Iwahiko Tsumanuma (also known as Thomas S. Rockrise) was among the earliest immigrants from Japan to come to the United States to study architecture, and in the early twentieth century he established a successful practice, first in New York City and later in Asia. However, despite his training at Syracuse University in the conventional Beaux-Arts architectural vocabulary of the period, Tsumanuma found that the expectations of white patrons required that he design objects and spaces around Orientalist themes in the language of Japonisme. In Practicing Architecture under the Bamboo Ceiling: The Life and Work of Iwahiko Tsumanuma (Thomas S. Rockrise), 1878–1936, Gail Dubrow and collaborators Christina M. Rockrise, Alyssa Gregory, and Sarah Pawlicki make use of a previously unavailable archive of Tsumanuma's family papers to document the architect's life and career, presenting an in-depth case study of the multiple ways in which racism shaped the lives and experiences of Japanese immigrant architects in the United States in the early twentieth century. The methods used for this investigation, which included consulting family papers and collaborating with family descendants, provide a model for scholars seeking to better understand racism's formative role in shaping the history of the architectural profession.
Practicing Architecture under the Bamboo Ceiling: The Life and Work of Iwahiko Tsumanuma (Thomas S. Rockrise), 1878–1936
Gail Dubrow is a professor of architecture and history and an ACSA Distinguished Professor. She is the author of Sento at Sixth and Main, with Donna Graves, and coeditor, with Jennifer Goodman, of Restoring Women's History through Historic Preservation. She serves as cochair of SAH's Asian American and Diasporic Architectural History Affiliate Group. [email protected]Christina M. Rockrise has a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts, where, in later years, she served on the Dean's Advisory Board. During her planning career, she worked locally and nationally in the private and public sectors. Alyssa Gregory earned her undergraduate degree in Arabic and history of art from the University of Edinburgh and her master's degree in heritage studies and public history from the University of Minnesota. She currently works as a curatorial consultant for Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu. Sarah Pawlicki is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Minnesota. Her article “‘I Hear That God Saith Work’: Wunnampuhtogig and Puritans Laboring for Grace in Massachusetts, 1643–1653” will appear in an upcoming issue of Early American Studies.
gail dubrow, Christina M. In Collaboration with Rockrise, Alyssa Gregory, Sarah Pawlicki; Practicing Architecture under the Bamboo Ceiling: The Life and Work of Iwahiko Tsumanuma (Thomas S. Rockrise), 1878–1936. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 September 2021; 80 (3): 280–303. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2021.80.3.280
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