Guide to the Sugimoto (Henry) Collection
1928-1990
Processed by Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.) staff; machine-readable finding aid created by Snowden
Becker
Japanese American National Museum
Manabi & Sumi Hirasaki National Resource Center
100 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, California, 90012
Phone: (213) 830-5615
Fax: (213) 830-5697
Email: collections@janm.org
URL: http://www.janm.org
© 2001
Japanese American National Museum. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Sugimoto (Henry) Collection
1928-1990
Japanese American National Museum
Los Angeles, CA
Contact Information:
- Japanese American National Museum
- Manabi & Sumi Hirasaki National Resource Center
- 100 North Central Avenue
- Los Angeles, California, 90012
- Phone: (213) 830-5615
- Fax: (213) 830-5697
- Email: collections@janm.org
- URL: http://www.janm.org
- Processed by:
- Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.) staff
- Date Completed:
- 11/19/2001
- Encoded by:
- Snowden Becker
© 2001 Japanese American National Museum. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Henry Sugimoto Collection
Date: 1928-1990
Collection ID: 92.97
Creator:
Sugimoto, Henry
Repository:
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is not open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Collections
Management and Access Unit at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Henry Sugimoto Collection, Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National
Museum, 92.97.
Biography
An Issei, or immigrant from Japan, Henry Sugimoto defied convention to pursue a career as a painter. Talent and a persevering
drive brought him early success in the 1930s. His rising career came to a halt during World War II when he was confined to
American concentration camps. What is striking about Sugimoto is the way he responded to his incarceration. The experience
initiated a deeply personal exploration that transformed how he viewed himself and his art.
"I spent my childhood separated from my parents and was raised and educated by my grandparents. My father immigrated to the
United States, leaving my mother, my younger brother, and me behind when I was an infant and had no impression of him. When
I was nine, my mother was summoned by my father and, leaving us with my grandparents, went to the United States. I was sad
when my mother immigrated, but since my grandparents and my aunts and uncles were still young and lived in the same house,
and since they cared for us and loved us brothers as their own children, I did not feel much sorrow or grief." (From Henry
Sugimoto's diaries.)
Sugimoto enrolled briefly in the University of California, Berkeley, but soon left to pursue his interest in art at that California
School of Arts and Crafts (now known as CCAC, the California College of Arts and Crafts). He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree in 1928, and shortly afterwards decided to go to France to study his art further.
Sugimoto quickly made friends among the community of Japanese artists living in Paris. While there, he studied art and French
at the Academie Colarossi and Alliance Francaise, respectively, but retreated to the countryside to work after his submission
to the 1930 Salon d'Automne was rejected. He stayed and painted with an artist friend, Ogi, in Voulangis for much of the remainder
of his time in France. In 1931, one of the two pieces he submitted to the Salon d'Automne was accepted. Shortly afterwards
he returned to California, a greatly matured artist with great hopes for the future.
Sugimoto's return to California was shortly followed by a one-person exhibition of his paintings at the California Palace
of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The show was well-received, and San Francisco's Courvoisier Gallery offered to represent
Sugimoto. Over the next few years, Sugimoto exhibited widely in California: at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Oakland
Art Gallery, and the Foundation of Western Art, his work appeared regularly in group shows. The Museum of Modern Art in New
York offered to exhibit Sugimoto's work as well, but perhaps as a result of prior commitments, Sugimoto turned them down--a
decision he regretted years later.
In 1934, Sugimoto married his longtime sweetheart, Susie Tagawa. Two years later they had their first child, Madeleine. Between
raising a family and making a living, Sugimoto continued to work diligently on his art. He made several trips around California
and in Mexico during the mid-thirties, taking a break from work and devoting time to painting. Carmel, Yosemite, Mexico City
all provided inspiration and endless subject matter for Sugimoto's work.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI began to arrest Japanese American community leaders, including directors and
staff of Japanese-language schools throughout California. Paranoia and rumors were widespread, and Sugimoto even found himself
burning Japanese books from the school in Hanford out of fear that he would be arrested for his involvement with the school.
Evacuation orders followed hard on the release of Excutive Order 9066 by President Roosevelt. Japanese Americans from central
California, the Sugimoto family among them, were forced to move to the Fresno Assembly Center. Sugimoto was able to include
a few art supplies with the small number of possessions they could take with them, and continued to sketch and paint at the
Assembly Center.
Removal to Jerome Relocation Center in Denson, Ark. followed. Sugimoto painted there, as well, but the barren landscape of
Arkansas more or less put an end to the rich landscape studies he had immersed himself in during his France and California
sojourns. Figures, portraits, and allegories took center stage, with the physical environs of camp ever-present in the background.
With the outcome of the war still in question, Sugimoto also had concerns about his future as an artist. He had concealed
his work from the authorities for some time, for fear of the consequences of being found depicting scenes from camp. Eventually,
however, he painted freely. His work came to the attention of the art community outside of camp, and through their efforts
his work was shown at the Hendrix College art gallery in early 1944. This recognition did much to restore Sugimoto's resolve
to continue his life as a practicing artist.
Political issues played a greater part in Sugimoto's work after this, as well. The loyalty questionnaire administered by the
government in 1943 brought confusion, distress, and fear to all ten WRA camps, and even resulted in physical violence.
The Jerome camp closed in 1944, and the Sugimotos were subsequently moved to Rohwer. They stayed there nearly until the end
of the war, when they left Arkansas for New York and a new life.
After leaving Rohwer in 1945, the Sugimotos struggled through their first lean years in New York. Sugimoto eventually found
work in a textile company creating fabric designs--work he did not enjoy, but which supported the family for years. He continued
to paint in his spare time and made a point of keeping current with the active arts scene in the city.
In 1962, Sugimoto retired, intending to devote all his time to art. With his family's blessing, he went back to France for
a year; he followed that trip with an excursion to Japan, where he visited relatives and friends he had not seen since emigrating
more than forty years before. These experiences were just as formative as the travels in his early life had been, and Sugimoto
began to develop a more historical and personal approach to his work during the 1960s and '70s.
The Japanese American community's growing willingness to talk about the incarceration experience had an effect on Sugimoto
and his work, too. He testified in 1981 before the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. His
testimony helped achieve one of the primary goals of the redress movement: a formal apology from the government and recognition
of the mistakes that had been made in the treatment of Japanese Americans during the war.
Sugimoto's work during this time also reflects his growing perception of himself as an issei, or first-generation Japanese
American. His visit to Japan had made his American identity clear to him, and many works from this later period in his life
reflect a new interest in the history of Japanese immigration.
When Sugimoto had his work exhibited at the Hendrix College gallery, it was the first time the paintings had been seen by
anyone outside of camp. Henry and Susie Sugimoto, under the escort of the camp's director, were allowed to attend the opening
of the exhibition in Conway, Arkansas.
Scope and Content
130 paintings by Henry Sugimoto, a Japanese American artist who flourished in the 1930s and continued to paint well into the
1990s.
Childhood and Immigration 1900-1924
Description
Born in Wakayama, Japan, at the turn of the century, Yuzuru Sugimoto left his home in 1919 to start a new life in America.
There he reunited with his parents who had earlier settled in the central California farming town of Hanford, where he went
by a new American name: Henry.
Scope and Content
1 painting by Henry Sugimoto.
Going to America
1980 92.97.105
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto; poem written in Japanese on upper right of painting, translated: A man
with ambition leaves his village; / Unless he accomplishes his mission, / He will not return. / The place where he buries
his ashes / Does not have to be his homeland. / For man, there are green mountains everywhere. / (Gessho Shaku). Written on
back: "Going to America"/32 x 25 1/2
Description
Stretched and framed. A young man leaves Japan for the United States. Focal point is a young man dressed in knee-length dark
yukata with white design, blue obi and yellow geta standing with right arm raised and hands clenched. He gazes off to the
right of viewer. Labeled "Beikoku yuki" (Going to America) in the upper left corner, a white bundle tied with rope sits at
his feet. In the lower left, a man in a grey yukata and geta raises his hand in farewell while a woman in brown covers her
face with a white cloth. In the upper left background Wakayama Castle resides at the top of a green hill with a river, Ki
no Kawa, at its base. Midground right, a large bridge stands as a large wave passes under it, a figure is visible in water.
Above it, four lines of a Japanese poem on reddish background.
Historical Note
Some sixty years after leaving Japan, Sugimoto completed a series of paintings meant to document and interpret the history
of Japanese immigrants in the United States. This work, though it was created long after Sugimoto arrived in the United States,
was no doubt inspired by his own experience, and portrays a young man leaving Japan for America.
Subject
Emigration and immigration
Japanese
United States
Japan
Parents
Sons
Oakland and Paris 1924-1932
Description
These works from Sugimoto's earliest years as a painter show some of the influences that would continue to affect him throughout
his career. They also show characteristic elements that appear in his work well into the 1940s: a palette of rich earth tones
and lively greens and blues, and tiny figures set in landscapes with interesting forms like church buildings, haystacks, and
windblown trees.
Scope and Content
13 paintings by Henry Sugimoto.
Oakland City Skyline from Merrit Park
ca. 1928 92.97.80
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Oakland, Calif.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back, top center: Oakland City Skyline from Merritt Park
Description
Unstretched and unframed canvas. The Oakland cityscape as seen from Lake Merritt City Park, Oakland, California. In the right
foreground, dark waters of lake; left, curving shoreline with dirt path on edge. Mid-ground, a bright green band of trees
along the edge of the far lakeshore balances the light, cloudy sky above.
Historical Note
This painting was done while Sugimoto was a student at the California School of Arts and Crafts, and was possibly his first
to be accepted in an art exhibition. "One of the older students praised the piece I had submitted," he wrote. "This was a
great encouragement and gave me the determination to work hard." In 1928 Sugimoto graduated from the California School of
Arts and Crafts in Oakland and began preparations for study in France. This cityscape completed before his departure anticipates
elements of the style that he would continue to develop in Paris. Already influenced by Cezanne and the Post-Impressionists,
Sugimoto emphasizes the geometric qualities of the buildings that make up Oakland's business district. Heavy outlining and
side-by-side application of colors flatten the composition and underscore the sense of structural order over specific detail.
In Lake Merrit, Sugimoto is also interested in the soft, Impressionistic qualities of the bank of trees that line t!
he lake. The cloudy sky suggests a specific time of day and Sugimoto's decision to view the skyline from the vantage point
of the lake allows him to frame the composition in a traditional manner that emphasizes perspective and depth. These qualities
associated with European painting demonstrate the range of styles with which Sugimoto was familiar as a young artist, as well
as his identification with art trends coming from across the Atlantic. Although Lake Merrit is an American subject, Sugimoto's
image could be taken for France, even though the artist had not yet visited the country that contributed so significantly
to his artistic identity. When Sugimoto looked back on this period from before he left for France, he remarked that he went
to Paris to learn criticism and to further his study. However, in Lake Merrit it is apparent that Sugimoto was already an
advanced student of modern French painting before leaving American soil.
Subject
Oakland, Calif.
Cityscapes
Buildings
Lakes
Lake Merritt City Park (Oakland, Calif.)
Notre Dame Cathedral
ca. 1931 92.97.118
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Description
Stretched and framed. View of Notre Dame cathedral from far bank of the Seine River. Red-roofed buildings are visible to either
side of cathedral behind trees in midground. Pont-Neuf bridge spans image in foreground, with a seated figure fishing at bottom
left. Heavy gray sky.
Historical Note
This piece dates from Sugimoto's early period in France. The influence of Post-Impressionism and Cezanne are apparent and
notable in the expressionistic brushstrokes and abstract qualities of the bridge and water. Sugimoto's interest in architectural
and architectonic structures is also apparent, and there is an interesting use of horizontals in the rendition of the strongly
vertical Gothic structure.
Subject
Paris, Notre Dame de
Pont-Neuf (Paris, France)
Bridges
France
Seine River
fishing
Stream of Chartres
ca. 1964 92.97.94
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Chartres Written on back, top center: Stream of Chartre [sic] / 24" x 20"
Description
Mounted and unframed. Stream courses down channel through the town of Chartres. Water flows under a double-arched white bridge
past grassy banks, gushing through two sluices into a walled channel where a woman washes clothes directly from an opening
in a blue-roofed building on the left. Across the water on the right is a walled enclosure of grassy land. In the background
red and blue-roofed buildings are visible among fall foliage. Peeking out at the top, a blue-roof with three small spires
and two large spires reaches toward the blue sky.
Subject
France
Rivers
Buildings
Women
Laundry
Fall foliage
Spires
Haystack of Voulangis
1932 92.97.77
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, 1932. Written on back, top center: Haystack of Voulangis
Description
Central image of three haystacks in a field to the left of dirt road curving up from bottom right. A man pushes a wheelbarrow
at the curve of the road away from viewer under a large tree rising up on right. In the background, bluish trees and in the
distance left two trees on a hill. The sky is overcast with hints of blue. Stretched and framed.
Historical Note
For many Impressionists at the turn of the century, the beautiful light and peaceful farming rituals of the French countryside
provided a host of views for the newly fashionable practice of plein air painting. In this landscape from Voulangis, Sugimoto
pays homage to the tradition in a composition that includes three of the famous French haystacks that so captivated Claude
Monet in particular. In the painting, Sugimoto emphasizes the powerful effects of light on the landscape by way of the colors
it produces: the vibrant greens of the fields and the many hues of the blue sky. However, while the Impressionists took interest
in the ways in which the surface effects of light and color made objects seem less heavy, Sugimoto follows a different trajectory.
He uses thick paint and closely related colors to accentuate the weight and movement of the haystacks, clouds, and other objects
in the painting. This approach reflects Sugimoto's immersion in a contemporary Expressionist st!
yle that favored study of emotional effects of color on objects in the environment. The small figure pushing a wheelbarrow
filled with hay on the lower right is similar to Sugimoto's other figures from his early period. Dwarfed by the natural landscape,
the farmer, like the nuns in Sugimoto's "Two Nuns and Church" (1931), goes about his business in a routine manner. His rhythmic
movement evokes a sense of comfort and stability that Sugimoto would return to in his depictions of farm labor and life in
his rural hometown of Hanford, California.
Subject
France
Trees
Haystacks
Men
Wheelbarrows
Landscapes (representations)
Winter at Voulangis
1931 92.97.128
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed, front, BRC: Henry Sugimoto, 1931. Sticker on back of canvas: 7253 / Henry Sugimoto / Winter at Voulangis
Description
Stretched and framed. French rural landscape. A red-roofed house with chimney stands at right midground partially obscured
by a tall tree and dark brush. A figure in black and blue steps onto a path away from building. The open space of the foreground
is broken by a tree and mound on left. Trees border the back under gray skies.
Subject
Landscapes (representations)
France
Dwellings
Villier
ca. 1931 92.97.51
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Villier
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Dirt path curves left from lower right, then back past a house on the left and extends out of sight
between a wall on left and foliage on right. Sky is overcast.
