Book Launch
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Taiko Workshops
Tokyo-based Taiko drummer Keita Kanazashi will be teaching the art of Taiko.
He also held a Taiko drum workshop in 2016 on Salt Spring Island.
Date: April 18th 2018 (Wednesday)
Location: Lions Hall (Hart Bradley Hall)
103 Bonnet Ave. Salt Spring Island V8K 2K8
Instructor: Keita Kanazashi (with translator)
Contact and inquiries:
Japanese Garden Society of Salt Spring Island
info@saltspringjapanesegarden.com
Rumi:
A: Everyone Welcome Class
Time: one hour from 16:00 to 17:00
Anyone who wants to know about the Taiko drum.
No limit to the number of participants
Cost: $10
Goal: Participants will be introduced to Taiko
B: Beginners Class
Time: 90 minutes from 17:30 to 19:00
Anyone wants to learn how to play Taiko.
Class size: 20 participants
Cost: Adult $30 High School students and under $10
Goal: Participants will learn a simple composition and perform it at the end of the class
C: Enthusiasts Class
Anyone who is enthusiastic about Taiko and learn more about drumming.
Time: 2 hours from 19:30 to 21:30
Class size: up to 10 participants / Age 15 years and older
Cost :$35
Goal: Participants learn and memorize Keita’s original composition, and perform it at the end of the class.
The participants of this class could perform the composition at the concert the next day.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.
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The 8th Annual Blossom Picnic
Date: Saturday April 14th from 11am to 2:30pm
Location: Heiwa Garden at Peace Park
Program:
11:00 Koto performance by Akiko Otsu
11:15 Tai Chi Demo by Seven Stars Tai Chi
11:40 Aikido Demo by Salt Spring Aikikai
12:00 Karate Demo by Brenda Guiled and the Karate Kids
12:30 Taiko Drum performance by Jacob Derksen
1:00 Salt Spring Japanese Children Choir
1:15 Salt Spring Japanese Singers
1:40 African Drum performance by Laurent Boucher and Iroko
The Japanese community will offer everyone’s favourite home-style sushi lunches that will be prepared for this occasion.
Spring Chirashi Sushi $6
Inari Sushi $5
Please email rkanesaka@gmail.com or mako3154@yahoo.co.jp to reserve one before they sell out.
The morning program will begin with the meditative sound of a Koto played by Akiko Otsu, followed by energetic martial art demonstrations in three different styles. A Taiko drum performance will open the afternoon program. There will be a variety of music and songs to entertain you throughout the afternoon.
The cultural experiences of the day will be:
Calligraphy demo: Mana Nakata will write your name or favourite words in Japanese with beautiful brushwork.
Tea Ceremony demo: Akiko Otsu will perform a Japanese tea ceremony and serve you an authentic bowl of matcha tea with a bite-size sweet.
Salt Spring Literacy will have an info table set up. The organization is dedicated to promoting literacy on Salt Spring and provides assistance with various language needs.
For further information, please email
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.
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Wa no Kokoro – Heart of Japan Concert:
A Tapestry of Japanese Sounds Vol.4
The JGS is offering ‘A Tapestry of Japanese Sounds’: an evening of sublime Japanese traditional music on April 19th at Mahon Hall. The concert will feature two amazing musicians: Kohei Honda on Tsugaru Shamisen (three-string instrument) and the world-renowned Taiko drummer, Keita Kanazashi.
Originally developed as an accompanying instrument for traditional folk songs, the Tsugaru Shamisen has evolved into a solo instrument over the last two hundreds years.
In the first half of the concert, Kohei will play traditional Japanese folk music with the Tsugaru Shamisen to introduce the audience to its emotional and percussive sounds.
In the second half, Keita Kanazashi will join Kohei and together they will embark on an uplifting performance full of radiating energy.
About the Musicians:
Kohei Honda’s passion is the pursuit of the authentic sounds and rhythms of the Tsugaru Shamisen, as well as preserving and promoting the music. He recently won the best Tsugaru Shamisen player award in a national competition. This is his first time to perform in Canada.
Keita Kanazashi started Taiko training when he was in elementary school and has been on stage since a young age. He has performed on the Taiko drum and held workshops worldwide, by putting his energy into cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations which extend beyond boundaries.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.
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Uprooting Exhibition at the Saltspring Library
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Charcoal Pit Kiln Research Project
Kiln on Galiano on Bluff Park
Good news! We are very pleased to announce the launch of an exciting project to conduct research on the Japanese Canadian charcoal kilns of the Gulf Islands. We have received a one-time $24,000 grant from the BC | Canada 150: Celebrating B.C. Communities and their Contributions to Canada Fund offered by the BC Museum Association, and a one-time $2,500 grant from the Endowment Fund of the National Association of Japanese Canadians.
