Obata Chiura was a well-known Japanese-American artist and popular art teacher. Obata went to the United States in 1903, at age 17. After ifirst working as an illustrator and commercial decorator, he had a successful career as a painter, following a 1927 summer spent in the Sierra Nevada. He was a faculty member in the Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley from 1932 to 1954, interrupted by World War II, when he spent over a year in internment camps. After his retirement, he continued to paint and to lead group tours to Japan to see gardens and art.
