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Henry Sukezo Takayoshi photographs, circa 1943-circa 1982

Overview of the Collection

Photographer
Takayoshi, Henry Sukezo
Title
Henry Sukezo Takayoshi photographs
Dates
circa 1943-circa 1982 (inclusive)
Quantity
146 photographic prints (5 boxes)
Collection Number
PH0440
Summary
Art photographs of Seattle and vicinity by Japanese-American photographer, Henry Takayoshi
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries’ Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Request at UW

Additional Reference Guides

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Henry Sukezo Takayoshi was an avid photographer for over 70 years, and in 1987 was one of only two Japanese-Americans in Seattle affiliated with the Photographic Society of America. He was mostly self-taught and strove to capture moments in the right setting and light. Starting in 1947, he exhibited with camera clubs and photographic societies throughout Washington and other Western states. He won his first prize from the Southwest Washington Fair in 1951 and continued to win awards from local camera clubs as well as the prestigious National Newspaper Snapshot Award in 1964. Takayoshi was also shown in the Seattle Times in their Snapshot Contest segment on multiple occasions from 1948 on.

Takayoshi was born in Tsuwano, Japan, in 1899 and was raised by his grandparents Seiichi and his wife who ran a store. Seiichi was an artist who specialized in family crests and might have influenced Henry Takayoshi's ideas of design and balance. Henry Takayoshi's father, Seinosuke had immigrated to the United States in 1899 by way of Hawaii to Port Blakely where he worked in a saw mill, later he started a green house company with Otto Petersen on Bainbridge Island. Henry joined his family in the U.S. in 1915, and began assisting his father in the family's green house business. The next year, he acquired his first camera and began a life-long interest in photography. Beside the green house business he worked at the Port Blakely Mill and in logging and fish camps in the area. In 1927 married Kikuyo Tokuhisa. They operated the family greenhouse business at Pleasant Beach until World War II when they were forced to relocate to the internment camp, Minidoka. Many of Henry's pre-World War II photographs were burned or destroyed by the photographer in 1942 when soldiers and FBI agents arrived to search Japanese-American families and their homes. After the war, he worked for Bake Rite Bakery in Seattle, retiring in 1965. He received a formal apology and reparations from the U.S. government in 1991. Most of Takayohi's work is in black and white, taken with a 35mm Zeiss Ikon camera.

A retrospective exhibit of his work was held in 1987 at the Bainbridge Library.

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Content Description

Photographs, printed for exhibition, dating from World War II to the 1980s. Most of them are taken in Seattle or surrounding areas except a series made on a one-month trip to Tsuwano, Japan in 1961. These photographs were originally part of an exhibit in 1987 co-sponsored by the Bainbridge Island Historical Society, Japanese-American Community and Public Library.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Donor, Kikuyo Takayoshi, 1995.

Processing Note

Processed by Stefanie Terasaki, 2012.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Personal Names

  • Takayoshi, Henry Sukezo--Photographs

Form or Genre Terms

  • Photographs

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)


2008 (Last modified: 4/19/2018)

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