The project will be conducted with partner organizations on other islands; on Mayne we will be working with the Mayne Island Lions Club, which is in charge of managing the Japanese Garden there, and on Galiano we’ll be working with the Galiano Club, which manages the public land where the restored charcoal kilns on the island are located.
Reconstructed charcoal kiln in the Japanese garden on Mayne Island.
Many thanks to Toshi Kitagawa and Keiko Mary Kitagawa-Murakami who encouraged the Society to apply for the NAJC grant. We’re very happy that the Association granted us $2,500 to assist with the research and the publication parts of the project. This research will be a big undertaking and we need more funds to support it.
The project has three components:
1) Research: conducting research on the historical charcoal kilns and the Japanese Canadian communities on the Southern Gulf Islands
2) Publication: publishing a 60-page booklet about the historical charcoal kilns and pre-war Japanese Canadian communities on the Southern Gulf Islands
3) Interpretive Panels: Creating six interpretive panels and installing them at appropriate locations to acknowledge the Japanese Canadian legacy and to recognize the funding and support from the BC Government.
Several guided tour were organized by the Society to let people know about the historical charcoal kilns and the JC community on Salt Spring Island. The speaker with a blue cap is Steve Nemtim, an expert on such kilns built by early Japanese Canadian settlers.
The research: The team consists of Steve Nemtin from Galiano who is an expert on the historical charcoal kilns built by Japanese Canadians and Brian Smallshaw who is a historian from Salt Spring with extensive knowledge about the Japanese Canadian history. The research began in mid-June and will continue until the end of August.
The publication: It will be a comprehensive booklet about the historical kilns and the Japanese Canadian communities on the Southern Gulf Islands, reflecting the results of the research. It will be written in a style accessible to a wide range of readers, and will be small enough so that people who are visiting the Gulf Islands can bring it along when they visit the sites.
The interpretive panels: The project is aiming to create and install two interpretive panels on each island (six in total).
No research has been done on the historical charcoal kilns and not much has been written about the Japanese Canadian communities on the Gulf Islands. As the Gulf Islands was recognized as a significant place in the Japanese Canadian history and has been included in the BC Register of Historic Places since April 2017 (also will be the Canadian Register of Historic Places), we believe that this project is very timely as well as important to our community.
In Memoriam:
Mearnie Summers
First JGS President
b. 26 January 1927 d. 7 January 2017
Mearnie was born in 1927 in Vancouver and she grew up in the Kitsilano area. She had many Japanese-Canadians neighbours, schoolmates and friends. As a young teenager, Mearnie remembered a neighbor coming to ask her parents for help when the government decided to remove and detain any and all persons “of the Japanese race” from designated “protected areas.” Her parents were caught up in the views of the times, and to Mearnie’s great regret they did not help. Her friends, neighbours and schoolmates of Japanese ancestry disappeared, and she did not know what had happened to them until she heard Rose Murakami speak at a meeting of the Salt Spring Island Historical Society around 2002. Rose spoke of her first-hand knowledge of the horrors detention, imprisonment, the confiscation of property, and racist measures that prevented her family and many others from returning to the coast until the 1950s. Mearnie was outraged, and she spoke up with a vision of a garden of unity and reconciliation – so that all would learn of this history and none would forget. She was the first president of JGS and she worked on the project for 10 years. She often mused wryly that she was surprised by the effort required – she initially thought she would only have to mention the idea, and that the whole community would leap to bring the garden into being. Mearnie believed deeply in the vision and values of the Japanese Garden Society. Her own experience of oppression and discrimination as a lesbian fed her passion for a just society, and she believed in using the privilege and good fortune life had brought her to “Pass it On.”
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2017! This year is Canada’s 150th birthday and also the 75th anniversary of the uprooting of the Japanese-Canadians from the BC Coast.
The Japanese Garden Society will be holding a month-long presentation about the history of the Japanese-Canadians, focusing on the uprooting that happened during WW II. You may find some parallels to what is going on in the present world.
The Uprooting
1942: The War Measures Act and Japanese-Canadians
Location: Salt Spring Library Program Room
Date: February 1st to 27th
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 10am to 5am
(When the Program Room is not in use for the other event)
The presentation will be at the Library Program Room from February 1st to the 27th. There will be a display describing the often rocky history of the Japanese-Canadians, with many photographs from the late 1800s to the mid 1980s.
There will be four public events during the presentation month.
