Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto

Born in Minato Village, Kaiso District (now part of Wakayama City), Wakayama Prefecture, his given name was Yuzuru. His parents emigrated to the United States during his early childhood, and he was raised by his grandparents. In 1919, his parents called him to join them in Hanford, California. After graduating high school, he enrolled at the California School of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. From 1928, he continued his art education at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
In 1929, Sugimoto went to Paris for further studies. He interacted with artists like Noboru Foujioka and Tsuguharu Foujita and attended the Académie Colarossi. In 1931, he was accepted at the Salon d’Automne. Coming back to California in 1932, he was given an occasion of a solo exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in the following year. In the mid-1930s, Sugimoto embarked on sketching trips to Yosemite and Carmel, and in 1939, he spent a month in Mexico, where he was influenced by muralists like Diego Rivera.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, he was initially interned at the Fresno Assembly Center and later relocated to the Jerome Internment Camp and then to Rohwer in Arkansas. His camp-scene paintings later became a testimony to the Japanese American’s internment experience. After the war, he moved to New York. After a one-year stay in Paris in 1962, he returned to Japan and stayed until 1964, during which he exhibited at Nika Exhibition. He also created a mural for Wakayama City Hall, and many of his camp scene paintings he brought on this occasion are now housed in Wakayama City Museum. In 2007, he was selected as a Great Predecessor of Wakayama City.