Sansei Artists ‘Connect’ on Many Levels

Four of Hawaii’s most accomplished artists will join in “Sansei Connections,” a very special art exhibition to be held at the Hawaii Japanese Center from September 19 to November 14. The four featured artists are: ceramicist Clayton Amemiya; painter, printmaker and sculptor Hiroki Morinoue; sculptor and printmaker Lonny Tomono; and painter and printmaker Glenn Yamanoha.

Amemiya developed his craft in Okinawa, drawing inspiration from both Hawaii and Japan, Amemiya moved to the Big Island and built an anagama – a traditional Japanese wood-fired tunnel kiln – that would influence and define his artistic brilliance over the next five decades.

Born in Hilo, Lonny Tomono completed a rigorous, five-year apprenticeship in Kyoto, Japan under master temple builder Seiichiro Kitamura. Tomono spent six days every week working on some of Japan’s most treasured temples, shrines and gardens. In the process, he learned the demanding traditions of Japanese carpentry, where every gesture embodies generations of accumulated knowledge.

Hiroki Morinoue was born and raised in the coffee-growing community of Holualoa on the Kona side of Hawaii Island. Today, Morinoue is recognized internationally as both an accomplished abstract painter and master printmaker. Morinoue, his wife Setsuko, and daughters Miho and Maki, have devoted a lifelong commitment to community, including the establishment of the Donkey Mill Art Center that provides opportunities for future generations of local artists.

Glenn Yamanoha studied traditional Japanese woodblock printing in Kyoto through a prestigious Monbusho scholarship. Japan transformed him both as an artist and as a person. Throughout his life, Yamanoha has embraced Japanese aesthetic principles such as wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in imperfection and impermanence.

“The title of this exhibition, Sansei Connections, speaks to more than ancestry. It suggests the many crossings that shape a life between Hawaii and Japan, tradition and innovation, nature and abstraction, artist and viewer.” — Glenn Yamanoha

All four artists will display work from early in their careers to the present. “Sansei Connections” is free and open to the public Wednesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (closed holidays) through November 14. Admission is free. For more information email info@hawaiijapanesecenter.com or call (808) 934-9611.