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Title
First Emigrants
Creator
Sugimoto, Henry
Date Created and/or Issued
ca. 1960
Publication Information
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Contributing Institution
Japanese American National Museum
Collection
Sugimoto (Henry) Collection
Rights Information
Please contact the contributing institution for more information regarding the copyright status of this object.
Description
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
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
Type
image
Format
Painting oil on canvas New York, N.Y.
Form/Genre
painting
Identifier
http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf629004st
92.97.112
Subject
Graves
Ghosts
National Historic Landmarks
Japanese
Japan
Ships
Horses
Tea
Gates
Tea trade
Costume
Place
New York, N.Y.

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