Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto (1900-1990)

From the archives of All things Ironing - Irons in oils.

Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto (1900-1990)

Henry Sugimoto - Susie ironing in room at the interment camp

Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto, an Japanece American artist, teacher and a survivor of Japanese American Internment, born in Wakayama, Japan in 1900 a son of a displaced samurai.

In 1919, he immigrated to the United States and changed his name to Henry. He graduated high school in 1924 and went on to study at California College of Arts and Crafts and the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute).

In 1928, he went to France to study at the Académie Colarossi in Paris.


In 1932, Sugimoto returned to California where he enbarked on a one-man show at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The show became the foundation of his professional career.

Sugimoto was living in the United States when the United States declared war on Japan in the Second World War. He was interned with Japanese-Americans in Jerome War Relocation Center from October 1942 through June 1944 and at Rohwer War Relocation Center until August 1945.