Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. The first year of the Nisei festival was 1934. The term Nisei was used to signify the second generation, or American-born Japanese who were American citizens. The festival is now [2012] known as Nisei Week. In 1935 the second annual Nisei festival included a banquet, fashion shows, an ondo (folk dance), kendo contests, a pageant tracing Japanese history, flower and tea ceremonies and a parade. Photograph of mayor Frank Shaw with Nisei festival participants on the steps of the City Hall. Alice Watanabe, the first queen of the Nisei festival, hands the mayor an invitation to the festival in the form of a ribbon-bound scroll. People watch from the top of the steps. Text from negative sleeve: 1678, 8/14/35. Fukiko Hori, Miye Fujioka, Alice Watanabe, Mayor Shaw, Mary Ota, Kay Okamoto. [stamped:] Aug 22 1935. Text from newspaper caption: Mayor Invited to Japanese Festival: Heralding the formal opening of the annual Nisei festival in Los Angeles yesterday, "Miss Lil' Tokio," Alice Watanabe, presented Mayor Shaw with an invitation to the festival. Her attendants on invitation trip, from left to right are: Fujiko Hori, Miye Fujioka and Mary Ota [Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 1935: 10]
Type
Image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_10039 ark:/21198/zz002ddsmv
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Festivals--California--Los Angeles Okamoto, Kay Iino, Alice Shizuko Watanabe, 1916-1959 Ota, Mary Nisei Week (Los Angeles, Calif.) Kawai, Miye Fujioka, b. 1917 Shaw, Frank L., 1877-1958 Murase, Fukiko Hori, b. 1918
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