Artist Chiura Obata and His Time in
the Elmwood Neighborhood
By Burl Willes
SPECIAL TO THE VOICE
THE BERKELEY VOICE
Community Newspaper of Berkeley - Friday, December 22, 2000
Late artist's work on exhibit at the
De Young Museum in San Francisco
The Berkeley Voice was happy to hear from Burl Willes,
author of "Tales from the Elmwood," a book featured in our
arts section recently. Mr. Willes notes that the works of the late Chiura
Obata (1885-1975), who lived in the Elmwood, are on display at the De Young
Museum in San Francisco through Dec. 31.
Mr. Willes graciously offered
the chapter from his book that recalls Chiura and Haruko Obata for our
readers to enjoy. As he points out, "Readers might enjoy reading about
the artist and his regular visits to Dream Fluff Do-nuts."
Kimi Kodania Hill's family has left a legacy of art that spans the globe.
Her grandparents, Chiura and Haruko Obata, were artists celebrated in both
California and Japan. While Chiura Obata received the Order of the Sacred
Treasure, 5th Class, from the Emperor of Japan for his paintings and woodblock
prints, his wife Haruko was awarded the Order of the Sacred Crown,
6th Class, for her Ikebana arrangements. For Kimi, the memories of her
grandparents are rooted in the Elmwood, where they retired in 1954.
Although Kimi grew up in Oakland, just across the Berkeley border near
Woolsey Street, she frequently visited her grandparents' neighborhood. When
the Obatas were not conducting tours in Japan, they hosted Sunday night
dinners for the entire family. Kimi also remembers walking to the
commercial district with her grandfather. Chiura would buy donuts on Ashby
Avenue, and Kimi would visit the five and dime store. "It was a great
place for kids because we could actually afford to purchase something there. I
remember how the clerks used to putter about." Kimi was especially
enchanted by the selection of European toys. "I loved the little doll
furnishings. It was a great splurge when I could buy a toy telephone or hutch
for my dollhouse."
Kimi recalls the meditative, Japanese-style garden that wrapped around her
grandparents' modest stucco house as the focus of their retirement. Chiura
painted the black bamboo and Japanese maple, and Haruko used them in her
exquisite Ikebana arrangements. Her busy teaching schedule, however, required
more materials than her small garden could produce. Fortunately, the lush
Elmwood was a perfect place for collecting flora. Neighbors gladly shared
clippings of their wisteria and plum blossoms. Occasionally she and Kimi would
scavenge branches from the trees lining Telegraph Avenue.
As artists who drew their inspiration and materials from nature, the Obatas
suffered terribly in the barren Utah desert during the wartime internment of
Japanese Americans. Chiura continued to paint, finding beauty even in the
bleak world of the camps. He organized an art school at the Tanforan Assembly
Center in San Bruno and, after another relocation, served as director of the
Topaz Art School.
The Obatas had shared their gifts through teaching before the war as well.
Chiura had joined the art department faculty at the University of California
at Berkeley in 1932, and Haruko offered Ikebana in the back of their art
supply store on Telegraph Avenue. The shop was the target of a gun shot after
the Pearl Harbor attack, and eventually the Obatas were forced to close
it and cancel all classes. The relocation order brought more grief. Unable to
bring his many paintings and woodblock prints with him, Chiura organized a
large sale. With the same generous and transcendent spirit he would
demonstrate again at Tanforan and Topaz, he donated the sale profits to a
campus student fund. University President Robert Gordon Sproul, an Elmwood
resident and friend of the Obatas, offered to store many of the remaining
works in University House. Recently retired Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien
continued this tradition of hanging Obata paintings in the official campus
residence, and several are now on display in the chancellor's office in
California Hall.
When Executive Order 9066 was finally lifted in 1945, Chiura was invited to
resume his faculty position at the University. The Obatas knew the
difficulties facing returning Japanese Americans. Housing was scarce, and
war-heightened racism had created a tense environment. H.L. Dungan, the art
critic for the Oakland Tribune, allayed their fears with a warm invitation; he
promised that there would always be a welcome sign on his door for them. So
the Obatas stayed in his steepled attic apartment on Oakvale Avenue until they
purchased their own house in the Elmwood in 1950.
From her grandparents' old neighborhood, Kimi works to share her
grandfather's art with a wide audience. Funded by a grant from the state
of California for the creation of education materials about the internment,
her current project is to document her family's history during the war. "Topaz
Moon: Chiura Obata's Art from the Internment Camps," focuses on her
grandparents' relationships with friends back in Berkeley and their
efforts to assist the Obatas. Besides giving lectures, Kimi has also consulted
on several books about her grandfather, including a biography, a
children's book called "Nature Art with Chiura Obata," and a
collection of his letters and art from a trip to the High Sierra entitled
"Obata's Yosemite."
__________
Willies, Burl. "Artist Chiura Obata and His Time In
the Elmwood Neighborhood."
The Berkeley Voice. Reprinted from "Tales
From Elmwood."
(Friday, December 22, 2000).
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[Return to C. Obata Page]