February 7th (Tues) 4 to 6 pm – Opening Reception
Guest speakers: Rose Murakami and Keiko Mary Murakami Kitagawa
The story of their family’s journey through the history of the uprooting.
February 14th (Tues) 6:30 to 8:30pm
Talk by Masayo Hora: Return to Steveston, My Family’s Journey
A sansei (third generation) view of the uprooting and rebuilding of a Japanese-Canadian community. For context, a short film describing Steveston and illustrating Masayo’s story will be screened.
February 18th (Sat) 6:30 to 8:30pm
Talk by Brian Smallshaw: The Uprooting of Saltspring Islanders During WW II
Some background on Saltspring’s Japanese Canadian community before the war, the legal mechanisms used to take their property during the war, and their efforts to resist the injustice they faced.
February 26th (Sun) 6:30 to 8:30pm
Film ‘Hatsumi’ – One grandmother’s journey through the Japanese-Canadian internment, directed by Chris Hope.
“A family portrait that brings the heartrending story of wartime Japanese-Canadian removal from the margin of history into our heart” (comment by Greg Robinson, author of ‘Tragedy of Democracy’).
If he is available that evening, director Chris Hope will answer questions from the audience via Skype from Toronto after the 55-minute film presentation.
Please drop by when you are in Ganges. It will be a good opportunity to peek into the past and learn from history.
The poster of the presentation was produced by the Library. The JGS is grateful for the Library’s assistance.
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6th Annual Blossom Picnic
@ the Heiwa Garden in the Peace Park
Saturday April 9th 11:00 ~ 2:30
update 30/03/2016
In a celebration of spring, the Japanese Garden Society will hold the 6th annual Blossom Picnic on Saturday April 9th from 11:00 to 2:30.
Join us for music, martial art presentations, Japanese home-style sushi lunches, calligraphy and tea ceremony demos, and many more activities.
Jim Raddysh will sing some of his tunes that kids will love; Ruwadzano Marimba Band will inspire your inner rhythms; there will be Shorei-kan Karate and Seven Star Tai Chi demos to watch; and Shinobu Murata will write beautiful calligraphy with sumi ink and brushes; Akiko Otsu will make you an authentic cup of Matcha tea. Be sure not to miss out the samurai theatre put together by the Japanese community on the island, and a lovely choir ofthe Salt Spring Japanese Singers.
Bring family and friends to this fun gathering!
Don’t forget to pre-order our popular sushi lunches.
The Japanese community is preparing two different flavours: Inari sushi ($5) and Chirashi sushi ($6)
Please email to order: rkanesaka@gmail.com
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JGS’s annual fundraising concert
A Tapestry of Japanese Sounds Vol.3:
Tsumugu Project – new currents in traditional music
Tickets: $20 @ Salt Spring Books
Location: All Saints by-the-Sea
Date: Friday April 15th 2016
Doors open: 7pm Music starts: 7:30pm
update 30/03/2016
The concert brings together three diverse performers that will create rare and inspiring sounds that are new to Canadian audiences by combining the traditional songs of the Amami Islands in the south, Tsugaru Shamisen of Aomori in the north, and the thunderous rhythms of the Taiko drum as the pulse of Japan. The result is an uplifting musical evocation of the Japanese spirit.
With their mastery of Japanese traditional art forms, Anna Sato (vocals), Chie Hanawa (Tsugaru Shamisen) and Keita Kanazashi (Taiko) have joined forces to bring these instruments and sounds to magnificent new levels.
Keita Kanazashi was drawn to the Taiko drum at a very young age and became a professional Taiko player when he was a university student. Propelled by his wish to expand the horizon of traditional expression, he has been actively collaborating with artists in various genres in both Western and Japanese music, and dance and theatre in both traditional and contemporary styles. In recent years he has also been active in teaching and holding workshops in Japan and overseas to popularize the Taiko drum.
Chie Hanawa began her Shamisen training when she was nine years old. When she was seventeen, she received a prestigious first prize in the national Shamisen competition in the women’s class, the youngest in history. Since making her professional debut in university, she has been performing solo and in groups in a variety of venues, including a concert for the Royal Household.
Anna Sato began receiving instruction in the folk songs of her home in the Amami Islands from her grandfather when she was three. Since then, she has flourished as a professional vocalist, and received numerous prizes and awards. She is expanding her range into theatre performances, such as the musical Les Misérables and Cirque du Soleil.
