Benji Okubo (October 27, 1904April 15, 1975) was an American-Japanese oil and watercolor

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, and

landscape designer Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garde ...

. He mainly focused on his landscape paintings which he was most accomplished in. He was born and raised in Riverside, California. He was the eldest of the seven children of Tometsugu "Frank" Okubo and Miejoko Kato. Artist

Miné Okubo Miné Okubo (;, June 27, 1912 – February 10, 2001) was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her book '' Citizen 13660'', a collection of 198 drawings and accompanying text chronicling her experiences in Japanese American internm ...

was his sister.

Education and early life

Okubo was the eldest of seven children, his father, Tometsugu Okubo worked as gardener as well as at a candy factory. Okubo's mother, Miejoko, graduated the Tokyo art institute and worked as a calligrapher and painter. Miejoko encouraged her children to explore their creative interests. Both parents were first generation immigrants from Japan. Okubo studied on scholarship at the

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a Private university, private Art school, art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is l ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 1927-1929, where he was awarded prizes and worked on his art. When the Otis institute published "El Dorado, Land of Gold" which depicted the history of California and was illustrated by students of the Otis institute, Okubo was chosen to design the cover. He studied under

Stanton Macdonald-Wright Stanton Macdonald-Wright (July 8, 1890 – August 22, 1973), was a modern American artist. He was a co-founder of Synchromism, an early abstract, color-based mode of painting, which was the first American avant-garde art movement to receive int ...

at the

Art Students League of Los Angeles Art Students League of Los Angeles was a modernist painting school that operated in Los Angeles, California from 1906 to 1953. Among its students were painters Nicholas P. Brigante, Mabel Alvarez, Herman Cherry, Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Rex S ...

, and later collaborated with him. Okubo's work was part of group exhibitions at the San Francisco Art Museum and the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

Internment camps

Okubo served as director of the Art Students League from 1940 to mid-1942,Will South, "The Art Student League of Los Angeles: A Brief History," in Julia Armstrong-Totten, et al., ''A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906–1953'', Pasadena Museum of California Art. 2008, pp. 1-12. when he was interned at the Pomona Assembly Center outside Los Angeles.Okubo, Benji
at Japanese American National Museum. The momentum of Okubo's career came to a sudden halt when he was transferred to a

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

at the

Heart Mountain Relocation Center The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Heart Mountain and located midway between the northwest Wyoming towns of Cody, Wyoming, Cody and Powell, Wyoming, Powell, was one of ten concentration camps ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

following the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. While at the camp he instructed a life class.Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, "The Art Student League of Los Angeles: A Japanese American Connection," in Julia Armstrong-Totten, et al., ''A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906–1953'', Pasadena Museum of California Art. 2008, pp. 14-31. He and fellow artist Hideo Date also initiated evening and Saturday art classes, which they referred to as the Art students league of heart mountain. Date soon withdrew from teaching, but Okubo taught until his release in September 1945.

Estelle Peck Ishigo Estelle Ishigo (July 15, 1899 – February 25, 1990), née Peck, was an American artist known for her watercolors, pencil and charcoal drawings, and sketches. During World War II she and her husband were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocat ...

was one of his students. Chisato Takashima was another student, and they married in

Billings, Montana Billings is the most populous Lists of populated places in the United States, city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, i ...

on June 12, 1945.

Later life

Okubo returned to his landscape design business after his internment. He and his wife had a daughter, Mi-Ya Okubo. Following his death, widow Chisato Takashima Okubo donated his paintings to the

Japanese American National Museum The is located in Los Angeles, California, and dedicated to preserving the history and culture of Japanese Americans. Founded in 1992, it is located in the Little Tokyo area near downtown. The museum is an affiliate within the Smithsonian Affi ...

in Los Angeles.Phil Kovinick, "The Art Student League of Los Angeles: Selected Artist Biographies," in Julia Armstrong-Totten, et al., ''A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906–1953'', Pasadena Museum of California Art. 2008, p. 117.

Selected works

* ''Vision of the Blue Lily (Self-Portrait)'' (1930s), private collection * ''Untitled (Green-Faced Woman'' (1930s), Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles * ''Woman with Cat'' (1942-1945), Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles * ''Untitled (Dungeon: Well of Sorrow)'' (1942-1945), Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles * ''Untitled (Impaled Soldier)'' (1942-1945), Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles * ''Untitled (Hand of God)'' (1942-1945), Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles * ''Atom Bomb'' (1945), Japanese American National Museum, Los AngelesAtom Bomb
from Japanese American National Museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okubo, Benji 1904 births 1975 deaths Japanese-American internees American landscape architects American artists of Japanese descent Artists from Riverside, California Artists from Los Angeles Art Students League of Los Angeles people