Eriko Yamamoto

Biography

Yamamoto Eriko, born in Ishikawa, Japan, is former Professor of American Studies at Sugiyama Jogakuen University and Aichi Mizuho College in Nagoya, Japan, Fulbright Visiting Scholar (1998-99, UCLA), and Discover Nikkei Project Manager at Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. She currently teaches oral history and academic English at Doshisha University in Kyoto as an adjunct. She did her graduate work in American Studies at Univ. of Tsukuba, Claremont Graduate School (MA, 1983) and University of Hawaii at Manoa/East- West Center (PhD, 1988), focusing on Japanese American history and using oral history. A life member of Oral History Association (U.S.), she became one of the founders of Japan Oral History Association from 2000 to 2005, serving its board for two terms. For International Oral History Association, she was the first Japanese to be elected Council member in 2004 and has presented papers in Rome (2004) and Rio de Janeiro (2023). Her publications include “Oral History in Japan: The Need for Collective Effort and Communication among Practitioners,” Words and Silences (2002) and “Miya Sannomiya Kikuchi: A Pioneer Nisei Woman’s Life and Identity,” Amerasia Journal (1997). For more publication information, visit https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eriko-Yamamoto-4/research

Kin Taii, Director A film director, musician and artist, Kin Taii has actively produced a number of documentary films and music videos in Japan and overseas. Born in Liaoning Fushun City, China, to a Chinese father from Manchuria and a Japanese mother, Taii came to Japan with his family at age 13. He graduated from Tama Art University in Moving Images and Performing Arts. Since then, he has expressed the worlds of music, art, and film through an integration of his individual imagination and varied techniques. In recent years, in addition to creating music and films dealing with Asian themes, he has been engaged in various events and concerts in and outside Japan, such as video installations, art exhibitions and fashion shows, integrating the various elements of his novel work. He has collaborated with Fujiwara Shoten in recording Shizue Ukaji’s life stories and Ainu folklore, producing Shimafukuro to Sake (2021) and Daichiyo (2023). His other documentary works include Shamans of the Heavens (2023), providing rare records of Manchurian culture and shamanism, as well as documentary films on Japanese female leaders, Michiko Ishimure and Kazuko Tsurumi. For details, visit https://taiiproject.wixsite.com/kintaii/biography

Fujiwara, Yoshio. Fujiwara Shoten President, producer and editor. Having worked for Shin-hyoron Publishing Co. as editor since 1973, he founded his own company, Fujiwara Shoten, in 1989 on a belief that a publisher should stay small (as a family business) to maintain quality and avoid expansion in pursuit of profit. He has grown Fujiwara Shoten to a unique publisher known for its high quality academic books by Japanese as well as Western scholars (in translation) in history and philosophy fields. Under a motto “Question common sense; Re-examine the way we look at society and history from the bottom,” his company has published more than a thousand deeply thoughtful books that readers purchase despite their prices. Fujiwara has hepled Shizue Ukaji publish her stories in books and DVDs, contributing to her activity as a writer, speaker, artist and activist. Fujiwara’s contribution to the academic publication has been acknowledged with such awards as Inoue Yasushi Commemorative Cultural Award. (If Yoshio Fujiwara is unavailable: FUJIWARA, Yosuke. Fujiwara Shoten editor. Yoshio Fujiwara’s second oldest son, Yosuke works at Fujiwara Shoten. As his father’s original hope to keep the company compact as a family business, he has been contributing as an important member to its commitment to publishing books with high quality contents.)

Ukaji, Shizue. (ZOOM participation because of her advanced age) Ukaji is a poet, artist, writer, and activist trying to preserve Ainu culture and history and improve their status. Ukaji is an indigenous Ainu woman born in an Ainu village in Hokkaido in 1933. Longing for education, she entered junior high school at age 20, graduating after 3 years, whereas most Ainu women remained uneducated and illiterate. Once a housewife in Tokyo hiding her Ainu identity, she stood up in the 1970s for the preservation of Ainu heritage and pride, which she fears will be extinct if Ainu remained ashamed of it. Her original artwork using rag patchwork became her way of expressing Ainu folklore images, eventually leading to publication of children’s picture books. With support from Fujiwara Shoten, she has published her poems and stories that let the Ainu issues more widely known in Japan. At 92, Ukaji leads Ainu organizations and continues to speak publicly to non-Ainu audience.