Arrival - 'Picture brides' who travelled across the Pacific Ocean

At Nikkei National Museum, Canada. 2016

As a finalist for the AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize 2013, Canada's largest international photography prize, Chino Otsuka, currently residing in the UK, was awarded a residency anywhere in Canada. She chose the Nikkei National Museum and this exhibit developed through the results of her research.

"As my research progressed, I became more and more interested in the stories of young women who came over from Japan as "picture brides," young Japanese women usually between 17 and 20 year's old, who came to Canada in the early 20th century. Their marriages were arranged by showing the prospective bride and groom photographs of each other.
Most of these women travelled from Japan and saw their husband-to-be for the first time when they arrived in Canada. I was drawn to their innocence, ambition and courage - their journey. They all longed for a new life in a new country. Yet when they arrived in Canada, the life they had imagined was completely different. Hardship and many tragedies would follow them as many of them were sent to the internment camps during the Second World War. They struggled and endured throughout their lives."

Arrival is an audio-visual installation. Four diptych images are accompanied by narration taken from original transcripts of picture brides, spoken by several generations of Japanese Canadian women. The work focuses on their journey evoking a sense of anticipation, their dream and longing, around the brief moment in their life when they arrived in the new country.

This exhibition is made possible by the generous assistance of the AIMIA/AGO Photography Prize, the BC Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia, the Deux Mille Foundation, and private donors to the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Collections:
Nikkei Naitonal Museum, Canada
Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, DC, USA