A Japanese American Photographs a Filipino American Fraternal Order

[Photograph of the National Convention of the Caballeros de Dimas-alang in Seattle, 1937]

Amano, Masatoku "James"

Notes: A commemorative photograph of the 1937 Seattle national convention of the Filipino American fraternal order, Caballeros de Dimas-alang, taken by a Japanese American photographer.

The Caballeros de Dimas-alang formed in the United States in San Francisco in 1920 (its origins in the Philippines date back to 1906). The group, modeled on the Freemasons, takes its name from the pseudonym of José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. The photograph was taken inside a large meeting hall, with members standing in front of their lodge banners.

The photographer, Masatoku "James" Amano, operated Jackson Studios, named after a main street in Seattle's Japantown. Amano was born in Japan in 1887. He arrived in Seattle in 1915 and soon set up shop as a photographer, a profession he pursued for into at least the 1950s. During the Second World War he was interned; he became a US citizen in 1953.

This image is on a Jackson Studio mount and is signed in the negative, "Jackson Studio, 1-29-37."

9-1/4 by 7-1/2 inches in a 12-1/2 by 10-1/2 inch mount.

Edition + Condition: Image a bit faded, else very good or better in a mount with light wear to the edges.

Publication: Seattle, WA: Jackson Studio, 1937.

Item No: #308176

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