Browse Items (37212 total)

Members of the Mimasukai Entertainment Group continued to practice and perform, even while incarcerated in the Minidoka concentration camp.

Since May Sasaki was so young, she mostly stayed on the
side stage (hanamichi) of the Nippon Kan. This narrow stage led to the main stage and allowed for a lot of performers to be on stage – with the main characters in the central stage and…

Several members of the Lotus Entertainment Group,
who performed from the 1920s, are pictured in this 1954
photo of the Lotus Shoyukai Drama club. Members include: back row, left to right – Tadao Kitamura, Mauri Kuranishi, Ed Sakai, Denny…

“The last shibai was held for Mr. (Kay) Hagimori who was
terminally ill. The shibai performers were members of the Gojikai, which was a very large service organization mostly made up of Kibei Nisei (1.5 and second generation). They were all busy…

Ted Tomita, Sr. and Kiki Hagimori at Lotus Shoyukaishibai performance at Nippon Kan theater, c.1951. Ted wears a
many layered costume, similar to the costume to the left,
while Kiki dresses in the red kimono, shown in the case on
the opposite…

Shibai performance at Nippon Kan theater with shamisen players on raised platform, 1927.

Courtesy of Mark Yuasa

“My husband loved to do shibai. His mother, back in Japan,
did odori (dance) and other things like that. I think that is why he loved those things. He was really good. He could read the book [script] once over and he would remember everything.…

Fusae Yokoyama also performed minor roles in shibai performances. She currently works as hostess and
bartender at Maneki Restaurant in Seattle’s Japantown,
and is the oldest bartender in Seattle.

Courtesy of Fusae Yokoyama

From left to right: Kazuo Yokoyama, Sharon (Hagimori) Yuasa, Hatsune Eileen (Nakatani) Tokita, Elaine Yoshida.

Courtesy of Seattle Betsuin Archives Committee