Subject
France
Houses
Walls
Villier Church Street
ca. 1931 92.97.49
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Villier Church Street
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Street lined with houses and church on right. A woman on sidewalk with bucket, lower right, male
figure further back on sidewalk. Horse-drawn carriage coming down street.
Subject
France
Dwellings
Horse-drawn vehicles
Streets
Churches
Men
Women
Untitled (Still Life with Violin)
ca. 1932 92.97.127
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, top left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Still life of violin and case. A violin lies horizontal, scroll on left and end-button on right,
on a white cloth atop an open black violin case with green interior. Bow lies in top of case, which lays on a white surface.
A three leafed branch sits in background center. Background is grey.
Subject
Still lifes
Violin
Violin bow
Cases (Containers)
Cluny Museum
ca. 1931 92.97.125
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Cluny Museum, 32" x 26"
Description
Stretched and framed. Cluny Museum and grounds, Paris. In the foreground a grassy area is intersected by a path which recedes
from lower left corner into a large stand of bare trees upper right. A white figure appears before trees and behind a low
circular structure, possibly a moss-covered fountain. On the left, across the path, a blue cylindrical object abuts a tree
and a row of brown buildings that recede into the background left. The sky is overcast.
Historical Note
The Cluny Museum was constructed on the site of an ancient Roman thermal bath, land which was purchased by the Cluny Benedictines
in 1330. The structure featured in Sugimoto's painting was begun in the 15th century by Jacques d'Amboise, and it housed abbots
and papal nuncios in the 17th century before becoming a museum in the 1800s. The mysterious white-clad figure, which may be
holding a child in her arms, has possible Symbolist overtones. It also manifests a spirituality or religiosity that could
be derived from the setting and/or Sugimoto's own religious involvement, which became especially strong later in his life.
The composition is potentially derived from the work of Henri Puvis de Chavannes, and Cezanne's influence is also evident
in the architectural elements. The abundance of greens reflects Sugimoto's interest in nature and atmosphere during this period.
Subject
Cluny Museum (Paris, France)
France
Buildings
Trees
Figures (representations)
Two Nuns and Church
1931 92.97.53
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, 1931
Description
Unstretched, unframed canvas. The primary subject is a French church, possibly the Eglise de Rampillon (see Historical Note),
a Gothic structure with a single tower, arched windows, and what may be flying buttresses along its sides. Two nuns in traditional
habit with their backs to the viewer are walking on the sidewalk around the left side of the church. A road curves around
the left. A stylized tree, bare of leaves, stands at lower right.
Historical Note
This painting reflects Sugimoto's early interest in the churches and cathedrals of France. The church itself is likely the
Eglise de Rampillon, a particularly beautiful example of Gothic architecture in east central France near the rural town of
Tigeaux. As a young painter, Sugimoto seems to have been captivated by the Seine Marne region, also a favorite of Dunoyer
De Segonzac, one of Sugimoto's primary influences. Like De Segonzac, Sugimoto traveled and painted in the area seeking vistas
that incorporated architectural forms into the French country landscape. Sugimoto captures the powerful masonry effects of
the church through a palette of deep grays matched in the color of the sky. The layered composition of the painting mirrors
the architecture of the church itself and Sugimoto uses vertical brushstrokes to build the geometric forms. He reserves his
more fluid, open brushstrokes for the trees and ground surrounding the church, a technique that emphasizes the contrast b!
etween the solidity of the church and the dynamism of the natural world. The branches of the tree on the lower right swirl
like flames while the church stands locked in a timeless realm.
Subject
France
Churches
Nuns
L'Eglise de Tigeaux
ca. 1932 92.97.78
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on burlap
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and framed burlap. Image is of a church in rural France. A dirt pathway leads past the church at lower right, through
the trees that surround the buildings. A smaller structure appears in the background at right. The church is separated from
the path by a stone wall, at left, and has a slim steeple and gray roof. The other structures have red roofs. The sky is cloudy
and white with hints of blue.
Historical Note
This work features a somewhat more controlled composition than the artist's other landscapes of the early period, and its
overall softness and smoother brushstrokes contribute to a less rough texture. The vertical format is also a departure from
Sugimoto's mostly horizontal landscapes of this period, such as Cluny Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral. Tigeaux is a small
village in east central France in the Seine and Marne River region, near the larger village of Rozay-en-Brie. Another untitled
Sugimoto landscape from the same period, featuring two nuns and a church, may depict L'Eglise de Rampillion in the same region;
however, no picture of the church in Tigeaux has been located so far.
Subject
Tigeaux, France
Churches
Houses
Self portrait
1931 92.97.106
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Paris, France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: Self Portrait/ Painted this portrait 1931/ 1931 / (In Japanese)
Pari nite / Henry Sugimoto.
Description
Stretched and framed. Self portrait of Henry Sugimoto. Artist has depicted himself in õ profile, at left, with a blank canvas
in front of him on an easel, at right. A potbelly stove is visible between the two in the background. Sugimoto wears a black
beret and a red jacket with collar up over a white shirt. He gazes out directly at viewer.
Historical Note
This image is the only self-portrait known to have been painted by Henry Sugimoto during his stay in France. Sitting before
a blank canvas, he wears a fashionable French beret. Sugimoto wore a beret throughout his life as a symbol of his identity
as an artist.
Subject
Self-portraits
Sugimoto, Henry
Painters (artists)
Berets
Caffee Musician
1930 92.97.102
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Paris, France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Painted in Paris, 1930, Caffee Musician [sic]
Description
Stretched and unframed. A single male musician in black sits on a stool on-stage, bent over, drawing his bow over the strings
of a cello. His black beard and hair are nearly indistinguishable from his clothes, but his socks are painted with traces
of green and yellow, and white shirt cuffs are just visible at the end of his jacket sleeves. The suggestion of faces in the
audience appears behind him, low against the gray background.
Historical Note
The figurative subject, rich monochrome tones, and subtle background rendition distinguish this work from others in Sugimoto's
early period. Although somewhat squat and heavy, the figure of the cellist moves in a dynamic, naturalistic manner akin to
the male figures in Sugimoto's later works. Thick, expressive brushstrokes appear more controlled than in the artist's landscapes
of the time; the details of the cello and the musician's face likewise reveal notable control of paint and color. The musician's
shirt and socks, indicated by traces of white, green, and yellow at the edges of his dark suit, underscore Sugimoto's interest
in subtle effects of color and light. The impressionistic, indistinct gray background establishes the mood and architectural
structure of the cafe interior.
Subject
France
Cafes
Violoncellos
Musicians
A Rising Artist 1932-1942
Description
These works, mostly from the middle and late 1930s, show Sugimoto building on what he learned in France. In the paintings
shown here, the unique features of California--from the Carmel coastline and historic Spanish missions to the majestic sights
of Yosemite--figure as greatly as the French countryside did in works from just a few years before.
Scope and Content
11 paintings by Henry Sugimoto.
Village of Villiers
c. 1930 92.97.76
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, left center: Village of Villiers
Description
Stretched and framed. A man with a stick walks away from the viewer down a lane lined with houses on the right and a gated
entrance at left. Two trees rise above the gate posts. The man wears a dark cap and shirt, brown pants and a white belt. The
Houses are white with red roofs. A woman wearing a red shawl over a white skirt carries a bucket and precedes the man further
down the lane. In the background greyish trees are visible under a grey sky.
Historical Note
"Village of Villiers" and "French Willow Tree" were among some two hundred paintings that Sugimoto brought back from France.
It was a solid body of work, and he was invited to do a one-person exhibit at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor
in San Francisco soon after his return.
Subject
France
Men
Women
Houses
Gates
Villages
French Willow Tree
ca. 1932 92.97.87
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
France
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: French Willow Tree, 22 x 18"
Description
Stretched and framed. Focal point of image is large green-leaved willow tree with brown shrubs at its base in open field of
browning grass. A short distance behind, an olive-leaved tree at left center; two trees at right center; and low green shrubs
directly behind willow. In background, greyish outline of cityscape under overcast sky.
Subject
France
Willows
Trees
Landscapes (representations)
Yosemite River
ca. 1935 92.97.135
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back, top center: Yosemite River, 39" x 39"
Description
Stretched and framed. River scene painted in Yosemite. Rocks and water dominate the foreground as the water flows from upper
left to right past rocky banks and gushes around medium and large rocks midstream, against a background of trees or forest.
Two figures are seated on the rocks at river's edge, top center. The woman in red bathing suit and straw hat has feet in river;
the other figure in blue pants sits with legs stretched out on a rock.
Historical Note
The strong integration of figures into the natural landscape is notable in this work. The quiet motion of the two figures
on the rocks hints at Sugimoto's later rendition of the human figure in scenes of camp and farm life especially. Sugimoto
seems to have been exploring depth and movement during this period, and the layered effect of this piece anticipates such
early period landscapes as 92.97.52 ("Distant View of Old Mission in Carmel"), which also employs strong horizontals for depth.
This piece is part of a series of views of Yosemite, but this canvas is the most open compositionally, with more controlled
brushwork, and deviates from the other Yosemite paintings in its inclusion of the two figures. "Yosemite River" bears some
relation to 92.97.53 ("Two Nuns and Church"); in both cases, the figures are dwarfed by the scene around them. This differs
from many of the camp works, in which figures feature as prominent or dominant elements in the composition. The Yosemite !
paintings and the early landscapes reflect Sugimoto's interest in scenes of nature in which the landscape dominates. Architectural
structures, which predominate in some of these early works from Europe and California, are absent in "Yosemite River."
Subject
Yosemite, Calif.
Rocks
Rivers
Trees
Women
Men
Landscapes (representations)
Yosemite Stream
ca. 1939 92.97.92
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Yosemite, Calif.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, left: Yosemite Stream
Description
Green stream gushes past rock strewn banks from upper left to lower right. The focal point is a large bluish stone in the
middle of the rapids. The brown trunks of many trees are visible in background. Stretched and framed.
Subject
Yosemite, Calif.
Rocks
Streams
Half Dome of Yosemite
ca. 1935 92.97.134
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back, top left center: Half Dome of Yosemite, 39" x 31"
Description
Stretched and framed. View of Half Dome in Yosemite, with Merced (?) bridge. Half Dome looms up on right under cloudy sky.
In foreground, river flows under bridge past brown banks where trees of various types, including pine, grow and are reflected
in water.
Historical Note
The conservative, closely framed composition, with expressive brushstrokes and thick application of paint, is typical of Sugimoto's
early period. The heavy sky and white and blue tones in the water are also common to Sugimoto's treatments of landscape and
natural subjects in this period. Flat applications of color, as in the pine trees at center left, tend toward abstraction.
As with other early landscapes, the question arises as to how much time Sugimoto spent working on composition in the studio
and how much time was spent outdoors painting or sketching. The choice of Yosemite's Half Dome points toward the artist's
interest in more sublime American landscapes for his early works (his renditions of Carmel and the Northern California coastline
date to the same period, for example), and begs comparison to Sugimoto's work with European landscapes.
Subject
Yosemite, Calif.
Half Dome (Yosemite, Calif.)
Landscapes (representations)
Mountains
Rivers
Trees
Bridges
Untitled (Ocean View from Carmel)
ca. 1938 92.97.93
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and framed. A view from Carmel California of the Pacific shoreline includes large rocky cliffs to the right and
rough ocean water breaking on rocks in the shallows at bottom. A ship appears on the distant horizon, left, where ocean meets
a cloudy, brown-toned marine sky.
Historical Note
Sugimoto's interest in the Pacific Ocean peaks in this seascape painted six years after his return from France. In the painting,
Sugimoto uses rough brushstrokes and heavy application of paint characteristic of his early painting to capture the motion
of the waves breaking on the craggy rocks of the Carmel coastline. A distant seacliff and the ship on the far horizon capture
the immensity of the Pacific while the surging waves in the foreground underscore the ocean's power.
Like other landscapes from his early period, "Ocean from Carmel" reflects Sugimoto's fascination with the contrast of colors
in nature. In the painting, the brown, earthy rocks stand solid and timeless while the blue-green water swirls about them.
The light captures only the surface colors of the waves, while the marine sky reflects the golden tones of the sun behind
it. The natural colors of early paintings such as "Ocean from Carmel" give way to a brighter, higher-contrast palette in Sugimoto's
later works. Sugimoto's many sketchbooks demonstrate that he often drew portions of his scenes and landscapes outdoors; until
the end of his life he painted or drew almost every day. In "Ocean from Carmel," Sugimoto's vivid depiction of the waves and
rocks along the Carmel seashore suggest that he spent a great deal of time looking at the scene before commencing to paint.
This technique associated with Post-Impressionist painting is one Sugimoto likely took up in France and subsequently employed
throughout his career.
Subject
Seascapes
Coastlines
ships
California
Pacific Ocean
Carmel (Calif.)
Rocks
Distant View of Old Mission in Carmel
c. 1939 92.97.52
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Carmel, Calif.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto
Description
Unstretched and unframed canvas. View of the Pacific Ocean behind the Mission San Carlos Borromeo complex, also known as the
Carmel Mission, with a stretch of sandy beach at mid-left and small hills at center-right in between. A fence runs in front
of the Mission structure, with a smaller fence behind the structure at left. A mountain appears across the water in the background.
The Mission has red roofs and a red domed bell tower. Sky is dark and cloudy.
Historical Note
In this painting of the Old Carmel Mission, Sugimoto captures the expansive quality of the landscape by taking a more distant
point of view than in previous works. The Mission cluster with its distinctive red roofs and bell tower extends across the
right portion of the canvas while a stretch of sandy beach to the left adds depth. Reminiscent of those in Japanese woodblock
prints, the mountain looming in the background furthers the sense of an endless horizon. The light's bleached quality contributes
to a mood of serenity and timelessness unusual in Sugimoto's early landscapes.
Sugimoto's choice of a Pacific landscape also reflects a turn in his work during the period. Always attracted to the relationship
between architecture and nature, Sugimoto painted several landscapes featuring the Pacific Ocean and the Yosemite River when
he returned to California. The steady movement and immense power of these bodies of water seemed to appeal greatly to Sugimoto
when he returned to the region where he began his early formal training in art.
Subject
Carmel (Calif.)
Pacific Ocean
California
Beaches
Untitled (The Mouth of the Kumano River in Autumn)
c. 1930 92.97.126
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, lower left (In Japanese): Mouth of Kumano River. Accompanied
by a card with a red foil star, formerly attached to the back of painting: 25 Kumanokawaguchi no akikeishiki [Translated:
The mouth of Kumano River in Autumn] / The Mouth of the river in Autumn $350 / Matsuba (?)
Description
Stretched and framed Autumnal landscape of river and mountain. A large dark green mountain under a reddish yellow sky towers
over a bluish river that rushes around a bend mid left foreground. Two boats sit on the shore outside of the walled town in
left foreground. Trees in autumnal colors grow among green shrubs on the right bank. A stepped path leads to fenced blue roofed
houses in right foreground.
