[Japanese-American Photographica]. Yamasaki, Yoshiko

[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Documenting the Life of a Japanese-American Woman in Los Angeles and Japan]

Los Angeles: 1947-1951. Thirty leaves, illustrated with 307 photographs between 1.75 x 1 inches and 7.5 x 9.75 inches, most leaves with at least one manuscript annotation in white ink, mostly in Japanese but occasionally in English, and ink annotations to the versos of the corner-mounted photographs. Oblong folio. Contemporary tan paper-covered boards, string tied, with picture window on front cover showing a floral scene of three roses above the word "Photographs." Minor rubbing and edge wear to covers, short closed tear to front cover, small chip to spine of rear cover. Minor marginal chipping to album leaves, some loose photos. Very good. Item #3571

A unique collection of photographs centering on Yoshiko Yamasaki (1929-2013), a young Japanese-American woman in Los Angeles, as well as some of her life and her family’s life in Japan. The album documents her life in the immediate post-World War II years, and features Yoshiko, her friends, and family alone or in groups, at church and at school, posed with friends and classmates on outings, and more. Yoshiko and her family and friends are dressed mostly in western-style or American-style clothing, but occasionally also in traditional Japanese dress in certain studio settings. Most of the manuscript annotations are in Japanese, but some of the later notations are written in English. Some of the identified American locations in the pictures include Hollenbeck Park, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Beach, the Huntington Library's Rose Garden and Japanese Garden, San Pedro Harbor, Arroyo Seco, Exposition Park, Mexico, and some street scenes, including a couple in front of the Tampico Club that was located at 1943 1st St. The largest photograph pictures the attendees of the 5th Annual Baptist Union Conference at Pine Cliff in early September 1950. Much further information is waiting to be gleaned from the wealth of manuscript annotations written in Japanese. Born in Tokyo in 1929, Dorothy Yoshiko Yamasaki passed away in Rancho Palos Verdes in 2013 after living most of her life in Anaheim. A wonderful collection of original and unique photographs memorializing a young Japanese-American woman's life in California and Japan.

Price: $3,250.00