Takuichi Fujii

In 1906, Takuichi Fujii left his hometown and traveled to the U.S., joining his father and older brother who were already working in Seattle, Washington. By 1917, Fujii had established his own wholesale and retail fish business in the city’s Japantown. Although it remains unclear how and when Fujii started painting, his formal entrance to the Seattle art scene took place in 1930 when his work was first accepted to the juried Northwest Annual held by the Art Institute of Seattle. Fujii went on to present his realist-style paintings throughout the West Coast and in national exhibitions alongside painters Kenjiro Nomura, Kamekichi Tokita, and members from the Group of Twelve. While his artistic career was upended by the outbreak of WWII, he kept an illustrated diary and made a large body of watercolors during his family’s incarceration at Camp Minidoka, Idaho. Resettled in Chicago, Illinois, after the war, Fujii painted rigorously, exploring abstraction and a broad range of styles, although he seldom exhibited.

Authored by Anna Lee, curatorial assistant for Asian American art, 2025.