Subject
Rivers
Mountains
Autumn
Boats
Dwellings
Trees
Landscapes (representations)
Still Life: Cat, Umbrella, Flowers
ca. 1934 92.97.54
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Description
Unstretched, unframed canvas. Still life arrangement includes a gray tabby cat dozing at lower right, a woven basket filled
with pink and orange gladiolas, and a small, closed blue umbrella at left. All appear against an expressive blue background
on a table covered with a white cloth. A piece of yellow paper or cloth also lies on the white cloth, under the handle of
the umbrella.
Historical Note
An interesting arrangement of objects that appears to reveal Sugimoto's interest in exploring textures. The soft rendering
of the cat's fur and the crisp stalks and leaves of the flowers are carefully painted. Strong diagonals are somewhat unusual
in early period works, but appearing here they add a dynamism to the traditionally staid subject of still life arrangement.
As with others of the artist's still life works of this period [92.97.98, with jug, bottles, and onions, for example], the
objects do not rest solidly on surfaces; their apparent weightlessness may point to the artist's interest in the objects themselves
over completely naturalistic representation, as well as a post-Impressionist/Cubist sense of the motion of forms. The influence
of Cezanne and his still life works seems important in this context. Vivid greens and high-contrast oranges and pinks that
appear in this still life are typical of the colors Sugimoto used over the course of his career.
Subject
Still lifes
Flowers
Cats
Baskets
Umbrellas
Still Life
ca. 1935 92.97.98
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back, top center: Still Life, 27 1/2 x 19 1/2"
Description
Mounted and unframed. Still life of vegetables and food containers on a wooden tabletop. A pile of six yams sits between a
bundle of five scallions on left and a white crockery dish with cover on right. A jug with a white base and black top with
cork sits behind the scallions, next to dark green vegetable. On right, small dark green bottle. A white sheet or napkin lies
on the table left under yams, scallions and jug.
Subject
Still lifes
Vegetables
Pitchers
Bottles
Food containers
Still Life
1938 92.97.22
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Still life painting. In center of the painting is a tall, off-white oblong vase with a single
pink camellia with three green leaves. The vase is on a brown surface. The background is very dark with a few blue highlights
at right.
Subject
Camellias
Vases
Flowers
An Artist's Sense of Mission 1941-1945
Description
All the works in this series reflect key events and drastic changes in the lives of the Sugimotos, along with thousands of
other Japanese Americans on the West Coast, in the months and years following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
For the first time, people and social situations predominate in Sugimoto's work. His wife Susie and daughter Sumile were often
the models for scenes of everyday life in camp.
Scope and Content
23 paintings by Henry Sugimoto.
Untitled (News of Pearl Harbor)
ca. 1942 92.97.104
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left: H. Sugimoto
Description
Unstretched and unframed. A Japanese family of three in Hanford, California listen to the radio about the bombing of Pearl
Harbor by the Japanese. A bearded man sits with his back to the viewer at a checked cloth covered table, right hand tuning
a radio. To the right, a woman in a white collared blue dress sits next to him, leaning against her right arm with a worried
expression. Above her on the grey wall is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln with a small American flag sticking out of the yellow
frame. A pennant, "Hanford HI" hangs above it. A little boy in a blue and white striped shirt and blue overalls stands in
the left background, pointing out of the window at a bird flying away into a winter landscape. The upper half of the painting
is dominated by a cloudlike scence, overlapping the domestic scene, of two fighter planes coming out of the upper right corner
toward a sinking, smoking battleship, USS Arizona, exploding in red and yellow. A tiny plane is visible in the upp!
er left corner.
Subject
World War, 1939-1945
Pearl Harbor
fighter planes
Aerial bombings
Battleships
Families
Japanese
Lincoln, Abraham
Paintings
Doves
Radios
Attacked Pearl Harber (Attacked Pearl Harbor (Hawaii))
ca. 1947 92.97.74
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Attacked Pearl Harber [sic] Hawaii. Written on back: Attacked Pearl Harbor/22"
x 18"
Description
Stretched and framed. Family reacting to news of Pearl Harbor attack. Older man, with back to the viewer, sits at table bent
over a newspaper reading about the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. He wears a brown jacket and glasses and has his left hand
on the back of his head. A woman in green with white collar faces him across the red/white checked tablecloth. In the background
a younger man sits at a desk next to a lamp before a window, with his back to the viewer, and listens to the radio with his
left hand on the back of his head. He wears a white sweater with two purple stripes at the biceps.
Historical Note
"I...turned on the radio and heard them say, 'A Jap bomber squadron has bombed Pearl Harbor; there are many casualties, and
many American battleships have been destroyed....What was going to become of us Japanese? What were we to do?" (From Henry
Sugimoto's diaries.)
When the United States entered World War II, the lives of many Japanese Americans were torn apart. Sugimoto's work after 1941
shows a dramatic transition from landscapes and still-life paintings to powerful narratives focusing on this experience.
Subject
Pearl Harbor
Japanese
Japanese Americans
Aerial bombings
My Papa
ca. 1942 92.97.139
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back, top left: My Papa, Jerome Camp, by Henry Sugimoto
Description
A man is taken away from the family farm by an FBI agent as his young family watches. Backs to the viewer, a man in yellow
shirt and blue overalls carries a brown suitcase in left hand and brown hat in other as he is led away by the arm to a waiting
car by a tall man in a dark suit and hat at left. Behind them in midground, a young girl in a cream-colored dress follows
with outstretched arms. A small black and brown dog walks at her side. In right foreground, a woman in a white bonnet and
white polka-dotted blue dress hangs her head as the child she holds cradles her face. A branch and a shovel blade are visible
in left foreground. In right background, a white horse stands with head down harnessed to a plow in front of a fence and other
farm buildings, including a water tank and windmill. A black car stands in left background. Sky is dark and gloomy. Stretched
and framed.
Historical Note
"The Japanese-language newspaper reported daily that Japanese who lived all over [the West Coast] were being taken by the
FBI." (From Henry Sugimoto's diaries.)
Subject
FBI
Men
Horses
Dogs
Plows
Farms
Windmills
Water towers
Forced exclusion
My Papa II
ca. 1943 92.97.91
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Ark. Written on back: My Papa II/22"x18 1/2"
Description
Stretched and framed. Very similar to 92.97.139, on which it is based. A man is taken away from the family farm by an FBI
agent as his young family watches. Backs to the viewer, a bearded man in blue shirt and overalls carries a black suitcase
in left hand and black hat in other as he is led away by the arm to a waiting car by a tall man in a brown suit and hat at
left. He looks over his right shoulder at a young girl in a green dress with white trim who follows with outstretched arms.
A white dog walks at her side. In right foreground, a woman in a white bonnet and greyish blue dress holds a child in yellow.
Part of a fence is visible in left foreground. In right background, a white horse stands with head down harnessed to a plow.
Black cactus appear in the bare field. A fence and other farm buildings, including a water tank and windmill stand in the
distance, right, while a black car waits next to a mailbox in left background. Sky is dark and gloomy.
Subject
FBI
Men
Horses
Dogs
Plows
Farms
Windmills
Water towers
Forced exclusion
Goodbye Mary
1942 92.97.28
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left: Henry Sugimoto 1942. Goodbye Mary. Written on back, top center: bye-bye Mary
Description
A woman in blue dress and hat, holding baby and purse in left arm, suitcase in other hand, looks over her right shoulder back
at Caucasian woman and girl waving goodbye in upper left corner. Walking next to her, at left front, a young girl in red dress
with left hand on suitcase, waves with right hand and looking over left shoulder. The woman in the background wears a green
dress and waves with her left hand while holding a dog on a leash with her right hand. A young blonde girl stands next to
her on the right wearing a light blue dress, also waving goodbye. In background are what appear to be farmhouses, trees and
a windmill. Mounted on masonite and unframed.
Subject
Concentration camps
Women
Children
Girls
Dogs
Japanese Americans
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Caucasian race
Take Fresh Air ? (Fresh Air Break on the Trip from Fresno to Jerome)
1957 92.97.55
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Take Fresh Air, 32 x 23 1/2 ; bottom right
(In Japanese): On the way from Fresno Assembly Center? On the train to Jerome Relocation Center. Break (30 minutes) in a place
with no houses.
Description
Stretched and framed. In the foreground and left side, four soldiers with rifles and MP armbands look over a barbed wire fence
at the large number of men, women and children who are walking, talking and playing in the main body of the painting. The
MP to the left holds his left palm outward to the people in a motion to stop. In the background left, an engineer sits in
the cab of a locomotive, followed by a coal tender and a passenger car with the words, "Santa Fe," where an old woman stands
in the doorway at far right.
Subject
Concentration camps
Railroads
Trains
Soldiers
People
Children
Exercise
Firearms
Japanese Americans
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Untitled
1942 92.97.69
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and unframed. A woman seated on a chest cradles an infant in her left arm as she bottle feeds it, while she awaits
evacuation. She is dressed in a green dress and brown jacket. The infant is in white. In the foreground, her little daughter,
dressed in yellow with a red jacket, stands on her right shoe with arms upraised to be held. A thermos stands in the lower
right corner. On either side of the chest is a tagged suitcase and white bundle with her hat atop. Behind them to the right,
a woman in tan covers her face with her hands. In the background a soldier stands with his rifle in hand before a greyish
structure.
Historical Note
At the Fresno Assembly Center, Sugimoto had few art supplies, which accounts for his limited palette and predominant use of
brown in paintings from this period. Despite his lack of materials, he experimented with composition, taking inspiration from
the works dominated by imposing figures that he had seen in Mexico. In this painting, for example, a mother and her children
are the central focus, while in the background a soldier provides a reminder of the circumstances of evacuation.
Subject
Concentration camps
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Japanese Americans
Women
Children
Soldiers
One Dollar for Nice Icebox, When the [he] Came Out (One Dollar for Nice Icebox, When War Broke Out) Evacuation
ca. 1942 92.97.82
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Evacuation, Henry Sugimoto. Written on back: One Dollar for Nice Icebox/When the Came[?]
Out/23 1/2" x 19 1/2"
Description
On left, wagon with "junk" painted on side with a hand holding a dollar bill appearing from its wheel. On the right is a white
GE icebox. In the background, a blue sofa. Stretched and framed.
Subject
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Hands
Dollar
Refrigerators
Documentary, Junkshop Man Took Away Our Icebox
ca. 1942 92.97.89
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Documentary / Junkshop Man Took Away / Our
Icebox / by Henry Sugimoto ; Right center: 32 1/4 x 23 1/2. Label on frame back, upper right edge: Artist Henry Sugimoto /
Title-Am I American citizen / Size
Description
A Caucasian man carries an icebox away on his back as a Japanese mother and daughter express their frustration as they watch.
In the lower left, a woman, dressed in blue with a white apron, raises her fists above her shoulders and wears a deep frown.
A young girl in a white-trimmed red dress stands before the woman wiping her eyes with her right hand and pointing at the
man with her left. To the right, a small black dog wearing a red collar barks at the man. In the center foreground, a bearded
man bends under the weight of a white icebox he carries in a tan sling on his back as he walks to the street on the right.
He is dressed in blue rolled shirtsleeves, dark pants, grey belt and black cap. His lower face is obscured by his hands which
grip the sling at his chin. They stand on the front lawn of a tan-trimmed grey house with a lime-green mailbox visible in
the background. "NO JAPS WANTED" is painted in white under the front window. The street on the right recedes into th!
e background past a white picketed house with a brown roof at top right. A blue truck is parked at the curb with an icebox,
potted bonsai and a green object with a circular pattern in the truck bed. "L.A. Junk Shop" is printed on the tailgate. Stretched
and framed.
Subject
Concentration camps
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Girls
Women
Dogs
Men
Refrigerators
Bonsai
Trucks
Caucasian race
Junk trade
Documentary, Going to Shower Room in Fresno Assembly Camp
1942 92.97.86
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Assembly Centers, Fresno
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Documentary, 32 x 23, Going to Shower Room
in Fresno Assembly Camp, by Henry Sugimoto, July 1942
Description
On left, a woman wearing a blue robe carries soap, towel and a bottle in a bowl in her right hand and holds the hand of a
red-robed little girl in her left as they walk towards a shower room. Her hair tied back, the woman looks down over her right
shoulder at the little girl who holds a little cup in her left hand. Both have robes tied with bows in front and wear color
coordinated geta. Directly behind them on the right stand three giant sunflowers and in the distance barracks are visible.
Stretched and unframed.
Historical Note
Sugimoto feared that his paintings of camp life would arouse suspicion. In a 1982 interview (published in "Beyond Words: Images
from America's Concentration Camps") he recalled, "First time, I was scared. Maybe the FBI is [looking] at me painting, and
I will be taken away."
Subject
Assembly Centers, Fresno
California
Sunflowers
Women
Girls
Bathing
Bathrobes
Fresno Assembly Camp (Fresno Assembly Camp-Peaches)
1942 92.97.67
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Assembly Centers, Fresno
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Fresno Assembly Camp, 1942. Written on back: Fresno Assembly Camp/16"
x 13"
Description
Still life of dish with three peaches on wooden folding table or stool. Dish sits on top of "Fresno Grapevine" newspaper;
pink coupon book in foreground; white ID tag for Sugimoto, "Sugimoto, S., No. 24907, Fresno Assembly Center," next to dish
on right. Stretched and framed.
Historical Note
An apparently simple still life tells a complex story. An innocuous plate of peaches sits beside several other objects: a
copy of the Fresno Grapevine (a newspaper produced by Japanese Americans in the camp); the government-issued tag that identified
the Sugimotos by their assigned number, 24907; and a ration booklet that could be used to purchase items at the camp cooperative.
Subject
Assembly Centers, Fresno
Fresno Assembly Center (Fresno, Calif.)
California
Still lifes
Tags
Peaches
Fresno Grapevine
Newspapers
Documentary, In Winter of Jerome Camp (Our Winter in Jerome Camp)
ca. 1943 92.97.90
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome, 1943. Written on back, top center: Documentary, In Winter of Jerome
Camp, 32 1/2 x 23 1/2, by Henry Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and framed. Wood frame with gold streaks showing through. Family of three pushes a wheelbarrow full of wood to be
used to warm their barracks. In the foreground, a girl in red sailor top, short black pleated skirt and white boots walks
along leftside of wheelbarrow with her back to the viewer, holding the left handle in her right hand and pointing in front
of it at an obstruction with the other. At right, man in green cap and jacket with brown pants and boots grips handles and
pushes wheelbarrow stacked with logs forward toward the left. On the opposite side of the wheelbarrow from the girl, a woman
in blue and yellow wearing a kerchief over her hair pulls the wheelbarrow along. In the background barracks with smoke from
chimneys are visible. Sky is dark.
