Skip to main contentBiographyHarry Hayashida (b. 1908, Oakland; d. 2005, Los Angeles) was the last living member of the Japanese Camera Club, an influential group of Japanese American photographers active in Little Tokyo in the prewar period. This trove of vintage, pre-World War II prints represents a major holding and demonstrate the artistic innovation of early Japanese American photographers. The group regularly met on East First Street, in an office above Fugetsu-Do with annual exhibitions at places like the prewar Tomio and Taul Buildings in Little Tokyo.
Hayashida was a young man when he joined the Japanese Camera Club in the 1920s. The group of photographers were known for bridging the prevailing Pictorialist aesthetic with modernist tendencies and as such were recognized internationally for their work. Hayashida's work, like many of his camera club compatriots, is characterized by an interest in contrasting graphic patterns. For instance, the blocky forms of exterior stairs in one photograph can read as an abstract study in volume and light until the form is punctuated by a small child. In another, the curvilinear form of a car is overlayed by shadows from a slatted overhang.
Hayashida's photographs were included in many national and international salons. Locally, we know that his was selected for The Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles annual salons of 1930, 1937, and 1940. His work was included in the London Salon of Photography of 1936, Carnegie Institute's (Pittsburgh) Salon of 1938, and the 8th International Photography Salon of Japan of 1936. Catalogues of these salons, as well as a few others, are part of the collection. However, it is very likely that Hayashida was included in other local, national, and international exhibitions, for which we do not have the catalogues.
Background:
At the age of 3, Hayashida was sent to Japan to be raised by his grandmother. He returned to the United States at age 12. As young man, he worked as a school boy. Since college was not an option due to the high cost, Hayashida began his life-long vocation as a gardener. He worked at the Chapman Park Hotel on 3400 block of Wilshire Blvd, a job he would hold until the hotel closed around 1968. In Dec 1940, G.A. Chapman, vice president of the hotel, wrote of Hayashida, "With certain soil conditions that he had to work with on our properties we felt that he performed miracles in the production of plants and flowers."
He married Rosie Shizuka Hayashida (nee Sakamoto, b. 1918, d. 2006) in 1937. Their son Ronald was born in 1941 followed by another son John (b. 1948).
During World War II, Hayashida and his wife Rosie eluded incarceration by moving to Utah, where they earned the livelihood through a produce stand and doing odd jobs. His prewar photographs remained in a "hidden place where it was stored" (according to a Rafu Shimpo, 28 April 1994). As soon as the Hayashidas returned to Los Angeles at the end of World War II, he recommenced work at the Chapman Park Hotel. After the hotel was demolished, Hayashida worked as the gardener for Mr. Gelson, of Gelson's Market.
Immediately after the war, upon his return from Utah, Hayashida purchased a 1900s bungalow at 3452 Second Ave where they raised their two sons, Ronald and John. He built a darkroom at the back of his property and continued to take photographs and make prints until he died last year at the age of 97. His strongest artistic work remains the prewar photographs. However, in the postwar period, Hayashida became a de facto documenter of many community activities for which he was a participant. They provide a dynamic window into the reconstruction of community life. (Karin Higa, 13 July 2006)
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Hayashida, Harry Y.
Hayashida was a young man when he joined the Japanese Camera Club in the 1920s. The group of photographers were known for bridging the prevailing Pictorialist aesthetic with modernist tendencies and as such were recognized internationally for their work. Hayashida's work, like many of his camera club compatriots, is characterized by an interest in contrasting graphic patterns. For instance, the blocky forms of exterior stairs in one photograph can read as an abstract study in volume and light until the form is punctuated by a small child. In another, the curvilinear form of a car is overlayed by shadows from a slatted overhang.
Hayashida's photographs were included in many national and international salons. Locally, we know that his was selected for The Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles annual salons of 1930, 1937, and 1940. His work was included in the London Salon of Photography of 1936, Carnegie Institute's (Pittsburgh) Salon of 1938, and the 8th International Photography Salon of Japan of 1936. Catalogues of these salons, as well as a few others, are part of the collection. However, it is very likely that Hayashida was included in other local, national, and international exhibitions, for which we do not have the catalogues.
Background:
At the age of 3, Hayashida was sent to Japan to be raised by his grandmother. He returned to the United States at age 12. As young man, he worked as a school boy. Since college was not an option due to the high cost, Hayashida began his life-long vocation as a gardener. He worked at the Chapman Park Hotel on 3400 block of Wilshire Blvd, a job he would hold until the hotel closed around 1968. In Dec 1940, G.A. Chapman, vice president of the hotel, wrote of Hayashida, "With certain soil conditions that he had to work with on our properties we felt that he performed miracles in the production of plants and flowers."
He married Rosie Shizuka Hayashida (nee Sakamoto, b. 1918, d. 2006) in 1937. Their son Ronald was born in 1941 followed by another son John (b. 1948).
During World War II, Hayashida and his wife Rosie eluded incarceration by moving to Utah, where they earned the livelihood through a produce stand and doing odd jobs. His prewar photographs remained in a "hidden place where it was stored" (according to a Rafu Shimpo, 28 April 1994). As soon as the Hayashidas returned to Los Angeles at the end of World War II, he recommenced work at the Chapman Park Hotel. After the hotel was demolished, Hayashida worked as the gardener for Mr. Gelson, of Gelson's Market.
Immediately after the war, upon his return from Utah, Hayashida purchased a 1900s bungalow at 3452 Second Ave where they raised their two sons, Ronald and John. He built a darkroom at the back of his property and continued to take photographs and make prints until he died last year at the age of 97. His strongest artistic work remains the prewar photographs. However, in the postwar period, Hayashida became a de facto documenter of many community activities for which he was a participant. They provide a dynamic window into the reconstruction of community life. (Karin Higa, 13 July 2006)
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