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Title: “Sumi-e Painting of a Bird.” Collection: Banno Family Collection. Repository: Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre. Accession Number: 2016.30.3.6.1. Year: 1962.

BURNABY — The Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre (NNMCC) is continuing work on our Banno Family Collection digitization project, Behind the Lens: The Okamura and Banno Families, thanks to funding from the British Columbia History Digitization Project and the Government of Canada Museum Assistance Program—Digital Access to Heritage.

Last month, we shared the work of Paul Louis Okamura, but we recently learned in processing the collection that there was another artist in the family, as this sumi-e painting reveals.

Mata Banno (nee Okamura) was born on June 3, 1918, in New Westminster, B.C., the youngest daughter of Paul Louis Okamura and Misao Sugiyama. Much of her childhood and early adulthood is captured in family photo albums in the collection, depicting Mata and her sisters enjoying picnics, beach trips, and visits with family and friends across B.C.

Mata worked as a dental assistant for Dr. Eiju Miyake in Vancouver before she and her husband, Dr. Edward Banno, were forcibly interned in Kaslo, B.C., in 1942.

Their two sons, Robert and Victor, were born in Kaslo, and in 1948, the family moved to Kamloops, where their third son, Dale, was born. Mata was very active in their new community in Kamloops and later in West Vancouver, organizing welcome parties, events, and parade floats as a member of Kamloops United Church and the Japanese Canadian Association.

A lesser-known interest, perhaps inspired or passed on by her father, was Mata’s artistic work. This sumi-e painting of a bird from the Banno Family Collection, created and signed by Mata Banno in 1962, was originally believed to have been created by Paul Louis Okamura before we unframed the painting and revealed the signature. There are several paintings in the collection now known to have been created by Mata and depict her artistry and exceptional attention to detail. We look forward to sharing more of her work on our database when the project is completed this spring.

Explore more from the collection at www.nikkeimuseum.org.

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THIS ARTICLE WAS REPRINTED FROM NIKKEI VOICE’S FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE. SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE TODAY TO HELP SUPPORT OUR NEWSPAPER.