Installations, sculpture, drawings
Crossing the Ocean (2023-current)
Crossing the Ocean is a research-based project that uncovers and preserves the stories of Japanese railroad workers who migrated to the Intermountain West of the United States around 1900. Triggered by an unexpected encounter with the graves of Japanese laborers in Missoula, Montana, the project has become an embodied journey through history. By walking the landscapes that still bear the traces of their lives and retracing their paths through archival research and fieldwork in both Japan and the United States, I seek to sense the lived reality of their history through my own body, my own eyes, and my artistic practice.
Research Presentations
Research in Montana
Soil from historical locations in MT, found railroad spikes, wood, laser engraving (words from a diary of a worker), pens and photographs on map
Research in Japan
Soil from hometowns of Japanese immigrants, ink on wood, paper, historical photos, thread on photography
My research follows the paths of Japanese railroad workers who migrated to the Intermountain West around 1900. In Montana, I traveled along the railroad routes where they lived and worked, uncovering their graves, personal stories, and archival photographs. In Japan, I traced the hometowns of the immigrants whose gravestones I had discovered. Through Eiichi Honma, the grandson of a different railroad worker, Honma Gihei, who had returned to Japan after working in the United States, I was generously granted access to his grandfather's diaries and photographs. Believed to be the only surviving firsthand diary written by a Japanese railroad worker who had worked in the United States, the diary offers an exceptionally rare account of immigrant railroad labor. A few historical organizations have also noted that no firsthand written accounts by Chinese railroad workers have been found. My research has woven together these fragments of history, providing me with a deeper understanding of the lives and experiences of Japanese railroad workers.
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Embodied Wear 1 - 4
Rotary tool and fabric dye on used jeans; 2026 - current
This series is based on historical photographs preserved in U.S. archives and personal photographs generously shared by Mr. Eiichi Honma in Japan. Denim, a durable workwear fabric widely worn by miners and railroad laborers during this period, evokes the endurance and labor of the workers. The images emerge through holes and tears in the fabric, symbolizing the erasure and gradual fading of their history.
#1:Based on The Last Spike of the Pacific Coast Extension of the Milwaukee Road, near Garrison, Montana (1909-05-19), by R. H. McKay, Montana History Portal.
#2: Based on Northern Pacific Railroad Employees at Hell Gate, Montana (1909), by an unidentified photographer, Montana History Portal.
#3: Based on Japanese Workers Posing Around a Handcart, Hell Gate, Montana (1909), courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections (Z-190), Montana History Portal.
#4: Based on Picnic at Montana Field, courtesy of Mr. Eiichi Honma, Japan.
Deep Echo
Soot on paper, tree brunches, bone ash; 2023-3025
Installation views at: University of Montana, Western (2024); Tenjinyama Art Studio, Sapporo Japan (2023); Air Motomoto, Arao, Japan (2025)
This installation was inspired by Japanese immigrants who crossed the Pacific Ocean in the late nineteenth century. Their journey by ship lasted nearly three weeks and was often uncomfortable and uncertain. Like countless other immigrants throughout history, they crossed the ocean in search of a better life. Reflecting on the hope, anticipation, and fear they carried with them, this work honors those who were never able to return to their homeland and evokes the voices of those whose stories remain buried in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.