This body of work examines the legacy of Craig Nagasawa’s family’s grocery store, the Sunrise Fish Market, which was part of Salt Lake City’s vibrant Japantown until 1968, when the neighborhood was demolished as part of a redevelopment program. While his family moved and established a new restaurant, the tight knit culture of the neighborhood had been lost.

Drawing from both his memories and photographic documentation, Nagasawa uses humor and incongruity to explore the ways his experience as a third-generation Japanese American differs from his parents and grandparents.

The large charcoal on paper drawing Japantown (2022, at top) depicts the Sunrise Fish Market from two perspectives: from the street, and inside. It is Nagasawa’s own take on fukinuki yatai, or “blown-off-roof perspective,” a Japanese painting style that allows viewers to see a building’s exterior and the action taking place inside. In the foreground, Gojira runs amidst children playing on the sidewalk. The children are modeled after Nagasawa, his daughter, and his father and aunt, collapsing time and generational stories into a single layer.

Nagasawa continues to include Gojira in his work as a stand in for himself and as a way of confronting racial stereotypes. In this work, the monster brings a sense of play and humor to the composition. In others, it is a way of exploring more menacing remnants of World War II, the atomic bomb, and the “othering” of Japanese Americans.

Japantown condenses and merges memories of childhood into a composition filled with joy, humor, and a sense of belonging. Nagasawa’s personal experiences reflect the shared experiences of so many second- and third-generation immigrants whose families contribute to our vibrant communities.