Tag: japan

The new Chula Vista Museum and History Center.

Several weeks ago a new museum opened in Chula Vista. It’s called the Chula Vista Museum and History Center. I visited it for the first time late last week.

The museum building at first sight might be mistaken for an ordinary home, until you notice the banner in front. Stepping inside, you’ll find yourself surrounded by multiple displays recalling the rich, diverse history of this South Bay community.

The museum’s inaugural main exhibition is The Chula Vista Japanese American Story.

Photographs and historical artifacts tell the story of Japanese immigrants who established farms in Chula Vista, becoming an important part of the community. Then visitors are shown, with the advent of World War II, how these loyal Americans were unjustly incarcerated.

When the war finally concluded and families returned home, these hard-working residents of Chula Vista would go on to become successful once again.

By seeing photographs of real people, and by learning all that they endured, an unfortunate period in history is better understood.

The museum features several rooms. They’re overflowing with more fascinating stuff. From early Chula Vista to the present time, you can visually appreciate the city’s enormous growth and evolution.

If you’d like to visit this new museum, make sure to check out their website by clicking here first.

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Supernatural yōkai exhibit in Balboa Park!

Red Namahage, by artist Alex Wu.

Yōkai are supernatural beings and spirits from Japanese folklore, and they’ve gathered in San Diego’s Balboa Park!

Yōkai: Stories and Imagination is a community art exhibit now showing at the Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum.

Artists were invited to submit their interpretation of Japanese yokai for this exhibition. These original works can be viewed in both the Upper Garden Gallery and the Lower Garden’s Inamori Pavilion.

Yōkai include shapeshifters, ghosts, demons, and tricksters. They can be mischievous, helpful, or malevolent, often appearing as animal-like figures, possessed objects, or humanoids. They embody the mysterious and uncanny aspects of nature and human emotions.

Check out a few examples that I photographed.

I’ve always enjoyed this type of artwork. It can be wild, weird, fierce and unsettling. Mysterious forces in our world are often portrayed in human or animal form–familiar figures that we emotionally understand.

It would be interesting to compare yokai to deities and characters from the mythologies of other cultures.

The Spider’s Thread, by artist Joshua Benz.
Oiwa, by artist Tomi Tate.
Hōnengame, by artist Hunter/Moon Hunter Tattoo.
You Can’t Escape Gashadokuro, by artist Chris Rogers.

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Awesome itasha cars at Anime San Diego!

There’s a brand new pop culture convention in San Diego. It’s called Anime San Diego and it’s taking place at the San Diego Convention Center today and tomorrow!

One very cool part of Anime San Diego is the presentation of awesome itasha cars. Itasha are vehicles transformed with bold artwork inspired by anime, manga, video games, and Japanese pop culture.

The creatively decorated cars are being displayed inside the San Diego Convention Center between the event’s main stage and the giant inflatable zone. The cars, I was told, have come from all over Southern California. Several are from San Diego. Visitors are encouraged to admire the itasha cars and take photos.

That’s what I did!

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The art of James Hubbell’s brother, Bert.

Untitled, Bert Hubbell, 1961. Ceramic.

Who in and around San Diego hasn’t heard of the artist James Hubbell? Between his architecturally fantastic Ilan-Lael residence and studios in Santa Ysabel, to his many works of public art around the city (many of which I’ve photographed), the beloved artist has earned a special place in the heart of San Diegans.

Did you know James had a brother named Bert who was also an artist?

An exhibition now showing at the Oceanside Museum of Art features the work of both immensely talented artists. It’s titled Brothers in Arts: James Hubbell and Bert Hubbell.

During my recent visit to the museum, I noticed the art of these brothers is similar in certain ways. The construction of pieces is very organic, elemental. The works seem to have been extracted from or designed by the living Earth itself. While James lived and worked in Southern California, for over fifty years Bert lived in Kokubunji, Japan near sacred Mt. Fuji.

Their art’s earthy quality seems natural and familiar–perhaps that’s why it feels so spiritual.

According to the exhibition webpage, Bert…was profoundly shaped by Japanese culture, Shinto, Animism, and Native American art. Self-described as a “primitive artist,” he worked across mediums but most prolifically in ceramic sculpture. His fantastical creatures—reminiscent of yōkai—externalize inner fears and anxieties as a means of transformation and healing… Bert, who never sold his art, left behind an estimated 28,000 individual ceramic figures as well as paintings, drawings and found object assemblages.

The exhibition, which continues through September 6, 2026, provides an interesting contrast between the work of the two brothers. In places their pieces are placed side by side. In one gallery room a wall contains the work of James, and the opposite wall contains pieces created by Bert.

One gets the impression Bert could have reached the level of renown achieved by his brother. It seems, however, that he created art just for the personal joy and satisfaction of creating art.

