Sunny Seki – Artist and Japanese culture guest 

Sunny Seki is the author/illustrator of three award-winning Japanese children’s books:

Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll, The Last Kappa of Old Japan, and The Tale of the Lucky

Cat.

Born in Tokyo in 1947, he graduated from Nihon Daigaku with a degree in Photography.

He then came to the United States, where he studied illustration at Pasadena Art Center

of Design. For the next 32 years he operated Sunny Seki Photography in Rosemead.

Today he presents his books and other Japanese folktales at community events. In 2009

he was featured on The Disney Channel, a two-minute spot that can be viewed at http://

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_xeKF6Dejw.

Sunny and wife Judy have nine children, and they live in San Gabriel.

Sunny is also the teacher of a Southern California Japanese senryu poetry group. (Senryu

has the 5-7-5 format of haiku, but is themed on humorous or sentimental commentary

of the human situation.) In 2007 he published Gardeners’ Pioneer Story, an account of

the 100-year history of Japanese gardeners through the sensitive senryu poems created

by this group of immigrants. In 2010 he published another annotated poetry collection,

Hokubei Senryu Michi Shirube, sharing the journey of Japanese-Americans in North

America.

Sunny has been introduced on Los Angeles Japanese TV in different interviews. These

can be viewed on his website at http://www.sunnyseki.com.

Visit Sunny’s table to meet him and see his books, which he will happily personalize for

you. You will also have the opportunity to try his collection of traditional Japanese wooden

and bamboo children’s toys.