Background
Toyo Miyatake was born in 1895, on the Island of Shikoku, Japan.
Toyo Miyatake was born in 1895, on the Island of Shikoku, Japan.
Toyo learned photography from, and was greatly influenced by, Mr. Shigeta, a teacher in Los Angeles, California, United States.
In 1909 Miyatake moved to San Francisco with his family, and worked in his father's bakery and confectionery store. In 1923 he set up a studio in San Francisco's Little Tokyo, but moved to Japan to care for his ailing father, from 1933 to 1936.
Miyatake returned to the same area and established another studio, but was relocated to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp, during World War II. He remained there until the end of the war and was eventually allowed to be the official camp photographer. Upon his release, he established a studio in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo.
Miyatake worked in large format and was clearly influenced by traditional Japanese artists. He used dramatic lighting in his portraits of such personalities as the Japanese dancer Michio Ito, Thomas Mann, and Crown Prince Akihito. He produced abstract images.