ANNOUNCEMENTS:
VIRTUAL EVENT
Sahomi Tachibana: American Legacy of a Japanese Dancer
Thursday, March 3, 5-6 PM pacific
Explore the legacy of the Japanese American dance master: Sahomi Tachibana, whose career took her from American concentration camps to Broadway and beyond.
Join us for a virtual event: Sahomi Tachibana: American Legacy of a Japanese Dancer on March 3 from 5-6 PM, hosted by documentary filmmaker Lauren Kawana, featuring archival footage of Sahomi dancing at Jacob’s Pillow, and talks by Sahomi’s daughter, Elaine Werner, students Wynn Kiyama, Tomie Hahn and Theodora Yoshikami and Japanese American Kabuki performer, Bando Hiroshichiro on the legacy of this living treasure of Japanese Dance. This virtual event is presented by the Friends of Topaz Museum & NextGen: Geijutsuka.
TICKETS:
October 25, 2020
You may watch a concert of Kimio Eto music live from Old First Church
We want to give a big thank you to our largest sponsor the San Francisco Japantown Foundation. Without your tremendous support this event would not be possible. We also want to thank the Berkeley JACL for their financial support in helping us finance this project. Finally, we want to recognize the Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS) for their fiscal sponsorship and Nightingale Media Group for the technical expertise they are providing us throughout these five performances. Without the generous support of all of our sponsors we would not be able to provide this experience. Thank you to all of you.
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August 11, 2020
You may watch our Live Peace Day event here. This is a rare opportunity to engage in a Q&A session with Hibakusha, Hiroshima survivor Jack Dairiki. Please submit your questions to Jack into our live chat. You may read about his experience on our website under the “Peace Day” heading of our menu bar.
NextGen JCA Peace Day: 75 years after the Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

July 28, 2020


Bandō Hirohichiro, is our featured NextGen Geijutsuka performing Kabuki Buyō in our final “NextGen Geijutsuka: Future Stars of Japanese Cultural Arts” Live Stream concert on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at 8pm (PST) via Facebook Live here(Wednesday, July 29, 2020, at noon in Japan). It will be re-broadcast on YouTube here at 9pm(PST) later that evening. Hirohichiro will be joined by Special Guest Bandō Naō in Japan, the eldest daughter of the late kabuki actor and headmaster of the Bandō School of Japanese classical dance (坂東流日本舞踊), Bandō Mitsugorō X, and is the eldest sister of the kabuki actor and current headmaster Bandō Minosuke. Naō began her training in Japanese classical dance at the age of three. The same year she debuted on stage performing Otsuki-sama (“Mr. Moon”). At the age of eighteen, Naō achieved her natori degree (equivalent to a Master’s degree in the United States).
In our final concert, we are excited to have our first featured NextGen Geijutsuka Kuniharu Yoshida, back again as he performs Shodo in collaboration with this presentation, and we will have the return of Brian Mitsuhiro Wong on Koto to support this Kabuki Buyo performance. At the very end, we will show everyone who submitted a video to join in our virtual Bon Odori once again led by Reiko Iwanaga, aka Hanayagi Reimichi.
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July 7, 2020
We had so much fun with the first Bon Odori, we are excited to announce that we will be accepting new submissions through July 22, 2020 at 10pm (pst). All of the information can be found here.
We look forward to having you join in on our group Odori which will be featured in our final concert on July 28, 2020 at 8pm(pst) via Facebook Live, and rebroadcast at 9pm(pst) on YouTube.
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July 2, 2020
For the next four concerts we will air on Facebook Live at 8pm (PST), and will be on YouTube Live at 9pm (PST). All Live Interviews will use the Facebook Live chat interface to choose questions from our audience for our artist.
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June 29, 2020
Tomorrow at 8pm (PST) our 30 minute concert series begins. All five productions will be viewable through our Facebook Live Here, and through YouTube Live Here.
Please only leave comments during the live stream production in our Facebook Live comments area. This will allow us to try to have the artist answer your questions or respond to your comments.
To receive event reminders please Like Us on Facebook here and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel here.
All concerts will also be viewable after the Live stream via YouTube.
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May 30th live performance in San Francisco is cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting Shelter In Place orders.
