john 遠藤 (endo) greenaway

I am a print and web designer, taiko composer, performer, writer, editor, photographer and cultural worker. I have spent the past 40 years tracing the lines of my mixed-race heritage through performance, text and visuals. 

I was born into a family of artists. Check them out.

I am grateful to live and work in what is known today as Port Moody, on the unceded traditional territories of the Kwikwetlem, Musqueam, Squamish, Stó:lō + Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. I am inspired daily by the natural beauty of this land, sky and water.

print + web design

As a long-time practicing artist, I have built up a large client base of artists as well as arts and culture organizations from a broad range of communities including the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Chutzpah! Festival, Festival du Bois, the Japanese Canadian Artists Directory, The National Association of Japanese Canadians, Little Chamber Music, Diane Kadota Arts Management, Vancouver Moving Theatre, the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, Pacifique en Chanson, Société francophone de Maillardville, among others. Artists include Roy Forbes, Hard Rubber Orchestra, Standing Wave Ensemble, James Keelaghan, and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble.

A recent web design project saw me serving as art director, graphic designer and writer for Writing Wrongs: Japanese Canadian Protest Letters of the 1940s for Digital Museums Canada. 

I am currently the Communications Coordinator for the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society

taiko

In 1979 I was a founding member of Katari Taiko, Canada’s first taiko group. In 1988 I co-founded Uzume Taiko, Canada’s first professional taiko group, which I led for ten years, touring across Canada, the United States and Europe, and releasing three CDs. I have collaborated with dance and theatre companies and have contributed my compositions to a number of films. I have instigated and collaborated on a number of large-scale projects over the years, bringing together artists from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and disciplines. Major projects include Verdant Stones, a piece for taiko, bagpipes, horns and butoh dancers that took over Jericho Beach Park during the 1999 Vancouver Folk Music Festival, and Against the Current, an evening-length performance bringing together taiko with indigenous song and dance, bound together by stories centred around the lifecycle of the salmon. 

cultural work

As a writer, designer and researcher, I have made contributions to the preservation of Japanese Canadian history. As managing editor of The Bulletin, a journal of Japanese Canadian community, history and culture, since 1993, I have helped create a vital bridge between generations and cultures through monthly interviews and features. In 2017 I co-wrote a book, Departures: the expulsion of the Japanese Canadians from the west coast 1942–1949.

I continue to seek out new projects and modes of expression in my solo work and in collaboration with others.

Current Positions

Freelance graphic designer

Managing Editor, The Bulletin
a journal of Japanese Canadian community, history, & culture

Communications Coordinator, Japanese Canadian Legacies Society

Performing member and lead composer, Sansho Daiko