Historical Note
While most of the other camps relied on coal for heat, Jerome inmates chopped and gathered wood from the surrounding area
to help warm their barracks.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Winter
Wheelbarrows
Henry Sketching Camp Jerome
ca. 1943 92.97.32
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, left corner: "Henry is Sketching" / Camp Jerome
Description
Stretched and unframed. In the lower left foreground, seated in the grass with his back to the viewer, Henry Sugimoto works
on a canvas set on an easel. He is dressed in brown pants, white shirt and greyish hat. In the midground are three trees and
green shrubbery with some red foliage. In the middleground, four barn-shaped warehouses stand to the left, next to three barracks
with a smokestack at the far right.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Sugimoto, Henry
Barracks
Buildings
Self-portraits
Warehouses
Jerome Camp
1943 92.97.65
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Painted at Jerome Camp, 1943. Written on back, top left corner: Jerome Camp, 21 1/2"
x 18"
Description
Stretched and framed. Large pond or swamp with wooden planks and debris in foreground. Tall grasses stand in the midground.
Rows of barracks separated by a road stand in the distance.
Historical Note
"Staying in the camp, I had no chance of contact with the outside...Sometimes I went into the wooded area within the confines
of the camp. I created imaginary landscapes of Arkansas, beautiful autumn scenes...[of the] surrounding [area], as much as
I could see from the camp." (From a 1968 interview with Henry Sugimoto by Boris Musich)
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Swamps
Family in Camp Room (Family in Jerome Camp)
ca. 1942 92.97.88
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: Henry Sugimoto. Written on back: 30 1/2" x 24"/Family in Camp Room
Description
Family of four in a room with an old-style woodburning stove. A boy in red writes on a sheet of paper while a girl in green
reads a book as they sit facing the viewer at table in the foreground right. At left, a woman sits on a stool facing the stove
with her back to the viewer. She is dressed in a green jacket and brown skirt. On the other side of the stove, behind the
children, a man with a mustache reads the newspsper. A steaming kettle sits on the black stove. Behind the man, on the right,
is a small American flag, an alarm clock, a photograph and a vase with red flowers sitting on a mantel. In the background
left, a broom leans against the wall, bristles upward. Stretched and framed.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Families
Studying
Children
Parents
Concentration camp life
Documentary, "Our Washroom, Jerome Camp"
1942 92.97.47
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Jerome Camp 1942 ; upper right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Documentary,
Our Wash Room, Jerome Camp, by Henry Sugimoto, 1942 ; left center: 32" x 23"
Description
Women and man doing laundry at four segmented communal sinks. At one sink, a child takes a bath, facing the viewer, next to
a woman wearing a blue polka dotted blouse with tan apron who is doing laundry with her back to the viewer. A girl in green
bends over washing her hair in the segment opposite. An old man in undershirt wrings clothes in the sink to the right. A woman
scrubs on a washboard in the sink behind him. The fourth sink with sign, "Food Utensial [sic] Only," is empty in upper left.
In left foreground, washboard, baskets and children's slippers. A woman and child enter the washroom through a door in rear.
Stretched and framed.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Laundry
Washboards
Men
Women
Children
Nisei Babies in Concentration Camp
ca. 1943 92.97.130
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed, front, BLC: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: Nisei Babies in (babwired camp) [crossed out]/Concetration [sic] Camp/22
1/2" x 18"
Description
Stretched and framed. Five faceless black haired babies in diapers on white sheet; one stands, holding up small American flag
in right hand; one seated behind him salutes. A soldier in tan uniform and black MP arm band carries a rifle with bayonet
in left foreground. A barbed-wire fence separates him from and surrounds the babies. A guard tower stands next to a bare tree
in right background under a dark sky.
Subject
Concentration camps
Infants
Soldiers
Barbed wire
Fences
Susie Ironing Camp Room
ca. 1943 92.97.84
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Sugimoto. Written on back: Susie Ironing Camp Room/21 1/2" x 18"
Description
A woman, Susie Sugimoto, irons a red piece of material with a flatiron in right foreground, while her husband, Henry Sugimoto,
watches her over his right shoulder with a paintbrush poised in his left hand above a canvas in the background left. Susie's
hair is pulled back and she wears a white apron over a blue spotted yellow dress. Sugimoto is dressed in blue and is seated
on a crate. Stretched and framed.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Sugimoto, Susie Tagawa
Sugimoto, Henry
Women
Men
Painting (image-making)
Irons (Pressing)
Laundry
Painters (artists)
Self-portraits
Documentary, Our Mess Hall
1942 92.97.56
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H Sugimoto. Written on back: by Henry Sugimoto 1942
Description
Stretched and framed. A group of eight people eat fish and rice at a table. In the foreground, with their backs to the viewer,
a woman in rust red with white pattern feeds her child dressed in blue in the lower left ; seated next to them a man in blue
overalls shovels rice with his chopsticks and arms upraised ; a boy in black and white stripes eats in lower right. Seated
across the table in the upper left, facing the viewer, an old woman with brown sweater and blue scarf eats next to a boy in
green who refuses food with upraised hands and turning head from his mother dressed in red over yellow in the center ; a girl
in blue with white collar and a red bow in her hair pokes at her food on the upper right. White plates of fish and rice sit
on the long wooden table next to white cups. At table center are salt and pepper shakers and two other condiment bottles.
In the background on the wall are two brownish signs with black print, "No Second Serving!" and "Milk for Children !
and Sick people only."
Historical Note
"Of course, it was impossible to be picky about what you wanted to eat. They knew that the Japanese really liked rice, so
rice was always part of the menu at least once a day. However, there were times when the rest of the meal didn't really go
with rice. At times, there would be food that just wasn't appetizing at all, so you had to either try to eat at least one
bite or just go without the meal." (from Henry Sugimoto's diaries)
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Mess halls
Children
Men
Women
Dinners and dining
Food
Rice
Signs
When Can We Go Home?
1943 92.97.3
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Ark. Written on back, top center: 32 1/2" x 23" / "Daughter asking her
mother" / When can we go home
Description
Framed and stretched. Wood frame is painted gold, wood showing through in streaks. A girl in red and white dress and white
boots stands with her back to the viewer extending her arms out and pointing northwest with her left index finger. A woman
in a yellow dress with white collar and white shoes, bends her head, extending her arms to embrace the girl. In the foreground,
a rattlesnake, left, and an axe resting against a log with a squirrel sitting on top, right. Above the snake is an image of
the Golden Gate Bridge and above it at the top left is the Los Angeles City Hall. To the right is an image of trees, watch
tower, and a mess hall with sign inscribed Mess 2. Below it is one large sunflower. A transparent lightning bolt segments
the image from bottom left corner to center right edge up toward the upper left corner.
Historical Note
This painting represents a surprising departure from Sugimoto's usual style and suggests the influence of cubism as well as
Mexican murals. The dramatic lightning bolt fractures the painting. The architectural symbols of California, at left, represent
Sugimoto's life before World War II. The guard tower and camp mess hall to the right, along with the log, axe, snake, and
sunflower below, were common sights in camp and represent the new life Sugimoto was living there. At the center of the painting
stand a woman and child, inspired by Sugimoto's wife and daughter, Madeleine. The title is a question posed by Madeleine to
her parents when they were first confined to Fresno Assembly Center. Later, Sugimoto retitled this composition Longing, after
a work that the poet John Gould Fletcher wrote in response to it.
Subject
Concentration camps
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Rattlesnakes
Mothers
Daughters
Women
Children
Squirrels
Sunflowers
Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.)
Buildings
Lightning
Axes
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Japanese Americans
At Fresno Assembly Camp Sumile was 6 Yrs Old [Sumile in Fresno Assembly Camp]
1942 92.97.68
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Assembly Centers, Fresno
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto/At Fresno Assembly Camp 1942 Sumile was 6 Yrs Old
Description
Portrait of Sugimoto's daughter, Madeleine Sumile, as a young girl with white ID tag, "Name Sugimoto, H., No. 24907" fastened
to her blue-trimmed dress with a safety pin. Sumile wears a red bow in her hair and looks off to the left of the viewer. Stretched
and framed.
Historical Note
In contrast to documentary words with generalized figures, some of Sugimoto's paintings from this period are skillfully executed
likenesses, rich in emotional content.
Subject
Assembly Centers, Fresno
California
Sugimoto, Madeleine
Japanese Americans
Portraits
Tags
Girls
Susie in Camp Jerome
1942 92.97.132
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Fresno, Calif.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto/1942/Fresno Assembly Camp. Written on back: Susie in Camp Jerome
Description
Portrait of Sugimoto's wife, Susie, in Jerome Camp, Arkansas. A Japanese woman in white button down blouse and red headscarf
gazes off to the left of viewer. In the background a black frame sits on a shelf midground right, while a suitcase sits on
shelf top. Stretched and framed.
Subject
Portraits
Assembly Centers, Fresno
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Sugimoto, Susie Tagawa
Mother in Jerome Camp
1943 92.97.7
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and framed. Portrait of Sugimoto's mother wearing a collared shirt under a blue button-down v-neck sweater seated
on a dark red seat next to a midnight blue pillow with red trim that reads, " 7th DIVISION." She gazes off to the right of
the viewer. A framed picture of a soldier stands on a shelf in the background to the right. In background left is an image
of an American flag over a star and a large "V".
Historical Note
In this painting Sugimoto's mother appears to be weary and aged, though she was only in her sixties at the time. The fact
that she is in camp certainly accounts for the somber mood of the image. The background details of the work explain the circumstances
of the painting: all the items relate directly to Sugimoto's younger brother, Ralph, who volunteered for the U.S. Army in
late 1943. He became a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all-nisei unit that fought valiantly in the war. Ralph's
enlistment naturally had a tremendous impact on the entire family, in particular Sugimoto's mother. Painted in 1943, "Mother
in Jerome Camp" is a prime example of Sugimoto's increased range and complexity, in terms of both subject matter and style,
during this period.
Subject
Women
Chairs
United States Army
Soldiers
Mothers
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Japanese Americans
A Life Transformed 1941-1945
Description
Here we see more works made during the years Sugimoto spent in the Jerome and Rohwer concentration camps in Arkansas. Many
young Japanese American men left camp--and their families--behind after enlisting in the Army. The departure of these soldiers
and the war they were helping to win are a frequent subject of Sugimoto's work from the camp years. These images also communicate
much of the doubt and uncertainty about the future that went hand in hand with camp life.
Scope and Content
18 paintings by Henry Sugimoto.
Self Portrait in Camp
1943 92.97.5
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
United States
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Description
Stretched and framed. Portrait of Sugimoto, the artist, surrounded by his paintings. Dressed in a white short-sleeve, collared
shirt with a pink item in left pocket and wearing a black beret, Sugimoto looks directly at viewer over his left shoulder.
He holds a palette with a palette cup in his right hand, facing a canvas with his signature, "H. Sugimoto." A framed still
life and landscape hang in the background. Another painting sits in the back.
Subject
Concentration camps
Men
Berets
Sugimoto, Henry
Self-portraits
Sumile and Sleeping Doll in Camp
1943 92.97.11
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left corner: H. Sugimoto, 1943, Sumile & Sleeping Doll in Camp. Written on back, top center: Girl
with doll, Jerome Camp
Description
Stretched on masonite and unframed. Portrait of Sugimoto's daughter, Madeleine Sumile, a young girl in yellow dress with white
collar, holding a sleeping baby doll in blue. Part of a Jerome Camp pennant is visible in the upper left background against
a brown wall with cross-hatching.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Girls
Talent Show at Jerome Camp (Small Girl is Singing)
1942 92.97.72
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left: H. Sugimoto, Talent Show, 1943, Jerome Camp. Written on back, top center: Talent Show at Jerome
Camp / "Small Girl is Singing" / 1942
Description
Unstretched and unframed. A small chubby girl in a yellow dress with white collar and shoes sings into a microphone held in
front of her by a hand from the right bottom corner. The tops of two heads appear in the foreground. A music stand with sheet
music stands directly behind the girl on the left.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Going to School in Rainy Day in the Camp
c. 1943 92.97.81
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: "Going to School in a Rainy Day in the Camp"
/ 21 1/2" x 18"
Description
Unstretched and unframed. A little girl in a red cape with hood and white boots walks under a green umbrella in the rain to
school. She carries a brown bag in her right hand. There is brown grass off the path and logs in front of a barracks on the
lower right. A watchtower is visible behind it. Brown trees provide a backdrop under a grey sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Girls
Umbrellas
Rain and rainfall
Girls Making Snowman (Girls Making a Snowman in Jerome Camp)
ca. 1943 92.97.96
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Painted at Jerome Camp, 1943 ; bottom center: Jerome Camp Girls ; bottom right corner:
H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: "Girls Making Snowman" / 24" x 20"
Description
Stretched and framed. Two girls build a snowman in wintry scene of Jerome camp. One girl stands with her hands to her mouth
on the right, while another girl crouches in front of a small snowman with her back to the viewer, gazing up at the other
girl. A snow covered green dustpan lies at her feet. Both girls have cropped hair and are dressed in red tops, blue pants,
black boots and brown gloves. The snowman has a simple face of two eyes, eyebrows, straight mouth, and two nostrils. The porch
and steps of a barracks is visible at left. A snow covered bush stands in the right foreground. Three barracks are visible
in the background with snow laden roofs and smoking chimneys.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Girls
Winter
Snow
Snowmen
Visited New Orlean from Camp Jerome (Trip to New Orlan from Jerome Camp)
1943 92.97.48
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom center: Trip to New Orlan. from Jerome Camp ; bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto, 1943. Written on
back, top center: Visited New Orlean from Camp Jerome / 1943
Description
Unstretched and unframed. A bust of a man's neck and head, wearing a black beret, stands in the center. In the foreground,
is a book and a red flower with three green leaves and a yellow stamen. In the background, a painting of a street scene on
the right with palm fronds sticking out behind it; an iron fence and a lampost on the left.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
New Orleans (La.)
Berets
Busts
Street lighting
Flowers
Paintings
Easter in Camp Jerome
ca. 1942 92.97.66
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left corner, title in blue ink: H. Sugimoto, Easter in Camp Jerome. Written on back, left center:
Easter in Jerome Camp
Description
Oil on canvas mounted on masonite. Still life of purple, red and white striped basket of easter eggs (red, blue, yellow) sitting
on top paper, "Arkansas," on a wooden table. A Bible sits to the right of the basket and a blue egg to the left. White easter
lilies peek out behind the wooden table, background left. Background right, a view of the barracks and watchtower.
Historical Note
Sugimoto was baptized in the 1920s and sustained a deep faith for the rest of his life. He wrote, "Dislocation, moving from
one place to another, was indeed depressing and trying...this condition could be persevered by looking up and knowing that
Christ had His heavy cross to bear." (Henry Sugimoto, ca. 1981, from personal papers archived at the Japanese American National
Museum)
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Easter
Easter eggs
Bible
Easter lily
Barracks
Thinking About Christ
ca. 1943 92.97.83
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back of canvas: Thinking About Christ/22" x 18"
Description
On left, Jesus Christ bears cross on left shoulder as he passes behind a Japanese American man who bends under the weight
of a block of dark images of camp, a watchtower and a mess hall, on right. Christ is in white-blue with a halo. The other
man is in white short sleeves. In the foreground, a stalk of wheat apears in lower left corner, while a translucent open book
floats between Christ and the man in the center. In the background, three white crosses stand on a hill, visible through Christ's
cross. Stretched and framed.
