Learn about Japanese culture at Japanfest
Japanfest, a celebration of Japanese culture, food and martial arts, returns to Arlington Heights from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 11, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 12. Detailed information on all the activities is at japanfest-chicago.org.
Tickets are $5 for ages 18 and older at the door to Forest View Educational Center, 2121 S. Goebbert Road, where the event is being held. The entrance fee goes toward the operation of this event.
Performances and activities will be in the field house and the theater at Forest View. Field house presenters include the Aikido Association of America - Japanese Culture Center, the Chicago Futabakai Japanese School (dance and drum), Chicago Youth Kendo Class, Kokushikan Judo Academy, Matsumoto Shidokan Karate, Midwest Buddhist Temple Taiko Group (drumming), Midwest Shotokan Karate, Mugai Ryu Chicago (iaido), Sei Matai Kindergarden (dance) and Sojokan Dojo - Shinkendo, Tsukasa Taiko.
Theater performers include Chicago Koto Group (music), Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai (drum), Choir Futaba, Kokyo Taiko at Buddhist Temple of Chicago Theater (drum), Midwest Conservatory of Music, Na Kupuna Ukulele Club, Nami Sagara (music) and Kazume Mizuki (dance).
There will also be exhibitions of calligraphy, flower arranging, sword use, origami, kimono, bonsai tree styling, samurai armory, Japanese tea ceremony and violin making.
Other activities include a cosplay contest from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and performances by dance and graffiti painting artists from New York from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Three documentary films also will be shown, including the Emmy Award-winning documentary "The Legacy of Heart Mountain," about the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, which is showing at 4:45 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday.
George Hirahara and his high school-aged son Frank took more than 2,000 photos at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, between 1943 and 1945, which were used as the basis for the documentary. Frank's daughter, Patti Hirahara, of Anaheim, California, will be at the festival to talk with attendees.
Next February is the 75th anniversary of the signing of the executive order interning Japanese residents of the United States.
The pictures, processed in a secret underground darkroom under a barrack apartment in the relocation camp, tell personal family stories of life behind barbed wire. One of the subjects is the Rev. Gyomay Kubose, who after his release, founded the Buddhist Temple of Chicago in 1944.
"Many from Heart Mountain moved to Chicago after World War II, so these photos bring a unique history to a community over 70 years later," said Patti Hirahara, who donated the collection in 2010 to Washington State University.
For more information, visit www.heartmountainfilm.com.