Welcome to Historic Joy Kogawa House

All proceeds go to the Save Kogawa House campaign.


House of Joy

Raymond Chow original canvas of Joy Kogawa as a child in front of the house at 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver in 1942

This painting is created in acrylic on a 14-inch-by-29-inch canvas. Reproductions of the original are available in digital and giclée prints on demand.

Digital prints on paper
2-inches-by-5-inches    Edition: 5,000    Price: $35 each
4-inches-by-10-inches    Edition: 3,000    Price: $75 each

Giclée prints on canvas
7-inches-by-15-inches    Edition: 400    Price: $250 each
12-inches-by-25-inches    Edition: 325    Price: $375 each
18-inches-by-33-inches    Edition: 200    Price: $500 each

7% provincial and GST taxes apply. Please allow two to three weeks for delivery.

To order, please contact Raymond Chow at 604-274-3587, PST 8:30 to 5:30.
 

Paul Yee's letter to the mayor and council via email from Todd:

QUOTE

From : Paul Yee
To: mayorandcouncil AT vancouver.ca
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 6:57 PM
Subject: save kogawa house

Mayor Campbell, City Councillors
City of Vancouver

I am writing to add my voice to many others that are asking that you take action to prevent the demolition of the Joy Kogawa House located at 1450 West 64th AVenue in Vancouver.

I have been writing about Vancouver's Chinese Canadians in history and in fiction for some twenty-five years now, and I firmly believe that this house is of historical and literary significance.

It is of especial importance because of its roots in Vancouver's Japanese-Canadian community, which was uprooted and destroyed during World War II by the governments of the day.

The built environment of the past is particularly fragile in Vancouver these days given the tremendous population and development pressures that exist. However, this is an occasion when delicate human memory requires the solid, three-dimensional frame of a house to endure and to flourish.

I urge you to preserve the Kogawa House.

Yours truly

Paul Yee
Toronto, ON

UNQUOTE

I usually don't link to the Globe and Mail because of their r*diculous paywall but I'll make an exception in this case because I love Joy Kogawa's Obasan. Go Todd (By the way Rod Mickleburgh, it's Todd Wong not Wang :-) !) go! Go Joy go! And check out the Obasan Day photos.

From The Globe and Mail: Group rallies to save Kogawa home.:

QUOTE

"It's a big challenge," confessed Todd Wang, spokesman for the Save Kogawa House Committee. "But miracles happen."

Yesterday, a ceremony took place at city hall that gave some solace to Ms. Kogawa and her supporters.

As a mist-like drizzle fell on the north slope municipal gardens, the white-haired, 70-year-old author helped plant a cutting from the aging cherry tree still standing in her old backyard.

"It's propped up and Band-Aided, but it's still very much alive," said Mayor Larry Campbell, who proclaimed yesterday Obasan Cherry Tree Day.

"We now have a new tree that is going to live for generations, commemorating both internment, so it will never be repeated, and the outstanding contributions of Japanese-Canadians to this city."

Ms. Kogawa was clearly moved by the occasion, flooded by memories of her early childhood and the bitterness of what lay ahead, and almost overcome by the rebirth of her backyard cherry tree.

"This is so much more than I ever imagined could happen, as a result of all the things we went through," she told the small group of politicians and friends.

"How is one to make sense of it all? I can't tell you how I feel, except that I am happier than I ever thought I could be. It's like a star bursting forth. I am just so, so grateful."

After Canada's declaration of war against Japan, Joy, her brother Tim and her parents (a kindergarten teacher and Anglican minister), like 20,000 other Japanese-Canadians, were stripped of their possessions and shipped to internment or work camps.

When the war ended, they were not allowed to return to Vancouver, forced to move instead to a tiny shack in rural Alberta. Meanwhile, their Marpole home was auctioned off.

Obasan was quickly recognized as a literary tour de force, named Book of the Year by the Canadian Authors Association and winning a First Novel Award and Best Paperback Fiction Award.

UNQUOTE

Check out kogawa.homestead.com for another source of info.