Subject
Christianity
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Jesus Christ
Holy Cross
Men
Japanese Americans
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Reverend Yamazaki Was Beaten in Camp Jerome
1943 92.97.6
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome 1942. Bottom left: "When I received the blow I felt/as my own child
hitting me/for they were of my own kind/each blow reminded me of God's will/who taught me of our own lack of suffering."
Description
Stretched and framed. Gold frame, on stretcher. To the right, one man, dressed in tan pants, blue shirt, dark blue socks and
grey shoes, holds another man, Reverend John Yamasaki, from behind, locking his arms under the Reverend's arms about the shoulders
and behind the neck, while another man, on the left, in tan shirt, dark blue pants, striped socks and brown shoes, kicks and
punches Yamazaki. He holds a stick in his left hand. The Reverend, dressed in black with white collar and dark brown shoes,
has blood on his face and down the front of this clothes, spattering the ground. His jacket is torn. His black hat and eyeglasses
lie on the ground to his right. A book with the words "Holy Bible" lies near his feet in the lower right foreground. Above
it, there are five lines of Japanese writing. Five lines of poetry in English appears at the bottom foreground (see inscription
field). A mess hall and a barracks are in the background.
Historical Note
In 1943 the government mandated the registration of all camp inmates through a questionnaire. The registration served two
purposes: to identify those "loyal" to the United States, and to recruit male nisei for service in the military. Some questioned
how the government could ask nisei to fight, while denying their civil rights. In addition, Issei, legally barred from becoming
naturalized United States citizens, were asked to foreswear allegiance to Japan. Tension mounted as the community wrestled
with the question of what constitutes loyalty, At Jerome, this erupted in an attack on Reverend John Yamazaki who translated
government documents into Japanese for the non-English speaking population. In the eyes of some, he appeared to be colluding
with the government. Sugimoto wrote, "While I did not witness this beating, I read about it in the [camp] newspaper...which
also printed the waka [poem] that Reverend Yamazaki composed as a response to the beating. I began to envision the beating
as the subject of a documentary painting. When I moved from camp to New York City...I added [the poem to an] empty part of
the canvas."
Subject
Men
Bible
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Violence
Assault and battery
Clergy
Blood
Eyeglasses
Japanese Americans
Poetry
Christianity
Loyalty oaths
United States
Goodbye My Son
c1942 92.97.46
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top left corner: "Goodbye My Son"; top left: 32 1/2"
x 26"
Description
Stretched and unframed. Image of soldier saying goodbye to parents at Block 23, Mess Hall. Elderly mother in brown dress and
white apron hugs her son in uniform as the father dressed in blue puts his arms around them and grasps son's hand. Son looks
directly at viewer. "Block 23" sign appears in left lower corner. In the background, a woman carries a basket of laundry in
front of barracks on the left; at right a soldier stands at back of pink truck marked "WRA" saying goodbye to parents standing
on ground. Behind stands a mess hall. In the distance a watchtower with a soldier rises above the buildings.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Soldiers
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Block 23
Barracks
Mess halls
Men
Women
Parents
Sons
Japanese Americans
War Relocation Authority
Farewells
Send Off Husband at Jerome Camp
1943 92.97.1
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, 1943. Written on back: Documentary/"Send Off Husband" at Jerome Camp/by
Henry Sugimoto/1942
Description
Image of Nisei soldier in brown uniform and garrison cap looking over right shoulder bidding his family farewell as he leaves
camp with one black bag to join the war. In left foreground, a young girl in a greenish blue dress waves an American flag;
lower center, a woman in a purple and white polka-dotted dress holding baby dressed in yellow, while waving a white handkerchief;
lower right is camp guard with a pallid face, bars the family from leaving and is armed with a bayonet attached to rifle.
Red on white stop sign at center blocks their way, barbed wire fences along left and right, and guard tower on background.
Framed and stretched. Gold frame, hanging wire and screws attached to back of stretcher.
Subject
Soldiers
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Children
Women
Barbed wire
Men
Infants
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Japanese Americans
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Bye Bye Daddy
ca. 1942-1945 92.97.131
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Arkansas
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Ark. Written on back, top center: Bye-Bye Daddy, 22" x 18"
Description
Stretched and framed, gold leaf frame. Image of Nisei soldier in brown uniform and service cap looking over left shoulder
bidding his family farewell as he leaves camp with one brown bag to join the war. In left foreground a young girl in a brownish
white top waves her right hand; right, a woman in greyish white dress holds a baby dressed in white, while waving with her
right hand. The baby waves an small American flag with its right hand. A guard house is partially visible on right with letters,
"GAR." A red lettered stop sign and a soldier armed with a bayonet bars the family from leaving. Barbed wire fences line the
path receding into distance. A guard tower stands center background.
Subject
Concentration camps
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Soldiers
Bayonets
Families
American flag
Watchtowers
Farewells
Signs
Nisei
Fathers
Old Parents Thinking about Their Son on the Battlefield
1943 92.97.4
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: Old parents are thinking their son/in the battlefield
Description
Stretched and framed. On the left, an elderly man in tan shirt and pants wearing geta (a traditional Japanese wooden clog
that is worn outdoors) is seated on the front steps of barracks with his head on his left hand while an elderly woman dressed
in grey leaning on cane holding a bucket in left hand stands to the right. The face of a young man in army uniform is painted
between them. In the barracks window is an image of an American flag over a star and a large "V". In the background, the mess
hall and other barracks are visible.
Historical Note
"One of the nisei soldiers who willingly enlisted under the draft law came back to say goodbye to his parents in the camp.
There was so much to learn from his words in answer to his friends' questions--he said he knew too well that U.S. policy towards
Japanese Americans was unreasonable, but he cannot be angry. It is the time to sacrifice and serve...with the hope that risking
life may become the driving power to shatter ignorance." (Henry Sugimoto, draft of redress testimony given in 1981)
Subject
Barracks
Soldiers
Concentration camps
Parents
Sons
Japanese Americans
Thought and thinking
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Uncle Ralph and Sumile in Camp Jerome
ca. 1943 92.97.79
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: "Uncle Ralph and Sumile" / in Camp Jerome / 23 1/2"
x 19 1/2"
Description
A young soldier, Sugimoto's younger brother Ralph, stands on the right, next to a little girl, Sugimoto's daughter Madeleine
Sumile. Sumile wears a red jacket over blue and white dress and a red, white and blue bow in hair. Both have eyes downcast.
Behind then are leafless trees and in the distance barracks are visible. Stretched and unframed.
Historical Note
"My younger brother Ralph went into the U.S. Army. He fought on the European battlefield as one of the 442nd battalion. He
was injured and received a Purple Heart...These nisei soldiers in the 442nd fought for their native land and also for the
future welfare of all Japanese in this country." (Henry Sugimoto, draft of redress testimony given in 1981)
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Soldiers
Girls
Japanese Americans
Sugimoto, Madeleine
Sugimoto, Ralph
In Camp Jerome
1943 92.97.9
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: Henry Sugimoto. Written on back: [Japanese characters] in camp Jerome/24"x19 1/2"
Description
Image of a Nisei soldier standing in salute in front of a cross looking down at a woman dressed in dark blue in the foreground
who holds up a senninbari. Rows of small white crosses on green grass fill lower left and right background. In the upper right
background is the image of an American flag over a red star above a large "V". (Very similar to the painting entitled "Senninbari,"
also by Sugimoto (92.97.140).)
Historical Note
Issei mothers prepared their sons for war by creating a senninbari, a protective talisman made of cloth. An image is sewn
onto the fabric, with a thousand stitches done by many women throughout the camp. Sugimoto's sympathy for both nisei soldiers
and their issei parents is evident in this work.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Japanese Americans
Soldiers
Mothers
Sons
Crosses
Death
Duty
Senninbari
Praying for Safety
ca. 1942 92.97.44
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: Praying for Safety/29 1/2" x 23"
Description
An elderly couple sit on wooden crates facing each other with heads bowed. On the left, the woman is dressed in a red top
and grey skirt with black purse in lap and umbrella leaning on her right. The white-haired man, on the right, wears brown
pants and a blue button-down sweater over a white shirt with a red tie. He holds a brown hat in his hands. A suitcase with
tag stands on his left in foreground. In the background, view of a mess hall with smoking chimney and tops of barracks.
Historical Note
"Would you join me in a silent prayer for the loving memory of those young nisei soldiers who died on the battlefield, and
also for those immigrant issei who died here in the U.S., who worked so hard to raise children under such painful actions
against them?" (Henry Sugimoto, draft of redress testimony given in 1981)
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Arkansas
Mess halls
Barracks
Women
Men
Aged
Tags
Suitcases
Crates
Prayer
Died in Battlefield
ca. 1943 92.97.95
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, left center: "Died in Battlefield" / 32" x 26"
Description
Stretched and framed. Wooden frame with gold streaks showing through. Image of a U.S. Amy officer presenting a folded American
flag for a soldier killed in action to deceased's wife or mother who is interned in a concentration camp in the United States.
At left, a Caucasian man in tan uniform and white gloves bends down to present folded triangle flag of white stars on blue
field to woman in white-trimmed black dress with hat seated on wooden seat at right. A little boy dressed in black and yellow
striped shirt and tan shorts stands between them. All eyes are focused on the flag. A translucent bubble with an image of
the deceased soldier in uniform saluting floats above the woman and boy. In the background behind them, an American flag flies
in front of a mess hall next to a garden of giant sunflowers. An old man bent with age walks with a cane on a path between
a barracks on left and the mess hall on right toward the viewer. In the distance a watchtower with a soldier on!
duty is visible above the barracks under a golden blue sky.
Subject
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Concentration camps
Soldiers
Women
Boys
World War, 1939-1945
Casualties
Saluting
Aged persons
Freedom Day Came
ca. 1945 92.97.73
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: "Freedome [sic] Day Came"/ 24" x 20"
Description
Stretched and framed. A man leans on a table with his chin in his hands looking at a yellow-brown bird sitting in its cage
which has its door open. A paper with the title "Exclusion lifted" sits on the table between the man's arms. A map of the
United States with the word, "California," appears on the background and covers the table.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Maps
California
Men
Birds
Birdcages
Japanese Americans
Liberty
Re-Envisioning History 1945-1990
Description
This series includes examples of Sugimoto's work from the 1960s, '70s, and '80's. Many pieces revisit the themes he began
to explore in camp, and the history of Japanese immigration and the Japanese American experience have their place in these
works as well.
Scope and Content
22 paintings by Henry Sugimoto.
Bombing of Relatives Homeland, 1945
ca. 1965 92.97.8
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium: H. Sugimoto, Rohwer Camp, Ark.
Decription
Stretched and unframed. People in camp react to a flyer about the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In foreground,
man in blue short-sleeve shirt and black cap with his hand on his head, reads, "Rohwer Camp Bulletin, U.S. dropped Atomic
Bomb on Hiroshima." In left foreground two men in tan hats discuss bombing. Man in blue overalls, holding shovel in right
hand and holding pipe to mouth with left hand listens to other man dressed in tan shirt and brown pants holding a paper in
right hand and pointing with left to right background where a vision of an Atomic bomb mushroom cloud rises as a small plane
flies away. In the midground three women with a child discuss the paper next to a garden where a man hoes. Behind them, two
men discuss the bombing as a woman and child pass by and a woman hangs laundry in front of the barracks. In the background
an American flag flies in front of a mess hall. A watchtower with a soldier on duty is visible in the distance.
Historical Note
The date 1945 written on the canvas indicates the year of the activity, not the year it was painted. From Sugimoto's writings
we know he was already in New York City at the time of the actual bombing; in addition, the work stylistically resembles later
works. This work has been tentatively dated to 1965.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
World War, 1939-1945
Japan
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)
Bombardment, 1945
Japanese Americans
Gardens
Atomic bomb
Senninbari (Thousand Stitches)
ca. 1942 92.97.140
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: "Thousand Stitches" / by Henry Sugimoto ; Upper right
(In Japanese): Senninbari / 1982 / HS, NY
Description
Stretched and framed. Image of a ghostly outline of Nisei soldier standing in salute as he looks down at a woman holding up
a senninbari with a thousand stitches (scarf of remembrance). She in maroon top and black skirt stands in front of a barbed
wire fence with sign, "Block 2," in the foreground. The white scarf has a tiger's face and Japanese characters among the stiches.
A rattlesnake is coiled on the other side of the fence, lower left. Dirt and dry grasses extend past the watch tower with
soldier to the green trees in the background. A grey object lies in the grass next to the tower. Above trees, white crosses
with one American flag appear on a field of blue at center, with red gold sky to either side. (Very similar to the painting
entitled "In Camp Jerome", also by Sugimoto 92.97.9.)
Historical Note
In the years following World War II, Sugimoto revisited the subjects he had depicted during his years in the concentration
camps. Often starting from compositions he created during the war, he translated many works onto larger canvases and inserted
new details. Issei mothers prepared their sons for war by creating a senninbari, a protective talisman made of cloth. An
image is sewn onto the fabric with a thousand stiches done by many women throughout the camp. Sugimoto's sympathy for both
Nisei soldiers and their Issei parents is evident in this work.
Subject
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Concentration camps
Japanese Americans
Soldiers
Mothers
Sons
Crosses
Death
Duty
Senninbari
Watchtowers
Rattlesnakes
Ghosts
Making Our Mattress
ca. 1975 92.97.2
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: Henry Sugimoto
Description
Framed and stretched. Wood frame is painted gold, wood showing through in streaks. Image of families stuffing their mattresses
with hay. In the foreground, before a large pile of hay on the left, a man in denim overalls, blue shirt, red handkerchief
in back pocket, straw hat, with his back to the viewer, and a woman in green and blue dress, white apron, and straw hat stuff
a mattress with the help of a boy in blue shorts and black and grey striped shirt. Behind them, to the right, a woman dressed
in a blue and white dress, with white scarf and a boy in brown shorts and black and white striped shirt stuff a mattress.
Behind the haystack a man in blue jeans, light blue shirt walks away with a stuffed mattress over his right shoulder, as a
woman in blue and white dress with a yellow scarf approaches the hay from the right carrying a mattress and holding the hand
of a young girl in a yellow and white dress. Further back, walking out of the image on the left, a man in blue jeans, light
blue shirt, and straw hat, woman in light blue and white dress carry a mattress between them. In the background stand two
barracks in front of a barbed wire fence and trees.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Men
Women
Children
Hay
Mattresses
Barracks
No Second Service
c. 1970 92.97.113
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back, top center: Moret Cathedral [crossed out]
Description
Stretched and unframed A group of eight people eat fish and rice at a table. In the foreground, with their backs to the viewer,
a woman in brown with white collar watches her child dressed in red feed itself in the lower left ; seated next to them a
man in blue shirt and overalls shovels rice with his chopsticks and arms upraised ; a boy in black and green stripes eats
in lower right. Seated across the table in the upper left, facing the viewer, an old woman with blue sweater and white collar
eats next to a child in lime green who refuses food with upraised hands and turning head from its mother dressed in rust in
the center ; a girl in pink with white collar and pink bow in her hair pokes at her food on the upper right. White plates
of fish and rice sit on the long wooden table next to white cups and oranges. At table center are two sets of salt and pepper
shakers and two other condiment bottles. In the background on the wall are two white signs with grey print, "No Second Serving"
and "Milk for Children and Sick people only."
