Chiura Obata: San Francisco after the Earthquake
The Resilience of a Japanese American Artist
At the age of 17, Chiura Obata 小圃 千浦 (1885 - 1975) arrived from Japan, just three years before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The young Obata worked as a houseboy to support himself, while studying art independently. The earthquake forced him to flee his home with only a blanket and a sketchbook to document the disaster’s impact on his new hometown.
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