Dr. was a Japanese-American poet, physician and photographer.

Photography

Koike arrived in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in 1916 at the age of 38, and established a medical clinic in the downtown area near Main Street and 5th Avenue. Although he was a respected professional surgeon, his first love was photography. He was a participant in the first

Frederick & Nelson Frederick & Nelson was a department store chain in the northwestern United States, based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Founded in 1890 as a furniture store, it later expanded to sell other types of merchandise. The company was acqu ...

art salon, noted for his

pictorialist Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

style, and innovative combination of an Eastern and Western aesthetic. He was a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and was designated a Fellow in 1928. He was also Director of the Associated Camera Clubs of America. His solo exhibitions included the Kodak Park Camera Club, Rochester, NY, 1926, the Portage Camera Club, Akron, Ohio, 1927, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences in 1928, and The Art Institute of Seattle in 1929. Koike was the originator of the Seattle Camera Club. Given his thriving practice in the Japanese community in Seattle, his professional income allowed him not only to concentrate on his photography but to underwrite many of the expenses of forming the club. He was the editor of the club's newsletter ''Notan''. He left all of his photographs and extensive records of the Seattle Camera Club to fellow club member Iwao Matsushita upon his death.

Poetry

Koike was also a noted poet, under the pen name . He was a member of the Rainier Ginsha, a Seattle Haiku poetry society formed in 1934 by poet Kyōu Kawajiri.

Internment during World War II

During

Internment of Japanese Americans United States home front during World War II, During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese Americans, Japanese descent in ten #Terminology debate, concentration camps opera ...

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 ...

all of his photographic equipment was confiscated by the U.S. government, and he was taken to the

Minidoka War Relocation Center Minidoka National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the western United States. It commemorates the more than 13,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center during the Second World War.

in Idaho. While being detained he formed a new poetry society called Minidoka Ginsha. By 1945, the group consisted of over 158 poets. Koike became ill in the camps and died in 1947, shortly after his release.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koike, Kyo Pictorialists American artists of Japanese descent American poets American poets of Asian descent American writers of Japanese descent Writers from Shimane Prefecture Japanese emigrants to the United States American physicians of Japanese descent Japanese-American internees 1878 births 1947 deaths Japanese portrait photographers