Subject
Concentration camps
Mess halls
Children
Men
Women
Dinners and dining
Food
Rice
Signs
Documentary-Nisei Soldiers Returning the Flag of 442nd to the President
c. 1965 92.97.138
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom center: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Nisei Soldiers Returning the Flag of the 442nd
Regiment to the President
Description
Stretched and framed. U.S. soldiers of Japanese ancestry presenting 442nd Regimental Combat Team flag to President Harry S.
Truman in Washington D.C. A soldier stands in profile at left extending a flag with an eagle displayed, facing left, holding
a banner, " 442nd Regiment Infantry," with five lances in its right claw and a branch in its left claw on a field of blue
bordered by yellow fringe. A taller, older Caucasian man faces the viewer as he grasps the flag staff with both hands. He
is dressed in brown and wears a hat and glasses. Six soldiers stand behind them at attention with bayonets attached to rifles.
All soldiers are dressed in tan uniform, brown boots and tie, and dark grey helmet. In the background the nation's Capitol
is visible in blue under a dusky brown and yellow sky.
Subject
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Truman, Harry S.
Soldiers
Japanese Americans
Flags
Bayonets
Firearms
United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.)
Jerome Camp Documentary
1983 92.97.141
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner (on fence): H. Sugimoto. Written on back (in Japanese): Kono shiren ni taeshinoban [Translation:
We shall endure these trials]
Description
Stretched. Composite of trials endured in camp. Foreground right, a man in blue is bent under the weight of a large tied box
with writing on top, "To Rohwer Relocation Camp," and white tag with family number on his back. A small boy in a black and
white striped shirt walks to his left and points with his right hand to the upper left where a ghostly image of Christ bearing
the Cross is visible against a background of barbed wire fences, trees and dark cloudy skies. Both face away from the viewer.
(Similar to the painting entitled "Thinking about Christ," also by Sugimoto (92.97.83))
In the lower left an elderly couple sits on tied bundles amongst other luggage in front of a barracks. The man, dressed in
tan and brown, bends forward as he holds a hat in his lap, while the woman in a dark blue dress with white trim leans forward
and holds a book in her lap. Between them, her purse and a filled pail sits on a box while umbrella leans against it. (Similar
to Sugimoto's painting entitled "Praying for Safety" (92.97.44))
At midground a soldier in uniform and MP armband stands with rifle and bayonet at at barbed wire fence. To the right, a woman
in a polka dot dress and apron stands at the gap in fence as she carries a child in yellow on her back and waves goodbye to
the soldier leaving camp. A little girl in red waves an American flag next to the post with a sign that reads, "STOP." A man
with a pipe, hat and plaid shirt watches from the right behind the fence.
The Nisei soldier in tan uniform and garrison cap looks over left shoulder!
bidding his family farewell as he leaves camp with one blue bag on a path winding past a watch tower with guard and a large
sign, "Jerome Relocation Center / War Relocation Authority." The path is grey bordered by brown grass. Upper right corner,
vision of a hill with three white crosses against the sky, representing Golgotha - Christ carrying cross toward Golgotha.
(Similar to Sugimoto's painting entitled "Sending off Husband at Jerome Camp" (92.97.1))
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Jesus Christ
Holy Cross
Men
Japanese Americans
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Children
Women
Barbed wire
Aged
Tags
Soldiers
To Find a Job
1950 92.97.107
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, 1927. Written on back: 32"x26"/ To find a job
Description
Focal point of image is a bearded Japanese man wearing hat and dull blue buttoned suit over blue shirt walking on railroad
tracks toward Hanford, right. He holds a tied white rectangular bundle with kanji, "Beikoku yuki" (going to America), by handle
in right hand as he carries a large white bundle strapped across his back; coffee pot, pan, and cup hangs from rope around
bundle. A piece of paper protrudes from one pocket while the other bulges with some object. Behind him, in upper left corner,
a white road sign indicates directions to Laton and Hanford. A short distance away, a fence runs parallel to the tracks. At
midground a white horse grazes on reddish tan ground. In the far distance at right, a religious statue stands before a church.
Trees line the horizon under a dark, overcast sky. Stretched and framed.
Subject
Men
Suits
Luggage
Horses
Churches
Hanford, Calif.
Unemployed
Job hunting
Emigration and immigration
Japanese
Untitled (Coal Miners)
1984 92.97.111
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil and marker on canvas
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, 84
Description
Split imagery of life in coal mine and world above. One man shovels coal, right foreground, while another raises a pickaxe
above coal in wall on left. Behind them one man pushes a coal bin on tracks, right midground, as a man walks with a pickaxe
and bucket in tunnel. All men are dressed in brown pants, black boots, cap and blue vest over tan shirt. A lamp shines light
from above. At top, cloud-like image of trees and coal mill with sign, "Coal Mine," under sunny sky. Stretched and framed,
marker on canvas.
Subject
Coal mines
Coal miners
Coal mining
Picks (tools)
Shovels
Buildings
Trees
Picking Grapes
c. 1970 92.97.133
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom center (on grape carton): H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Picking Grapes
Description
Stretched and framed. Workers picking grapes in grape arbors. A man with his back to the viewer crouches in lower left over
a half filled box as he cuts a bunch of green grapes off the vine. Another vine fills the lower right corner. Right midground,
a man stacks full boxes of grapes, four high, next to three empty boxes. Three other workers are visible in the green arbors
which stretch out to the upper right. The men are dressed in jeans, shirtsleeves and hat. A man in overalls on a horse drawn
cart approaches one of the workers stacking boxes. A farm house with a red barn, water tower and windmill stands in the background
center. More green fields are visible in the distance under a yellow sky.
Subject
Grapes
Harvesting
Farming
Men
Arbors
Barns
Farmhouses
Windmills
Water towers
Working on Farm
ca. 1970 92.97.110
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Written on back: Japanese Immigration History Series / "Working on Farm"
Description
Stretched and framed Japanese laborers working on apricot farm. Right foreground, a man in white shirt, brown pants, and hat
drinks from a canteen, water dribbling down his chin. A crate of apricots and an empty bucket stand next to him. A man dressed
in blue overalls and hat with his back to the viewer pulls apricots down from a tree using a fruit picker onto a cloth spread
on the ground. Midground center, a man empties a bucket of apricots into a crate. Empty crates lie nearby. Behind him to the
right, a man in brown stands on a ladder hand picking apricots, bucket hanging from the ladder. Further back in the orchard
two men load a horse drawn cart with filled apricot crates. Another man carries a ladder toward another tree.
Subject
Farming
Horses
Men
Trees
Railroad Work
ca. 1970 92.97.109
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: Japanese Immigration in America Series-- / "Railroad
Work"
Description
Stretched and framed. Group of men laying railroad tracks. Train tracks run from lower left to midground right. At lower left,
a man in blue overalls stands on the ballast with a pick resting against his stomach as he pauses in his work to drink from
a grey container he lifts over his head. Across from him, in the foreground center with his back to the viewer, a man in blue
overalls raises a hammer to strike a spike. Four men lay crossties under rail at upper part of tracks on ballast. Three of
the four men wear blue overalls, the fourth wears jeans and a brown shirt. A bearded Caucasian man, visible from the shoulders
up, faces the viewer in a white shirt and hat smoking a pipe in the lower right corner. Crossties lie stacked in midground
left next to a man cooking over a fire. He is dressed in jeans, tan shirt, white apron and headband. There are two barrels
next to the campfire, one covered by a board with seven blue cups atop. Three trees and two white tents stand behind him.
A short distance to the right stands a sign, Goshen Junction. In the background, a broad expanse of open land where cattle
graze is broken by a cluster of houses and trees on the right; a windmill; and a train leaving the town going west. A cluster
of trees stands in front of a blue mountain range in the distance.
Historical Note
Goshen is a small town in California, located several miles from Hanford.
Subject
Railroads
Railroad tracks
Railroad construction workers
Railroad ties
Trains
Windmills
Untitled ("No Japs Wanted")
ca. 1965 92.97.122
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and framed. Formerly stapled to paintings 92.97.120-.124. A Japanese family of four stands in front of anti-Japanese
sign, "No Japs Wanted." A bearded man in blue overalls grasps his straw hat to his chest as he gazes upward to the left. Behind
him, a large white sign, "No Japs Wanted/California," with drawings of a skull and a Japanese caricature with captions, "
You get out" and "You rats," stands before a fence and trees in the background. Standing at his side on the right, a little
girl in a green and white dress looks up to the left while holding a blue pail and small rake. In the foreground left, a woman
carrying a small child on her back covers her eyes with her right hand and frowns. She wears a blue dress with white trim
and apron. The child is in green and white. A blue wheelbarrow holding a broom, a shovel and basket with a bundle and bottle
stands at bottom center.
Subject
Propaganda, Anti-Japanese
Japanese
California
Wheelbarrows
Caricatures and cartoons
Picture Bride
c. 1965 92.97.108
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Japanese American Immigration History in America
Series/Picture Bride
Description
Stretched and framed. Image refers to the "picture bride" custom (see Historical Note for Sugimoto's "Stop Picture Bride"
(92.97.121), below). At midground left, an older mustached man in a brown suit and black hat, with his back to the viewer,
holds up a black and white picture of the woman who bows before him. The woman wears a blue kimono and yellow, red obi, geta
and a white bow in her hair. A suitcase and bag sit at her tabi covered feet. A grey suited man sticks his tongue out as he
stands beside them holding a sign, "Charlie's Picture Bride." In the foreground another western dressed older man in suit
and hat walks ahead of a younger woman in a kimono carrying her own luggage as a man leads them. The cobblestone street recedes
back to the left past a large multi-arched building marked "S.F. Ferry" into numerous buildings in the distance left. A tiny
horse drawn carriage approaches on it. The street also slopes right, down to the wharf where many picture brides disembarking
a docked ship, Tenyo Maru, wave photos at the men waiting below who wave their own photos. Other couples and workers walk
up the street toward the viewer. In the background two ships are visible in large body of water under two cloud-like images
floating above. In upper left corner, woman with hand to her head walks along path through rice fields away from Mt. Fuji.
In upper right corner, man in Japanese clothing waves goodbye to well-wishers as he leaves village with torii.
Subject
Emigration and immigration
Japanese
Japan
Mt. Fuji
United States
Husbands
Ships
San Francisco, Calif.
Piers
Photographs
Suits
Kimono
Untitled (Stop Picture Bride)
ca. 1965 92.97.121
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, upper right corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and framed. Formerly stapled to paintings 92.97.120-.124. Man in foreground in blue overalls sits at a table with
his back to the viewer looking at photograph of woman in a kimono. A kitten leans on his bench next to a stove with a blue
kettle in lower right. A dog, chickens, a white horse harnessed to a handplow and an orchard stand in bottom left corner with
words, "Stop Picture Bride," above in red at midground. An Uncle Sam figure in black suit, white beard and top hat with white
stars on blue glares at the viewer from right midground, pointing at words with left hand and holding up right hand, palm
outward to the left where a ship sails in the blue ocean toward the Statue of Liberty in upper right. In upper right, Japanese
woman in a striped yellow kimono and blue obi carries a bundle and a suitcase with Japanese characters, "Beikoku yuki" (Going
to America), on side. In the background, a thatched-roof house and paddy fields stands before blue mountains bes!
ide a red torii with two white stone lanterns. A translucent white image of Japan overlays the womans feet and separates the
images of Japan from the ocean.
Historical Note
Since most issei were single men when they immigrated, it was not uncommon for them to find wives through correspondence and
the exchange of photographs. Many issei women thus came to the United States as "picture brides." In 1924 the United States
passed a law barring further immigration of Japanese women. Since an earlier law had already halted the mass immigration of
Japanese men, it was evident that the purpose of the 1924 act was to discourage the establishment of families and communities
of Japanese Americans. Sugimoto's paintings use iconic figures like Uncle Sam to refer to these historical and political events.
Subject
Emigration and immigration
Picture brides
Men
Uncle Sam
Statue of Liberty
United States
Farms
Ships
Japan
Torii
Domestic animals
Pacific Ocean
Photographs
Untitled
c. 1975 92.97.115
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Formerly stapled onto 92.97.117. Split image of Buddhist and Christian couples praying. Scene on
left, a man in tan shirt holds hands in gassho (put hands together and bow head) while holding juzu (Buddhist prayer beads)
next to a woman in brown. Both sit with their backs to the viewer facing a table with a blue runner, a bowl of fruit and black
bowl of burning incense. Above it floats an image of a Bodhisattva, Yakushinyorai, swathed in robes in a golden oval in a
field of blue. To the left, a tan strip of kanji, "Namu Amidabutsu." Scene on right, a man in blue shirt folds his hands in
front of his face as he leans against a table covered by a white cloth, a Bible (Seisho) in front of him, next to a woman
in brown. Both sit turned three quarters away from the viewer facing a table with a tan triangle cloth under a bowl of red
flowers. Above it, a golden cross stands in a blue oval against a tan field. To the right, a blue strip of Japanese writi!
ng, "Kami wa Ai nari (God is love)."
Subject
Japanese American
Religion
Christianity
Buddhism
Prayer
Couples
Juzu (Buddhist rosary)
Bodhisattvas
Buddhist chants
Holy Cross
Gods, Buddhist
Untitled
c. 1970 92.97.114
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Formerly stapled onto 92.97.117. Portraits of four prominent Issei Pioneers: Yaemon Minami, Keisaburo
Koda, George Shima and Kyutaro Abiko. Individual oval portraits are set in separate quadrants on a field of purplish-blue
with white lettering at center identifying men: "Four Pioneers; I Yauemon Minami; II Keisaburo Koda; III George Ushijima;
IV Kyusaburo Abiko." Upper left portrait of Yaemon Minami with caption, "I Lettuce King," shows an elderly man wearing glasses
in a black suit and tie and a medal on a white ribbon. Upper right portrait of Keisaburo Koda with caption, "II Rice King,"
shows a white haired, dark eyebrowed older man in a black suit and bow tie. Lower right portrait of George Shima with caption,
"III Potato King," shows a dark haired, mustached man in a black suit and tie. Lower left corner portrait of Kyutaro Abiko
with caption, "IV Founder of Yamato Colony," shows a greying mustached older man in a black suit and tie.
