provides ingredients to create your own healthy cereal mix.
Guests take a special tour of JANM’s newest exhibition, “Go For Broke” with Dr. Lily Anne Welty.
Children and parents pose for a holiday photo with Asian American Santa.
Our guests pose for a photo with their pictures with Asian American Santa.
Adding a personal touch to holiday pictures frames.
A horse-drawn carriage provided rides through the plaza!
“Star in a Glass Jar” is a winter-time story performed through kamishibai (paper drama), a Japanese art form of storytelling.
After watching “Star in a Glass Jar,” guests cut out their own puppet like the one used in the kamishibai.
Go For Broke: Japanese American Soldiers Fighting on Two Frontsis on view at JANM through March 2, 2014. For more details about the exhibition, visit: janm.org/goforbroke
If you like food, cultural activities, and entertainment, mark your calendar for JANM’s annual Oshogatsu Family Festival, coming up on Sunday,January 5, 2014 from 11AM – 5PM! It’s FREE ALL DAY!
Our next Target Free Family Saturdays event will be on be on February 8, 2014 from 11AM – 4PM. You won’t want to miss a day of making music with KoAloha Ukulele as they lead performances, workshops, crafts, and all things ukulele! For details, visit: janm.org/target
Photo Credits: Tsuneo Takasugi, Caroline Jung, and Esther Shin.
Through the poetic lyrics of over 200 holehole bushi (Japanese folksongs), Franklin Odo (Founding Director, Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific American Program) traces the experiences of Japanese immigrant plantation sugar workers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in his new book Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawai‘i. 
![Estelle Ishigo (Gift of Mary Ruth Blackburn, Japanese American National Museum [2000.103.12])](https://i0.wp.com/media.discovernikkei.org/articles/4279/ishigo2.jpg?resize=269%2C215)