Taiko Workshop
Date: Thursday April 14th
Location: Core Inn top floor
Time: 6:00 ~ 7:00 Youth program $20 / 7:30 ~9:00 Regular program $30
update 30/03/2016
Spots are limited. Please email to register: rkanesaka@gmail.com
Taiko drummer Keita Kanazashi from Japan will be offering a rare opportunity for those interested in trying their hands on the taiko. The taiko drum is a Japanese instrument that is played with two wooden sticks. Participants will learn about taiko notation and basic rhythms at this hour-and-a-half, hands-on workshop.
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Japanese Garden Society AGM with a special guest speaker
update 12/02/2016
The Japanese Garden Society AGM
Date: Thursday, February 18th, 2016
Time: 3:30 to 5:00pm
Location: SS Public Library Project Room
Guest Speaker: Brian Smallshaw: “The Dispossession of Japanese-Canadian Land on Saltspring”
We are having a guest speaker for this year’s AGM. Brian Smallshaw will share findings from his research into the uprooting of Japanese Canadians from Saltspring during World War Two. Based primarily on work carried out at the University of Victoria, Library and Archives Canada and in personal interviews, his talk will focus on the land that was taken from Japanese-Canadians and sold against their will, and provide insights into this unhappy chapter of the island’s history.
After the talk, we will have our annual general meeting.
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Photo album of the restoration and the public opening of the kiln
Click the link below to see the photos on Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132582883@N03/albums
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Public Opening of the Japanese Charcoal Pit Kiln
update 11/11/2015
The Salt Spring Island Parks and Recreation Commission (SSI PARC) and Japanese Garden Society are pleased to announce the public opening of the newly-restored Japanese Charcoal Pit Kiln in Ganges on Sunday November 29th, 2015.
We invite you to join us in celebrating the completion of this project, and to reflect on the Japanese Canadian pioneers and the history of Salt Spring in the early 1900’s.
At the opening event speakers will share their stories and knowledge about the history, restoration, and use of the charcoal kilns.
We look forward to seeing you.
Time: Sunday November 29th from 1pm to 3 pm
Location: Japanese Charcoal Pit Kiln in Mouat Park
The site is on the left fork of the main path after the rain shelter on the right.
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Japanese charcoal pit kilns have been located in Mouat Park
update 14/05/2015
The Japanese Garden Society is launching a new project in partnership with the Salt Spring Island Parks and Recreation Commission – the Restoration of the Japanese Charcoal Pit Kilns. As PARC has been such a great partner, we are feeling very hopeful about the project.
The society has started a fundraising campaign to raise funds to get the project moving. We recently received some good news that we’ve been chosen to receive grants from the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society and the Salt Spring Foundation.
Go to Japanese Charcoal Kiln Restoration on our website for more details.
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Spring 2015 fundraising events were great success
update 15/04/2015
Koji Yamaguchi who plays Shamisen and Yoshihiko Fueki who plays Taiko drums made the fisrt stop of their North American Tour at Salt Spring. With a great support of Anthony Mathews who was in charge of the Easter Art Tour and its special exhibit, the concert on April 9th at Mahon Hall was realized.
Japanese traditional music performed by a young and enthusiastic duo was powerful. Japanese singer UA who recently moved to Salt Spring joined them for two songs. It was an amazning evening.
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Spring 2015 Newsletter
Please take a look at our latest newsletter. An article about the restoration project of Japanese charcoal pit kilns in Mouat Park is on the second page of the newsletter.
Click here to download a pdf copy of the Spring 2015 Newsletter.
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Cheque presentation from Salt Spring Chamber of Commerce to Heiwa Garden on June 20th, 2014.
update 20/06/2014
A big thanks to the Salt Spring Chamber of Commerce! This presentation was made possible by the partnership between JGS and the Chamber in April each year for the Blossom Festival and A Taste of Salt Spring.
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Scenes from April 2014 Blossom Festival
Please also see more photos on our Facebook page.
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Winter 2013 Newsletter
Click here to download a pdf copy of the Winter 2013 Newsletter.
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Scenes from our Blossom Picnic April 2013
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Japanese Pioneers Honoured
Graves of several members of the original Japanese-Canadian families have been restored, with hand-cut marker stones created by Salt Spring artist Warren Langley shown here with Rose and Richard Murakami.
To read the article originally published in the Driftwood newspaper July 11, 2013 issue, please click here"Driftwood".
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Mearnie Summers, founding member of the Japanese Garden Society
Meanie Summers was recently featured in an article written by Sean McIntyre in our local community newspaper The Driftwood July 11th, 2013 issue.
To read the introduction to the article originally published in The Driftwood newspaper, please click here" Mearnie ".
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Spring 2013 Newsletter
Click here to download a pdf copy of the Spring 2013 Newsletter.