Miyako Watanabe is slated to be one of the featured speakers at the Sawtelle Stories Forum on August 28, Saturday, 2 pm to 4 pm, at the New Center for Psychoanalysis, 2014 Sawtelle Blvd, West Los Angeles (between La Grange and Mississippi).
 
Parking at rear of the center. Enter from Beloit Street. (No parking in stalls 12-21).
 
No charge for admission. Donations are welcome to Japanese Institute of Sawtelle' Sawtelle Stories Fund.
 
After living in Sawtelle in the 1930s and studying in Japan, Miyako Watanabe was given the natori name (professional stage name), Nishiki Fujima, after Japan's National Living Treasure, Kanjuro Fujima VI.
 
Later, she become Bisho Ichikawa tutored by Danjuro Ichikawa XI. Under Eizaemon Kineya, Miyako studied nagauta earning the name, Einishiki Kineya.
 
Miyoko Watanabe was born in Los Angeles.  Her mother was a Nihon Buyo teacher in Sawtelle.  Miyoko began study of Nihon Buyo at age 6. 
 
She often performed in Sawtelle's JapanTown.  Studied kabuki acting with Tomofuku Nakamura.  At age 14, she was invited to join the Shojo (Girls') Kabuki, a popular all girls troupe touring California and Hawaii.
 
While performing, she was discovered by Takejiro Otani, President of Shochiku Studios, the firm that managed Kabuki in Japan.
 
Miyako Watanabe has returned to Sawtelle again to have her tell her story assisted by longtime friend, Haru Nakata, and her niece, DeAnn Otani.
 
Other speakers can be scheduled. Call Jack Fujimoto at (310) 470-2997 or email jack.fujimoto@verizon.net
 
Sawtelle Stories Forum is funded by Japanese Institute of Sawtelle and UCLA Paul I. & Hisako Tersaki Center for Japanese Studies.