Subject
Emigration and immigration
Portraits
Businessmen
Yamato Colony (California)
Lettuce
Rice
Potatoes
Japanese
Minami, Yaemon
Koda, Keisaburo
Shima, George
Abiko, Kyutaro
Untitled
c. 1975 92.97.116
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top left (in Japanese): Kashu Nihongo Gakko [Translation:
California Japanese Language School]
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Formerly stapled onto 92.97.117. 1 painting : image 31 x 39.25 in., unstretched canvas 33.5 x 41.25
in. Children learning katakana, Japanese phonetic alphabet, at a California Japanese language school. A mustached man in a
blue suit stands at right before three children seated at desks pointing to a chalkboard with katakana. He faces left in profile
to the viewer with his left hand in pocket and other raised to the black chalkboard at left. Behind him, a chair and desk
with a Japanese language book, "Kashu konin, Kashu Nihongo Gakko hon," stands against a grey wall under a sign with Japanese
writing, "Kashu Nihongo Gakko" (California Japanese Language School). A single bulb blue lamp hangs overhead. Two boys in
overalls and one girl in an orange dress sit in the front row with their backs to the viewer, raising their hands. A boy sits
in the second row in the lower left corner writing in his book. Part of a window is visible on the left.
Subject
Japanese Americans
Japanese language schools
California
Children
Teachers
Desks
Hiragana
Books
Teaching
Untitled (Gambling House Chinatown)
c. 1975 92.97.117
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and unframed. Men gambling in Chinatown. Four men sit and smoke at a large orange/tan rectangular table with circular
objects in front of them while a Chinese man separates two tiles from a pile using a stick. One man stands at the top corner
of the table smoking and watching the game. A mustached Chinese man faces the viewer in the lower right corner. In the background
left a Chinese man in black leans forward on a bench smoking a pipe under a window. Seated at a small table, right, a Chinese
man watches another man in shirtsleeves sign some papers. Another man stands behind the gambler smoking. At the back a Chinese
man opens a green door with peephole into the red room with wooden floors. A man enters the room from the street where signs
with Chinese characters are visible. A yellow strip with three Chinese characters, "Bakapyo", hangs next to a large flesh
colored sign that reads, "Chungking" over Chinese characters. All the Chinese men wear black Mao jackets!
and pants and have queues. The gamblers are in blue, tan or brown.
Subject
Gambling
Men
Gamblers
Chinese
Japanese
Clothing
China
Queue (braid)
Chinatown (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Smoking
Washing Dishes
c. 1970 92.97.119
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, top right corner: H. Sugimoto. Washing Dishes / 32" x 26"
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Three Japanese men work in a kitchen. Man in foreground stands with his back to the viewer as he
washes white dishes at large grey sink. He is dressed in blue shirtsleeves, white apron and a white towel tied around his
forehead. To his right is a stack of plates and a number of cups and saucers. In the background left, a man stands facing
the viewer dressed as a waiter with white jacket, black tie, a towel over his right forearm and a plate and utensils in hand.
On the right, with his back to the viewer, a man leans over a pot on the back left burner of a stove, stirrring the pot with
a spoon. Above him is a ventilating hood. He wears a white shirt, blue pants, white apron and hat. The backdrop is a yellow
wall.
Subject
Tableware
Dishwashing
Waiters and waitresses
Cookery
Cooks
Labor
First Emigrants
ca. 1960 92.97.112
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, Gold Hill-Okei-No-Haka (Grave) 1981 Wakamatsu Colony (1869). Written
on back, top center: Japanese Immigration History in America Series, First Emigrants
Description
Stretched and unframed. Image of Wakamatsu Colony focuses on the historical landmark, the history of the tea and silk colony
and the grave of Okei on Gold Hill. The bottom half of the image is dominated by a large grey-white stone with a brown plaque
marking the site of the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony as a California registered historical landmark. A silhouette of
a bear and two stars top the plaque above lines of text. Flanked by smaller stones, the landmark sits on a dirt path next
to a Japanese wooden gate at left. In the foreground three small trees stand on a bed of green grass. A rooftop peeks through
a stand of blue trees behind stone at midground, separating the landmark from two other scenes above. In upper right corner,
a blue cloud-like image of a ship called "China" on the ocean with Mt. Fuji in the distance overlaps another larger cloud-like
scene of workers planting tea and clearing land under the direction of a bearded Caucasian man smoking a pipe, E!
dward Snell. The workers are dressed in dark blue Japanese clothing and straw hats while Snell wears a similar top and tan
shorts. Two horses hitched to an open wagon and a house next to rolling hills are visible in the background. On the left,
a ghostly female rises from a grave inscribed in Japanese, "Okei no Haka," on a golden hill with blue trees. The apparition
reaches out toward a white on blue outline of Japan in upper left corner
Subject
Graves
Ghosts
National Historic Landmarks
Japanese
Japan
Ships
Horses
Tea
Gates
Tea trade
Costume
Untitled
c. 1975 92.97.120
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left center: H. Sugimoto
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Naturalization ceremony of Henry Sugimoto and thirteen other people becoming U.S. citizens in 1953.
Henry Sugimoto stands on a yellow and grey checkered floor with his right hand over his heart between a man in a brown suit
and an elderly woman in brown bent over a cane. He faces the viewer in a blue suit, striped red and navy tie and glasses.
Behind him stand three more rows of eleven men and women of different ages and ethnicities. They hold white sheets of paper
in their hands. On the left a man in a black suit stands in profile on a tan carpet, facing the new citizens, with right hand
over his heart. Behind him is a stand with the American flag capped by a golden eagle and a framed portrait of George Washington
hanging on the wall. A guard salutes in the background under a sign with the pledge of allegiance. A white sign with black
print, "Department of Immigration/Naturalization Office," hangs at top center on grey wall above molding and date, "1953,"
in white print.
Subject
Naturalization
Sugimoto, Henry
United States
Paintings
Washington, George
Men
Women
Pledge of Allegiance
Untitled
c. 1965 92.97.123
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Formerly stapled. Daily life on a ranch. In a large open space, a man loads a flat, open wagon partially
filled with boxes while a horse stands in its harness to the left; a boy carries a pair of boxes from a stack in left foreground
toward the wagon with a tan dog prancing beside him; on the right, three girls jump rope and two boys play ball near chickens
and a tethered cow. The man and boys are dressed in blue overalls. The girls wear dresses. In foreground right, a man in blue
with brown bag full of mail inserts mail into a mailbox on a fence enclosing green trees. A bicycle is parked next to him.
A blue wheelbarrow lies in center foreground. In the background a large red barn stands with its doors wide open as a pitchfork,
rake, shovels and a ladder lean against it next to a sign, "Lucern Ranch," to the left. A woman with a child on her back hangs
laundry in the space between the barn and a small grey house with yellow trim and a black stovepipe on the right. Chickens
are visible in the house through the open door. A log pile peeks from behind the house under green trees. A water tower with
a windmill rises above the buildings under a blue sky.
Subject
Ranches
Rope skipping
Girls
Horses
Wagons
Boxes
Men
Laundry
Boys
Farm life
Ball games
Mothers
Barns
Farmhouses
Water towers
Windmills
Chickens
Mailboxes
Camp Jerome 1942-1944
Description
These works, primarily landscapes, reflect not only the bleak surroundings of the camp in Denson, Arkansas, but also Sugimoto's
lingering engagement with outdoor subjects. Many were painted in the woods and swamplands that surrounded the camp. The paintings
made in and around the Jerome camp constitute a significant portion of the 100 or so works Sugimoto produced during the war.
Scope and Content
36 paintings by Henry Sugimoto.
Warehouse at Jerome Camp
1943 92.97.10
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, Warehouse at Jerome Camp, 1943
Description
Image of a warehouse with gate surrounded by overgrown grass. In the right foreground, two figures in blue, one pushes a wheelbarrow
containing two sacks and another carries a sack. Mounted on board and unframed.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Men
Warehouses
Wheelbarrows
Daughters
Untitled (Camp Warehouse II)
ca. 1943 92.97.63
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto
Description
A large red warehouse with a smokestack spewing black smoke dominates the painting. Greenery appears in the foreground, another
structure is visible in the distance, under a bluish, overcast sky. Mounted on board, unframed.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Warehouses
Smokestacks
Untitled (Camp Warehouse I)
ca. 1953 92.97.57
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. In the background a smoking smokestack looms up between two buildings, which are partially hidden
by trees. In the foreground a small bridge in the lower right opens onto a path past a mound of dirt. Tall grasses span the
midground. A building stands to the right.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Smokestacks
Buildings
Bridges
Warehouses
Arkansas
1943 92.97.13
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium: H. Sugimoto, Ark.
Description
Image of five men clearing the grassy, broken land in internment camp. One stands with axe raised to chop at a tall tree to
the left while another man pushes a blue wheelbarrow in the right foreground. Three other men stand further back, one cutting
a stump. Three wooden structures stand apart in the background, two in the open field and one before a backdrop of dark trees
under a dark sky, Stretched and unframed.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Men
Trees
Buildings
Wheelbarrows
Clearing of land
Sunrise-Jerome
1943 92.97.14
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left: H. Sugimoto, Jerome, Ark. Written on back, top center: "Sun Rise-Jerome" / 15 1/2 x 13 1/2
Description
Stretched and unframed. Winter landscape with barren area in right foreground with walkways over a ditch to a path in left
foreground, which recedes into distance past a row of barracks with lighted windows. A crimson sun rises behind structures
in the background.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Winter
Snow
Sun
Rising and setting
Jerome Camp from Outside
1943 92.97.15
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left: Henry Sugimoto, Jerome Camp
Description
Stretched and unframed, Image of barracks and watch tower enclosed by barbed wire fence in the distance, two grey and two
brown horses graze among trees in the field in foreground.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Horses
Arkansas
1943 92.97.16
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left corner: H. Sugimoto, Ark.
Description
Stretched and unframed. Image of barracks with water tower. A dirt path spans the foreground, grass on either side. Two trees
appear in the grass above it behind a barbed wire fence.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Denson (Ark.)
Barracks
Water towers
Jerome Camp, Block 2
1943 92.97.18
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Camp, Ark.
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Row of 5 barracks at right recedes to upper left corner, ending at barbed wire fence with a watchtower
in background. Two figures stand near barracks. The sign, "Block 2," is located center left. In the foreground, a culvert
with a pond of standing water. Predominant color is grey, making it appear to be winter.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Winter
Barracks
Untitled
1943 92.97.19
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Stream runs in foreground. A short distance behind it is a barbed wire fence fronting a group
of trees in Autumnal colors. Behind the barbed wire fence to the right is a watchtower.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Trees
Fall foliage
Outside of the Camp, Ark.
ca. 1943 92.97.20
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, Outside of the Camp, Ark.
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Autumnal landscape with small figure, presumably of Henry Sugimoto himself, in lower right corner,
dressed in blue pants, white shirt and yellow hat, seated on a rock with his back to the viewer. He leans toward the canvas
before him on an easel. Two tree stumps rise up next to him. Another stump stands in the left corner foreground. In the distance,
tall brown grasses obscure two structures. Tall trees in fall colors in the background.
Subject
Sugimoto, Henry
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Buildings
Untitled
ca. 1943 92.97.21
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed Two children, one dressed in red coat with yellow hat, the other in yellow coat and hat with grey
boots, walk toward woman at right. The woman is in blue waving to them from a porch at right. A cylindrical object, perhaps
a barrel or trashcan, lies on its side in left foreground. A pile of logs is stacked at right near woman in blue on porch,
next to a small tree with green leaves. In the center is a small. An American flag is on a flagstaff in the background. Another
barracks is visible to the left in the distance.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Arkansas
Women
Children
Winter
Barracks
Near the Jerome Camp
ca. 1943 92.97.23
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Near the Jerome Camp
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Landscape painting with a path lined with brown-green weeds and shrubs on lower right. Two small
grey buildings in the center of the painting surrounded by a field in the foreground. In the background are yellow-brown-green
trees and a bluish sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Buildings
Arkansas
ca. 1943 92.97.24
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Ark.
Description
Mounted on board, unframed A blue-grey watchtower is located at right. In the foreground lie mounds of dark dirt. Trees in
fall colors, red and yellow, rise in the background under a greyish sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Fall foliage
Untitled (Arkansas Camp B)
c. 1943 92.97.25
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. In the foreground a pile of logs stands near a path that runs from the lower right corner to middle
left. Next to the path, lower right, a man in a green jacket, tan pants and hat and boots stands with his back to the viewer
holding a shovel and bucket. He faces steps leading to barracks which dominates the right. On the left, a woman in blue and
black walks toward him on the path. In the background to the left of the painting, a woman in dark blue with a white apron
hangs laundry on an outdoor clothesline. Two more barracks appear in the background.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Winter
Barracks
People
Laundry
Fuelwood
Jerome Water Tank
ca. 1943 92.97.26
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: "Jerome Water Tank" 15 1/2 x 13 1/2
Description
Stretched and unframed. In the foreground is a large brush in brown, gray and white, with a sawhorse, a box and possibly two
buckets to the side. In the background left, a building with an American flag flying from a flag pole and a water tank.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Farm House, Ark.
ca. 1943 92.97.27
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Farm House, Ark.
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. A farmhouse stands amid overgrown grasses. Parts of fences are visible near house. Another building
appears in the distance to the right. In the background, colors, red, green, brown.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Farmhouses
Fall foliage
Untitled (Arkansas Camp C)
ca. 1943 92.97.61
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. On a grey wintery day, three men gather wood. One man in the foreground pushes his load of wood
in a wheelbarrow toward the lower right corner, away from the wood pile on the left center area where another man gathers
wood. Another man approaches the pile with a wheelbarrow from among the four barracks in the background. Bare trees stand
behind them.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Winter
Wheelbarrows
Men
Fuelwood gathering
Jerome, Ark.
ca. 1942 92.97.31
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Ark. Written on back, top center: "Jerome Camp" 15 1/2 x 13 1/2
Description
Stretched and unframed. Landscape scene in camp; a small figure in blue shirt and black pants carries a hoe or shovel over
his right shoulder walks along a horizontal path. In foreground, tall grass is bordered by a barbed wire fence; a mound of
dirt is at left. In the background center, a small bridge branches off the path into tall grasses and trees, where a row of
6 barracks sit in front of a backdrop of dark trees. Laundry hangs on a clothesline in front of one of the barracks.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Trees
Men
Jerome Camp in Fall
ca. 1943 92.97.33
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Ark. Written on back, left center: "Jerome Camp in Fall"
Description
Stretched and unframed. An orange machine crane stands in lower right corner amid tall brown and grey brush in front of three
barracks. Tall trees in fall colors of red, oragne and green stand behind them in the background.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Autumn
Barracks
Cranes
Fall foliage
Camp Jerome, Ark
ca. 1943 92.97.34
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on wood
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Camp Jerome Ark.
