(Cherry Blossoms)

Chiura Obata

Japanese-born Chiura Obata immigrated to San Francisco in 1903 and went through the 1906 earthquake. He began teaching sumi-e painting at the University of California in Berkeley, becoming a full professor in 1932. Obata was opposed to selling his artwork and his acknowledgment came only from exhibitions he participated in around the country.

Interned with around 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent in 1942 at Tanforan and then Topaz camps, he taught art to over 600 students. After the war he returned to Berkeley where he continued to teach and write the instruction booklet 'Sumie' (1967) and the guidebook 'Through Japan With Brush and Ink/ (1968).

This simple but elegant drawing of cherry blossoms, done with watercolor and sumi ink, was done in 1940, before his internment. It is signed in English in ink in the lower left and dated "Jan. 6th 1940."