PORTLAND, Ore. — Sahomi Tachibana, a Japanese American master teacher and performer of Nihonbuyo (traditional Japanese dance) lives in Portland. Tachibana just turned 100 in April.
The legacy she created started under a different name. Doris Haruno Abe was born in Mountain View, California in 1924. Her father, Wakichi Abe, and mother, Rin Abe, immigrated from Fukushima, Japan, in the early 1900s. At the age of seven, she began learning traditional Japanese dance.
"I didn't know anything about it. The movements were really old style," Tachibana said.
To further her knowledge about the art, she moved to Japan at 11 years old. She studied with Saho Tachibana at the Tachibana School of Dance in Fukushima and then under Hiroyo Tachibana at the Tachibana School of Dance in Tokyo. That's where she earned her professional name, Sahomi Tachibana.
A few years later, she returned to the United States as the dancer "Sahomi Tachibana." She was onboard the very last ship to leave port before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
She was incarcerated with her family at Tule Lake and Topaz Camps, some of the internment camps that held Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast. To make the best out of it, the teenager began performing and teaching children on site.
"It was very popular in camp because they had nothing else to do," Tachibana said.
After the war, Tachibana made her way to New York City to study modern dance, but traditional Japanese dance was her true calling. Her career exploded over nine decades, performing on Broadway and at Radio City Music Hall, and opening her own dance company and teaching thousands of students.
"I guess two people liked it," Tachibana said.
She eventually left New York with her husband and moved to Portland to be closer to family. But she continued to perform and teach until the age of 95.
Not many people can say their career has lasted nine decades, but Tachibana's career in dance spanned 90 years.
KGW's Breaking Barriers series features Oregonians making a difference in the world of sports, arts, government, business and more. You'll see stories throughout May featuring stories for Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. You can watch them all here.