This portion of the interview is about Toki Miyashita’s involvement with the Ainu carver Nuburi Toko and her interest in the link between BC’s aboriginals and the Ainu of Japan. She describes Toko’s visits, her arrangement for Toko to meet Haida carver Bill Reid, and the events surrounding Burnaby…
This portion of the interview is about Toki Miyashita’s involvement with the Ainu carver Nuburi Toko and her interest in the link between BC’s aboriginals and the Ainu of Japan. She describes Toko’s visits, her arrangement for Toko to meet Haida carver Bill Reid, and the events surrounding Burnaby’s sister-city Kushiro’s gift of Toko’s sculptures to Burnaby for the Centennial. She also describes Toko’s appreciation of the Haida totems and the native people of BC, and his gift of a set of carving tools to Chief Saul Terry
Recording is of an interview with Toki Miyashita, conducted by Rod Fowler. Toki Miyashita was one of eleven participants interviewed as part of the SFU/Burnaby Centennial Committee's oral history series titled, "Voices of Burnaby". The interview is about Toki Miyashita’s family’s internment during WWII, her awakening interest in Japanese culture after the war, her subsequent interest in teaching others about Japanese crafts and arts, and becoming a helpful intermediary between Burnaby and visitors from Japan. The interview explores her interest in the Ainu of Japan and their possible link to the aboriginals of BC, her impressions of the Ainu carver Nuburi Toko, and her involvement in the events surrounding the creation of the sculpture “Playground of the Gods” for Burnaby Mountain. The interview also contains interesting details about the art of Japanese flower-arranging. To view “Narrow By” terms for each track expand this description and see “Notes”.
Biographical Notes
Toki Miyashita was born in Richmond B.C., ca. 1935, at the Nelson Brothers “fishery”, a second generation Canadian descended from the Oikawa family who settled on Don and Lion Islands (Oikawa-shima). In 1942 the Japanese Canadians in BC were forcibly moved from the coast and their belongings confiscated. Toki Miyashita, her parents, two brothers, and grandparents were first taken to Hastings Park where her father was separated from the family to work in road camps, and the rest of the family were interned in New Denver. Her resourceful grandmother moved the family to land outside the internment camp, growing a large garden from seeds brought with her. In 1946 the family moved to Kamloops and in 1958, after finishing high school, Toki Miyashita moved to Montreal to be with relatives and a small Japanese community. At this time she became interested in Japanese culture and took a Japanese language course at age 22. She learned about Japanese flower-arranging (Ikebana), paper folding (Origami), silk doll making (from a Russian Jew), and how to wear a kimono. She began demonstrating these arts in schools and to other groups, which she continued doing when she, her husband and two young children moved to Burnaby in 1969. Toki Miyashita has been called an unpaid “ambassador” of Japanese culture to the Lower Mainland. She has acted as liaison between Burnaby and her sister city Kushiro in Japan, which involved her in the creation of the Ainu sculpture “Playground of the Gods” on Burnaby Mountain for Burnaby’s Centennial. Toki Miyashita is a recognized Master in Ikebana Sogetsu, a school of flower-arranging, and has served on the board of the Vancouver Ikebana Association. She also served on Burnaby’s Family Court in the 1980s.
Rod Fowler returned to university as a mature student in the 1980s after working about twenty years in the field of economics and computerization in business in England, Europe and Western Canada. He graduated with a BA from SFU in both History and Sociology in 1987, his MA degree in Geography in 1989, and his PhD in Cultural Geography at SFU. He taught courses in Geography, Sociology, History and Canadian Studies at several Lower Mainland colleges, before becoming a full time member of the Geography Department at Kwantlen University College.
Interviews were digitized in 2015 allowing them to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council.
Note on recto reads: "Alysse Emergy 10 / Thelma Rebeiro / Paolo Agosti 11 / Herman Rebeiro"
Photographer's stamp on verso
Note on verso reads: "Burnaby Today / A-6 / reduce 58% / Senior Citizens"
Newspaper clipping attached to verso reads: "Senior citizens of the area were entertained Monday by students of Burnaby's Lochdale Community School as the school held its annual Heritage Tea. ABove, Alysse Emery, 10 and Paolo Agosti, 11 serve guests Thelma and Herman Rebeiro."
Photograph of a woman identified as Olga Kotelo reading or working on homework with a girl with a broken leg. The photograph is taken inside of a hospital.
Photograph of a woman identified as Olga Kotelo reading or working on homework with a girl with a broken leg. The photograph is taken inside of a hospital.
Photograph of three children hosting two seniors at a tea party at their elementary school. One child is showing the seniors a picture while the other two serve cake and coffee.
Photograph of three children hosting two seniors at a tea party at their elementary school. One child is showing the seniors a picture while the other two serve cake and coffee.
Note on recto reads: "Sherri Smart - Card / Isaac Melles - Dodo / Kristie Lamond - Tewedle Dum / Cheralee Hahn Michelle Lapre Jennifer Fox - Cards / Kulvinder Rai - Cheshire Cat"
Photographer's stamp on verso
Note on verso reads: "page A-8 / Burnaby / Today / PMT 100% / B-4 Saturday family page / reduce 80% / PMT twice / students stage Alice"
Newspaper clipping attached to verso reads: "STUDENTS STAGE 'ALICE' ... Audiences attending the 'Alice in Wonderland' production staged this week by Stride Community School in Burnaby were delighted with the colorful portrayal of the familiar Lewis Carroll characters. Above, waiting their turn to go on stage are, from left at rear, Sherri Smart, Isaac Melles, Cheralee Hahn, Michelle Lapre and Jennifer Fox, and in foreground, Kristie Lamond Tweedle Dum and Kulvinder Rai (as the Cheshire cat)."
Note on recto of photograph reads: "The crowd looks over Manns possessions."
Newspaper clipping attached to verso of photograph reads: "Crowd surveys possessions Lillian Mann collected over 28 years in her expropriated Burnaby home."
Photograph of several people seated around a table in what appears to be a community or seniors' centre. One woman is lighting the candles on a birthday cake.
Photograph of several people seated around a table in what appears to be a community or seniors' centre. One woman is lighting the candles on a birthday cake.