July 6, 2023

  • Bonsai Tears; the 1st Annual Nihonmachi Street Fair poster 1974

    First Nihonmachi Street Fair

    Bonsai Tears, that was the title Steve Nakajo gave the poster. He interpreted the design to be the eye giving out tears to nourish the bonsai tree. The bonsai tree symbolizing Japanese culture and tradition.

    The year was 1974. I was twenty one years old. In my fourth year at San Francisco State University as an art major. I was ready to graduate but had two general studies requirements I had to take. I was in no rush because I decided I also wanted to learn Chinese and wanted to take the second semester course.

    I was doing psychedelic light shows with the Kanzaki brothers. Our group was called Red Lantern light show. It consisted of three of us mainly. Ron and Kenny Kanzaki and I. I was the main and only artist of the group. I wound up developing the bulk of the material we used in the light show. I consisted of slide projectors and overhead projectors along with spinning wheels with color gels. We did light shows at various dances and concerts so we did a bit of traveling whenever we were hired to do lightshows. Later we were hired by Glide Church to do the lightshows during their celebrations.

    Community street fairs were happening in many communities in San Francisco. Chinatown was doing the Hop Jok fair. The Kanzaki brothers along with Nakajo and others in J-Town wanted to do a street fair in Japantown too. I was the convenient artist around to design and print the first Nihonmachi Street Fair poster. I don't think I got paid much to do the poster. I drew the poster in my basement studio. I remember using the eyedropper from the India ink bottle to draw the bonsai tree. At the time I was growing bonsai trees at the time. One of the ways I enjoyed viewing the bonsai tree was putting my eye right up to the bottom of the tree and imagine me sitting right under the tree. We printed the poster at Kearny Street Workshop, an Asian community arts organization I was involved with at the time. It a simple two color poster.

    There were not any community booths. Only one booth sold beer and that was Red Lantern's booth. It was mostly a music festival at the peace paged plaza. The main draw was Azteca, a popular recording latin band at the time. A lot of latinos from the Mission district attended the fair. It was a jam packed crowd and the street fair was a success.

    Who knew that it would lead up for me to do the Nihonmachi Street fair poster for the next thirty years.