A Japanese artist in Australia: Jonoski Takuma and his family, Lindsay Harris
Abstract:
Jonoski Takuma, a young, missionary-educated Japanese man, arrived in Australia in 1888 and within a few years began engraving emu eggs depicting Australian scenes. Reflecting his Japanese cultural heritage, these delicately carved eggs,along with postcards and a children’s book, embody a fusion of Japanese art with Australian themes that appealed, withthe advent of Federation, to a growing nationalism. Jonoski became entangled in a notorious stamp forgery case that fundamentally impacted upon his Australian-born family. Eventually Jonoski and his daughter left Australia and moved between the United Kingdom and Japan in an involved series of relocations marked by divorce, desertion, suicide and war. This article seeks to illuminate, within the constraints of available records, the experiences of Jonoski, his children and grandchildren and the interplay of culture, trade, race and war on this Japanese-Australian family, adding biographical information to Dr Jennifer Harris' article on emu eggs in our May issue.
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