Affinities and Connections

Centering on a large image of a rabbit, Mirikitani combines various images and texts in this collage work, particularly featuring people he engaged with throughout his life. On the right is a photograph of Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953), a Japanese American painter Mirikitani remembered meeting in New York during the 1950s, accompanied by the text “Kuniyoshi.” To his left is Harada Kampo (1911–1995), a Japanese calligrapher who founded the Kampo Cultural Center in New York in 1975, along with the Japanese word heiwa (“peace”). Several self-portraits are also included—one with him wearing a red beret beside Kuniyoshi, another with filmmaker Linda Hattendorf making a peace sign, and a third with his sister working on his hawk drawing, which turned became his favorite work. By weaving together personal and historical figures, as well as the national flags of Japan and the United States, the collage highlights the intricate ways Mirikitani’s transnational memories shape his creative expression.

Mirikitani recalled his friendship with Jackson Pollock in several works. This collaged drawing refers to his enjoyable time with Pollock in Montauk, Long Island, presumably during the 1950s. In Montauk, Pollock and Lee Krasner (1908–1984) had their studio, and Mirikitani worked as a cook at the restaurant Trail’s End. Alongside photographs of a young Pollock and clusters of grapes, Mirikitani evoked his memories through a charming episode: at Pollock’s request, he baked a large grape pie and spent five days in Pollock’s studio. A handwritten Japanese inscription reads, “My painter friend Jackson Pollock East Hampton Long Island youthful days youthful days.” 

The vertical format and composition, with the grapevine boldly cutting across the image, are reminiscent of Japanese and East Asian painting traditions. The swirling lines of the vine recall the fluidity of East Asian calligraphic brushwork, while also echoing Pollock’s gestural line. Mirikitani revisits his joyful memories and friendship with Pollock both through this endearing story and through his artistic style. 

Roger Shimomura and Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, two Japanese American artists of different generations, are connected through shared histories of wartime incarceration and a deep concern with how memory and identity are represented. Shimomura—a Sansei (third-generation Japanese American) painter and printmaker—translated his grandmother’s diaries from the Minidoka incarceration camp into vivid Pop-style imagery, critiquing racial stereotypes. Mirikitani, a Nisei (second-generation) survivor of the Tule Lake camp, turned his life story into drawings and collages made from salvaged materials, transforming hardship into creative testimony. 

This collage—combining Shimomura’s business card, photographs of both artists, and one of Mirikitani’s signature dragons—captures the intersection of their lives and artistic visions. The inclusion of Linda Hattendorf’s name, director of The Cats of Mirikitani, suggests the web of relationships that brought Mirikitani’s work to light. Through layered images and inscriptions, Mirikitani honors Shimomura as a fellow artist who, like himself, used art to confront injustice and affirm Japanese American resilience.