Like any art, you need to experience it in person. A few photographs to entice you into visiting the Oceanside Museum of Art:

The art on the left and the bottom are by artist Bert Hubbell. The pieces are displayed in contract to the watercolor on the right, by brother James Hubbell.
More work by artist Bert Hubbell, including Forks and Spoon and Sunburst, circa 1963. Ceramic.
Photograph of Bert Hubbell, date unknown.
Ceramic by Bert Hubbell atop Wood Pedestal by James Hubbell.
Bert’s Mountain of Sculpture, Bert Hubbell, 1961-1963. Various ceramics.

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CleanUp Kitsune cleans up San Diego Comic-Con!

Look who I spotted today picking up trash outside San Diego Comic-Con. Lila and Corey Cleary-Stoner, also known as CleanUp Kitsune!

CleanUp Kitsune combines picking up litter with performance art while wearing full Japanese costume. You’ve quite possibly seen them leading clean ups in Balboa Park. For example, here.

Hello you two! Thank you for all you do! Great to see you again!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

One Piece pirates wanted on Imperial Beach Pier!

Wanted posters picturing One Piece pirates and other scoundrels have been hung inside the IB Kitchen at the end of the Imperial Beach Pier! I looked right and left for pirates inside the restaurant today, hoping to receive a reward. No luck!

Imperial Beach Kitchen has operated at the end of the IB Pier for about 8 months now. They serve Korean food, seafood tacos, and good old American staples like hamburgers. Fish and chips, too! The friendly owner with whom I briefly spoke loves Asian anime and manga, including the very popular One Piece from Japan.

Arranged along the ceiling is a Who’s Who of pirates and other rascally characters in that fantasy world!

I’ll be blogging about San Diego Comic-Con trolley wraps in a couple weeks, most likely, so a post concerning pop culture is timely now. (If you’re interesting in seeing my past Comic-Con related coverage, click here!)

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San Diego Taiko energizes Earth Day!

San Diego Taiko performed today at the WorldBeat Cultural Center’s 34th Annual Global Earth Day Festival. I happened to arrive when they were drumming. Perfect timing!

I happen to love Japanese taiko drumming. If the powerful, deep beats, and the stirring complex rhythms don’t accelerate your heartbeat, I’m not sure what will! Taiko gives me a feeling of uplift and joy. The smiling performers were obviously loving it, too!

Many in the audience stood up and joined a dance!

The WorldBeat Cultural Center vibrated with percussive energy!

Here’s the San Diego Taiko website.

I see the group has taiko workshops and welcome people who’d like to learn the art.

On their website, there’s also a section about the Folk Club of San Diego. Members study traditional Japanese folk songs that feature song, dance, taiko, and other traditional Japanese instruments.

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Exhibit: Japanese American gardeners in San Diego.

A fascinating exhibit at Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden will soon be ending. It concerns the history of Japanese American gardeners in San Diego. You can view the exhibit through Thursday, January 22, 2026.

Composed primarily of historical photographs from the early 20th century through World War II and beyond, the exhibit shows how first generation Japanese immigrants, with limited opportunities, brought beauty to San Diego through gardening.

It includes a look at Japanese Americans held as prisoners in Poston, Arizona during the war and their efforts to bring beauty into an ugly situation.

Photographs take the viewer into the present with amazing gardens in Balboa Park and Japanese inspired landscapes in San Diego.

The exhibit is made possible by the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego.

CleanUp Kitsune cleans Balboa Park!

Look who returned to Balboa Park today! It’s CleanUp Kitsune!

Lila and Corey Cleary-Stoner combine performance art with litter removal and call themselves CleanUp Kitsune.

I happened to notice the couple today outside the Japanese Friendship Garden.

They were kind enough to pose in full Japanese costume for a fun photo! Their fox masks come from Japanese folklore.

I first met the the couple about a year and a half ago leading a volunteer clean up in Balboa Park.

Their Instagram is @cleanupkitsune. Check it out!

(My blogging computer is out of action for several days so these posts, made from my phone, are more simple than usual. Stay tuned for more…)

Symbolism and family and one artist.

That’s San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso) in the above photo. He was painting an image of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods (or Shichifukujin) on the downtown sidewalk outside his studio yesterday. It’s number 93 of the 100 paintings he’s presently working on.

I had to look up those lucky gods to understand what he was painting. He also showed me a painting of his own family, which got me to thinking.

Mythology, literature, and every creative work uses symbolism. We use symbols in order to better understand and engage with an infinitely larger reality.

Now, what do we understand best? Our own lives.

So it isn’t surprising the symbols we create reflect our human experience. The deities of mythology explain the mysteries of this world, but tend to be very human. The illuminating words of great literature rely upon human experience and interaction. In a strange way, created symbols and reality combine in our own minds. Symbols inform our living.

James Watts loves mythology, literature and life, and his symbolic art connects it all. Or so it seems to me.

His next painting is of the characters in Voltaire’s novel Candide…

The next photograph shows James Watts’ family years ago, when he was a youth. That’s him in a white t-shirt…

And here’s a painting he recently created, based on the old photo…

Symbols we create can be extremely powerful.

Might we all strive to understand, remember, live fully.

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