Born May 9, 1918, Madame Fujima Kansuma is a celebrated Japanese American kabuki dancer and teacher with a career beginning in the early 1940s and spanning decades. From learning under the “God of Theatre,” Onoe Kikugoro VI, in Japan to being invited to travel across different concentration camps to perform her pieces while incarcerated during World War II, she has dedicated her life to sharing the culture of kabuki and Japanese heritage in the United States. She has received a number of awards: most notably the Order of the Precious Crown, Apricot, by the Japanese government in 1985, and the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1987.

In 2018, at 100 years old, she was the choreographer for the Los Angeles Nisei Week Parade. In the same year, the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center hosted a birthday celebration for which this film was produced. Madame Fujima Kansuma continues to teach and choreograph along with her daughter, Miyako Tachibana, who also became a master kabuki dancer and teacher. Madame Kansuma’s legacy continues through her and the hundreds of students with whom she has crossed paths.

Learn more about Madame Kansuma and the film:
https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/mada...

Watch a Q&A with filmmaker Yuka Murakami and Madame Kansuma’s daughter, Miyako Tachibana, and longtime student, June Berk, who were both featured in the film:    • JANM Digital Film Festival Q&A—Madame...  

This program is presented in partnership with Tadaima! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage (https://www.jampilgrimages.com/virtua...) by Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages. The film was produced for the program Fujima Kansuma: 100th Birthday Celebration, a co-presentation of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Japanese American National Museum, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. It received federal support from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

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