Description
Mounted on wood and unframed. In the lower left corner, two men carrying fishing poles and blue buckets walk along a path
in front of a barracks. One man is dressed in tan pants and white short sleeve shirt, the other in dark brown pants and blue
shirt. Both wear yellow hats. A woman hangs laundry on a clothesline between the barracks. Tall trees rise up behind and around
the barracks. Parts of other buildings are visible in the trees on the left; tall green brush in the foreground.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Men
Fishing
Women
Laundry
Untitled (Jerome Camp Swamp)
ca. 1942 92.97.35
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board and unframed. Two small figures, a man and a boy, walk along a path on a brown and grey grassy slope. The
man is dressed in dark blue pants with a blue long sleeve shirt and white hat, while the boy wears a white shirt, blue shorts
and blue cap; they both carry and buckets and the man holds a pole. The foreground is dominated by a pool of standing water
rimmed with mud and grass. Behind them is an open area and in the distance, barracks and a watchtower.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Men
Boys
Barracks
Swamps
Jerome Swamp
ca. 1943 92.97.100
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Camp. Written on back, top center: Jerome Swamp, 15 1/2 x 13 1/2"
Description
Stretched and unframed. View of swamp and Jerome camp. In the foreground a reflecting pool of standing water is surrounded
by tall dry grasses. At midground left a path winds through grasses past a culvert in water. The barracks, mess hall and watchtower
of Jerome are visible in the background under a greyish-blue sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Swamps
Culverts
Barracks
Jerome Camp Swamp
1943 92.97.129
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, 1943 ; Bottom right corner: Painted at Jerome Camp. Written on back,
top center: Jerome Camp Swamp, 22" x 18"
Description
Stretched and framed View of swamp and Jerome camp. In the foreground a culvert opens into a reflecting pool of standing water
surrounded by tall dry grasses. At midground a horizontal path spans the image. A water filled ditch with plank walkways recedes
to vanishing point, background left. Next to it, yellow and red laundry hang in open area between ditch and rows of barracks
which recede to vanishing point left under a grey sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Swamps
Culverts
Laundry
Barracks
Ditches
Jerome, Ark.
ca. 1943 92.97.36
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Ark.
Description
Mounted on board and unframed. A soldier with a white armband is dressed in olive green uniform and grey helmet stands in
a watchtower facing the viewer. Two small structures stand next to the tower surrounded by dry grass. A barbed wire fence
separates the structures from the foreground of low grass. Tall trees in fall colors of red, orange, brown and green rise
behind the tower in the background.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Autumn
Fall foliage
Soldiers
Barbed wire
Buildings
Winter, Jerome Camp
ca. 1942 92.97.38
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom center: H. Sugimoto, Winter, Jerome Camp
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. In the foreground, a barrel and a neat pile of stacked firewood stand in front of a barracks to
the left; a small blue wheelbarrow with yellow lettering, "Jerome," on the side sits near the barrel; a basketball backboard
and hoop are a short distance behind and to the right. At center, a man in black with hoe over right shoulder walk with a
child in yellow coat and hat. In the background, behind the figures are barracks and brown outline of trees. The entire painting
is predominantly grey with the suggestion of a late fall or winter setting.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Winter
Men
Children
Barracks
Basketball
Wheelbarrows
Far View of Jerome Camp Ark.
ca. 1942 92.97.39
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Far View of Jerome Camp Ark.
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Landscape of Jerome Camp. Green grassy field with dark green-leaved tree and tree stump in left
foreground. In the midground on right, a large group of trees. In background, grey-roofed barracks are visible against dark
blue-green outline of trees beneath cloudy sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Trees
Barracks
Jerome Camp in the Fall
ca. 1944 92.97.40
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Ark. Written on back, top center: Rohwer Camp in the Fall
Description
Stretched and unframed. A barracks stands in the center, surrounded by tall green bushes and plants. A woman in a brown top
and yellow skirt and a child in red stand near the door to barracks. In the foreground, a flat area stretches from left to
center; a man in brown pants, blue shirt and brown cap walks on the path leading right, between the barracks, carrying a parcel.
Two barracks appear to the left. Trees in fall colors of red, orange, green and brown rise in the background under a bluish
overcast sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Men
Women
Children
Autumn
Jerome Camp from Swamp
ca. 1942 92.97.41
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, left center: "Jerome Camp from Swamp"
Description
Mounted and unframed In the foreground, a culvert with a pond of standing water, bordered by brown grass. A water-filled ditch
with walkways recedes into the distance on the right. A broad expanse of dried brown grass dominates the midground. In the
distance, rows of barracks recede into the background before an outline of trees. A watchtower appears at top left.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Swamps
Barracks
Watch Tower, Rohwer Camp
ca. 1945 92.97.43
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Arkansas
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Ark. Written on back, left center: Watch Tower-Rohwer Camp 15 1/2
x 13 1/2
Description
Stretched and unframed. Watchtower stands on riverbank amid long grass on the right. The top of a structure appears just behind
it at right center. At left, a bridge crosses a stream and ends at base of tower. In the background, trees recede into the
distance left ending in a break where a ghostly outline of another watchtower appears.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Watch Tower
ca. 1943 92.97.101
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Watch Tower, 15 1/2 x 13 1/2
Description
Stretched and framed. A watchtower is visible through a stand of four trees in midground left. In the foreground a large branch
lays in the grass, center ; a stump stands at left in front of the barbed wire fence that spans the image. Three tall trees
stand in the right foreground on one side of the fence while one tree stands on the other side near the watchtower. Across
a short open area tall grasses front dark blue-green trees in the background. The sky is cloudy.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Trees
Fences
Abandon House, Ark. (Abandoned House)
ca. 1943 92.97.58
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, Abandon [sic] House, Ark.
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Abandoned house with sloped roof and rusted stovepipe stands to the right. Debris and a wheelbarrow
are left among the grass in the foreground. The outline of trees stands in the background with grasses before it.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Abandoned houses
Around the Jerome Campfield
ca. 1943 92.97.75
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Around the Camp Jerome field, 22 x 18
Description
Unstretched and unframed. In foreground, swampy area of dry grass and reflective water. Left, wooden structure with small
fenced area. In the background, more brush before a large woodpile. Outline of trees visible behind barracks in distance.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Swamps
Barracks
Untitled (Jerome Camp, Longing)
ca. 1943 92.97.59
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. In the lower right foreground, a women in a dark blue dress and white apron piggybacks a child
in a yellow dress on her back as a little girl dressed in blue looks up at her and points to the other side of the barbed
wire fence where two horses graze on a green strip of grass in a field. In the distance are houses nestled among trees. A
train comes into view with smoke coming from its statck.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barbed wire
Horses
Women
Children
Houses
Fields
Untitled (Jerome Camp, Block 32 or Jerome Camp, Ark.)
ca. 1942 92.97.62
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Jerome Camp, Ark.
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. Three children play on a huge mound of hay, left, as two men, lower right corner, carry a load
of hay up a road that angles off to the right in the background. One man in tan with a yellow hat holds a shovel, the other
in white shirt and blue pants pushes a wheelbarrow of hay. A sign, "Block 32" stands at the left side of the road. In the
foreground, patches of green grass bookend tall brown grass. In the background left, behind the haystack are barracks and
the outline of tall trees in fall foliage; to the right a watchtower and barbed wire fence appear in the distance.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Children
Men
Barracks
Wheelbarrows
On the Way to Jerome Camp
ca. 1942 92.97.64
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Arizona
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back, left: "On the Way to Jerome Camp"
Description
Stretched and unframed. Desolate grayish winter landscape features a house with a windmill and outhouse to the left. In the
background, the black outline of a train is visible on the horizon, heading right as a long black plume of smoke trails behind
it. In the foreground, bare poles of a fence and a small mound of grass on the left.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Landscapes (representations)
Houses
Windmills
Outhouses
Camp Jerome
ca. 1943 92.97.70
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: Henry Sugimoto. Written on back, left center: "Camp Jerome: 32 x 23 1/2"
Description
Stretched and framed. Wooden frame with gold streaks. Scene of life in camp. In the foreground, a bridge crosses over grassy
area leading to a dirt path where a man pushes a wheelbarrow of hay; a man and boy walk hand and hand; two old women stop
and talk; and a man carries wood planks over his shoulder. The sign, "Block 24," appears in the lower right corner. The right
side is dominated by a barracks. A woman hangs laundry to the left of the structure while two men play a board game on a bench
at the near end. In the open area on the left, a man tends a garden between two boys playing basketball and three girls jumping
rope. A boy waves to another who stands in the distance in front of a mess hall and a truck marked "WRA." An American flag
flies behind the barracks. A soldier stands in a watchtower behind barbed wire, upper left, under a blue sky.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Women
Men
Children
Basketball
Mess Hall Jerome Camp (Our Mess Hall (Documentary))
ca. 1942 92.97.142
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Denson, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Mess Hall-Jerome Camp, 32 1/2" x 23 1/2"
Description
Stretched and framed. Camp life around the Mess Hall in Jerome Camp. The focal point is the grey mess hall at the center with
a sign over its open door, "Mess Hall." A figure dressed in navy with a white apron and hat stands in the doorway holding
two buckets. A small fenced garden with two withered bushes is visible in front to the right. Two trash cans sit on a platform
in front of the garden. A third can sits on the ground next to the flag pole which stands directly in front of the open door.
The American flag blows in the wind. Rows of barracks with smoking stovepipes flank the mess hall. Brush and fence span the
foreground, broken at the center by a man carrying a fishing pole and bucket as he walks toward the viewer over a walkway.
In the lower right corner a Block 23 sign sticks out of the ground. A covered truck with "WRA" on its tarp is parked in front
of the barracks at left. To the right, in the open area before the mess hall, a man holding a shovel walks toward the hall,
while two men approach from the left side of the building. On the right, two women wearing dresses, aprons, shawls and hats
stand talking as another figure in a blue cape approaches from the right of the building. In the background tops of brown
trees are visible over barracks and behind a watchtower with a soldier, left. The sky is dark.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Jerome
Jerome Relocation Center (Denson, Ark.)
Arkansas
Mess halls
Men
Women
Trucks
Cooks
Soldiers
Barracks
Camp Rohwer 1944-1945
Description
Like the paintings Sugimoto made in Jerome, the images made in Rohwer reflect the bleakness and monotony of the land around
the camp.
Scope and Content
8 paintings by Henry Sugimoto.
Rohwer Camp in Fall
1944 92.97.12
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower right: H. Sugimoto
Description
Stretched and unframed. Image of a camp barracks with two large signs identifying the building with the letter "C." Shrubbery
in a circular form appears in foreground. A girl in blue dress holding stool in left hand stands to the left of shrubs and
man in grey bends over to the right of the shrubs. The man is using some object, perhaps a tool of some kind.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Girls
Men
Outside Farmland, Rohwer Camp
1944 92.97.17
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, lower left: Henry Sugimoto, Outside Farmland Rohwer Camp 1944
Description
Stretched and unframed. On the left, a wooden structure with a wooden fence extending back to the right toward another structure
hidden in foliage stands before a backdrop of brown trees. In the foreground, flat area of dirt with puddle at center before
an expanse of grass with two wooden crates on the left.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Farmland
Buildings
Rohwer Camp
ca. 1945 92.97.30
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Rohwer Camp. Written on back, top center: Rohwer Camp, 15 1/2 x 13 1/2
On canvas edge: 13 1/4 x 16
Description
Stretched and unframed. In foreground, bushes of red and green foliage in front of barracks on left; bridge over ditch on
right. A short distance behind bridge, more foliage with slender trees. In the background, barracks with clothesline and laundry,
trees in distant background.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Plants
Rohwer Camp
1944 92.97.37
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: H. Sugimoto, Rohwer Camp, 1944. Written on back, left center: Still Life in Fresno
Camp
Description
Mounted on board and unframed. An arrangement of pears, apples, celery and yams sit atop copies of the Rohwer newspaper, The
Rohwer Outpost, with the headlines, "Mass exclusion lifted, " Happy New Year," and "Christmas."
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Assembly Centers, Fresno
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Fresno Assembly Center (Fresno, Calif.)
California
Fruit
Vegetables
Newspapers
Rohwer Outpost
Christmas
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Rohwer Camp Water Tank
ca. 1944 92.97.50
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom right corner: Rohwer Camp Water Tank, H. Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: Rohwer Camp Water
Tank, 24" x 19 1/2"
Description
Unstretched and unframed. Dirt path winds in green grass from lower right corner to left edge, back to right in foreground
and back through barracks in backgound right. Water tank on left behind a tree.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Barracks
Untitled (Rohwer Camp, Block 29 or Rohwer Camp)
ca. 1944 92.97.60
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas, mounted on board
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto, Rohwer Camp
Description
Mounted on board, unframed. An American flag flies from a flagpole in the center. To the right is a garden of giant sunflowers
within a white picket fence. In the foreground is a sign that reads, "Block 29." To the left of the flagpole, a man in a yellow
shirt works with some large cans or drums in front of the barracks in the background. A woman in a blue dress and white apron
walks down a path on the left, carrying a yellow basket (?).
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Sunflowers
Men
Women
Barracks
Planting Vegetables
1944 92.97.71
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, Rohwer, 1944. Written on back, right center: "Planting Vegetables" /
32 1/2 x 24" ; Right (In Japanese): Ura Akichi ni Yasai Zukari [Translation: Planting Vegetables in the Backyard]
Description
Mounted and framed. Wood frame with gold streaks. Family of four gardening together. Father dressed in blue shirt, tan pants
and light blue socks steps on shovel to dig in garden next to a barracks. Mother in lime green shirt, blue pants and white
apron bends down to plant vegetable. A little bucket sits at her foot. Little daughter in yellow dress stands between parents
holding a plant. Son in blue shorts, yellow striped shirt and bluish cap walks up on left side next to father carrying a bucket.
Laundry hangs next to barracks on left. In the background a woman walks before a barracks, a man in apron stands before a
mess hall on right and a man with a cane walks between the buildings.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
Japanese Americans
Families
Gardening
Barracks
Rohwer Camp (Rohwer Camp (Thoughts of Loved Ones))
ca. 1943 92.97.85
Creator/Collector:
Sugimoto, Henry
Physical Description:
painting
oil on canvas
Rohwer, Ark.
Contributing Institution: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Custodial History
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto, Rohwer Camp. Written on back, right center: 32 1/2 x 23 1/2 / Rhwer
[sic] Camp
Description
In the foreground, a man in blue overalls with a shovel over his right shoulder walks on a dirt path bordered by greenery,
which bisects a boarded walkway running up the center into community area between grey barracks and mess hall. A woman with
a red top and white skirt strolls on the walkway which ends near the mess hall at back where a man leaning on a cane and a
woman holding a basket stand talking. On the left, a woman bends over tending a garden in front of a barracks; a man in grey
pushes a wheelbarrow; and a child in white shirt and blue shorts shovels the earth in rows. To the right of the walkway, a
small fenced garden stands next to a laundry line where a woman has just hung laundry. A seated man talks to a boy standing
next to the bench in front of the barracks on the right. An American flag flies over the barracks in the distance under a
blue sky. Stretched and unframed.
Subject
Concentration Camps, Rohwer
Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Arkansas
People
Gardening
Barracks
