Norm Masaji Ibuki

Masaji

O escritor Norm Masaji Ibuki mora em Oakville, na província de Ontário no Canadá. Ele vem escrevendo com assiduidade sobre a comunidade nikkei canadense desde o início dos anos 90. Ele escreveu uma série de artigos (1995-2004) para o jornal Nikkei Voice de Toronto, nos quais discutiu suas experiências de vida no Sendai, Japão. Atualmente, Norm trabalha como professor de ensino elementar e continua a escrever para diversas publicações.

Atualizado em dezembro de 2009

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Dr. Jiro Takai's Journey of Becoming From the Soo to Nagoya University — Part 3

Por Norm Masaji Ibuki
1 Out 2023

Read Part 2 >> Forging Asian Canadian Identity JT: Being someone who prides himself on having the name Chink, I feel that people of the modern age are just too sensitive, and they take any cheap shots taken at their race, ethnicity, or sexuality way too seriously. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me, eh? Hell, back then, a joke was a joke, meant to be a friendly tit-for-tat (can’t even say that word no more) exchange of poking insults that was part of a game, to see who gets the upper hand, and if you lost, you had fun exercising your imagin…

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Dr. Jiro Takai's Journey of Becoming From the Soo to Nagoya University — Part 2

Por Norm Masaji Ibuki
24 Set 2023

Read Part 1 >> Jiro’s Parents Remembering his father who has since passed on, Jiro shares his own experiences. JT: He was a wonderful man, who never got angry, and had a great sense of humour. He was super sociable, and loved to have parties at our home. That kind of bugged me, as a youth, since these old geezers (in their 40s) would come over, get drunk and loud, whilst I was trying to study. His friends were mainly fellow immigrants, most from the Eastern bloc. Birds of a feather flock together, but being that there was an acute absence of Asians where I grew up, and …

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Dr. Jiro Takai's Journey of Becoming From the Soo to Nagoya University — Part 1

Por Norm Masaji Ibuki
17 Set 2023

My childhood friend, Jiro Takai, and I have been on parallel life paths of sorts. We first met in elementary school in Sault Ste. Marie (the Soo), northern Ontario, Canada. Growing up, unbeknownst to each other, we would forge careers in education. Having since reconnected in recent years, Jiro has become a wonderful friend and ally. Over the decades, our lives have crisscrossed many times from Canada to Japan, back to Canada and Japan again… the tettertottering between cultures continues. As I read through this interview again, it is sobering to realize just how the world has chang…

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Canadian Nikkei Artist

Takeuchi's Shapes In Between Retrospective: 60 Years and Counting - Part 2

Por Norm Masaji Ibuki
24 Jul 2023

Read Part 1 >> Prior to 1995, Norman admits that he had little contact with the JC community: “My focus was on the local (Ottawa) art community and producing my own work and there appeared to be no one from the JC community who was part of this.” He designed the 1977 poster for the JC Centennial based on Arthur Irizawa’s Centennial logo as the main image in the poster.” His first and only trip to Japan was in 1969-1970 to work on the Canadian Pavilion for Expo 70 in Osaka. “The main impression I was left with was that it’s a very dense, crowde…

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Canadian Nikkei Artist

Takeuchi's Shapes In Between Retrospective: 60 Years and Counting - Part 1

Por Norm Masaji Ibuki
23 Jul 2023

“Trying to figure out what it means to be Japanese Canadian is messy work. To sum it up: to me, being JC means feeling conflicted. After all these years of being who I am, I still seem to have to convince myself that I’m Canadian. I’m very aware that no matter where I go, whether it’s to restaurants, art galleries, or the curling rink, I look different from everyone around me. “The prevalence of racism and the reflections in the mirror reminds me that I’m not white and therefore am questionable. Luckily, there are many fine people, and I know many, who a…